STRATEGY CENTRAL

Here’s a test of your analytical ability.  And don’t worry…I’m just as much in this as you.  We all are.  Here’s the test:  If you were walking through a subway tunnel, about to board your train, would you stop to listen to an violinist playing a beautiful song?  Or would you just walk on by and jump aboard as the doors close?

Interesting story in the Washington Post Magazine this past week about a world class violinist playing a Stradivarius in an entry to a subway station in Washington D.C.  Very interesting story.  The sociological implications aside, this story got more response than any other in the author’s career (and was also the story that was mentioned the most to Seth Godin as well).  And there are lots of interesting questions that should be asked about what it means when this can happen.

But I have to tell you, my first response wasn’t about our low appreciation for the Arts!  It was that all of us have an intensity about the mission we are on (whether that mission is going to Target for batteries or saving the world) and it is just plain tough to get people’s attention.  Even for an awesome opportunity like stopping for a moment to listen to Joshua Bell play his Stradivarius, hand crafted in 1713 and worth a reported 3.5 million dollars.  And like the 1097 people who simply walked by on that January morning in Washington D.C. we all do the same.  If it’s not on our agenda…we just walk by.

Interesting…don’t you think?  It begs a lot of questions.  For the marketer…it screams, "what do you have to do to get people’s attention?"  For the leader…it whispers, even a little hauntingly, "what great opportunities have I missed in my preoccupation with my own agenda?"  For the team member…it agonizes, "even if I have a world-class idea, no one will ever hear it!"

Just a little Friday musing on a story that is really quite a story.  You can check out the the story’s follow-up right here.

Don’t know if you’re down with Seth Godin or not…but if you’re at all responsible for marketing on your team you need to know who he is.  Tripped across this short video over on the Greater Talent site.  Really a good example of the kind of writing and presentation that he does.

An early addition to my marketing library was Seth’s Unleashing the Idea Virus.  If you haven’t checked this one out, you really need to take a look at it.  A lot of the strategies we’re relying on to promote our product is actually out of date.  Take a look at Unleashing the Idea Virus to get some help in moving to what is working more effectively.

Thanks to Presentation Zen for the link to the video!  And by the way, Garr’s blog is a great one to include in your Bloglines or whatever reader you’re using.  If you ever do presentations you can get some great ideas from Presentation Zen.

Looking for some great ideas in leadership development?  Or maybe you’re ready to develop a marketing strategy?  churchrelevance.com points us to an interesting set of links to free online resources assembled by suite101 that are definitely worth checking out.  For example, take a look at this online course for Building and Leading Effective Teams.  There is some good stuff here.

I took a few minutes to check out the course on Strategic Planning and Execution.  Interesting stuff!  I can see how this could be used by teams within an organization to conduct regular training opportunities.  Just a few minutes into the course I had a thought that led to this post on asking the right questions.  This could be a helpful resource.

You can check out the current list of online courses right here.   

I don’t know if you’ve caught on to Swerve yet, LifeChurch.tv’s new blog.  Those guys are really on to to some cool stuff…very edgy.  One of the cool things they just did was take Seth Godin up on an onsite in New York City.  Now that is cool, don’t you think?

There are some great take-aways on their post today.  What I loved right away is this observation about how they "looked at several websites to evaluate their effectiveness. A very simple rule of thumb…look at your site. What do you really
want people to do when they come to your site? What outcome do you hope
happens? Does your site reflect that priority or not? (note that I said
simple, but sometimes we miss the obvious) Why do we usually display
the same site to all users when it is essentially free to display
different pages to users based on whether the user is new, where they
are located (geographically) or what site they were referred from, etc?"

We’re in the process of evaluating our site at Lifetogether.com.  Oh we know…that’s why we’re evaluating!

I first heard about Al Ries almost 20 years ago when I picked up a copy of Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.  Very helpful from the standpoint of understanding some key marketing ideas.  A new resource that I’ve just begun to take advantage of is MarktetingProfs.com.  Quite a collection of talented writers who bring a consistent supply of ideas.  You really need to check out this interview with Al and Laura Ries.  Some great stuff on branding, particularly the idea that the best opportunities are actually to be found in diverging from the main brand.  They cite some compelling examples.  You can take a look right here.

There were a number of great quotes.  Here was my favorite:

"Brands are worthless unless they stand for something in the mind.  The more things you try to hang on a brand name, the less it stands for."

Can you think of any situations where you’ve tried to add to what you’re already doing instead of launching a new idea to fill an unoccupied space?

This seems to be a theme today.  It’s being widely reported that The Gap is in trouble.  Maybe you shop there.  In the spirit of clarifying your organization’s win…check out this post:  If the Gap Needs a Niche over on Duct Tape Marketing.  Here’s a key line:  "If one of the largest retailers in the world is facing its demise from
a failure to differentiate what chance do you think your small business
stands doing the same."

