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The Chief Outsider
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Recent Posts
What Is Marketing, Really? Why Founders and CEOs Must Lead the Most Misunderstood Function in the Business
This blog is part of Chief Outsiders’ Marketing Leadership for CEOs series, an ongoing examination of the critical dimensions of Marketing (the capital “M” is intentional, as you’ll see) that every CEO needs to understand.
80% of CEOs Have Lost Trust in Their Marketers
Wed, Feb 19, 2014 — The following blog is Part II to my recent blog Over 70% of CMOs failed to deliver expected real ROI for their efforts in 2013 The breadth of discontent among companies with their marketing begs a further look at the why? How have CMOs become less well regarded than say their IT peers, who have something in the neighborhood of a 50% success rating for their projects? Why is the role of the CMO oftentimes the most precarious in the c-suite? Why are 80% of CEOs unhappy with their marketing talent? The consensus seems to be skill level. While many marketers are strong in one or two or even more areas across the board, strength in both left and right brain functions is rare. And oftentimes, the lure of a good creative can be seductive to a CEO, but at the expense of solid business acumen, disappointment is a sure thing. Few marketers have the finance, technical or operations knowledge to effectively lead business modeling, strategy, and positioning as well as marketing functions such as operations and technology, so instead focus on the ‘softer’ or more tactical aspects of the role.
Customers Are Not All Equal
Fri, Feb 14, 2014 — Why it’s important to understand customer value, and what to do about it Every Management Team knows the intricacies of their respective P&L, but can they honestly say they understand the value that each customer delivers to their franchise? More importantly, if they have gone through the hard work of developing a robust customer profitability analysis, have they taken the next step to implementing key business changes based upon the data?(http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2008/Dec/ManagingCustomerProfitability.htm) I have worked for some of the leading Fortune 50 companies over my career, where the Leadership Teams actively managed their P&L’s to ensure top and bottom line growth. Not until I was “tapped on the shoulder” to take a senior leadership role in one of our “challenged” businesses, did we even start the discussion about how much each of our customers brought to the bottom line. It was important as we treated every customer the same – meaning, they received superior customer service. Theoretically, we would never consciously bring in unprofitable customers, but the reality was that every customer didn’t bring the same value to the bottom line.
5 Marketing Strategies Community Banks Use to Move Past Competitors
Sun, Dec 22, 2013 — A recent Wall Street Journal article by Francesco Guerrera, Lenders Looking All Too Similar, quoted a tycoon as stating he chose his financial services on price, because “in the end, banks are really all the same”. This is the last thing any of us want to hear about our business, especially if we are in an industry that prides itself on spending a great deal of time developing an understanding of our customers and creating and marketing solutions designed to appeal to their unique needs. Supporting the belief that strategic innovation can make a difference, Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s article Rural Banks Know Something Big Banks Don’t by Brendan Greeley argues that great customer service combined with other good business practices can produce a good return for shareholders.Over the past year I’ve had the opportunity to work with several community banks and credit unions, and have been impressed with how they are able to defy the premise of the WSJ article. Here are 5 marketing strategies on how nimble organizations have been able to understand their customer and move faster and/or smarter than their larger competitors.
David vs. Goliath: How small companies can create marketing that stands up to big brands
Sat, Dec 21, 2013 — Here’s the question: When competing for the hearts and minds of prospects and customers, how do smaller companies effectively compete with the big spending of big brands? Underdogs like me want to know.
The Buying Process Has Changed: How Well Has Your Marketing Adapted?
Sun, Dec 8, 2013 —
The Elton John Brand – Lessons in Marketing Management from The Rocket Man
Wed, Nov 20, 2013 — I read with interest several recent Elton John interviews in support of his latest (33rd) album release, The Diving Board. In a WSJ interview, the album is praised for being a return to the basic style that had Elton continuously on the Top 40 charts for over 4 years during the mid-70’s. The articles made me think about how a brand that started strong can survive for so long putting out some questionable products, and what lessons about marketing strategy we can we take from this.
Big Data – More Transformational Than the Gutenberg Printing Press?
Sat, Nov 16, 2013 — Last month I visited the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany. Until this visit, I had not fully considered the impact the invention of the printing press had on the dissemination of knowledge and in enabling democracy. Prior to Gutenberg’s invention, the transfer of recorded information was reliant on scribes copying information by hand from one book to the next. After the printing press, multiple copies of a document could be created, increasing the dispersion of knowledge and lowering its acquisition cost. More information, lower cost.
YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO TAKE A BREAK.
Sat, Nov 9, 2013 — Guest Blog by Joanie Rufo, Initiate Consulting. One of the common themes I see in my work coaching executive leaders is the unilateral struggle of leaders to rest and renew. “EACH OF US NEEDS TO WITHDRAW FROM THE CARES WHICH WILL NOT WITHDRAW FROM US.” – Maya Angelou
The Power of Pricing: How to Improve Your Pricing and Profits
Wed, Oct 30, 2013 — Your sales team defines price as what’s on the invoice. Your CFO defines price as ‘what we take to the bank’. Your customer says price is too high. Your pricing manager says that price doesn’t match our standard terms. Your distributor says they can’t make any money on your line. And it’s still Monday morning! What’s the right way to define and measure price? More importantly, how can you improve net price realization and take more money to the bank? I define price as what goes to the bank, after all discounts, returns, warranties, commissions and other deductions are taken into account. There are several elements to price management. The first is achieving the optimal price for each good or service. The second is managing your product mix and services to achieve the optimal price for a set of customer transactions.