Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Fri, Jan 30, 2009 @ 09:31 AM
As we were developing our website to pay off: "Elegant Prescriptions for Leading Performance", I stumbled upon Matthew E May and his book The Elegant Solution, and went on to read his two "Change This" manifestos:
Elegant Solutions: Breakthrough Thinking the Toyota Way and Mind of the Innovator. I was struck with Matt's insight and unique perspective on Toyota's ability to continually innovate and produce elegant solutions. I was instantly a fan...
Matt wrote a blog to usher in 2009 that has stuck with me since I read it a few weeks ago--so much so-- I would like to share it: "2009: Don't Just Do Something." It flips on its ear how we often approach problems and life: ...always looking for what to do, rather than what to not do.
He recounts a story told by business guru Jim Collins (of bestselling Good To Great fame). It was called "Best New Year's Resolution? A 'Stop Doing' List."
Collins told the story of how, in the throes of his early post-Stanford Business School career at Hewlett-Packard, his favorite former professor redressed him for a lack of discipline over a busy yet unfocused life. Her words rang true: at the time, Jim was aggressively chasing his carefully-set stretch goals for the year, confident in his ability to accomplish them. Still, his life was crowded with the commotion of a fast-tracking career. Her comment made him pull up short and re-examine what he was doing. To help, she did what great teachers do, constructing a lesson in the form of an assignment she called "20-10": Imagine that you've just inherited $20 million free and clear, but you only have 10 years to live. What would you do differently-and specifically, what would you stop doing?
The exercise did exactly what it was intended to do-make Jim stop and think about what was important to him. It was a turning point, for three reasons: First, he realized he'd been racing down the wrong track spending enormous energy on the wrong things. Second, the assignment became a constant reminder of just how important and precious his time is. He now starts each year by choosing what not to do, and each of his to do lists always includes "stop doing" items. Third, the strategy helped him identify what factors led the companies he was studying to become "great" while others remained merely "good". The great companies routinely eliminated activities and pursuits that did not significantly contribute to the following criteria: profit, passion, and perfection. Profit meant engaging in only the activities that would result in value for both the company and the customer. Passion meant having a sense of noble purpose beyond just making money. And perfection meant focusing on flawlessly executing each task in such a way as to make the competition irrelevant. All three criteria had to be met in order for any activity to remain in these great companies' repertoires.
For Matthew May, this was a thunderbolt of insight:
"A great piece of art is composed not just of what is in the final piece, but equally what is not. It is the discipline to discard what does not fit--to cut out what might have already cost days or even years of effort--that distinguishes the truly exceptional artist and marks the ideal piece of work, be it a symphony, a novel, a painting, a company, or most important of all, a life."
"As soon as I shifted my perspective, the vaunted Toyota Production System became for me a study of what wasn't there, and of how and what to stop doing. The Lexus line of cars, which had by then become America's leading luxury nameplate, was suddenly a shining example of eliminating anything that lacked passion and perfection. The singular thought that what isn't there can often be as or more powerful than what is presented me with a completely different view of the world."
How often do we all look at the problem or the opportunity taking a natural and intuitive approach: looking at what to do, rather than what to not do?
It's tempting to want to do everything that our competitors are doing, and more, but maybe it's time to only do those things that provide profit, passion and perfection...In these days of intense budget and resource constraints, this may be the single most important perspective we can bring to our marketing planning, teams, companies and our life...
I've started my "Stop Doing" list; won't you join me?
Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Wed, Jan 14, 2009 @ 10:08 AM
No one doubts that Consumers' deep feelings and emotions-what they really want -will impact the way they think about your company, brand and category. Nor that those wants keep changing in response to a tumultuous world.
How can marketers keep nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel, and mind both open to change and focused on the deep insights we need to stay relevant?
click on image for larger view
A rigorous use of research techniques can help go beyond what Consumers typically say--to what they deeply feel and think in their hearts and minds. It's there - in their often unspoken emotions - that new "aha's" or insights are hidden that might drive action and reveal how your brand can uniquely respond.
Let the competition give in to impatience and costly temptations of believing that they already know, that their brand today is that same as last year, or that segments are just like them. Mining for treasure takes a bit of time upfront, paying off by enabling an elegant solution.
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Ethnographers know how to live, observe and listen right in the consumers' natural environment - whether this be at the ‘moment of truth' at retail point of purchase, the doctor's office where the doctor and patient/caregiver are communicating or not, or the home or work place where they may be using your product or not.
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Consumers can keep diaries that reveal unmet needs and concerns in new ways, and often provide concrete feedback about compelling visual imagery and language. Insight from diaries of targets' days or a week of a particular daily routine can be enriched with video, written stories or visual collages.
