I had a conversation last week with a woman who is a partner in a SME and during our chat she commented on her relationship with her business saying “This is just something I do to earn the money I need to do the things that I’m interested in”.  She didn’t recognise how signficant this comment was, against a backdrop of her company’s disappointing performance, but worse still, she seemed to think that this was a normal kind of relationship to have with your business.  It makes me wonder how many other businesses out there are failing because their management lack passion.

The thing is that while organisations like this may have managed to scrape by for the last twenty years, in the last two the rules have completely changed.  A business, wherever it is and whatever it does, that has ambled on with no real dynamic, for however many years, just isn’t going to survive in the new business environment – its that simple!  My argument has always been that success is a product of passion, which is why I have always emphasised the importance of harnessing internal marketing to build brand communities where all the stakeholders share the passion and are committed to delivering the brand’s promise.  This is the approach that has driven organisations like Southwest Airlines, Harley Davidson and others to great heights and it will make the difference between success and failure for many more.

Coincidentally my attention was drawn to a piece by Martyn Drake on B-Net today where he reports on the responses Bill Gates and Warren Buffett gave to questions from students at a CNBC event at Columbia University.  The questions, in essence amounted to “what is the secret to success in business?”  The two were consistent in their advice “Do what you would do if … the money meant nothing to you… You’ll have more fun and be more successful” and “Find a thing that you’re passionate about, and that you’re good at”.

Personally, I don’t know how you get to start a business that doesn’t hold some interest for you.  Neither do I understand how boards of large organisations appoint managers who aren’t passionate about what they do.  Surely this is a “no-brainer”?  But if you have any doubt about why this is so Martyn sums it up in three advantages that passion for your business brings and I can think of many more.

I have to admit I was more curious than excited about the idea of taking my daughter to see the Michael Jackson movie “This Is It” yesterday but, on a number of levels, I’m so glad I did.

As a musician I was blown away by the quality of the talent that he had gathered around him for this project, as a project manager I was fascinated to see how a project so complex was manged, as someone who has heard Jackson’s music for what seems like most of my life it was fascinated to gain a glimpse of what can only be described as the genius of the man and as a human being maybe I also came  little closer to understanding the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson.  Job done I guess as far as the film makers are concerned.

If one thing stands out in this movie for me, it’s the absolute minute attention this guy gave to every detail, which underlines one of my long-held beliefs, that one man’s attention to detail is another man’s half-arsed attempt.  This is extreme!  I also realised that however hard I might try, I will never appreciate how Jackson’s mind worked.  For example, he appeared to carry around a recording of digital accuracy of everything he had ever done in his mind and more impressive still, he clearly possessed a clarity of hearing and interpretation that in my experience, even with musicians, was unique.  This was highlighted in a conversation he had with his musical director Michael Bearden (himself no small deal) when they were sketching out the into for one of the numbers in the show.  “How do you want this to sound?” he asked.  “I want it to sound just like the record” replied Jackson matter-of-factly.  “But MJ, we don’t hear it like you do, tell me how we should play it”.  This also hinted at some of the frustrations mere mortals should expect when working with genius, as well as explained the utter respect the musicians, technicians and dangers around him clearly held for the guy.

If this event had made it to the stage it would have been the greatest stage show ever staged in the name of music, there can be no doubt of that.  In raising this movie from the ashes, the producers have performed a “save” of monumental significance and possibly even given us something of value that we wouldn’t have had if things had gone to plan.

There’s no doubt in my mind that freak, weirdo, genius, messiah or just plain nutter, we are unlikely ever to see another musician/performer like Michael Jackson and that’s what a truly great brand is all about.  Love ‘em or hate ‘em, great brands stand out and that’s the point.  Its their differences that forge the impenetrable bonds with sections of society that are valuable beyond the appreciation of many businesses.  Worldwide Jackson’s followers are as devoted as human emotions will allow and this movie can only strengthen this bond and extend the Jackson brand community still further.

The Czechs aren’t very good at brand development in any context and the development of their national brand is no exception.  Its probably on a par with the efforts of the UK, which in my opinion are pitiful.

