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Positioning is Everything:
Strategic Marketing and Integration
by Nan Andrews Amish
Have you ever had a customer service experience, where your
reaction was, how could ____________(you fill in the blank)
treat me that way? It is so out of character!
We have all experienced this disconnect. Companies every day
spend hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars to create,
market and promote a brand, then they have management practices
which are out of synch with their brand.
Intuitively, we react. It feels so WRONG! And it is.
Yet, companies continue this faux pas every day. Why? Because
they have been taught that they must optimize each subset of
their organization. And to do so, they must adopt practices
which are efficient, effective, or whatever the current management
gurus are recommending to be competitive, to keep their stock
prices soaring.
It turns out, there is no "one-size-fits-all" prescription for
management success. And when companies choose practices which
are out of synch with their brands, they cause customer confusion,
dissatisfaction and defection, all of which are extremely costly.
So, how do you avoid this problem?
It sounds like a cross between an Army recruiting slogan and
a Tony Robbins seminar. Know who you are. Be who you are. Be
the best you, you can be.
When I work with clients on a strategic marketing assignment,
the first thing I ask them is about who they are. Here are the
questions I want to know:
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Who are you?
What is your firm known for? What are you particularly strong
at? What are you better at than anyone else in your business?
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Who are your
most satisfied customers? What is it that they value most
about what you have to offer? Who is your target market?
What makes them your optimal market?
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What value can you bring
your customers that they will value the most, based upon
your unique strengths?
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Can you bring them friends,
influence and money? Can you bring them happiness, wisdom
and love?
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Or can you decrease their
business costs, help them grow, improve their profitability?
(which will bring them money, influence and happiness for
sure!)
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Can you articulate
this competitive value for your target, best customers?
Does your brand reflect this? Do your communications use
this messaging as its foundation? |
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Are your web, collateral,
and sales force attuned to this value? |
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Do your services focus on
this value? |
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Does your customer service
reflect this value? |
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Does this value roll off
every employee's tongue, when speaking of the company promise?
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What metaphors,
symbols, experiences can you use to remind your target customers
of your positioning? What look, color, style does your marketing
communications convey? Are these metaphors, symbols, experiences
driving marketing programs and marketing investment?
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What about your
other practices? |
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Does your IT infrastructure
support the value proposition? (Or does it simply focus
on state of the art practices?) |
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Do your hiring, compensation
and promotion policies seek out and reward behaviors that
can enhance the positioning and delivery of this competitive
value? Or do they simply support stock market norms and
labor market wisdom?
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Does your customer service
reflect the promise of the brand? Or are customers continually
shocked that the customer service is not like the brand
image at all? |
Your customers are exposed to thousands of commercial messages
every day. They are bombarded by spam, email, Internet, radio,
TV and highway advertising. They are surrounded by advertising
in their cars, in their entertainment, even in the privacy of
their homes.
Turns out, it is about relationships. It is about having a relationship
where you think your vendor understands you. It is about having
expectations in line with reality. It is about the experience,
it is about the ride. The reaction we have is processed by our
brains unconsciously.
Thus, positioning is EVERYTHING, because, positioning IS that
unique value you offer to that target market you seek, in ways
that are better, more effective, more amazingly meeting your
needs than any of your competitors. And in a world of advertising
gone wild, the experience communicates at an unconscious level.
It reaches your gut, your soul, your emotions in ways that the
Advertisers cannot reach. It is instinctive.
The customer service and employee relationships need to MATCH
or be INTEGRATED with the market positioning. One-size-cannot-fit-all.
The experience must match the brand, the image, the expectation.
Many companies today do not have big picture thinking about
marketing and positioning. Their practices are out of synch
with their brand images, and their customers are uneasy about
this. When customers are uneasy or confused, they become transactional
customers. When a better deal shows up, they move.
What we want is relationship customers. Customers who defend
us, in light of new product offerings and service innovations.
How does this work in practice?
We expect consistency and speed from McDonalds. Food quality
is not an issue.
We expect organic, no hormones, no genetically modified foods
from Whole Foods. Price is not an issue.
We expect great transmission from Verizon "can you hear me now".
Rollover is an opportunity for Cingular.
We expect integrated practices from these firms too. We expect
McDonalds to be attuned to kid issues; kids after all are a
primary target market of their Happy Meals. Their Ronald McDonald
Houses do not disappoint.
We expect Whole Foods to be an employer who treats employees
well, keeps them healthy, so to speak. They have been on the
list of best employers to work for for many years.
We expect Verizon to have state of the art technology, and apply
it to improvement of their network. We expect them not to have
dropped calls. And to honor requests for refunds when they do.
Hmmm. Not quite where we might want them to be.
Must all these firms also be cost conscious? Have IT infrastructure
that supports them? Invest in ways to grow the business and
keep it profitable? Of course. But the experience of all the
stakeholders needs to match the positioning for the unconscious
marketing to hold. We are ALL in marketing, because we are all
part of delivering on this integrated positioning.
When you consider the big picture, positioning is everything.
What is your position?
(1035 words) Copyright © 2005-2007 Nan Andrews Amish. All rights
reserved.
Nan Andrews Amish and Big Picture Perspective
offer facilitation, member surveys, management assessments,
tools, workshops and keynote addresses to help associations,
leaders and teams increase their effectiveness by seeing the
big picture perspective. Nan knows associations. She is past
president of a 1000 member New England regional marketing association
and current board member and 2002 Member of the Year of the
National Speakers Association/Northern California.
Permission to reprint this article is granted,
provided original author is given credit, and a link to www.BigPicturePerspective.com
is included.
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