SAY WHAT?

Straight from our advertising brethren: 

“The biggest barrier to engagement (according to a recent Association of National Advertisers’ survey) is the start-up’s inability to accurately describe its offering meaningfully, relevantly.”

The study goes on to say that even more than the 1/3+ of marketers who now work with marketing technology newcos – in social media, analytics, content development et al. – would do so … if they could figure out what the start-up did.

Shades of messaging 101.

Too many businesses, from our perspective, think that a tagline, a slogan, an elevator pitch, and a brand will tell a slew of audiences what it is and what it does.  Fallacies lurk in those assumptions.  Just ask yourself these questions :

• Is the ‘about us’ pitch broad enough, suitable enough to cover most (if not all) of the company’s products and services?
• Are spokespeople comfortable in delivering their sound bytes?
• How do managers and leaders tailor it for their needs – and does it still resonate with all stakeholders?
• Finally, do leaders agree?

One of the hidden benefits of developing the right messages is driving home consensus.  In other words, executives not only agree with the best way to describe the company but they also connect with it, bond with it, and get downright comfortable in talking about it. 

Yes, it takes a while.  It’s messy.  And noisy.  But afterwards, no one will ever ask you what your company does for a living.

WHAT WISE PEOPLE KNOW

Graduation is a few months from now. 

Though commencement, for us, is a non-event, many of its rituals still ring of reality and, yes, authenticity. 

Like the actual live ceremonies, including the tasseled hat, robe, and well-printed diploma (notice:  It’s not an electronic replica).

As well as the speech, singular and plural, from the well-known and near-famous.  Who could forget Steve Jobs’ YouTubed advice:  “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”  Or Tim Cook’s encomium:  “The sidelines are not where you want to live your life.”

And the new beginnings of it all, whether throwing Midship-person hats in the air or simply releasing balloons.

As many of our relatives, friends, and family start preparing for that day, we can’t help but draw parallels to work, and to its not-so-unceremonious endings.  Celebrating the good things in an office is something that, unfortunately, is done all too rarely.  Impromptu festivities aren’t necessarily the mark of many corporate cultures.  After all, work is serious stuff and heads’ down is the mantra. 

But wouldn’t it make sense to, say, get together with colleagues when a particularly arduous goal has been reached?  Or a change milestone accomplished?  Even a ‘degree’ in a specific course of study earned?

Graduation memories do bring out the sage in us.

THAT FAMOUS SEVEN-LETTER WORD ...

There’s something about “culture” that everyone wants to own today.

Gigantic corporations are tasking their leaders and managers to figure out how to create genuine, authentic, and entrepreneurial innards, environments that will attract millennials who prefer to work in fast and nimble start-ups.

Ad publications claim, though a handful of case histories, that marketers should own the culture fit bit and make sure that brands reflect company values.  And vice versa. 

Even recruiter Egon Zehnder adds its two cents by revealing its 100-person survey results:  Ninety-five percent believe perceived culture affects the brand.  Sixty percent say culture supports the brand – and   20 percent say it’s an underminer.  Ergo, CMOs need to embrace that word.

Yet culture needs to be owned by the right individual(s).

The creation of culture – and its values – clearly belongs in the province of the leader.  It’s s/he who reflects the organization, shapes (or re-creates) its values, and acts to show the way.  It’s not marketing speak.  Nor solely developed by the CHRO.  And, for sure, not locked up in a wordy company manual.

Culture needs to live, to breathe, and to, if needs be, adjust to current realities.  Companies do, during crises or turnovers, rethink values … and re-cast them, with smart planning, to inspire, motivate, and transition to the new way.  After all, if culture is the way we work around here, why shouldn’t (eventually) everyone own it?

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Rex,

Not so long ago, you penned a Chicago Tribune column about the issue with corporate wellness programs, the fact that fewer than 50 percent of employers formally evaluated the results.  [Courtesy of a Kaiser Family Foundation report.]

You then admonished businesses to communicate, to spell out the whys and wherefores.  And you also noted (and we quote):  “[Companies] love to take pragmatic programs like this and dress them up in peppy buzzwords and then market them to employees.”

So, Rex:  You’re wrong.  Big time.

What your opinion fails to consider:

• There’s something called ‘cognitive dissonance,” when people deliberately go out of their way to avoid information about behaviors that need to be corrected, or subjects we just don’t wanna read about/listen to.
• Factor in the phenomenon called the ADHD syndrome; each of us spends about eight seconds perusing info before we get distracted.  [And that’s the latest statistic!]
• Few of us communicators ‘market’ plans and programs and initiatives to employees.  We know better.  Usually, we look at behaviors and attitudes and the role of change within the company – and then develop a compelling, consistent, and clear plan to achieve the results needed.  Which could include training, change agents, executive consensus and sponsorship, and all the smart channels you failed to mention.

So, please Rex, do us a favor:  Check out what we do before you dismiss it as ‘peppy buzzwords.’

WHATFOR, WHY, AND WHEREFORE

Some words go in and out of fashion.  Often.

Our latest is “purpose.”  Basic, simple, and oh-so-germaine to the marketplace, the word is being applied by many experts today to brands, as in ‘purpose-driven brands.’  Or some such. 

Actually, the Pepsi folks reinvigorated the word in its mid-2000s’ acronym PwP (performance with purpose, we believe).  Many followed the leader. 

Now, much of purpose’s usefulness in 2016 and beyond is to point consumers away from short-term thinking and toward the company’s higher goals and aims.  There’s much ado about ensuring that employees and other stakeholders believe that the business is true to its societal goals, and that it really and truly produces good for itself and for society.

Why the resurrection of purpose?   For any number of reasons:

• Millennials’ need for Planet-conscious work, something to stand for
• A very real talent void,  a/k/a the hole between retiring Boomers and up-and-coming Ms and Gen Zs
• The cry for employee commitment that lasts longer than a job stint
• Creation of positive, productive business cultures that do all of the above … and more.

Of course, a focus on purpose also manages expectations around profits and performance, reassuring investors that a longer-term perspective is being adopted (and yes, we are cynics).  It is refreshing, though, to hear of products that will share consumer views, help change behaviors, and deliver at least a miniscule part of the solution to world ills. 

Much like in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, when corporations built America’s first railroads, introduced cars to the masses, treated diabetes, and made air travel affordable.