An important trick in the national branding arsenal is to big-up national events that support the character of the brand.  The Czechs kinda manage to raise a pulse or two when it comes to their national ice hockey team (who apparently are a bit good) and conjur up a little enthusiasm for their national football (soccer for you Americans out there) team, when they reach the finals of the World Cup, which isn’t the case this time around (he, he!).  However, they haven’t missed the opportunity to milk the lump-in-the-throat, emotional potential of the velvet revolution.  What Czech wouldn’t swell with pride at the memory of their David to the Russian Goliath (well maybe a few old Commies!) which, being twenty years ago this week provided a timely fillip to their national brand development campaign.

Their take on a celebratory TV spectacular was a characteristically high-brow celebration for Vaclav Havel (The figurehead of the revolution and the first post-Communist President) with live (well, I think there was a pulse in most cases) performances by a load of American esoteric like Suzanne Vega, Joan Baez and Lou Reed who, apart from being old muckers of Havel were, I guess, bang on the spirit of a nation whose escape from tyranny was led by a playwright.  British support came in the shape of a series of arms-length video messages from the likes of Mick Jagger, Peter Gabriel and … surprise, surprise … Bono – always good for a sound-bite in the cause of liberty, but still can’t pronounce his old mate Vaclav’s name correctly!  The event was probably sufficiently high-brow to pass well over the heads of the majority of those Czechs who would otherwise have been waving football scarves and definitely inaccessible to the average ice hockey supporter, but I hope that’s not all the celebrations this nation can muster.  Well, let’s see.  Meanwhile, maybe what we need to get brand development going in Blighty is a revolution?  Don’t be too quick to discount that idea!

We Brits may not have invented the department store (that was the French of course) but we can pat ourselves on the back when it comes to developing exciting new variations on the theme.

Somewhere on my list of “neat formats worth a look-see” would be the new “My” store in the centre of Prague that was developed by Tesco with a little help from Fitch.  A couple of years ago the owners of the only Czech department store operator worthy of the description Kotva were planning to breathe new life into the corpse of their central Prague store by turning it into a showcase for Czech retail franchisees – a challenge in itself when you consider the dominance of foreign retailers in the Czech marketplace.  They had a stab at it, but it really didn’t come off too well and I’m sure they are still scratching around for “plan B”.  Tesco, on the other hand, have achieved a spectacular away win with My by delivering the promise Kotva made and some.

Tesco have brought their full retail might into play with a model that extends well beyond the creation of a showcase for local retailers.  In assembling this store using available Czech retailing components they have contributed massively to the understanding of the participating local operators of what retailing is all about.  This is more than a store, its an education from which I am sure the Czech retailers who participated will benefit and hopefully never look back.  Talk about raise the bar!  OK, so they supplemented local resources by bringing in a few mates like the long-awaited (as far as I am concerned anyway) Costa coffee people (until now Czechs thought the height of coffee art was Starbucks – heaven help them!) to get the mood going, but it all adds to the formula.  Every little helps and this is no small contribution to Czech retailing.  Congratulations Tesco!

There’s increasing emphasis lately on what’s called “experiential marketing”, but like many things in our marketing world there’s nothing new about it – apart from the name.  These things just used to be referred to as “promotions” and looking through my archive of case studies that fall readily into the “experiential” category, I’m reassured to see that there have always been clients who recognise the value of this kind of initiative and are good them.

Take a client of mine from 2002/3.  A telco from Central Europe, now absorbed by a global operator, that had made headlines for having built a powerful and successful (by any measure) consumer-based brand and was trying to build on the values that had made them so successful with private subscribers and repeat that success in the business sector.

Our target was successful, entrepreneurial businesses, which in a developing market meant SME’s and Sole Traders.  We found a dozen (who we nicknamed “The Daring Dozen”) that had already succeeded and produced a book of case studies and a series of ten-minute TV programmes profiling each.  National TV, eager for local content were happy to run these in pre-evening-news slots.  We then launched a national campaign called “The Thirteenth Chair” throwing down the gauntlet to would-be entrepreneurs to take their place alongside these successful small businesses.

The red swivel-chair that we used throughout, photographed empty and in a spot-light, became the campaign icon and the key competition and the book was promoted through trade associations, on the telco’s web site, in their stores, using viral and press media with  links at the end of the TV segments, and in the book, to the campaign web site where candidates could register and subscribe to the campaign pack.  The mechanic was straightforward enough.  Candidates completed a business plan using a template that we provided and each submission went through a short-listing process, culminating in a chosen few being invited to a “show and tell” like “Dragon’s Den” where a panel, made up from the twelve original entrepreneurs and representatives of my client, voted to contribute to financing to one of the plans.

