Maneuver Marketing Communique

Does the Dunkin Donuts Controversy Signal The Start Of The Age Of Confrontation For Chief Marketing Officers?

As a marketer I have been on the tail end of the industrial age and the leading age of the information age. I think the Dunkin Donuts controversy may officially signal the start of a new age for marketers - the age of confrontation... read the whole post at Citizen Strategist.

If Marketers Are The Voice Of The Customer...

... then who is the voice of the company? Francois Gossieaux is writing about the need to transform CMO's:

a transformation of the CMO role and that of their marketing department - one in which they become the representative of the voice of the customer within the company instead of the brand builders or the sales support department.

You can read his full post here.

Symantec's Kim Johnson and Jenni Grimes Architect Highly Effective Marketing Campaign

I love this stuff. Symantec’s salespeople were tasked to get in the door for face-to-face meetings with decision-makers. Read more at Citizen Strategist.

Sylvia Reynolds Asks "When Did Marketing Become the Make-It-Pretty Department?

Sylvia Reynolds, chief marketing officer for Wells Fargo, asked, "When did Marketing become the make-it-pretty department?" Read more at Citizen Strategist.

Coup d’oeil, On Winning And Strategic Insight...

J.M. Korhonen over at "On Winning" is talking about strategic intuition. His insights are in response to a new book by William Duggan called Strategic Intuition. This from the book about generating strategic insight:

Clausewitz gives us four steps. First, you take in “examples from history” throughout your life and put them on the shelves of your brain. Study can help, by putting more there. Second comes “presence of mind,” where you free your brain of all preconceptions about what problem you’re solving and what solution might work. Third comes the flash of insight itself. Clausewitz called it coup d’oeil, which is French for “glance.” In a flash, a new combination of examples from history fly off the shelves of your brain and connect. Fourth comes “resolution,” or determination, where you not only say to yourself, “I see!”, but also, “I’ll do it!”

JM and his partner Panu Kinnari are Finnish students who blog about the practical applications of maneuver strategy in everyday organizations. These guys are bright. Their blog should be required reading for every business school in the US.

Download vSente's Free Campaign Planner to learn more about how we help marketing managers battle larger competition.

I Am No Longer Reviewing New Marketing Books...

From time to time I am asked to review a new business book. Generally the topics are marketing related and the number of requests I get have been increasing significantly - not due to my reputation as an influential reviewer - but simply because of the deluge of new books being published.

Unfortunately the great majority of new marketing books have underwhelmed me to the point of not being able to write a positive review. I have a policy of not writing negative reviews. If a publisher takes the time and effort to send me a book, then I will take the time to preview it and if I find anything of value - review it on this blog. I've printed one review in the past 12 months.

So please - no more books in the mail. If you're looking for a few good books to add to your marketing bookshelf I can heartily endorse the following:

MARKETING: STRATEGY

Sun Tzu - The Art of War Shambhala/Thomas Cleary version.

WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because Sun Tuz is the ultimate marketing strategist. Learn how to win without fighting. And when you do have to fight - how to kick ass and win.

MONEY QUOTE: Therefore use these assessments for comparison, to find out what the conditions are. That is to say which political leadership has the Way? Which general has the ability? Who has the better climate and terrain? Whose discipline is effective? Whose troops are stronger? whose officers and soldiers are the better trained? Whose system of rewards and punishments clearer? This is how can know who will win. (Pg. 46)

MARKETING: TACTICS

Machiavelli - The Prince Mentor Book's version with forward by Christian Gauss.

WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because Machiavelli delivers a great primer on dealing with unethical tactics - like blog swarms, short sellers, social activists, corrupt competitors, media relations, etc.

MONEY QUOTE:  A new prince has never been known to disarm his subjects, on the contrary, when he has found them disarmed he has always armed them, for by arming them, these arms become your own, those that you suspected become faithful, and those that were faithful remain so, and from being merely subjects become your partisans. (Pg. 105)

MARKETING: CAMPAIGNING

The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War Robert Coram's biography of John Boyd.

WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because Boyd articulates the secret to successful campaigning. Boyd's O-O-D-A Loop and thoughts on organic command and control should be mastered by all marketers.

MONEY QUOTE: For a time, Boyd and Spinney were reluctant to fully explain the O-O-D-A Loop; it was far too dangerous. If someone truly understands how to create menace and uncertainty and mistrust, then how to exploit and magnify the presence of these disconcerting elements, the Loop can be vicious, a terribly destructive force, virtually unstoppable in causing panic and confusion and - Boyd's phrase is best - "unraveling the competition." This is true whether the Loop is applied in combat, in competitive business practices, in sports, or in personal relationships. (Pg. 334)

MARKETING: CRISIS

The Second World War, Volume 2: Their Finest Hour Winston Churchill's WWII chronicles.

WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because everything you read today about crisis management is wrong. Churchill's personal experiences leading up to and during WWII provide a practical foundation for dealing with crisis.

MONEY QUOTE: There never was an occasion when powers were abrogated or challenged, and anyone in this circle could always speak his mind; but the actual war direction soon settled into a very few hands, and what seemed so difficult before became much more simple - apart of course, from Hitler. In spite of the turbulence of events and the many disasters we had to endure, the machinery worked almost automatically, and one lived in a stream of coherent thought capable of being translated with great rapidity into executive action. (Pg. 17)

MARKETING: FUNDAMENTALS

Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors Michael Porter's classic.

WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Porter provides a fundamental primer on competition including practical tools and techniques that are even more important today than they were 25 years ago.

MONEY QUOTES: One broad approach is to use superior resources and capabilities to force an outcome skewed toward the interest of the firm, overcoming and outlasting retaliation - we might call this brute force approach. This sort of approach is possible only if the firm possesses clear superiorities, and it is stable only as long as the firm maintains these superiorities, and as long as competitors do not misread them and incorrectly attempt to change their positions. (Pg. 91)

Most marketers used to the bright colors, short lists and pretty pictures of Seth Godin, Tom Peters and Guy Kawasaki will find the above list daunting to say the least. Which is why the list forms a golden opportunity for those marketers with the hearty appetite necessary to devour the contents. While most of your competitors are trying to paint cows purple - you'll be out kicking ass.

Download vSente's Free Campaign Planner to learn more about how we help marketing managers battle larger competition.

Al Ries - The Language of Marketing Has Been Borrowed From The Military...

Al Ries has a good column at Advertising Age:

The language of marketing has been borrowed from the military. We talk about defensive marketing, offensive marketing, guerrilla marketing. Often overlooked, however, is "flanking," one of the most powerful military strategies.

Read the whole thing here. This is my take on why vSente uses military metaphors...

Download vSente's Free Campaign Planner to learn more about how we help marketing managers battle larger competition.

Channel Marketing ROI Still Difficult For Tech Marketers To Quantify

Kate Maddox at BtoB Magazine has a good article up about quantifying reseller ROI. We've done a fair amount of work for resellers and can identify with the issues she describes in the article. Here's a snip:

B-to-b marketers that rely on channel partners to sell their products are struggling to improve the ways they measure ROI on their channel marketing investments. "It is incredibly difficult," said Martyn Etherington, VP-marketing at Tektronix, which manufactures network test equipment and derives 40% of its revenue from channel partners. "It is probably the marketing nirvana that has been missing."

Read the whole article here.

Download vSente's Free Campaign Planner to learn more about how we help marketing managers battle larger competition.

Competitive Strategy: Thinking Three Moves Ahead...

Strategy and tactics need to be thought out at least three moves and MUST contain a decisive action that will deliver a sustainable advantage. Which means if your strategy is to attack price and your tactics are based upon challenging the leaders premium price with a discounted price then you need to think through the following ladder:

Move 1: Challenger attacks Leader

Move 2: Leader reacts to Challenger.

Move 3: Challenger reacts to Leader.

Decisive Action: Challenger delivers decisive blow.

This is called a three move set. Rarely is a strategy effective on the first move. For example, rarely does the leader abandon a customer or market simply because a challenger offers a discounted price.

In practice a campaign will likely involve many moves, with each successive move requiring the challenger to recalibrate tactics and sometimes objectives in order to exploit unfolding circumstances. The campaign engine provides the inputs and command reach necessary to make these moves faster and smarter than the larger competitor. The marketer always needs to be thinking at least three moves ahead and to always have a decisive action resulting in sustainable action.

Want to see how we develop a three move set? Send me an email and I will send you back a generic framework we used on a recent engagement. 

Download vSente's Free Campaign Planner to learn more about how we help marketing managers battle larger competition.

Avaya's Jocelyne Attal Continues To Demonstrate Effective Marketing Leadership

I'm a fan of Jocelyne Attal as mentioned in previous entries to this blog. She gave a presentation recently at the ANA Marketing Maestro's event. This is what she had to say about competing on a small budget (relative to larger competitors):

So, how does Avaya compete with a relative small budget?

Do the basics very well

• Know your audience better than thee competition
• Focus on brand awareness, demand generation, sales enablement
• Metrics, metrics and more metrics (measure based upon business)
• Integrated marketing (unified communications)

Out think the competition with “intelligent marketing principles”

• Go where the competition isn’t (brand in unique places and in context)
• Be where your customer is (Initiate event marketing)
• Leverage technology (host Webinars featuring case studies and white papers)

You can read the complete summary of Jocelyne's presentation here.

Download vSente's Free Campaign Planner to learn more about how we help marketing managers battle larger competition.