Key Learnings – People, Process and Technology
The biggest opportunities for getting closer to the ideal state of marketing ROI, come down to some simple principles, which align People, Processes and Technology.

PEOPLE – Share Accountability

Define and incorporate shared accountability for results, up front, among the marketer and its agencies. This requires identifying marketing goals and sales targets, designing the right integrated marketing and communications mix for driving targeted results. Deploy a plan to continuously measure, while improving the process for achieving goals and tracking incremental and aggregate results. In net, create a dynamic long-vision partnership for continuous improvement instead of the static “them-us” relationship. One way to achieve this symbiosis is through the adoption of a Closed Loop Marketing philosophy. Please click here for a demonstration of Closed Loop Marketing at work.

PROCESS – Create a stronger link between marketing and sales

Don’t treat marketing as separate from sales or other key business drivers. This requires commitment to continuous use, testing and improving of relevant measurement tools, i.e. INGENUITY™, click here for demo. Additionally create marketing Best Practices and processes, as a natural component of the integrated marketing and communications approach, to feed into the sales mix. For segment marketing initiatives refine a set of best practices inclusive of the tactical techniques most effective in attending the needs of each customer segment you are attempting to reach.

Manage your marketing portfolio, as if it were an investment portfolio, treat marketing communication and sales instruments as components of an integrated portfolio. Assess and track ROI in terms of how the investment impacts revenues and profit growth.

TECHNOLOGY – Align capabilities to what is required to drive and measure growth

With marketing and sales in the lead roles, design Best Practices for auditing and developing core capabilities required for achieving strategic and precise revenue and profit growth targets achieved via integrated marketing communications initiatives and sales campaigns. Measure a lot… after identifying the marketing objectives that best support the business sales goals, then track discreet and aggregate measurements of results at time intervals which match the inherent cycles of each marketing component. Roll these up into an executive scorecard, say monthly. And, do not be surprised, sometimes the ultimate impact of your marketing initiatives on revenue or profit may not be realized for a year or more. We partner with TELUS, to provide an application which allows us to map the impact of resultant sales on targeted geographic and demographic customer segments. For a demonstration, please click here.

Use technology to engage with Customer segments, then actively listen to the Customer, to get, retain, and build the relationship in stages – as it evolves.

as previously published in the May 31 st, 2004 issue of Marketing Magazine

According to our friend Webster, the dictionary definition of “kinship” is: “ n 1: a close connection marked by community of interests or similarity in nature or character”, "found a natural affinity with the immigrants"; "felt a deep kinship with the other students"; "anthropology's kinship with the humanities" [syn: affinity], relationship]”

The Thesaurus gives the following associations: affinity (similarity), alliance (association), belonging (security), brotherhood (friendship), community (agreement), connection (associate).

The best definition of kinship marketing I’ve heard so far is: “partners working together to understand, anticipate and satisfy consumer needs”.

The trend today is toward finding a greater balance between cost efficiency and marketing effectiveness. One of the best ways to do that is to join forces with one or more other businesses and leverage each other’s strengths. This is where kinship marketing plays a strategic role.

There are many examples of kinship marketing. My favourite is a B2B program that ma Bell executed prior to deregulation when the regional telco’s were aligned under the STENTOR Alliance . It was called the “Advantage Performance Program™ ” . It had a national template, but was customized for each regional Telco, (i.e., the Bell Advantage Performance Program™, The BCTEL Advantage Performance Program™ , etc.) Prior to deregulation, Bell realized that there would be extensive competition entering the marketplace, and they wanted to take a pre-emptive step to maintain their client base in the SME & SOHO segment. Five waves of extensive research were conducted with the target customer identifying their needs and wants. Then a program was customized to the target market.

Partners paid an annual fee and participated in all communication, including DM’s, telemarketing, web, etc.

Each quarter, the marketing company developed quarterly marketing plans with each Telco and each Partner, providing regional customization.

Bell SME & SOHO customers could opt in or out of the program. There was no cost to them, nor any obligation. The only caveat was that the customer remained loyal to the regional Telco for their local and LD needs. They had access to a plethora of products and services at a discount, or some type of unique ‘value add’ to assist them in running their business. The categories included: automotive fuel, courier, business equipment, office supplies, business insurance, airline travel, etc.

Tracking of customer information, likes, dislikes, category purchases, account sign-ups, etc. was an integral aspect to the benchmarking and evaluation of the success of the program. If partners did not see results in lead generation, they would not be happy. If the partners did not fulfill on their promise of performance (fulfillment, customer service, reporting), Bell’s customers would not be happy, and of course Bell would not be happy!

Herein lays the secret to a successful kinship marketing relationship. All parties must be engaged. All parties must have skin in the game. The image of one partner rubs off on the entire program, including the other participating partners. All parties must win. In the case of the Advantage Performance Program™, everybody was a winner. Customers were able to take advantage of valuable product offerings that were relevant to them. Partners found a new avenue for lead generation & new account acquisition. The Telco’s kept their customers. Win win win.

