The Accidental Marketer. Power Tools for People Who Find Themselves in Marketing Roles

255 Pages·2014·4.91 MB·English

by  Tom Spitale

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Who Moved My . . . Customer?
Power Tool: Influencer Map
A Tool to Detect Shifts in Decision-Making Power before Your
Competitors Do
The Roots of an Industry Revolution
The Big Guys Get Blinded by the Customer Status Quo
You Can Assess Changing Influence Now—or Risk Losing to a
Competitor Who Does
Dell Capitalizes on a Power Shift
Dell Tests the Retail Channel but Pulls Back
Dell’s Preparation Meets a Huge Opportunity: Beyond Nerds and
Scientists
Dell.com Completes the David versus Goliath Story
The Simple Secret to Dell’s Marketing Success
Chapter 2: The Fountain from Which Great Marketing Flows
Power Tool: The Benefits Ladder
Turning Data into Insight Requires Skill and Persistence
Does the Commonly Accepted Benefits (CAB)-bage Trap Exist in Your
Industry?
Spoken Needs, Latent Wants, Psychosocial Values, and Other Confusing
Concepts Simplified
Attributes Can Be Helpful, Sort Of . . .
Benefits Sought and the “Help Me to . . .” Insight Technique
Customer Values Are Often Unspoken and Can Explain Strange
Customer Behaviors
Inquire Broadly When Searching for Values in a Business-to-Business-
to-Consumer Situation
Climbing the Ladder with Skin Cream
One Good Insight Strategy after Another: The History of Listerine
Finding the Insight in a Leisurely Trip to the Bookstore
Holiday Inn Express “Ladders Up” and Finds the Unspoken Motivation
for Being a Cheapskate
Chapter 3: Are You Making Lukewarm Tea?
Power Tool: Needs-Based Segmentation
Capitalizing on Differences in Customer Needs Is a Big Opportunity
Segmentation Is Not Merely a Consumer Marketing Concept
A Pregnancy Test Yields Unwelcome News for a Group of B2B
Marketing Experts
Needs-Based Segmentation Is about Much More Than Just Finding
Niches
Chapter 4: What Business Are You Really In?
Power Tools: Market Tree and Competitor Analysis
Most Companies Are Too Flippant When Defining Their Competitive
Environment
LUV-ers, Not Fighters
At First, a Good Old-Fashioned, Texas-Sized Barroom Brawl
Southwest Could Have Made the Same Fatal Market Definition
Decisions That People Express Made
A Tale of Two “For the People” Airlines—One Doesn’t End Well
The Story of People Express Shows the Dangers of a Too-Simplistic
Market Definition
How to Define Your Market More Broadly, Like GE Does
How to Use Customer-Centric Competitor Identification for Creative
Market Definitions
Direct Competitors Can Hurt You, but Indirect Competitors Can Kill You
Indirects Can Stay Hidden from View Unless You Talk to Customers
Southwest’s Broad, Creative, and Intelligent Market Definition Secret
Like Sun Tzu’s Quote, Southwest Lures Competitors to Fight a War They
Can’t Win
Chapter 5: Who Do You Love?
Power Tool: Segment Attractiveness
How to Eliminate Distraction and Stay Focused on Playing Where You
Can Win Big
The Accidental Rental Car Company
The Key to Long-Term Success: Flexibility in the Early Days, Discipline
as You Invest for Growth
Enterprise Moved beyond Market Segmentation to Customer
Segmentation
The Home Market Segment Had a More Desirable Rental Car Risk
Profile
The Discovery of a Powerful, Hidden Stakeholder Locks Enterprise’s
Focus into Place
Enterprise’s Targeting Creates Massive Barriers to Entry to the Home
Market Segment
“We’ll Pick You Up” Worked Because No Competitor Could
Economically Match It
Targeting Enables a Legendary Customer Service Strategy
Enterprise Today
Chapter 6: What Were They Smoking?
Power Tool: Ability to Win
A Tale of Two Car Companies
A Competitor’s Aggressive Move May Have Sparked the Phaeton
Concept
Lexus Was also Sparked by a Chairman’s Challenge—But the
Similarities End There
A Surprising Strategy for Lexus in Its Home Market of Japan
Phaeton Engineers Continue Tending to “The List”; Lexus Immerses Its
Team in the Market
Phaeton Engineers Deliver an Interesting Car, but Is It in “Good Taste”?