- Further insight can be generated by bringing collages/diaries into qualitative settings to discuss. Much can be learned by directly listening and observing which pictures are part of their story, which ones are not, and striving to uncover the higher order emotions driving the greatest unmet needs that also best fit with your brand promise. More can be revealed by exposing them to further visuals and insights to encourage them to build a new brand story that is meaningful and unique.
- The internet enables customers' to think about your questions in the privacy of their homes and at a time that works for them. When they're more comfortable and relaxed, you're more likely to uncover deep emotions, and hints about what may be holding them back.
Their responses - generated solo or within community ad boards - can be analyzed and interpreted by psychologists, sociologists or anthropologists to help pull out the deepest meaning, consistencies and insights, to discover what might be motivating above and beyond the current brand profile or story.
- Learning from a full spectrum of targets is often cost effective to further mine new and relevant insights, and help prioritize brand targeting efforts. Identifying who to speak to in research is often not fully appreciated and approached with enough rigor - it's a great opportunity. Segments beyond your traditional target can have significant impact on your business, for example:
- If you market to caregivers/parents, have you also spoken to the actual end user or child? Often a missed opportunity in Pharmaceutical DTC Marketing...
- Juicy learning can come from current franchise or loyalists; they have a lot to tell that can help insure that your brand promise is spot on or not...
What are you doing to keep your brand up to date? Feel like sharing?
Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Wed, Jan 07, 2009 @ 06:15 AM
It's official: In December, the National Bureau of Economic Research declared what most Americans already knew: the US economy has been in recession since December 2007. 2008 was a year of enormous change; we're just beginning to see the effects. 
The greatest mistakes we can make - and it will be tempting - is to assume that it's over or that our brands will somehow be immune. Marketers are challenged to keep these 5 critical imperatives front and center:
1. Identifying new ways to drive ROI. Ensuring that less can do more is an exercise in elegance.
‘An elegant solution is one in which the optimal outcome is achieved with the minimum expenditure of effort and expense. ‘ - Mathew May, The Elegant Solution.
Elegant solutions will be ever so critical as budgets get the squeeze, requiring razor sharp focus and prioritization.
'The more complexity there is in the market, the more that something simple stands out.' John Maeda (MIT Lab)- The Laws of Simplicity.
Elegance requires rigor as well as creativity. Tried and true solutions are not going to win the day.
2. Breaking through fear. The brain is highly responsive to fear, and doesn't allow for learning or new thinking when people feel afraid. Fear is one kind of stress that disables the very kind of thinking that we need most.
Not only are consumers feeling fear, but inside organizations, fear is becoming increasingly rampant. NY Times article Identifying both antidotes for fear and processes to ensure that it's not driving business decisions will be increasingly important.
3. Creating fresh value and benefit - not ‘incrementalism' - are required. That means putting customers' needs front and center:, and designing through' their eyes' - not yours, or your bosses'. That will demand understanding their deepest unmet needs -- even though consumers may have difficulty articulating them. Otherwise, you'll be stuck struggling to sell small benefits: both costly and likely to be ineffective.
New research techniques like ethnography and neuroscience may be helpful; and carefully designed clinicals can ensure that your brand can make and communicate the very best compelling claims.
4. Adapting to an increasingly powerful consumer who now calls the shots means that brands have less control. There's no going back. Just ask the J&J Motrin Marketing Team who recently got a dose of reality that moved them to pull an entire new advertising campaign (see YouTube video) in 24 hours because consumers/bloggers found it distasteful. ‘Command and control' marketing and communications is a thing of the past -welcome to the era of engagement. Our job is to build trust through authenticity. Transparency is ever-more-important in 2009: people feel burned by the economic crisis.
5. Addressing new sets of consumer concerns and changing mindsets, brought on by:
- The financial crisis has changed consumers' outlook. They're moving away from focus on spending and material things, and wanting to spend less and save more
- Intensifying schedules for adults, children and families - whether at work, home, school or social activities - people experience a scarcity of time, and want more for themselves and loved ones....
- Ever-increasing information and facts; instant connections across all parts of our lives due to the web, new technology etc; people want to stay connected, even though they are exhausted...
- The possibility of living a longer life generates deep worry not to be saddled with cancer, diabetes, depression and other neurological diseases...
- Desire to provide a better world for the next generation, one that is healthier, safer and greener...less debt, less terrorism, stopping environmental destruction...
- Awareness of the growing epidemic of obesity and more chronic diseases: cancer, HIV, diabetes and hereditary conditions; people want to feel they can influence their condition and outcomes...
- Wanting more choice about how they live life; people are enjoying expressing themselves and building new competencies, and want to feel like they're living a life more in balance, calm and productive.
Are you keeping up with what your customers want?
Stay tuned for ... The Rigors of 2009:
10 Marketing Essentials for the Healthcare Industry