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

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

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

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

Recipe to Riches: Episode 5
Marketing Lesson: Even the Experts will Disagree

In this emotionally-packed episode, the two finalists were Sonya Walos with her gluten-free cookie and Donna Feir with her breakfast cookie. Donna joined us at Quizative to help bring her product to market.

Donna’s recipe was inspired by her love of Stampede breakfasts. She had creatively managed to combine the flavours of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup into one neatly packed cookie! With all the different flavours and ingredients it was hard to believe there was still a cookie in there. The inspiration of the Stampede and the distinctiveness of bacon led us to the name “The Bacon Stampeder” and the tagline “may contain traces of cookie.” Donna loved it! With the name as inspiration we set about helping her plan a full-fledged rodeo in the city!

The team at FUSE Marketing Group worked with Sonya and arrived at “Smart Cookie” to name her recipe which everyone found tough to believe was actually gluten-free. Sonya thought the name was brilliantly simple. In the end, more consumers preferred the taste of Sonya’s cookies. The benefit of being on trend and gluten-free tipped the scales in her favour and she took home the $25,000 prize that day.

In the final segment as the judges debated the merits and weaknesses of both products, they really tended to dislike the names. Despite the love of the names from the contestants, Quizative and FUSE, the judges felt that “The Bacon Stampeder” was confusing. They also didn’t think that “Smart Cookie” was an accurate claim - and they didn’t like that gluten-free was dropped from the name. In fact, one judge, Tony Chapman, said that whoever won had to agree to change the name! Now apparently between filming and the packaging of the winning product something changed because the name of the product on shelves at Loblaws is still “Smart Cookie.” The point however is that even experts will disagree with each other from time to time.

On one hand you had the competitors and two very experienced agencies who loved the names. On the other hand you had a panel of qualified judges who didn’t. If you were stuck in the middle and had to make a decision what would you do? The answer is simple. Test it. In the show, with only 24 hours there was no time for testing or even second guessing, but in the real world, put it to a test. Survey your customers and target audience, test sales in control markets, conduct research and see what your customers have to say because ultimately they’ll vote with their dollars.

The lesson here is that there will come times when the experts disagree. That’s normal. If you’re the one making the decisions do what you can to test your alternatives with actual customers. Do it right and you can make an informed decision.

Adrian Capobianco

Marketing lessons from Episodes 1-3 here.

Recipe to Riches: Episode 4
Marketing Lesson: Culture Counts

In this episode, the two finalists were Melaney Gleesen-Lyal of First Nations descent and Wayne Reid who grew up in Jamaica and was passionate about his traditional island cuisine. Wayne joined our team at Quizative and his bold personality was right at home in our boardroom.

Immediately it was clear that the two distinct and unique cultures would play a role in defining their brand and deciding who would win this week’s $25,000 prize. What could have been a stand-offish battle between the two very different competitors seemed to instead be about mutual respect. Wayne’s words summed it up well when he said it was about “two cultures battling out for the best taste. Canada is such a multicultural country!”

Wayne’s product was a new take on a traditional Jamaican paddy and was stuffed with salted codfish and ackee fruit. Like many, we weren’t familiar with the popular Jamaican fruit but food trends are in favour of healthy alternatives including fish. Wayne’s original name idea was “Ackee and Codfish Stuffed Yummy Dumpling.” It didn’t take a team of agency experts to know he had to move away from this mouthful of a name! We wanted to embrace the healthy fish aspect and absolutely wanted to feature the Jamaican cultural roots of the product. We explored with Wayne what Jamaican culture meant to him. In doing this, we came across an interesting term “Grab & Yum” (pronounced Grab ‘n Yam). This essentially means ‘take and eat’ or the habit of eating on the run which was perfect for his portable paddy. Our recommendation at Quizative was to name it the “Grab & Yum, Jamaican Fish Pie.” His branding and advertising also leveraged traditional yellow and green Jamaican colours and his event included traditional Jamaican music and themes.

On the other team at FUSE Marketing Group they pursued a similar strategy and decided to fully embrace the First Nations culture that inspired Melaney and her recipe. Her product was named Savoury Bannock Pie. She had a great tagline, “From my Family to Yours” and her event was a vivid display of First Nations culture.

In the end, all the judges loved the integration of unique cultural stories that inspired the naming, design and experiential events to launch the products. When it came down to it, they selected Melaney as the winner and the judges unanimously disagreed with Wayne’s decision to pull the word ‘fish’ from his name despite our recommendations against it.

The lesson: Culture Counts. In a world of parity and multiple competitors, you can stand out from the crowd by leveraging a unique cultural story – but make sure you do it in a genuine way.

Adrian Capobianco

A teaching moment for marketers

The Occupy movement is different and could potentially become a teaching moment for marketers. As you see in the video below, produced on the one month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, most protesters don’t know where the movement is going or what it should achieve. And yet they are united by common themes and beliefs.

According to posts on Wikipedia, "The original protest began on September 17, 2011, and by October 9, similar demonstrations were either ongoing or had been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the U.S. Internationally, other "Occupy" protests have modeled themselves after Occupy Wall Street, in over 900 cities worldwide.

A catchy 1% and 99% slogan certainly helps (My favourite- "The 1% have Addresses. The 99% have Messages"). There is even a claim that the protests were initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters.

Elevating the conversation

One lesson that resonates with me is the importance of elevating your conversation with consumers. Find a big theme that is above a specific need, want or desire. The theme represents a deep insight about a belief that needs to be unearthed. It is rare that campaigns dig that deep. Most focus on insights, benefits and product features. Our research indicates that campaign ideas that have withstood the test of time are based on basic beliefs that connect a group of consumers.

