Arun Sinha, author of Sweet Spot: How to Maximize Marketing for Business Growth, is Chief Marketing Officer of the $5 billion American company, Pitney Bowes. He shares his thinking on 21C marketing with Idea-Log.
The nature and emphasis of marketing appears to have shifted. How important is it now for marketers to adopt more rigorous, analytical approaches to their activities?
I remember, when I first started in an advertising agency about 20 years ago, we were very concerned about building our creative portfolio and secondarily on the market results. Things have changed for the industry and now we are obsessed about how to get the Return on Investments from our marketing programmes.
Learning the Strategies of Smart Networking can provide you with a key business skill. So Susan Croft, author of Win New Business, says 'just swallow your fear and do it!'
The old adage - "It's not what you know, but whom you know" certainly rings true for those of us whose job entails attending social business functions. Working a room is a risk and can be very intimidating. The idea of walking into an enormous ballroom with hundreds of strangers all of whom seem to know one another can fill even the most stalwart of us with fear and anxiety.
However, such an activity can be tremendously rewarding, on both a personal and a professional level, and is a requirement in most manage-ment positions, particularly those in the professional services, sales, marketing, and communications.
Here are 10 useful tips to help you make the most of those social business occas-ions and become a better networker:
Tip 1 - Your Goals
Keep your networking goals in sight at all events and opportunities, without becom-ing a networking vulture or someone that everyone else runs from when they see you coming. Tailor your network-ing strategies so that you fit in without being tuned out.
Tip 2 - Business Cards
Remember to take them and keep them handy. Use them for those graceful exits
Tip 3 - Your Self Introduction
Develop a 10 second 'sound bite' to introduce yourself to others. Add something inter-esting about yourself to engage interest: so forget 'I work in the Marketing depart-ment' but rather 'I'm respon-sible for the xxxx campaign'. SMILE!
Tip 4 - The Good Guest Formula
The good networker shifts from 'guest' to 'host' beha-viour. Think what a good host would do at a social event.
Tip 5 - The Graceful Entrances
Approach groups of 2 or 3 people first, and stand on the periphery of the group within earshot and within eye contact of at least one member. When there is a pause in the conversation, ask if you can join them, introduce yourself, perhaps by adding to the conversation. It is quite likely you will be asked to join the group before you have to ask.
Tip 6 - You are the Message
Check personal grooming. Dress appropriately for the occasion. Firm handshake with 2-3 second eye contact - as long as it takes you to identify the colour of their eyes.
Tip 7 - Remembering Names
When you are introduced to someone try to repeat their name out loud as soon as you can in the conversation. Alternatively, repeat the name quietly in your head and try to associate it with something or somebody. Word association can be a powerful tool.
Tip 8 - Good conversation
Social conversation should be like a game of doubles tennis where everyone gets to hit the ball and it goes back and forth across the net. Sometimes the ball goes out of court and a new subject is served up and then hit back in the continuing play.
Tip 9 - Woops!
You've committed a faux-pas. So what, it's not the worst thing in the world. Correct your mistake and move gracefully on.
Tip 10 - Follow-up
Take time after the event to send a thank-you note to the host. Contact those you want to meet again.
Make building relationships part of your life and have fun doing it!
Marketing has become a wonderful combination of art and science where you employ the rigorous and analytical approach to marketing activities. Marketing effectiveness is measured by Return on Investment (ROI), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), Customer Loyalty, Brand Awareness, campaign response rates, media effectiveness and a host of other measurements.
Where did the phrase "sweet spot" come from?
In thinking about tennis players whose performance is so extraordinary that people think their rackets have extra-large "sweet spots," it dawned on me that many sports figures have periods in their careers that are packed with victory after victory. Then I started thinking about Starbucks, Apple, Google, Fedex, Best Buy and companies on that level. They, too, seemed to have long stretches of success. I wanted to know why.
What, exactly, is sweet spot status?
In business, a sweet spot is a place, time, or experience in which a company's brands, products and services, finances, leaders and marketers are in tune and in time with consumer needs, aspirations, and budgets. That's exactly what I said in the book, and I believe it just as strongly today. I've been searching for the companies in which everything inside the company is aligned with the factors outside the company that determine acclaim and success.
