You Can be Great If You Really Want To

Taking on the “Battle” of Strategic Marketing: 6 Steps to developing a Strategic Marketing Plan that works!

Marla Cooper is a Senior Associate and Strategic Marketing professional at Bloom Consulting, Inc., specialists in nonprofit fundraising, strategic planning, marketing and leadership development.

Why is it that I’m often met with those glazed stares when I’m brought in as a Strategic Marketing Consultant and I ask to see an organization’s “Communications Plan”. This should be as basic to any organization as an Operating Budget and yet it seldom exists as a comprehensive, integrated and well thought out document. Why is this so often neglected by organizations when it is clearly so key to success in today’s competitive and dynamic marketplace? Possibly because there are many misconceptions about what a Strategic Marketing Plan is and what is should do.

Before exploring the steps to developing a Strategic Marketing Plan, let’s first determine exactly what it means. The term “strategy” is rooted in military tradition. According to Webster’s Dictionary, a “strategy” is defined as “the science and art of military command exercised to meet the enemy in combat under advantageous conditions”. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language defines the same term as “the science or art of combining and employing the means of war in planning and directing large military movements and operations.” “Marketing” is then defined by Webster’s as “the act of selling or purchasing in a market”, while Random House explains marketing as “the act of buying or selling in a market.”

Therefore, if you combine both of these terms to explain “Strategic Marketing” you arrive at “waging war to sell in the market”. It’s no wonder we have come to describe our marketing activities as “Campaigns” and engage in “Guerilla Marketing”!

I like to take a more peaceful approach to Strategic Marketing which can be viewed more as the art of influencing people. In the world of Non-Profit Organizations, this “influence” takes the form of convincing potential donors and members to identify with your organization enough and align themselves with your mission to the extent that they will “buy in” by giving money and/or paying for membership. If you are thinking, “we have a marketing program that does this”, I would encourage you to ask these questions:

1. Is your organization currently raising the funds it needs?

2. If no, are those you solicit capable to providing these funds?

3. If yes, why isn’t your organization reaching its goals?

The answers to these questions can be twofold. If your organization is aware of what potential donors and/or members want but you’re not able to currently offer it, your organization must enhance your offerings to address this need.

If your organization isn’t quite sure what potential donors and/or members want, or you’re just not sure why your message isn’t compelling enough to get results, the solution is to know your audience better.

To both of these points, a Strategic Marketing Study and Plan is the way to address the situation. It may seem ominous if you’re not a Marketing Professional, but by following a series of disciplined of steps, your organization can develop a Strategic Marketing Road Map that can get you where you need to go.

Step #1: Form a Marketing Committee

Your organization most likely has some type of marketing or communications committee. Keep this committee small since the work and direction generated by this group needs to be clear, concise and on target. Marketing by consensus, while necessary at times, can provide for weak and confusing messages in your advertising and marketing activities that speak to internal perceptions instead of real needs in the marketplace.

Step #2: Set the Goals of your Committee

Keep this to a short list with a timeline to expand your goals based on how the marketing is going. Taking on too much at once can derail the entire process. A singular focus and mission to start with can give your committee cohesiveness and some early successes that will provide the momentum to go forward.

Step #3: Do your research

The committee may think they know what current and potential donors and/or members feel about your organization and what motivates them. However, organization boards and leadership can become very insular without even realizing it. It is of the utmost importance to stay current and aware of what those less involved and connected to your organization perceive about your organization and what they value about their mission. The only true way to know this is to ask. This doesn’t need to be a long and involved or expensive process. It can be as simple as 5 committee members contacting 5 to 10 individuals each and asking a series of well thought out questions. It is important that those interviewed represent a cross section of all those that will be targeted by any marketing efforts. This step is very important since all that follows will be based on what is learned during this process. Take it seriously.

In addition, with the internet we have access to an abundance of good information and research done by others. Committee members need to take on the responsibility of researching information and data available regarding your competitors, your market, your industry, your target audience and current trends. Much can be learned from simply borrowing from others who have often spent a great deal of time and money to learn just want you want to know. Become adept at on-line research and you’ll be surprised at what’s out there if you just look!

Step #4: Establish your Mission and Vision

If your organization has a Mission and Vision Statement it needs to be carefully reevaluated based on your learning from the research. If your organization does not currently have an approved Mission or Vision Statement go no further until this step is completed. Everything that your organization does or is should be reflected in these statements. It should guide every activity and every communication and be used in evaluating both professional staff and volunteers be they board members or not.