From there the winning candidate was filmed as their business evolved throughout the next twelve months.  Press coverage was phenomenal during the run-up and after the award was announced and we were almost fighting applications off with a stick (although, as you might expect from a developing market, there were rather a lot of “spoiled applications”).

Was it one of those “big ideas” that I tend to ramble on about? – Well, yes, I guess it might qualify.  Could you repeat this event in a more mature market? – Probably not, certainly at the level of investment we were making back then, but with the new mobile technologies that are now available, there would be a whole lot of additional elements and valuable mileage to be gained if you could.  It just goes to show that “experiential marketing” isn’t something that was just invented and I’m sure that it will be with us, whatever its called, for a long time yet.

I don’t agree with Saatchi’s Kevin Roberts on everything, but there’s a big overlap in our thinking and, hey, differences are what prompts innovation and make the world go round, so that’s good.  Yes?

The thing is that on the fundamentals we are on the same page and its always reassuring to know, when, as we marketers do, you are ploughing the lonely innovation furrow, that someone of Kevin’s gravitas agrees with you, at least in part.  That’s why I was delighted to hear him make three key points in an interview in Singapore recently (he probably made many more) that really resounded with me.

1. The current economic situation is causing far more radical change than most people still realise and it’s going to go on for a year or two yet.  As a result, business leaders are desperate for ideas, but nervous of change, so the ideas that we take to them have to be bigger, better and more than ever before, grounded in sound commercial thinking.
2. Marketing services businesses (Kevin focusses on Ad. agencies, I’d put brand consultancies up there too but all the other disciplines are failing their clients too) are generally way behind their clients and end users/consumers when it comes to realising what’s happening and responding to it (which, given that we are paid to be thought-leaders, is pretty damning)
3. Awards are becoming counter-productive.  They are encouraging agency people to entrench in old-thinking.  It’s almost as though given their failure to deliver in the real world, agencies are retreating to a world of mutual admiration inhabited solely by their peers.

Where maybe I differ from Kevin is that I believe that its our job to lead our clients.  Not just to give them great ideas, but to help them fully exploit them.  This requires bigger thinking.  I am trying to go much further than most agencies, by not only coming up with new creative ideas, but having ideas about how business can change and reshape themselves, communicate internally as well as externally and do new things operationally that will enable them to get more out of the ideas.  And I go further than that even, because, as I just said, business leaders are not only desperate for ideas, but nervous of change too, so its my job as a marketer (and if you are a marketer, its your job too) to help them along the way with implementation.  That’s why I spent months working with buyers at a supermarket group to get them to think differently about their role and what they were buying and why I just devoted weeks to convincing a software organisation to take another look at the environment their otherwise great software creates for users, before they take it to market.

Sure its a lot of work, but that’s the game we are in now.  Be sure about that!

It’s difficult for those of us grinding away in the recession-ridden Western marketing communications sector to imagine what things would be like if the organisations we worked for operated on a margin of 25%+, but belive me, there are agencies in developing markets for whom numbers like this are all in a day’s work.  That is, of course, why they get bought up by the global networks.  The big deal, though, is that despite these massive margins, many are still struggling to see that money in the bank.  So, where does it all go?

Asking around I’ve developed a league of the top five profit drains in these marcoms companies and I guess they don’t differ from the list I would get in London were it not for the systems and practices in place in western agencies.

1. Mistakes by agency personnel that lead to expensive corrections, re-prints and the like.
2. Refunds to clients for mistakes and missed deadlines.
3. Unauthorised purchases – stuff ordered for jobs that were never started, media that was bought without written client authority.
4. Accounting errors.
5. Stuff that client has asked for for “private use” without expecting to pay for it.

All of this comes about because of an absence of foolproof systems.  I heard last week of quite a large Chinese agency network that until recently had absolutely no management technology.   They did have a system and, like many in these countries it was amazing what it facilitated considering everything was done on small slips of paper that were stuck with Sellotape to desks, walls … you name it – not even Post-Its!  It was, apparently, like living in a snow-drift!  Apart from anything else though, it enabled all kinds of avoidance and manipulation by employees at all levels ands as a result the place was a money drain.  The agency in question turned out to be one of the few forward-thinkers who recognised the wisdom, while they could afford it and had the time, of installing the hardware and the systems that enabled it to bank (almost) all of its massive profit.

