The Fork In The Road

Death of the Playbook

I recently met with a CEO who asked me “so what’s your usual playbook?”  Wow.  There are a lot of problems with that question and the person who asked it.  First and foremost, any marketer who thinks they can create a playbook of tactics that will fit any given company should: (a) find a different career; (b) find an industry that hasn’t evolved in the last 10 years – hint: there isn’t one; or (c) work for someone who isn’t expecting much out of their marketing and sales teams.

Playbook marketing implies every situation is the same no matter the season, audience or product.  In other words, marketing is a series of tactics with no need for a brain to create the appropriate strategy. 

Companies who only hire demand generation professionals without balancing them with strategy are unwittingly falling into playbook marketing.  If demand generation efforts aren’t put into context of unique product value and audience, the result is likely to be raw leads that may not equal the most likely buyers.  Gathering a large number of these may actually slow the entire sales cycle.  “Good conversations” with leads who aren’t the right target mean at best your sales team will have multiple calls with several layers of contacts before they find the right person.  At worst, a large number of incoming, indiscriminate leads will distract your sales reps from closing deals.

Soon after Salesforce.com launched, Marc Benioff hired actors to protest in front of a Siebel conference.  Siebel called the police and a marketing legend was born. 

Clearly, this was not from a playbook, but it worked.  I’m now occasionally asked if we should add protesters at a competitors user conference, as if it is now part of a standard playbook. Benioff’s protest worked because it was pure guerilla marketing.  Most people hadn’t seen this before.  It was attention grabbing because it was fresh, creative and spoke to the target audience. 

Fortunately, this past week, I had two CEOs say “I’m willing to try anything if it will get results.”  It’s not surprising that each helms a successful company.  Their questions balance the need to be creative with the need to measure results.  Creativity without measurement is a waste of time and budget.  As more executives acknowledge this, I predict we will see marketing tactics continue to evolve.  Although the new approach is likely to include digital, social and guerilla marketing, it will also include tactics that continue to deliver positive results such as SEO, analyst relations and surveys.  The result will be continually improving marketing programs with improved ROI, and there is no playbook for that. 

 

 

Branding Roadmaps - The Overlooked Path

More than 10 years ago, I canceled merging my consulting practice with another successful boutique consulting practice.  We had already met with the attorneys twice and were about to start drafting the agreements.  I did this when it hit me what the new company would mean to my personal brand.  Frankly, the other managing partner had a habit of fighting with everyone: her own consultants, vendors and even clients.  In fact, my role with our joint clients was already starting to be “the fixer.”  

Canceling the partnership after we had already met with attorneys was a little expensive and a little painful.  I’ve never regretted it.  If we had gone forward, it had the potential to be very expensive (potential lost clients) and I’m certain very painful.  More importantly, I was in danger of having my personal brand damaged with negative general statements about the firm.

Brand perception, whether personal or corporate, is hard to change.  It is doable, and I’ve spent much of my career changing perceptions, but it is so much easier to get it right the first time.  Too often, companies think they’ll get their product where they want it and afterward possibly think about their brand.  Knowing what your brand is doesn’t mean you ignore the product; in fact, it supports the product roadmap.

Your company’s brand must be about the value and emotion you provide now as well as what it will be in the future.  If you plan to make a major switch in your product offerings, you need to build that into a brand roadmap so you don’t make a bold claim now that will come back to bite you in the arse later.

I’ve found people are much more forgiving – within reason – with product features needing to evolve.  But if your stated brand stands for one thing, but everything you do implies something else, your prospects and customers either won’t believe you or will assign their own definition of your brand.

The most successful companies boldly define their brands, then all company actions and marketing efforts support that positioning.  It doesn’t need to be overthought, but someone needs to be the company’s internal voice that says Does this make sense if we are an X company? For example, I couldn’t tell you what Burger King’s brand positioning was during The King advertising phase a few years ago, but I’m fairly certain it wasn’t “Creepy Fast Food Company.” Clearly, its advertising didn’t match what the company wanted its brand to project.

Another question to ask is Should we be doing this if we know in a year we will be doing Y?  Some companies, particularly tech companies, have the wrong assumption that you don’t need to transition brand positioning.  “Today we are this.  Starting tomorrow, we will be this other thing.  Don’t mention what we were before.”  This is confusing at best.  It’s possible to go from point A to B, but you need to connect the dots.  Just like with a product roadmap, you need to show the evolution, even if it is onto a new plain of existence.   

If you cringe when you meet with a company that doesn’t have a product roadmap or plan for how future offerings will be developed, what do you think of companies who haven’t defined who they, what they stand or where they are going?