Catalyst Strategic Marketing: Marketing Strategy

Showing posts with label Marketing Strategy. Show all posts

Friday, May 3, 2019

The Kitchen Sink Method Is NOT Marketing Strategy

Overview

Many marketers think that in order for their business to gain all the benefits that marketing has to offer, they need to include everything possible in every marketing campaign, plan or activity. That viewpoint is incorrect and this article will help you understand why.

The Uniqueness of Marketing

Marketing is a unique profession. It is also critical to business success. When done properly, marketing has the ability to drive awareness, drive new leads and prospects, as well as drive new business. However, when done poorly it can have the opposite effect.

Depending on what business goal needs to be accomplished, marketing may combine elements from numerous areas including communications, PR, advertising, broadcasting, trade shows, writing and content creation, training, sales enablement, graphics creation, audio, video and much, much more. Because of this, the marketing professional has the flexibility to choose from a huge palette of potential tools that can be used to drive a desired outcome.

However, that same flexibility is also one of the main problems with the marketing profession.

Why?

Because too many marketers use what I call the “kitchen sink method”. This “method” tries to include as many different activities/channels/tools as possible into each and every marketing program or campaign, whether or not they make sense or will actually help accomplish what needs to be done. Oftentimes this is done because the marketer does not understand their customer, their market, their competitive situation, or worse, the business goal that needs to be accomplished.

Let’s face it, many marketers today have become so obsessed with the latest new “thing” that they forget the basics. Instead of taking time for the necessary due diligence, they focus on the latest marketing buzzword to the exclusion of everything else. Buzzwords like “gamification”, “influencer marketing”, “mobile marketing” and “social selling” have become the go-to marketing approaches for too many marketers.

But in reality, those are tactics – they were never intended to be used solely as standalone marketing tools in place of a marketing strategy. They’re intended to be used as actions that support an overall marketing strategy.

And therein lies the problem.

The Kitchen Sink Is Not a Strategy

This “kitchen sink” mentality has become so pervasive because many marketers don’t know how to develop a marketing strategy that understands what the goal of marketing is. They don’t know how to determine what the proper actions, channels and tools are to reach those goals. They don’t understand that prior to beginning the development of any marketing activity, research must be done based on the business goal that needs to be accomplished, followed by the development of a marketing strategy that provides clarity and direction to guide the development of the marketing tactics. Instead, the assumption is made that by just including everything in their campaigns and programs, a strategy is not necessary and their marketing will be successful by default and have positive results.

If only it were that simple.

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the marketing profession provides the opportunity to become involved in numerous different specialty areas. It allows marketers to be exposed to and work with many different creative areas that professionals in other roles will never see. And one of the biggest differentiators between marketing and other professions is that marketing not only allows out of the box thinking, it actively encourages it.

This level of flexibility is why so many people think that marketing is easy to do. However, they don’t understand that flexibility must be paired with an understanding of the business, coupled with the knowledge of appropriate tactics and the discipline to choose the right one(s) in order to drive business success. In other words, strategy.

Marketing Strategy vs. The Kitchen Sink

Developing the marketing strategy is and always should be the first step in the creation of any marketing activity. The reason is that unless a marketing strategy is developed, putting marketing activities in place is simply tactics; it’s nothing more than a collection of tactical actions. There is no plan to coordinate or manage them, no way to effectively track or measure them, no way to judge their effectiveness, and no way to determine if they drive the business towards a desired outcome.

In other words, marketing without strategy is the kitchen sink method in action.

Developing a marketing strategy requires attention to detail that borders on the obsessive; it’s not just something you can create in a few minutes. Once you understand what the goals are, then you must determine how your marketing will accomplish them. This is the basis for creating your marketing strategy.

Having a marketing strategy means taking the necessary time to understand what the business goals and objectives are prior to developing marketing tactics. It means understanding how marketing can support those goals and objectives and help accomplish them. It means taking time to do the due diligence necessary to understand who the target customers are, what the best way to reach them is, and what the competitive situation is. All of these steps are required to be able to develop a marketing strategy that works.