And, finally, a 30 second book summary?
Here's the ultra-short version. A Sweet Spot company has to (1) move the marketplace in new directions, (2) become an alluring investment, (3) be willing to outdate itself by rejecting its past successes and innovating in new directions, (4) have people buzzing about it, (5) be a competitor by inviting others to move the entire industry upward, and lastly (6) spark what I call Z-leadership, a company-wide and company-deep level of enthusiasm that you can feel just by dealing with any of its employees, starting, of course, with the CEO.
Big business has woken up and smelled the zeitgeist. Almost weekly another corporation announces some green initiative. Marks & Spencer says it will buy only renewable energy. Bank of America promises to spend $20billion reducing its carbon footprint. GE launches "Ecomagination" to accelerate earth-friendly technologies. Wal-Mart, the bête-noire of anti-capitalists everywhere, claims a Damascene conversion and prompts Environmental Defense, one of America's biggest campaign groups, to open its first office in Wal-Mart's home town of Bentonville, Arkansas.
Business appears to be determined to march in step with public opinion. Moreover, it is pressing home policies that have not only not been legislated, but in the case of America, are an anathema to the administration it only recently helped to elect.
The environmental movement, sensitive to tokenism and "greenwashing", is unsure whether to be gratified or suspicious by the new corporate environmentalism. It has not forgotten "Beyond Petroleum", BP's much touted slogan change in 2000, which, it transpired, meant not less fossil fuel but more natural gas.
However this time it appears global capitalism's environmental attitudes have undergone a genuine step change. Herd instinct has doubtless also played a part. When even centre-right, pro-business politicians talk up environmentalism, CEOs can hardly remain aloof as competitors burnish their eco-credentials. There is safety too in group behaviour. When a whole industry voluntarily increases its costs, for example, by deciding to buy only renewable energy, the net effect on competitiveness is zero.
When politicians, chivvied by NGOs, realise that they are managing only a fraction of the problem if they ignore what firms do outside their national borders, companies will be pressured, and probably ultimately mandated, to honour environmental promises globally. This will come to mean not only in all their operations, but across their entire supply chains. Something similar is already happening with human and labour rights.
Nonetheless, in the long run it will be corporations, not governments or NGOs, that really help consumers reduce their environmental footprint. As the recent outcry in Britain over road-pricing shows, most consumers want their cake and to eat it - to do the right thing with as little pain and effort as possible. The challenge for companies is to how to convert today's recognition of that fact into the next decade's world-beating products and services.
It's now the biggest buzzword in internal communication - and one being used by executives around the world. But in the face of the hype about "engagement", internal communication expert Mike Klein has been challenging both the internal communication industry's focus on engagement and the lack of coherent measures, tangible outcomes, and even a viable definition of the term itself.
"There's a need for some serious reflection among communications pros and among senior managers," continues Klein. "The first need for some deliberation is around a definition of 'engagement' that's measurable and actionable. While there's a trend towards a 'one-size-fits-all' definition of engagement being around having 'happy', 'knowledgeable', and 'productive' workers, such a definition doesn't address the different or optimal types of relationships that different types of employees have with the organization."
Indeed, Klein has identified four distinct types of engagement:
o Engagement of the "rifle"-battle: active opposition
o Engagement of the "mat"-wrestling: active disagreement, but within a productive context
o Engagement of the "gearshift"-mechanical: productivity without resistance
o Engagement of the "ring"-mutual, heartfelt, emotional commitment:
"Much of the current talk about 'engagement' is trying to drive companies towards seeking the 'engagement of the ring' - but that doesn't make sense in a lot of companies and industries, particularly those seeking flexibility in the way they operate. I'd also submit that what most companies want is the engagement of the gearshift-strong, mechanical performance with minimal friction and with limited implied obligations. As for the engagement of the mat-productive disagreement - that's where much of the innovation emerges. And even the engagement of the rifle-battle with those actively seeking to do the organization harm can produce stronger cultures and products in the end. But the conventional thinking about 'engagement' de-emphasizes things which can be far more productive and positive in its insistence that organizations and employees seek permanent mutual bliss."
Klein's blog can be found at http://commsoffensive325.blogharbor.com/blog