Oh my!  That is right at the heart of it.

Think you’re big enough to be all things to all people?  You may be right!  Then again, it might explain some things.

I decided last night that after reading the first 75 pages of Mavericks at Work I had to see if I could get a first hand look at GSD&M.  I was so inspired by what I was reading that I asked the cab driver if he knew where it was.  When he told me we were about to go right by it I started thinking about trying to get in and see the place for myself.  And this morning I saw it.  Of course, I didn’t make it past reception…but it was still cool!

I didn’t make it back to the "Roytunda" (an homage to GSD&M president Roy Spence) where their values are written in the beautifully stained and polished concrete floor (community, winning, restlessness, freedom and responsibility, curiosity, integrity) but I did snap this picture of a cool saying that captures the vibe.  Visionary Ideas That Make A Difference.  I like that.

P.S. The receptionist gave me the card of the person who sets up tours.  Wanta come with me?

P.P.S. Check out this Fast Company article for more on GSD&M.

Kathy Sierra has a great post today on The Zone of Mediocrity.  You’ve got to take a look at it!  So many of us are dealing with just this struggle in what we’re doing.  Under the heading of YOU CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE, all of us need to pick a target and go after that one full tilt.  When we compromise and try to get both groups we usually find ourselves in a middle zone that doesn’t get either one!  As illustrated by Kathy’s great drawing:

Recognize that spot?  That’s where you are when you compromise your vision to keep one team member happy.  It’s where you are when you can’t commit to simplify and eliminate the pieces or programs that no longer make sense.  It’s where you are when you’re still budgeting for the part of your overall effort that no longer connects with your customer and instead keeps bringing back the group that doesn’t really dig the new thing you’re trying to do.

Okay.  We all recognize the spot.  The question is…what will we do about it?

Here’s the solution:

• First, we need to be clarifying the win.  We need to be asking, “what are we really trying to do and who are we trying to reach.”  Hint: can’t be everything and everybody.  We need to be very specific about what a win will look like.
• Second, we need to think about the steps that will enable the win.  What will allow initial movement and what will be a perfect next step that is obvious, easy and strategic.
• Last, we need to narrow the focus and only do the things that contribute to the win.  Anything else leads to an off-ramp, what 7 Practices refers to as sideways energy.

For more on clarify the win see Clarify the Win and More on Clarify the Win.  For more on narrowing the focus see Narrow the Focus.

You can (and should) read Kathy’s whole post right here.

When you’re developing your marketing campaign what comes first?  Strategy?  Or creativity?  I’m continuing to find some really interesting ideas in Juicing the Orange.  Remember the ad campaign for Lee Jeans that featured Buddy Lee?  The little doll standing there in the Lee Jeans?  In the chapter on Fallon’s work with the Lee brand there’s an interesting discussion that details the importance of strategy first, then creativity.  Reversing the two puts the cart before the horse, or you end up with the really creative tail wags the strategic dog.

Interesting that they maintain that when you’re pitching your campaign to the leadership team you’ve got to start with a strategic context, develop that first, then move to the excitingly creative elements.  What they write is that "the door to most businesspeople’s right brain is through their left brain.  First the smart, then the exciting (p. 96)."  For more on the right/left brain idea see Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind.

And then it gets even more interesting.  They further state that "the consumer…wants it just the other way around."  Why more interesting?  When we’re testing our creative ideas on our target their opinion will be based on the look and feel, the vibe, the way it strikes them.  REGARDLESS of whether it does what we’re trying to do!  Soooooooo…if we want to be sure our idea gets our brand moving in the right direction we’ve got to do the hard work of defining the strategy first and then letting those findings define our creative direction.  For more on this idea, take a look at the Seven Principles of Creative Leverage.

You know I love the whole strategy scene.  It’s just the way I tend to think.  So when I came across Juicing the Orange: How to Turn Creativity into a Powerful Business Advantage I was really excited to see that behind Fallon’s huge success over the last 25 years is a very well formulated set of guiding principles.  These are very transferable and each of them would make a great stand-alone discussion.  Here they are:

1. Always start from scratch.
2. Demand a ruthlessly simple definition of the business problem.
3. Discover a proprietary emotion.
4. Focus on the size of the idea, not the size of the budget.
5. Seek out strategic risks.
6. Collaborate or perish.
7. Listen hard to your customers (then listen some more).

Now, check it out.  When we’re defining our strategy we’ve got to begin with these ideas.  We’ve got to start with strategy and THEN develop the creative elements of our marketing efforts.  If we don’t we’ll end up with the tail wagging the dog.