Alberta Business Marketing

One of the top business books for 2011 is Richard Rumelt’s Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters, an insightful book on business strategy and successful differentiation.

What I like most about this book is the different lens which it applies to the complex topic of strategy with clarity provided through what to avoid with business strategy development. With a topic such as strategy that is somewhat intangible, defining a parameter of what not do do can be very instructive.

This same book was reviewed earlier this year by Harvey Schachter of the Globe and Mail, with the following useful summary, should you not have time to read the book:

Prof. Rumelt offers these four hallmarks of bad strategy:

Fluff
Form of gibberish that masquerades as strategic concepts or arguments. The professed strategy uses what he calls “Sunday words” – words that are inflated and unnecessarily abstruse – and apparently esoteric concepts to create the illusion of high-level thinking.

Failure to face the challenge
The professed strategy fails to recognize or define the challenge facing the enterprise. “When you cannot define the challenge, you cannot evaluate a strategy or improve it,” Prof. Rumelt notes.

Mistaking goals for strategy
Many bad strategies are simply statements of desire rather than plans for overcoming obstacles.

Bad objectives
A strategic objective is a means to an end. Strategic objectives are “bad” when they fail to address critical issues or when they are impractical. The classic is a scrambled mess of objectives – everyone’s wishes and dreams gathered together into an unworkable plan. The word long-term, he notes, is usually added so that none of it has to be done today.

He summarizes that a good strategy has three crucial elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy and coherent action. The guiding policy outlines the approach to dealing with the obstacles highlighted in the diagnosis. “It is like a signpost, marking the direction forward but not defining the details of the trip,” he says. Coherent actions are feasible, co-ordinated policies, resource commitments and actions designed to carry out the guiding policy. “A good strategy doesn’t just draw on existing strength; it creates strength through the coherence of its design. Most organizations of any size can’t do this. Rather, they pursue multiple objectives that are unconnected to one another or, worse, that conflict with one another,” he observes.

The UCLA interview video with Prof Rumelt provides more insight on the author's perspective on what makes for good strategy.

The right problem definition or business diagnosis is key to success. Like good medicine, having experts participate in the diagnosis and providing solutions can make all the difference.

Patricia McQuillan

Tags: Branding
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My firm attended an employee engagement conference earlier this month with a topic focused on generational workforce engagement strategy development.

"The Gen Y Guy on 60 Minutes" addresses some of the issues.

One thing is clear from the conference and that is that there is no clear answer on how to engage the Gen Y/Millennial workforce. However, that being said, there was strong agreement, that there are more similarities in what engages across the work force generations (baby boomers, Gen X & Gen Y); it is the how to engage that presents the major difference.

Similarities shared by conference participants in generational workforce engagement include Work-Life-Balance (WLB) as a primary Gen X and Gen Y engagement motivator. However how WLB is achieved for Gen Y typically involves greater flexibility including time away from the job for travel and further education. The importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the workplace was also highlighted as a similarity across generations; the difference being that Gen X felt it was important for companies to introduce and communicate CSR initiatives while the Gen Y cohort wants to participate and be part of the initiative rather than just learning about it.

There was considerable frustration expressed by many at the conference in terms of how Gen Y attitudes frustrate other employees with their different expectations in terms of timing. While there is a similarity in the strong motivator of job promotion, the difference again is in the how with they key difference being the shorter time frame of Gen Y expectations for career advancement and recognition.

The group generally agreed that there are more similarities than differences across the workforce generations, the challenge is for the employer to embrace the differences and encourage the best from their talent. Again, the 'how' is the challenge not the 'what'.

Patricia McQuillan

Tags: Branding, Marketing Talent, Strategy
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Statistics Canada predicts that by 2031, 63 per cent of the GTA’s population will be visible minorities with South Asians and Chinese leading the pack – that’s up from the 43 per cent in 2006. With the minority set to become the majority, the GTA has become the battleground for marketers from major retailers, banks and wireless providers trying to attract the ethnic consumer.

With ethnic minorities predicted to become the majority across the GTA in the near future, mainstream businesses are looking to capitalize on the demographic shift. But ever since I've begun to counsel clients on multicultural marketing when I first immigrated to this country in 1990, I've always been skeptical about how long does it take for companies to realize it takes more than Google Translate to 'multiculturalize' a marketing strategy.