Creating a marketing strategy means determining what the right channels are, what the interplay between channels will be (if any), what marketing tools and techniques will be used, and most importantly, what the KPIs and metrics are developed to track and measure the effectiveness of the marketing. Without metrics you can’t prove whether your tactics worked or not or whether your goals and objectives have been accomplished.

Once the marketing strategy has been created, then and only then do you develop the tactical plan of action that supports the strategy. It is only at this point that you begin to determine what actions need to be taken and how they support the strategy.

Compare this prescriptive approach to the kitchen sink approach.

Summary

By applying a more structured approach to developing a marketing strategy first instead of taking the kitchen sink approach, your marketing will be more effective and you will be able to accomplish the goals that you’ve set.

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Integrated Marketing: What It Is and Why You Should Embrace It (part 1 of 3)

This is the first of three articles excerpted from the paper “Integrated Marketing: What It Is and Why You Should Embrace It”

Part 1

INTRODUCTION

Technology has expanded our ability to connect and interact with others to a degree unheard of even a decade ago. However, due to this continued expansion, the number of ways in which you connect and interact with your customer also continues to change, evolve and grow. While technological innovation may be good for business, from a marketing perspective it can often be confusing as more and newer technologies provide you with numerous additional ways in which to connect with your target audience.

This article will provide an overview and will attempt to explain what integrated marketing is and why the use of integrated marketing is more important now than ever before. This is not an in-depth treatise on the topic, but will provide you with a solid foundation on the topic of integrated marketing.

WHAT IS 'INTEGRATED MARKETING'

To begin, let's start with a simple definition of what 'integrated marketing' is considered to be. As a marketer, you are likely very familiar with using technology, so your first step in this process is to go online to research and find information about this topic. However, this is where your first roadblock pops up. As you begin to do your research you find that there is not a consistent definition of what 'integrated marketing' is.

One definition defines 'integrated marketing' as a “Strategy aimed at unifying different marketing methods such as mass marketing, one-to-one marketing, and direct marketing. Its objective is to complement and reinforce the market impact of each method, and to employ the market data generated by these efforts in product development, pricing, distribution, customer service, etc.”¹

Another defines 'integrated marketing' as “an approach to brand communications where the different modes work together to create a seamless experience for the customer and are presented with a similar tone and style that reinforces the brand’s core message. Its goal is to make all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, personal selling, online communications and social media work together as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation, which in turn maximizes their cost effectiveness.”²

Yet a third defines 'integrated marketing' as “a type of marketing in which a company's sales people, advertising, website, etc. all give the same messages about its products: The consistency of the brand message is the key concept of integrated marketing.”³

What do all of these (and numerous other) definitions of integrated marketing have in common? To be truthful, not much. Yes, they all deal with marketing, but that is where the similarity ends. Beyond that common starting point, each definition of integrated marketing takes a slightly different approach and focus, approaching the definition from different directions. Therein lies the problem. There is no consistent understanding or definition of what “integrated marketing” is, what it includes, what integrated marketing should measure and track, etc., which of course leads to confusion over what integrated marketing actually is.

For the purposes of this article, I am defining 'integrated marketing' as follows:

'Integrated marketing is the disciplined process of choosing the appropriate marketing strategy, combined with the appropriate mix of tactics, methods, channels, media and activities that best support the desired end result of the defined marketing activity.'

This definition is simple, straightforward and to the point. This definition also does what most other definitions do not; it acknowledges the uniqueness of each situation and recognizes that there is not one standard set of marketing features or tactics that are applicable to every situation. It does not take a 'peanut butter spread' or 'one size fits all' approach to marketing, but rather, it encourages the marketer to assess the situation and then choose those specific marketing components that will best support the desired end result. Simply put, integrated marketing is nothing more than a tool to use to help you get more out of your marketing.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTEGRATED MARKETING AND IMC

As you begin to look further into the topic of integrated marketing, you will likely come across a similar-sounding term, 'integrated marketing communication' or IMC. Although initially integrated marketing and IMC seem to be the same, in reality they are not. Let's delve just a bit deeper to see where the differences arise. As with integrated marketing, let's start with defining what the term 'integrated marketing communication' means.

