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Beating Industry Benchmarks
In my previous blog, I discussed a fast way to assess relative marketing performance, and covered proven approaches to improving six industry benchmark-based Key Performance Indicators (reach, share, engagement, loyalty, pipeline, and progression) that can boost overall marketing effectiveness. Today, I’m going to review some of the key findings from recent research around Marketing benchmarks. I’ll select key metrics from each of these three benchmarks and their implications for optimizing marketing performance.
The "Unconscious Incompetent" or Don't Be "Mr. Magoo"
Tue, Jan 1, 2013 — Do you remember Mr. Magoo? He was a cartoon character who used to cause disasters all around him and be totally unaware of them. Cars would overturn, store aisles would collapse, boats would crash and Mr. Magoo bumbled on his way, oblivious to it all. Some US business people act the same way when starting an international arm to their business.
Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions: The Cardinal Rule to Know
Sun, Dec 23, 2012 — While working with an executive management team on customer satisfaction survey questions, they told me every survey seemed to have declining response rates. They asked me what I thought about just asking one question: “On a scale of zero to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend our company to your friends and colleagues?” My response: Have you looked into the possible reasons why the customer survey response rates are declining? Too often I’ve seen companies want to ask the would-you- recommend-us question without doing enough follow-up to understand what it is they are doing right or wrong. This is where CEOs need to lead their companies and improve.
3 Ways to Drive Innovation – a CEO’s Perspective
Sun, Dec 16, 2012 — What makes some companies more successful than others? And what role does innovation play in this? I have always been fascinated by this topic, especially if the business is facing a turn-around situation.
![Market-Driven Strategy Doubles Annual Revenue for ISTN [CASE STUDY]](https://www.chiefoutsiders.com/hs-fs/hub/50878/file-14389357-jpg/images/business-strategy.jpg?width=320&name=business-strategy.jpg)
Market-Driven Strategy Doubles Annual Revenue for ISTN [CASE STUDY]
Tue, Dec 11, 2012 — In this case study, see how a market-driven strategy helped a business consolidate sales and marketing programs, increase revenue growth, and expand into new geographic markets. As a management buy-out company of a Westinghouse division, IST produced instrumentation and optics used in the nuclear power, defense, safety and spectrophotometer markets.
Making our Mistakes Pay – Rather than Paying for our Mistakes
Sun, Dec 9, 2012 — No one likes making mistakes, but we all make our fair share of them. Humans are fallible, products and processes fail, and things slip through the cracks. Even the best-managed companies can go awry. Unfortunately, mistakes are not only inevitable; they can also be very costly. As a CEO you know that mistakes can cause operations costs to rise and productivity to falter—and most damaging of all, they frustrate our customers so that they start thinking about taking their business elsewhere. If we act quickly to fix our mistakes, however, we can make our mistake pay off. Losing and replacing customers is expensive. 91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with us again (Source: U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs). If they have the option, they will take their business elsewhere. When customers leave us, we need to expend resources getting new ones—and it generally costs a great deal more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one. Think of the difference in the time, effort and money that goes into marketing and sales to bring in new business compared with how little effort it takes to stay connected with a customer you already have. Losing and replacing customers is expensive.
Your Brand and the Buyers Journey: Why CEOs Need to Pay Attention
Wed, Dec 5, 2012 —
6 Ways to Turn Customers into Advocates with a Brand Ambassador Program
Sun, Dec 2, 2012 — Harley Davidson, Intel, Starbucks, Apple. We all know brands that have a loyal group of customers, brand ambassadors, who love to talk about the brand and recommend them to their friends and peers. And these recommendations drive sales. According to the Boston Consulting Group, 9 out of 10 consumers and over 50% of B2B customers trust recommendations from friends, colleagues and peers when making their purchasing decisions. You can invest lots of money in marketing campaigns, but for many companies the most powerful sales driver is a recommendation from a brand ambassador. And a strategic brand ambassador program may be the difference-maker in your bottom line.
"Cake Boss" Carlo’s Bakery now offers truly sweet experience.
Wed, Nov 28, 2012 — Diana Kyser McNeff is our guest blog author this week 100 Year Old Bakery Uses 21st Century Cloud and Social Technology to Improve its Customer Experience and Expand its Business.
Latino Marketing 101: “Niche” Rhymes with “Rich”
Wed, Nov 28, 2012 — Latinos Made a Difference Election night, as the race was called for Obama, the analysts for each network credited the Latino vote as the most nationally-decisive block. Subsequent data revealed a 70+ to 23 margin that voted with a clear preference for the platform and party that actually considered the wants and needs of Hispanics and reflected them. And like the Republicans, many brands in this country continue to either eschew or sub-optimize effective marketing aimed at the so-called “niche” of 50+ million Hispanics voting every day in America with their wallets. Usually I have found that my clients were either ill-informed about the marketing potential of this segment (comprising 16.7% of the U.S. population), or they felt that they could get by dabbling in it or just doing just a little Spanish language advertising, even though they were superficially spending at levels far below what was commensurate with the size of the segment and the reality of the opportunity. Most clients that I have introduced to effective Hispanic marketing have had a very quick epiphany as they moved from initially testing the waters to subsequently investing aggressively and stealing market share hand over foot over lazy, condescending or less savvy competitors. Then they are delighted as they learn that Hispanic customers tend to be far more brand loyal and difficult to dislodge than general market consumers, once brand preferences are developed. Do the Research