Lexus Engineers Get It Mostly Right
Perception Is Reality
Lexus Proves It “Gets It” during a Recall
“Leave Your BMW at Home; We’ll Take My Lexus. . .”
“The People’s Car” as a Luxury Brand?
Customer Perception Is Reality
Chapter 7: The Magnetic Effect of Focus
Power Tool: Strategic Position Analysis (SPA)—a.k.a. The Prioritizer
Focus to Grow
Looking for Growth in All of the Wrong Places
What?!
The Magnetic Mind-Set
A Tale of Three Communications Companies
WWJD? (What Would Jobs Do?)
The Magnetic Effect of Focus
Chapter 8: Viva la Differentiation
Power Tools: Differential Advantage with Future State Ability to Win
Our Own Company’s Search for Differentiation
Innovate to Differentiate: Three Strategies That Emanate from Your
Ability to Win Analysis
Chapter 9: A Positioning Statement Is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Power Tool: Positioning Statement
You Often Have to Reject Your Initial Choice of a Positioning Strategy
Positioning Definitions
It’s Never Good When You Let a Competitor Position You
The Real Purpose of Positioning
Why You Must Understand a Little Bit about the Brain
The Three Principles of Positioning to Get Your Client’s Mind into Alpha
Repositioning: The Solution to Difficult Positioning Problems
Repositioning Approaches
Putting It All Together
Chapter 10: Reinventing a Commodity
Power Tools: Value Proposition Idea Catcher and Perceived Value
Analysis (PVA)
Working on the 4 Ps Comes at the End of the Strategic Marketing
Process
As You Create Your Value Proposition: Avoid the Lukewarm Tea
Syndrome!
The Value Proposition Idea Catcher
The First P: Redesigning Your Product Offer Using the Bull’s-eye
The Second P—Place—Strategy Is Largely Driven by Your Influence
Map
The Third P—Promotion—Communicates Your Positioning to Your
Target Market and High-Priority Stakeholders
The Fourth P—Price—Is a Function of Your Ability to Win and Your
Pricing Goals
The Final Story of the Book: Starbucks Balances the Price Value
Equation to Reinvent a Commodity
Closing Remarks
Resources
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Figure 1.1 Decision-Making Power in the 1980s Personal Computer Market:
Likely View of the Leading Manufacturers
Figure 1.2 Decision-Making Power in the 1980s Personal Computer Market:
Likely View of Dell
Figure 1.3 Influencer Map: Infant Formula Example
Figure 2.1 The Benefits Ladder
Figure 2.2 Skin Cream Benefits Ladder
Figure 2.3 Olay Banner Ad
Figure 2.4 Benefits Ladder Template
Figure 3.1 Quidel Pregnancy Test Value Proposition
Figure 3.2 Dimensions of Segmentation Questions, Examples
Figure 3.3 Dimensions of Segmentation Template
Figure 3.4 Hospital Software Product Needs-Based Segmentation
Figure 3.5 Testing Dimensions of Segmentation
Figure 3.6 Segmentation Validation Matrix
Figure 4.1 Timelines of People Express and Southwest
Figure 4.2 People Express’s and Southwest’s Early-Stage Market Definition
Figure 4.3 People Express’s Next-Stage Market Definition
Figure 4.4 Southwest’s Next-Stage Market Definition
Figure 4.5 Southwest’s Initial Market Tree
Figure 4.6 Southwest’s Competitor Identification
Figure 4.7 Southwest’s Expanded Market Tree
Figure 5.1 Automobile Market Segmentation
Figure 5.2 Rental Car Market Customer Segmentation
Figure 5.3 Light Segment Attractiveness Analysis for Enterprise
Figure 5.4 Two Key Dimensions: Professional Focus and Treatment
Philosophy
Figure 5.5 Full Segment Attractiveness Analysis: Which Segment Is the
Most Attractive?