Normally if you talk to the owner of such an agency about recession even in these times, when you would think that everybody was feeling the pinch, you’d probably find his attention drifts away.  Try and persuade him that the reality of a 5% margin is just around the corner and he’ll likely wander off to buy a Jag or something!  So, a big hand for enlightened agency owners in developing markets.  May your profits be large and untapped!

Much of my work in Central Europe in the last few years has been with agencies like this, although sadly, the heady high-margin days are well gone there now.  I’ve seen a golden goose operating at a 30% margin get bought up by our biggest global network, who promptly cooked it.  I know how it works, but its tough trying to persuade an Indian entrepreneur with a fat cigar that his shiny and profitable ad agency is going to be less than a memory in twelve months time unless he replaces his paper and abacus with some processes and systems, he just can’t visualise fighting for margin or indeed how rapidly this reality can advance.  Sometimes you get half-way to persuading these guys that something has to be done, but your best intentions are scuppered when he introduces his brother the computer programmer, who is put to work on solving the problem and spends the remainder of his natural life developing a programme that does about a tenth of the job.  Worse-still maybe, they opt for an off-the-peg software solution, and there are many, install it on half their network and discover after six months that it isn’t up to the job – I have seen such a case this morning in fact.

The only way to tackle this issues is with a suite of processes and an information application that is installed on every computer on the network and is unavoidable for anybody doing anything in the agency.  There are solutions that can be installed like this, but they are usually accounting packages or production management software that has been adapted and extended.  However, I just discovered one that is designed and developed by advertising people for advertising people to work just this way and I can’t believe why everyone isn’t using it.

I’m going to keep it to myself for now while I test it out, but meanwhile, I’m interested to hear of any others that you may know of that might compete.  Add a comment or drop me a line and I’ll swap you for the name of the one I have found.

I just came from a visit to the Duets Blog, in particular a piece called “A Shack by Any Other Name” that takes a look at a spate of questionable re-naming projects in the US.  The piece by Randall Hull of BrandRanch highlights Radio Shack’s plan to re-brand as “Shack” and Pizza Hut’s infamous new “Hut” branding and asks, among other things, how a brand name should add up.

The truth is that few brandnames are ideal, but the organisations concerned nevertheless manage to achieve success. However, in today’s competitive environment, no organisation can afford to miss any opportunity, however insignificant that might appear to be to increase the return on their investment, so any organisation setting out their stall for the first time, should start with a name that ticks all the boxes.

Bearing in mind that we are talking brandnames and not logos, there are three components or boxes to tick. Firstly the name you choose should give an indication of (1) what you do or the sector that you operate in.  Add this to your (2) unique name and (3) do so in a way that reflects the language of your brand character.  Apart from demonstrating that you have to have a Brand Model before you start thinking about names, which is the other way around to how most people tackle it, following this path means that you should end up with a brandname that is working as hard for you as any name could – like ToysRUs or ElectroWorld.  All you have to do then is build on that.

So what brandnames can you think of that tick all the boxes?

I’ve spend the last few weeks trying to deal with a pretty big organisation in Central Europe and getting really frustrated.  “Trying” is the operative word here.  I made fifteen calls to their corporate headquarters, only eight of which were even answered!  To make matters worse, when I did get a telephonist on the line (It seemed to be  a different one each time) and they couldn’t get a reply from the extension I was after, instead of taking a message they asked me to call back.  On one occasion I enquired if there was anybody else who might help and was told that the person concerned may have gone home.  “Its only three o’ clock” I exclaimed.  “That’s nothing” came the reply with absolutely no irony “sometimes they go home even earlier”!

Add to that the fact that when extensions weren’t answered they just cut me off, so I couldn’t leave a message and when all I wanted to do was get down to business, each time before my call even rang at the switchboard I had to listen to a tinny recording of their latest TV commercial right to the end – I know it by heart now!

Things actually got worse, because when after all this I was finally put through, via a low quality mobile phone link, to the person I was after, she told me she was doing some shopping and would be back in the office later.  “Drop me an e-mail to remind me” she said “and I’ll call you back later”.  I did as she asked, but never heard from her again.  And despite a plethora of e-mails and messages I didn’t hear from anybody else either, until I upped the anti and contacted the CEO.  My very short relationship with this organisation was packed with other similar experiences.

As in most organisations the senior managers here seem to be clued-in and when I spoke to one of the directors it was because he called me to apologise for the instances I had recounted.  It was, however, clear that focus became severely blurred the further down the chain of command I went.  This suggests pretty conclusively that what’s wrong here is not just about skills deficiencies, its about brand development and specifically, that all too often ignored, internal marketing thing.