Data collected by Statistics Canada in 2006 shows the cities of Toronto, Markham, Brampton, Mississauga and Richmond Hill experienced a major surge in visible minorities from the previous census year (2001). Markham had the highest proportion of visible minorities in the country – they made up 65.4 per cent of its population. About half were Chinese and one-quarter were South Asian. In Brampton, the census subdivision that ranked behind Markham, 56 per cent of residents were South Asian.

Recently, grocery giant Metro purchased a majority share of Adonis, a grocer with a steady following of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern consumers. This came two years after its competitor, Loblaw, snatched up T&T, a major Chinese supermarket chain. Both deals give Metro and Loblaw access to suppliers and business strategies geared to reaching ethnic consumers.

While marketers realize that multicultural marketing is very different from using the same approach as preaching to predominantly white, middle-class consumers, very few mainstream companies are willing to dedicate manpower and budget to properly communicate and connect with multicultural audiences. As recently as 2006, major brands seemed to be missing the mark when it came to ethnic consumers. In a survey conducted that year by a Toronto-based research company, 52 per cent of the 3,000 visible-minority participants agreed with the statement, “I rarely see advertising messages intended for me.”

But there is good news after all these years. Though it still trails the steady growth of these populations, the industry is slowly gaining sophistication. Major businesses are co-ordinating ethnic merchandising teams and hiring ethnic marketing firms. With geographic information systems, they can learn which ethnic groups to target at various store locations. With loyalty programs, they can data-mine for consumption trends among their diverse customers. A year ago, Loblaw hired a senior manager of ethnic marketing. Scotiabank and Rogers have their own multicultural marketing managers. And in offices in Markham, North York, Mississauga and downtown Toronto are dozens of marketers who specialize in reaching Indian, Chinese, Filipino and other visible-minority consumers.

Most mainstream marketers fail to understand generational differences call for different ad strategies. The newcomer requires different treatment from the established family or the Canadian-born children of immigrants. Sterotyping visible minorities are not going to get you anywhere.

Is brand awareness enough to drive sales behaviour among multicultural consumers? Like their mainstream counterparts, the ethnic population shops around for prices. So, other than variety, pricing is also important because most of the new immigrants are smart shoppers. But being serious about understanding the diverse mix of new Canadians is an important first step in winning over the ethnic consumer.

Lina Ko

Tags: Branding, Strategy
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Tags: Branding, Marketing Intel
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As long as I can remember, brands have organized their marketing initiatives into distinct campaigns. Each season or product launch or celebrity endorsement was treated as their own separate campaign. Brand managers developed the strategy, creative teams made beautiful ads, media teams spread it across appropriate channels, and finally everyone measured its success. After all was said and done, the key findings were used to improve the next campaign and the whole cycle started again.

This process made sense in a world of mass media, but it is quickly becoming obsolete. With the rise of digital marketing, each step along the lifecycle of a campaign was changed as knowledge of the consumer increased and targeting options multiplied. Yet the concept of the campaigns still persists, though is now executed at a more granular level.

The start of the move to digital proved effective because it allowed marketing messages to be much more relevant to the individual consumer. Marketers didn’t have to think of their consumers in broad groups based on demographics, but could instead use far more detailed information to reach the right person with the right message.

I believe that the next iteration in this development will bring about the end of the campaign.

Marketing will become more fluid taking the shape of an ongoing relationship between brands and their consumers instead of distinct campaigns. Ad targeting and optimization technology will improve so that each consumer will receive their own message customized based on a multitude of factors.

Many direct marketers are already doing versions of this. The emails I get from Amazon are based on books that I have said that I like - things like my age, gender, and occupation don’t matter. This makes their marketing message more relevant to me than any TV commercial I have ever seen.

How do you prepare for a post-campaign marketing world?

The skills required from marketers will change. Data mining and optimization will become more important. Technology will drive more marketing dollars. Creative will always be important, but will have to become more flexible.

And the way you think about your brand will change too. Brands will become more conversational and rely more on earned media than paid media. Instead of thinking in campaigns, brands will think in terms of relationships.

Yet the fundamentals of your brand - the promise you make to your consumers - should stay the same. The end of the campaign should be an opportunity to make that more promise more meaningful to your consumers as you can customize its execution. It will be hard, but it will benefit consumers and brands alike it if is done properly.

Ben Wise

Tags: Branding, Digital, Direct Marketing
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