Figure 5.6 New Drug Adoption Curve
Figure 6.1 Picture of a Volkswagen Phaeton
Figure 6.2 Lexus Advertisement
Figure 6.3 Lexus Promotional Program
Figure 6.4 Relative Performance of Lexus’s First Two Years’ Sales (1989–
1990) to Phaeton’s First Two Years’ Sales (2004–2005)
Figure 6.5 Ability to Win Analysis
Figure 6.6 Ability to Win: Steps 1 and 2
Figure 6.7 Ability to Win: Step 3
Figure 6.8 Ability to Win: Step 4
Figure 6.9 Ability to Win: Completed
Figure 7.1 Strategic Position Analysis: The Prioritizer™
Figure 7.2 The Magnetic Mind-Set
Figure 7.3 Strategic Position Analysis: Iridium
Figure 7.4 Strategic Position Analysis: BlackBerry
Figure 7.5 Strategic Position Analysis: Apple
Figure 7.6 The Prioritizer™
Figure 7.7 Resource Allocation
Figure 8.1 The Differential Advantage Framework
Figure 8.2 The Differential Advantage Framework: Strategy 1
Figure 8.3 Current State Ability to Win: Diagnostics Imaging Market
Figure 8.4 Future State Ability to Win: Diagnostics Imaging Market
Figure 8.5 The Differential Advantage Framework: Strategy 2
Figure 8.6 Current State Ability to Win: Pre-1980s Athletic Shoes
Figure 8.7 Future State Ability to Win: How Nike May Have Seen the
Athletic Shoe Opportunity
Figure 8.8 The Differential Advantage Framework: Strategy 3
Figure 8.9 Future State Ability to Win: Diagnostics Imaging Market
Figure 8.10 Current State Ability to Win: Pre-1980s Athletic Shoes
Figure 8.11 Future State Ability to Win: How Nike May Have Seen the
Athletic Shoe Opportunity
Figure 9.1 Principles of Effective Positioning
Figure 9.2 Sample Positioning Statement
Figure 9.3 Sample Completed Positioning Statement
Figure 10.1 Quidel’s Customized Value Proposition
Figure 10.2 The Value Proposition Idea Catcher
Figure 10.3 Product Section of the Idea Catcher
Figure 10.4 The Bull’s-Eye Framework for Product Value Propositions
Figure 10.5 Place Section of the Idea Catcher
Figure 10.6 Promotion Section of the Idea Catcher
Figure 10.7 The Promotional Mix: Representative Tools
Figure 10.8 Price Section of the Idea Catcher
Figure 10.9 Perceived Value Analysis
Figure 10.10 Analyzing the Perceived Value Chart
Figure 10.11 Ability to Win Analysis: Pre-Starbucks
Figure 10.12 Perceived Value Analysis: Pre-Starbucks
Figure 10.13 How Starbucks Reinvented a Commodity
Figure 10.14 Ability to Win Analysis: After Starbucks
Figure 10.15 Perceived Value Analysis: With Starbucks
PRAISE FOR THE ACCIDENTAL MARKETER
“As a formally-trained veterinarian that found myself in a marketing role, I
truly am an ‘Accidental Marketer’! I have personally used the tools in this
book to successfully lead the launch and rebranding of several products—as
if I have been a marketer my entire career.”
—Shelley Stanford Director, Technical Services, Zoetis
“I have been waiting for you to write this book! Given my experiences over
the years with you, I can’t think of a better approach to help businesses
succeed!”
—Lesley Fronio Worldwide Vice President, Commercial Marketing, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics
“As a founder of Impact Planning Group over 35 years ago, I am proud to see
that these tools have been time-tested with thousands of companies, and
continue to add value to organizations and their customers.”
—James Mac Hulbert, R. C. Kopf Professor Emeritus, Columbia University and Visiting
Professor, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University
“As an Accidental Marketer who was trained as a chemist, I have learned to
love the discipline of this type of approach to marketing. Tom and Mary make
applying process and tools both fun and highly productive.”
—Lynn Rosen Global Director Special Formulas; Opinion Leader and Advocacy LEAD at Wyeth
Nutrition, a part of Nestle SA
“Shackleton’s famous recruitment ad in the Times of London with the
headline, ‘Men Wanted for Hazardous Journey’ is how an inexperienced
marketer might feel. Believe me, The Accidental Marketer is an essential
survival kit for those courageous enough to venture into marketing’s
uncharted waters!”
—Bryan Mattimore Author, Idea Stormers; President of The Growth Engine Company
“Mary and Tom are the most practical marketing experts I came across. They
build for your business experience-based, actionable, and easy to use insights
and tools. The perfect combination of expertise, down-to-earth approach, and
fun. A big, ‘thank you’ to them and their team for all of those fruitful years of
collaboration.”
—Bruno Bert AVP at Wyeth Nutrition, a part of Nestle SA