“Mojo: The libido. The life force. The essence. The right stuff. What the French call a certain… I don't know what.”
Dr. Evil
I’m just returning from a wonderful vacation
with my family where I rode one of the most thrilling roller coasters (or so I
hear) in the nation (the Griffon at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg VA if you’re
interested). Maybe it was
because it was my first roller coaster ride in 15 years, or maybe it was my
giggling 9-year-old niece sitting next to me – but I literally laughed the
entire ride. It was thrilling,
happy-making and just genuinely fun.
So, one of the things that I think we can all
agree on is that marketing hasn’t been much fun this year. Budget-cuts, focus on ROI,
figuring out analytics, gloom and doom from sales projections, economic
forecasts and doing more with less
- those have been the stories of 2009. Oh yeah, and Twitter…
So, bad news and Twitter….
Let’s just get through the last quarter and a
half and let’s get prepared for 2010 – because this is the year when Marketing
gets it’s mojo back. Let’s
take a look at what will be different:
1. We
now know that our world is “flat”, “free” and “fickle”
Chances are you are dealing with either a “free” competitor in
your particular
industry, a customer base that’s able to get your product at a tenth of
the
cost from an international competitor or with very little switching
costs. But here’s the thing. If you can survive and come into 2010
with a strong product set, a key marketing message – and establish
yourself as
a leader – you have a leg up on all of these challenges. Because,
guess what – it’s flat, free
and fickle for your competitors as well.
It’s time to get more creative and more resources must go into
marketing
in order to differentiate.
2.
Customer attitudes have changed
Just as our attitudes have changed, so have our customers. Coming out of the recession in 2010
(okay yeah, I’m an optimist) our customers are going to be looking for value
and safety – and focusing on building our brand as a trustworthy, and safe
source of whatever product or service we’re producing is going to be key.
3. Smaller, niche players have a better shot
The cliché of “nobody gets fired for hiring IBM” (fill in the blank-big-company
for your industry) is gone. Trust
will come at the expense of large multi-tasking organizations. Because the world is smaller and
flatter – those that are offering “one thing” and do it “well” will do better.
4.
The pace of change is only quickening
Change is only getting faster and faster. New technologies, solutions and the
ways marketing gets done are only going to mean that we’ve got to pay attention
to marketing, and get more creative about the way we go-to-market (notice a
trend here with the “creative” thing).
So, as we start wrapping up Q3 and head into our
2010 planning sessions, let’s start planning for a 2010 that means getting our
marketing Mojo alive and kicking.
1. Tighten the message – and new, creative
stories
Let’s get the message tight, creative and start
developing our customer’s stories so that we have a focused, creative and compelling message to
tell our prospects. We’ve got to
establish our brands as leaders in the space. We’ve got to give away that expertise to establish trust in
our brand. We’ve got to expand
marketing to be MORE valuable than flat, free and fickle.
2. Know our space
This goes hand in hand with #1 above, but we’ve
got to have our fingers on the pulse of marketing – and our industry. What are the insights and stories
coming out of our competition.
3. So, you think you can dance?
We think we can dance now – but we’ve got to be
even faster on our feet to react to changes, and the shifting sands of the
marketing landscape. 2010 is going
to be a year of change for many of us – and we need to have a lean, mean
dancing machine to be on top of it.
Start planning out what you think may happen in 2010 and develop
mini-plans to deal with it.
4. Develop your analytics dashboard.
Get lean and important with your analytics for
2010. Take to heart the analytics lessons from
Nicole Rawski – and develop your analytics dashboard. Stop measuring everything – and start measuring what’s
important.
It’s nice to be back in action – but even nicer
having come from a vacation where I got to spend time with little kids who
really know how to live in the moment – and worry only about what’s coming in
the next five minutes. Their
smiling, happy faces on the roller coaster made me realize that for as much as
we’re down – we’re going back up again.
And, at some point the ride is over and you look at each other
laughing.
Whooo hooo…. Let’s go.