I have to say that the organisation concerned has invested a great deal of time and money in advertising that I guess they think is creating a brand.  Of course, it isn’t – well not a positive one anyway, as long as they continue to fail to deliver their Brand Promise.  I turned up at their threshold with the expectation, created by their advertising, of a switched-on, caring, fun and happy organisation only to be abused by a bunch of morose, lazy and inhospitable border guards, who, had their mission been to repel all boarders, couldn’t have done a better job!  The experience of dealing with them just didn’t add-up to the expectation they had given me.

Of course, this gulf between expectation and reality doesn’t just add up to a waste of investment in the expensive marketing communications that drove my expectations in the first place – which is criminal at any time, but especially so these days – it has actually caused residual damage to the brand and the organisation that will cost them business and necessitate additional investment for years to come.  Repeat this a few times with other people like me and you’ll soon have a grounswell of negative brand perceptions.

I will admit that, while I have always felt that the company concerned had tremendous potential, I am not a fan of their brand strategy.  They have clearly recognised that a brand is a community, but failed at every turn to act on that understanding/.  They have clearly had bad advice too and as a result tried to build their brand personna on the sandiest of foundations.  Basically their message adds up to nothing much, but the real issue is that they have failed to deliver even that.

The problem for this organisation is that even though the brand may not be particularly inspiring, its employees aren’t behind it or fully committed to playing their part in the delivery of the Brand Promise.  Maybe they don’t know what that is, or fail to understand what it means in the context of their role, but these are not excuses.  That’s the point of internal marketing and its exactly what Brand Discovery is all about.

Success or failure in brand development is most often determined by the cumulative effect of many little things, like the way your phones are answered or the breadth of the smile on your receptionist’s face, that go to make the experience of dealing with you.  My advice to the directors of the business concerned would be to get a hold of their brand, define it and promote it internally with internal marketing and training programmes that are designed to get all their stakeholders, not only employees, behind the brand and totally committed to playing their part in delivering its “Promise”.

Once they have done this they will find that the people charged with the task of making the company’s telephone communications productive will pull out all the stops to put right the deficiencies in their current system.  They’ll also discover that instead of having to legislate to make managers and employees do their job (which never works anyway) people like their department heads and receptionists will develop the skills and commitment that’s required.  But it won’t end there.  With a clear brand development programme like Brand Discovery in place they’ll unlock the full potential of their most valuable resource – their people, and that, in turn, will increase efficiency and give hem the kind of ROI that will allow them to compete in their very tough market.

It seems the penny is dropping, at least in a few places.  I was talking to the owner of an independent mens’ fashion chain in the UK this week and he gave me reason to hope!

Despite current trading conditions, here is one business that is expandidng.  “Money is cheap and there are plenty of independent operators eager to get out at any price so we are buying” he told me.  They have bought three new  stores and are negotiating for more.  They are in the process of refitting all their stores to strengthen their corporate look and they reckon, by the time the recession lifts they will be ready to hit the ground running.

Meanwhile the government’s Job Centre Plus announced a new programme aimed at getting the unemployed back to work in more bouyant sectors.  They announced this week that if you are unemployed for six months you can elect to start training in one of the skills designated locally as a source of employment without losing your unemployment benefit.  After a few weeks, they’ll put you forward for a role that will utilise your new skill and the employer will be able to secure grants to cover the cost of your completion of the course.  Sounds like an idea, but don’t get excited.  They shot themselves in the foot with another scheme that pays unemployed folks who can persuade an employer to take them on trial for a role that lack of experience would otherwise have excluded them from – a sort of free trial for the employer.  However the rub is that there has to be a genuine vacant job, which kinda’ neutralises the initiative.  After all, if you need to fill a role, and you get four-hundred applicants (which is not unusual at the moment), a proportion of whom are bound to be able to hit the ground running, you are hardly going to take a long-shot on someone who had never done the job before, however cheap they may be.

The fact that this scheme excludes people who want to go to prospective employers with a proposition like “give me X weeks to demonstrate that I can make a difference to your business in a way you never thought of and you won’t even have to pay me” underlines the gulf that exists between the public sector ivory towers and the real world of business, where we are in desperate need of entrepreneurship.  But, hey, mighty oaks … and all that!