A Vision Statement inspires by articulating the future of an organization. A Mission Statement controls and clarifies what an organization does right now. It’s important that neither of these be an “Alphabet Soup” of all the elements that all the key players think are important for an organization to be. It needs to be practical and reflect reality. Clear and concise Mission and Vision Statements should contain at most 3 to 5 elements that live within the organization and be the standard by which all initiatives and standards are evaluated. If it is too broad it will be meaningless and if it is too narrow it will not inspire.

Step #5: Develop your Strategic Marketing Plan

Based on the above steps, your committee should now have a clear understanding and direction and can develop a Strategic Marketing Plan that details the following:

Ø Who is your target audience: what population or individuals provide the best chance for your organization to reach its goals?

Ø What is your message: based on your Mission/Vision statement what do you want to communicate the target audience? What is it about you that is unique and compelling and allows you to deliver on your mission?

Ø How to communicate your message: based on your target audience what is the best way to reach them?

Step #6: Execute your Strategic Marketing Plan

Here are some helpful hints that will enhance your Marketing Plan and ensure it has the best chance of succeeding.

Ø Give specific responsibilities to committee members, staff and volunteers for specific elements of the Plan. Create ownership of the Plan among individuals so it’s not the “Committee’s Plan” but individuals have a stake in it as well.

Ø Track your results. Every marketing or programming initiative or effort undertaken as a result of this plan should be tracked to know what is working and what is not.

Ø Make sure your organization can deliver on your message. If you are highlighting new programs or features of your organization in your marketing, be absolutely certain all aspects are ready and available before going with the communications. Remember, you never get a second chance to make a first impression! If someone is attracted to your organization because of something they saw or read and come to find out it’s not as they thought, you’ve lost a donor or member and will have an exceedingly difficult time getting them to reconsider.

Ø Build on your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Make sure all marketing activities highlight what your organization does best and excels at.

Be bold and provide leadership. In almost all cases, some form of marketing is better than none. Get your organization out there and make sure it has the exposure it needs. In closing, I’ll pay homage to the military origins of my profession as a Strategic Marketing Professional by urging you to “Get out there and market them before they market you!”

Contact Marla Cooper, Bloom Consulting, Inc. (610) 348-4035 or marlacooper@bloomconsultinginc.com

 

Most of us could bring to mind someone we think of as a good leader and we could even describe certain characteristics they exhibit, such as being charismatic, inspiring, driven, etc. But are these characteristics enough on their own and do they make a leader successful? Life generally requires us to take a certain amount of risk, for some people more so than others. In certain businesses risk taking may be seen as more desirable than in others. But what makes one leader take a calculated risk when nine out of ten others would walk away? And how do we know which leaders will take the right risks (the ones which pay off) and who will take the wrong ones?

 

Risk taking can be defined as…

 

“Undertaking a task involving a challenge for achievement or a desirable goal in which there is a lack of certainty or a fear of failure.”

 

Having the capability to take risks effectively could be the key to success for many leaders. A review of the literature suggests that factors involved in this include background, willingness to take risks, seeing risks as opportunities, personality characteristics, emotional intelligence and industry specific factors.

 

Interestingly there is a lack of research into risk taking amongst leaders. The literature, instead, focuses more heavily on entrepreneurs. This may partly be explained by the nature of each of these roles; an entrepreneur being characterised as someone who takes risks to set up a business as opposed to a leader who guides and inspires others. These roles do also have similarities though. Leaders may at times need to take risks to achieve company goals and entrepreneurs may need to guide and inspire others.

 

Research into the backgrounds of entrepreneurs suggests that they see themselves as more resilient, usually due to significant events experienced during childhood and challenges during their career. This resilience comes in handy for leaders when overcoming setbacks in their career. We tend to think of entrepreneurs as always successful and yet many of them have faced setbacks and even bankruptcy. Having the resilience to overcome this and start again enables them to become successful later.

 

But is effective risk taking just explained by resilience and how amenable someone is to taking risks? It appears that entrepreneurs, particularly those focused on the growth of their company, and chief executives who have built their own business rather than running a family company, are more likely to take risks. Past successes and failures in risk taking also have a part to play but all of this is not sufficient to explain risk taking behaviour on its own.

 

Entrepreneurs tend to assess risk in different ways to others. They tend to see opportunities rather than risks because they are overconfident and generalise from past experiences and other information. They may also engage in different thinking styles (e.g. creating numerous options to solve problems), which enables them to spot more opportunities.

