Marketing Strategy – Why Don’t Companies Apply It? (Part 2)

Let’s take another look at strategy through an example. As mentioned in part one of this series there are objectives (the goal), then the strategy (what you want to accomplish), then the tactics (how you are implementing the strategy). Here is a very brief model of how that might look specifically using and influencer strategy.

Objective is to increase revenues by 20%

Strategy is to

1. Engage with industry influencers to endorse the product and increase visibility and credibility.
2. Identify and elevate several internal spokespersons to influencer level
3. Leverage high profile customers
4. Ensure messaging is in alignment with new level of credibility

Higher levels of credibility allows us to increase the price by 20% (therefore contributing to the goal/objective)

Tactics are:

• Pursue NAME OF INFLUENCERS
• Awards program
• Speakers bureau for internal spokespersons
• Bylined article program for internal spokespersons
• User testimonial teaser banner ad campaign
• Media outreach using user testimonials as case studies and press references
• (You get the idea.)

As mentioned, the strategy illustrated above is an influencer program. There are other strategies that could be added, such as; price to value ratios or improving the product based on current market needs etc., each with its own accompanying tactical programs. The overall complete plan would in aggregate meet the objective of a 20% increase in sales. 

You can see that even the creative aspects including the advertising are part of an overarching influencer strategy. There can be a lot of flexibility in the programs as market inflections shift consumer interests, but the structure of the strategies keeps the focus in alignment with the objectives. There are many tactical programs that may make themselves available throughout the course of an annual plan. These need to be included and incorporated, but done so through the filter of the objectives and the strategies.

Following is a great exercise in conceptually understanding strategy and building our strategic thinking muscles. This will take about 15 minutes. This may seem like an odd activity, but doing it brings a kinesthetic component to your understanding. We don’t just think with our minds we use imagination and our bodies and this exercise engages that. Please take some time and do this, I promise you will gain a new comprehension of strategy and use another part of your brain that you can apply immediately to the rest of your day. For this exercise do it in the order presented and don’t read ahead, it will spoil the surprise.

The following graphic is a Picasso sketch. I want you to print it out and redraw it. First by putting it beside your piece of paper and just drawing it by eye, so go try that.

 

How did that go… unless you are an artist probably not so good?

Now take a new piece of paper for a fresh drawing. Take Picasso sketch and turn it upside down (the head is at the bottom now). Take the old sketch and cover up the lower two thirds of the drawing so you are only seeing the top (which is actually the bottom) of the image. Now recreate the image by viewing this one third part of the image and slowly move the paper down to reveal more until you are finished.

Pretty amazing isn’t it. You should have been able to make that picture look much closer to the original. So what happened here? By only using the area that you needed to focus on, your brain was able to take in the relationships between the lines and shapes. That is what strategy is and does. A sound strategy allows you to focus on a piece of the objective and develop tactics that are more focused. Strategy is also the relationship between different elements of business, marketing, messaging, positioning, profit, margins etc. By taking a look at the relationship between things and not the whole picture you can start building something that is more organic and usually more creative.

This may seem like a silly example, but do you remember the movie “Working Girl” with Sigourney Weaver, Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith (1988). Well at the end she was able to show that the idea for a merger came from reading the paper, and putting together a business “ah ha” from the social pages. She saw the wedding announcement and another announcement for a potential merger in the same paper which gave her the idea. That is strategic thinking. So looking at industry trends and the broader picture then identifying some similarities with your product and a completely different industry could result in a strategic partnership that expands both companies’ products. That is strategic thinking.

M-Systems (recently purchased by Sandisk) was my client for years. We worked with them on a new category creation strategy, taking their flash memory disks (USB flash drives) and adding targeted applications. We called it “smart memory” and it resulted in a consortium between the two competing companies and is now a successful company U3. U3 delivers solution oriented applications on these devices. That was strategic thinking. Getting back to the analogy of the drawing, looking at the relationship between the lines allows you to build something that when combined becomes a whole picture. It is good to see the whole picture in advance (that is what the plan is for) but then taking the times to focus on the relationship between the lines and start seeing patterns and opportunities is what strategy is all about.