Entries categorized as ‘Market Culture in Action’
On a recent airport layover I picked up a copy of Business Week with picture of a Model T on the cover. The cover story was about Ford’s efforts to revamp their company, their brand and their marketing department.
After reporting record quarterly losses and a 50% reduction of market share since 1995, the company identified its marketing operations as those that could revitalize the slumping auto giant. So it hired a chief marketer away from Toyota - a creative and innovative leader among US car brands - and set on a new course. Put simply, James Farley’s task is the epitome of the “easier said than done” mantra: Infuse a market culture into the Ford Motor Company.
What did he do?
- Restocked their creative agency, WPP, with fresh, accomplished brand gurus from around the globe
- Invited 30 of their most influential sales dealers for a candid series of focus group meetings on everything from branding and slogans, to advertising and sales incentives
- Reorganized his team with brand managers reporting directly to him - ensuring bureaucratic procedures don’t fracture the new brand messages
The result is a renewed faith among the iconic auto maker’s faithful. Rising gas prices and decreased consumer confidence can be a death blow to a company that introduced the SUV and whose sales are decidedly pick-up truck-heavy. But with a few fresh ideas and a new commitment to sound marketing tactics the future appears brighter than it has in years.
Categories: Market Culture in Action
Tagged: car, Branding, Ford, reorganization, leadership
On my way in to the office today I heard an interesting story on NPR. Apparently services have popped up in New York wherein small business owners, freelancers and other self-employed types can work together in the same space. While one tennant (right word?) admits it cuts into his productivity a bit, the value of (1) interacting with others, and (2) network with other entrepreneurs more than outweighs the downside.
Here’s the link to the story, which you can read or listen to.
In this area we have a similar concept over at the Marina Technology Cluster. While it was set up as a business incubator to vitalize a community in dissaray after a military base closing, radio ads definitely emphasize the value of the collaborative environment.
Categories: Innovative Thought · Market Culture in Action
Tagged: collaboration
In an article entitled Seven Winning Tactics During a Downturn, MarketCulture chairman Linden Brown outlines some tactics to use during a downturn that help grow market share and improve the value your company provides its customers. Chief among them:
- Take another look at your firm’s mission. How well does it emphasize your customer?
- Reconsider the team you have in place, and trim only those that don’t provide customer value. Across the board cuts miss this point.
- Spend more time researching your customer and the competition.
- Price strategically. Resist the urge to drop prices.
Be aggressive during a downturn and focus your team’s energy where it needs to be: On building profitable consumer value.
See other articles on our Publications page.
Categories: Innovative Thought · Market Culture in Action · Publications
Tagged: article, customer, published articles, recession, Seven Winning Tactics during a Downturn
So often we talk about a Market Culture as being something that an organization (company, business unit) possesses. We forget to mention that the actions that define this way of business life start at the individual.
Personal Culture => Group Culture
Your Market Culture => Your Company’s Market Culture
So every day ask yourself, “What have I done today to be a strong Market Culturalist?“
- What new Customer Insight will I gain today?
- What new Competitor Awareness will I have today?
- How will I Collaborate today? Both internally and externally?
- Will I take into account the Long-Term Impact of my decisions?
- Will I encourage and display Leadership today?
These questions will not only help lead your day to day activities toward those best for your business, but will provide a “leading by doing” example for your coworkers.
Categories: Innovative Thought · Market Culture in Action
Tagged: components, individual, market culturalist
February 12, 2008 · 1 Comment
In my last post I introduced the term “market culturist.”
In case you’re wondering, a “market culturist” is a new term I’m making up to describe someone that shares our philosophy — someone who gets what we do. There are a number of you out there. Perusing the Internet, I came across a great piece from the Church of the Customer, who are very much in sync with the customer side of “market culturism.” The article highlights Mark Cuban’s view on creating the right internal/team culture:
“You have to set the culture because that’s how people make decisions,” he says. “If you don’t know what your cause is, if you don’t know what your culture is and what you’re rewarded for and what’s respected and what’s expected, then you’ll make mistakes when you let people make judgments. Then you get all kinds of autocratic environments that don’t succeed.”
Categories: Market Culture in Action
Tagged: church of the customer, mark cuban, market culturist
In reading a post on Viral Garden which spoke further about Facebook’s trials with Beacon ads. I was struck by Mack’s point that the problem was that Mark Zuckerberg went from Facebook member to Facebook CEO and that his focus shifted to monetizing the product.
In my opinion there is, first, nothing wrong with monetizing a good idea. But Zuckerberg and the Facebook team went about it in the wrong way. In our terminology, Market Culture is centered on the profitable provision of superior customer value. The value of Facebook was the opportunity to opt-in to a host of cool little apps and widgets and to let your friends know about what you wanted them to know about. The Beacon ads then, in an effort to realize profit, did so at the expense of those value propositions. Beacon took away your opt-in choice and dictated what was communicated to your friends. The problem was not the monetization of FB, but that customer value was stripped for that monetization. Fortunately the company has changed their ways, but the damage is done and the blogosphere is still talking about it!