Merril Mascarenhas

Walter Isaacson wrote a 571-page biography of Jobs, which went on sale earlier this month. The book confirms what we know today: Jobs was focused on exploring new and interesting ways of doing things. There's even a Facebook page dedicated to WWSJD (What would Steve Jobs do?).

Here are three themes that marketers can use as guideposts when developing marketing strategies:

1. Get your thinking "clean to make it simple"

“Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end.”

We often hear about the need to “keep it simple” in marketing campaigns. But most marketing strategies don’t follow this principle. For example, in product development today, the emphasis is on new variants instead of original product ideas. A twist on keeping it simple is to start with a simple concept and stay true to the original brand idea. Jobs summed it up really well- “it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important”.

Steve Jobs told Fortune magazine in 2008, "Apple is a $30 billion company yet we've got less than 30 major products. I don't know if that's ever been done before". He went on to add:

"Certainly the great consumer electronics companies of the past had thousands of products. We tend to focus much more. People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of many of the things we haven't done as the things we have done. The clearest example was when we were pressured for years to do a PDA, and I realized one day that 90% of the people who use a PDA only take information out of it on the road. They don't put information into it. Pretty soon cell phones are going to do that, so the PDA market's going to get reduced to a fraction of its current size, and it won't really be sustainable. So we decided not to get into it. If we had gotten into it, we wouldn't have had the resources to do the iPod. We probably wouldn't have seen it coming.”

“A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google and former Apple Board Member said in an article in Bloomberg Business Week, “One of the things about Steve is, he was always in the realm of possibility. There was a set of assumptions that Steve would make that were never crazy. They were just ahead of me.” He added, “he had a level of perception about feelings and emotions that was far beyond anything I’ve met in my entire life.”

At Arcus, we have found that the biggest insights and ideas come from observing and analyzing in real time how consumers interact with products in their daily lives. Jobs believed that technology can be a tool for individual definition and self-expression. A pink iPod is about much more than just listening to music. Simple insights can lead to great campaigns. This goes against conventional thinking about market research. Focus groups and quantitative research generate insights but these tools will never match the depth of understanding that observing feelings and emotions of people in real life situations can offer.

3. Anticipate surprising and completely new strategic directions

“Creativity is about connecting things.”

We live in a connected world. Interaction between brands and customers has never been more complex with so many touch points. However, some things never change. Good ideas are scarce. No matter how complex we think marketing has become, the most successful strategies tend to have a simple premise that captivates and delights audiences. Jobs' last advice to the new Chief Executive Officer of Apple Inc., Tim Cook, was to 'never ask what Steve would do'. He would suggest, ‘Just do what’s right’. He felt that followers tended to spend all their time thinking and talking about what someone else would do.

Merril Mascarenhas

The culture of the typical B2B company is unique and provides the necessary conditions for implementing an integrated branding strategy:

• Industrial companies are typically run by some generic types including: engineers who foster autonomy and equality, loathe structure and are “technology” versus “market” driven. Or they tend to be “sales” driven cultures with little time for the disciplines of marketing.
• Operationally B2B companies tend to be decentralized in many ways – but especially with respect to communication strategy.
• Company employees tend to have a more direct relationship with customers at almost every level – and tend to be confident that they know exactly what customers need.

1. Brand variation versus integrated branding – B2C companies are notoriously successful at creating strong sub-brands: Kraft sub-brands include Jello, Philadelphia (cream cheese), Nabisco etc, etc, etc; B2B success stories are noted for re-organizing and rationalizing units, divisions and sub-brands.
2. Globalization versus internationalism – on the B2C side not only does a company like Kraft develop sub-brands domestically it also adopts international brands and lets them flourish locally; again, the most successful B2B case studies involve the promotion of a corporate brand (or overbrand) across all markets.

Some of the more high profile and well documented cases of successful B2B integrated branding cases include:

Emerson
A success story in integrated branding – previously known as “Emerson Electric” this company was once comprised of 66 autonomous divisions, known as a provider of components (about as non-strategic as you can get) and utilizing uncoordinated marcom strategies. A substantial makeover was initiated.

• In addition to a name change and logo re-design Emerson re-defined itself as the market leader in technology. All product brands were linked with the Emerson overbrand.
• The company’s 66 divisions were re-organized into 8 business groups including “Emerson climate technologies” and “Emerson motor technologies” -- with emphasis on sophisticated engineering products such as industrial automation.
• Rather than “telling employees what they couldn’t say” Emerson launched a global advertising campaign with a new tagline: “Consider it solved" – with the objective of turning Emerson into a company of “problem-solving zealots”.
• Eight years later Emerson is successfully perceived as an organization of cross-functional teams selling integrated solutions.

• The name change reflects an organizational re-structuring into two divisions.
• The add-on names have been criticized for being meaningless and confusing: “Mobility is a term strongly associated with the mobility industry which markets scooters and wheelchairs to the disabled...the word “mobile” better carries the meaning”.
• Splitting a high profile name like Motorola is thought to be damaging to the integrity of the brand: “The Motorola brand is best suited for its vast consumer business”. Some have suggested that a completely new name should have been developed for the enterprise “solution” side of the business.

• B2B companies are more likely to operate from a position of weakness -- they are competing with high profile consumer brands (such as Coca Cola and Hershey).
• Only one “true” B2B brand (Intel #70) scores in the top 100 of Corebrand’s Brand Power rankings. Other high profile B2B brands Caterpillar (#277), Emerson (#422) and Motorola (#117) are way down the list (out of 788 brands).
• Corebrand (which measures brand equity (as % of market cap) calculated at one point that average B2B scores are half that of B2C brands.

Ruth Lukaweski