One definition states that IMC is “An approach to achieving the objectives of a marketing campaign, through a well coordinated use of different promotional methods that are intended to reinforce each other.”⁴

Another states that it is "A concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines-for example, general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations-and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact."⁵

And finally, a third definition of IMC states that it is "an approach to brand communications where the different modes work together to create a seamless experience for the customer and are presented with a similar tone and style that reinforces the brand’s core message. "⁶

As you can see, integrated marketing communication, in a manner similar to integrated marketing, is subject to a variety of definitions which may vary from author to author, from marketer to marketer and from use to use.

That then begs the question, what is the difference between the two?

As previously defined, in its simplest form, integrated marketing is nothing more than making sure that you have all of the appropriate tools and resources in place to support the needs of your specific marketing activity.

Integrated marketing communication on the other hand is primarily concerned with ensuring that the message is consistent across all of the marketing channels in use as part of your marketing activity. The goal of IMC is to make certain that all of the marketing communications and messaging that is developed work together to support each other and provide a unified message to the customer, rather than having each piece work separately. By doing so, this helps to reduce costs, enhance the cost effectiveness of the messaging content that was developed, reduce the fragmentation of the message and provide a consistent frame of reference for the customer, regardless of where/how they engage with you or your product. In short, IMC allows the marketer to take advantage of the synergies that will develop from a consistent message being delivered to the customer across all of the various media in use.

An example of a company applying the integrated marketing communications philosophy is Guinness PLC's campaign, 'Guinness: It's Alive Inside'. Guinness, the well-known Irish beer maker, launched this campaign in the Fall of 2007. Instead of developing different advertisements and messages for the different media they planned to use, Guinness developed one core idea and extended this idea across all of the communications channels. That one core idea was 'It's Alive', which celebrated what beer drinkers love most about Guinness beer: its distinctive 'surge', a frothing, cascading effect that occurs in the head of the beer shortly after being poured and is visible in the beer glass before the head settles.

“The brief to the agency was to develop a Guinness brand superidea, to re-establish the magic of Guinness for a new generation. Following a lengthy review period in which we sought to really understand the twentysomething mind-set, a number of insights emerged. Among them was the idea that twentysomethings feel a heightened excitement about life and all of its possibilities. They are bursting with life and ready to take full advantage of it. This energy is reflected in the Guinness product in the way it surges in the glass before eventually settling. The marriage of these two insights gave us our brand superidea – Guinness. It’s Alive Inside.”⁷

"'Alive Inside' captures the excitement of enjoying Guinness, from the incredible 'surge' effect to the robust taste that has been perfected since 1759," said Dan Kleinman, Guinness Director of Marketing, Diageo.⁸ This message was then extended to print, television, advertising, sponsorships (for hurling and rugby), promotion and several other channels to ensure that a consistent message was delivered to the marketplace. Created by IIBBDO Dublin, the ad and all the creative communicate a consistent brand message.⁹

Instead of developing separate messages, communications and marketing campaigns for each of the various media, Guinness chose to develop one primary message and then leverage that message by using it across all the various channels they had chosen to interact with their target demographic in, thereby saving time, money and resources.

In an online article on Forbes.com (November 3, 2011, What Schoolhouse Rock and Integration Have In Common), Steve Olenski put it this way: “... and do drive home my point which is more and more consumers want an integrated message. They want to see the same basic message be it via an offline medium or online or mobile and tablet. It’s really not that hard to do yet so many companies big and small can’t seem to do it.”¹⁰

IMC is focused on ensuring that the message is consistent across all marketing channels, while integrated marketing is focused on ensuring that in addition to the message being consistent across channel, all other aspects of the marketing are appropriately chosen and structured so that they will support the overall goals of the marketing activity.

For the marketer who wants to ensure the success of a marketing activity, IMC should always be a component of the integrated marketing campaign.