I contrast that quickly to Skype. Recently Business Week said the eBay company is facing a make or break year. They’re not making enough money. Or, in more sophisticated terms, they’re not capturing all of the value they are producing. We here at MCS are huge fans of Skype as our weekly ops meetings connect people on 3 continents for up to 2 hours. I follow their forays into hardware and mobile phones and will be curious to see what they do with the social networking opportunity in front of them. I’d even be willing to pay more for some of these services, but so far, I haven’t been asked to. 
Categories: Market Culture Inaction · Market Culture in Action
Tagged: facebook, profitability, skype, superior value
Last week, in the midst of the New England Patriots run for the second ever undefeated season in the National Football League, a player from the Pittsburgh Steelers (next opponent) guaranteed victory for his team. This guarantee, made on national television, raised a few eyebrows (and fists) within the New England fan and media sets.
Today I sat in my living room and watched the Patriots methodically dismantle the Steelers, offensively and defensively. As the final minutes of the game ticked away, a chant from the home field Patriot fans could be heard to grow: “guar-an-tee, Guar-an-tee, GUAR-AN-TEE!, GUAR-AN-TEE!!, GUAR-AN-TEE!!!.” It became so loud that we watching from home could clearly hear it through the TV and feel a tingling urge to join in.
As I sat there, marveling at the perfect timing and context of this rebuke, I began to think about how sports game chants work. Stadiums fill up with tens of thousands of cheering and shouting fans. Many of these individuals are eager to start cheers and when they do, other fans listen. If they like it, they pick up the cheer; if they don’t, they ignore the cheer. The favorite cheers build momentum and burst into the thundering “GUAR-AN-TEE” that was heard today. Cheers with poor conception, bad timing, or little relevance are lost in the shuffle.
Stadiums are big cheer-factories that combine the thought-power and judgment of thousands upon thousands of fans. With this massive level of collaboration, is it any wonder that they deliver without fail?
What’s the point you might ask? The point is that if Bob Craft (Patriots owner) wanted to produce great cheers that his fans liked, his best bet would be to access their knowledge and preferences. In stadiums, this process happens automatically, but in businesses it doesn’t. If you’re interested in having the best ideas and products (cheers) at your company (stadium), take the time to listen to and collaborate with your customers (fans).
Categories: Market Culture in Action
Tagged: , boston, collaboration, patriots
Last month our Chief Value Delivery Officer, Sean Gallagher, spoke at the CEO Club of Boston (another link) about how a Market Culture provides the blueprint for profitable companies. We call this the DNA of Profitable Businesses, and this lies at the core of the message we try to bring out.
Our message is simple: Corporate culture is important to business success. It is the core blueprint around which all other building blocks are placed. It is the framework under which company value get passed along. Exec to employee. Old hand to new recruit. Can’t overlook culture.
What we’re doing is bringing a new understanding to this. We have developed a measurement tool for this and will be rolling it out in the new year. (Ssshh, don’t tell anyone I told you!) Once you can measure it, you can compare it. If it’s low, you can improve it. (We offer training services for this.) If it’s high, you can demand more from your organization.
Knowledge is power and in 2008 we will be offering a kind of knowledge you never knew you could have!
Categories: Affiliations · Market Culture in Action
Tagged: boston, ceo club, dna, measurement, profitable, public speaking, sean gallagher, training services
November 27, 2007 · 1 Comment
I had an interesting little experience as I stood in line at one of my favorite little delis this afternoon. The owner had decided to raise the price by around $2 per sandwich and the woman at the counter had the unenviable task of telling this to all the customers. Unfortunately, the new price put their sandwich at the same level as another deli just a block and a half away. Problem is, the value propositions weren’t the same. Picture this:
Deli A: Pre-made sandwiches, limited flavor selection (turkey and meatloaf, usually), tasty whole grain bread, $5 apiece
Deli B: Made-to-order sandwiches (incl. toasting), 30+ flavor varieties, 4 bread types (but none as good as Deli 1), larger sandwich, $7 apiece
Where would you choose to go? I head over to Deli A a fair amount and liked their smaller portions and smaller price tag. But now the only competitive advantage I see for them is their bread, which by itself is sadly not enough to bring me back. So I said to employee that she should tell her boss about this conundrum. I hope she does, and I hope he takes it to heart.
The issue here is that the owner decided to raise the price based on what appears to be solely internal pressures. He wanted to make more money on the sandwiches. OK. But he didn’t take into consideration the customers’ input nor did he recognize the alternatives available to us. In the Market Culture Model, he failed on 3 of the tenets.
Customer Insight: The owner of Deli A didn’t fully understand the reasons customers come to their counter. Ready to go, the sandwiches were consistently good and sold for an attractive price.
Competitor Awareness: Deli B offered a better sandwich, but was more expensive and required waiting 10 minutes on a busy day to get. But they recently started letting us call orders in, and as of today are no longer more expensive. Hmmm …
Collaborative Approach: I don’t remember being asked about a potential price hike. Did the owner have a survey? Any market research? Pretty sure the answer here is “no.”
So there we go. Tomorrow I’ll be at Deli B, but I’ll check back on Deli A in a week or so and see what happened. Can you teach an old dog new marketing??
Categories: Market Culture in Action
Tagged: , collaborative approach, competitor awareness, consumer insight, pricing, pricing strategy, sandwich microcosm