Another factor to consider is the personality of leaders. The ability to adapt to new situations and sustain good relationships is key to the success of leaders. Other characteristics of effective leaders are extraversion, drive for results, ambition, competitiveness, independence, optimism and high levels of emotional intelligence.

 

Overconfidence is often an attribute associated with leaders and something which often helps them to get to the top. However, it may also play a large part in their derailment if they are unable to adapt appropriately.

 

A lack of self-awareness, reduced emotional intelligence and inability or unwillingness to adapt are some reasons why leaders may have derailed whilst possessing the same qualities as they had on their way up. However, more research is needed to help us to understand more about how or when leaders start to derail.

 

It is useful for us to understand the personality characteristics associated with effective leaders and how amenable someone is to taking risks, but we must also remember the needs of the organisation in question. In order for this information to be useful to companies who either want to select an effective leader or develop existing leaders they need to also understand the organisational context. Risk taking behaviour is more desirable in some companies than others.

 

Industry specific factors are likely to influence leaders’ and entrepreneurs’ approach to risk taking, what they consider to be most important when deciding to take a risk or not, their willingness to take risks and the type of risks they take. For example, in the banking industry they tend to be more risk averse, take a more structured approach and be primarily concerned with exerting control over all factors within the risk to avert potential losses. Whereas in the oil industry the primary decision making criterion is expected value, implying a balance of risk and return. In the software industry their primary concern is about the impact of taking a risky decision on their business, whether this is positive or negative.

 

Further investigation is needed into what different industries consider to be the most important factors in deciding to take a risk and comparisons between industries. It may not be just the type of industry but how well the industry is performing. Organisations in low performing industries are likely to take more risks, possibly in an attempt to increase their profitability. This research would be useful to further understanding of the different conditions under which effective risk taking occurs in different industries.

For organisations, knowing what conditions lead to effective risk taking would enable them to select the most successful leaders and shape an environment conducive to making themselves extremely profitable. Some key conditions that are related to successful leaders and entrepreneurs are:

 

· Resilience and tenacity

· Risk seeking behaviour

· Assessing risks as opportunities rather than risks

· Personality characteristics

· High levels of emotional intelligence.

 

However, a set of conditions is too simplistic. The way these factors interact is as yet not entirely clear. Furthermore, industry specific considerations have a role to play and the most desirable individual characteristics are likely to vary somewhat depending on the industry.

 

It appears that we know more about what does not work rather than the exact conditions for what does work. With that in mind, there are implications for how organisations can minimise the likelihood of poor risk taking behaviour.

 

Individual assessment (for senior roles)

In terms of individual assessment, the individual differences (e.g. personality and willingness to take risks) associated with effective risk taking can help to inform part of the selection process. Understanding these differences can help organisations to make more effective selection decisions for successful leaders.

Coaching

The emergence of derailment characteristics amongst leaders can be a worrying signal to organisations. Derailment characteristics can be closely linked to characteristics exhibited by leaders as they made their way to the top. Therefore providing coaching for individuals at the right time is key to helping them to develop adaptive behaviours and halting derailment characteristics before they have a negative effect.

 

It has been suggested that derailment characteristics can be reversed with sufficient time and development. Coaching provides an excellent forum for increasing awareness of adaptation to new situations and ineffective behaviours. This can help leaders to realise the benefits of better adaptation and work on behaviours more effective in building and sustaining relationships.

 

Leadership development

Leadership development techniques can be used to enable individuals and organisations to understand the different requirements that are made of today’s leaders. Increasing awareness of effective individual characteristics (e.g. resilience, willingness to take risks, results drive, motivation, action-orientation and risk assessment techniques) as well as industry specific considerations and requirements. Leadership development then requires individuals to live out these requirements in their day-to-day business environment in order to develop their skills.

 

Talent management

Applying an understanding of what makes leaders effective risk takers and the associated conditions enables organisations to develop their talent management strategy in terms of what potential looks like and how to measure it. Understanding what motivates these leaders will also help organisations to retain the leaders with the greatest potential. Furthermore, the ability to recognise an effective risk taker at an early stage in their career will enable organisations to encourage and develop these individuals into effective leaders for their organisation. Developing talent from within reduces the likelihood of having to recruit leaders externally and is therefore likely to save the organisation money in the long term.

 

Mike Idziaszczyk

Psychologist

http://www.pearnkandola.com