The Advantage Performance Program™ ended with the dissolution of the STENTOR alliance, and the Telco’s became direct competitors.

Since then, there have been many attempts at similar programs, but they have not been as successful as the Advantage Performance Program™ was.

"… there's no doubt that the battleground is changing ... it's getting increasingly difficult to differentiate on service … the only differentiators left are the emotional attachment built with a brand and the customer experience." -Peter Teague, former deputy chief executive, BBC Worldwide

You can build a unique customer experience through kinship marketing. It’s almost like gestalt marketing … Webster defines gestalt as: …”a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by summation of its parts”, or as we more commonly say “the sum of the parts is greater than the whole”.

When organizations determine what their common threads are – a convergence of priorities - there is great potential in aligning your offering with your allies – offerings in other categories that aim to appeal to the same market segment as you do. You are leveraging relationships with like-minded companies.

Before you embark on developing a kinship marketing strategy, there are some basic requirements that MUST be met:

• commitment to common mission
• research to validate the concept and establish goals
• a strategic planning process in which partners collaborate in developing marketing programs
• steering committee
• group decision making
• understanding of one another’s current marketing resources
• understand each other’s business issues & opportunities
• commitment to sharing resources
• commitment to sharing responsibilities
• commitment to sharing information
• measurement / benchmarking
• privacy / permission
• strategic, long-term

Some of the executional considerations include:

• customer insights should be solicited by all partners and funnelled to a central data    warehouse – enhancing the knowledge
• distribution channels
• fulfillment
• information, target group(s), research data, technology

Success does not happen overnight. You must be committed to test, evaluate, learn, test, evaluate, and learn. It’s a continuous improvement process. Customers buy for emotional reasons - sales & loyalty rise because customers feel differently about your company based on our ability to connect with them emotionally.

The benefits to this effort are significant:

• maximizes existing marketing investments / lower marketing expenditure
• reach new prospects
• improved qualification of prospects
• increase brand image
• increase customer TOM awareness
• gain access to knowledge and professional expertise
• ROI
• customer retention
• try out new marketing strategies
• unprecedented impact to your target audience

Contact Myriad Marketing to help you develop a kinship marketing strategy for your unique needs.

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that I am getting a little older. Having just missed the official cut-off for being a boomer, but not quite young enough to proudly wear the Gen-X tee either, I’m an in-betweener. My demographic void however, does not limit my ability to see that marketing and advertising is missing out on a huge potential.

Perhaps it is a preconceived misconception of the 50+ crowd. A stereotype, or a latent 50’s television hold-over that paints this group as set in their ways, brand loyal to the core, old-looking, and completely predictable in their spending habits. No small wonder with a picture painted as flatly as this that they are being overlooked. So what is the reality?

Today’s boomers account for nearly half the population of North America – a percentage which is still increasing, with a boomer turning 50 every 8.5 seconds – or over 10,000 every day. They look and dress nothing like their parents ever did, and unlike them, they spend over twice as much as the generation they are replacing. And with the 1960’s still a tangible memory, they are skeptical of advertising, but still succumb to it if the message is right, targeted and relevant to what they want.

So where is the disconnect? Why is less than 10% of advertising spend geared towards this group? There are several factors contributing to this.

Advertising, much like stock trading and air-traffic control, is a high-stress, high-turnover, early burnout career choice and today’s advertisers and marketers are therefore young. These 20 to 30-somethings cannot see past 50, apparently an age where I will simply drive into a suburban sprawl, never to be heard from again. So advertising is geared towards the hip, the now, the pop-culture of today. Granted, many boomers are still out there creating today’s pop culture, but for profit. They don’t actually buy into any of it.

Part of the disconnect is boomers ‘feel’ much younger than they are. Healthier and wealthier than past iterations of this demographic, they don’t fit the mold of the 50+ we’ve come to know and ignore. They’re savvy, informed and not pre-disposed to anything other than what they want, when they want it.

As for the brand loyalty myth, a recent AC Nielsen study shows that over 70% of female boomers are more likely to try new products and therefore way more likely to switch brands than the 18 to 34 year-old segment. Truth is, this entire demographic spends more time researching and considering more products and services than any other – a catalyst of choice they themselves have created. This group also shops and purchases as much as three times the average via the internet.

Yet advertising today relentlessly struggles to capture the elusive, small and comparatively broke youth segment – as unassociated and disparate a group you couldn’t hope to create, even in a really bad, genetic-tampering, evil scientist kinda B-movie. This preoccupation with a group which is more brand-loyal, less likely to purchase on-line, and with far less disposable income doesn’t make sense any more.

So let’s give it up for the 50+ crowd. I look forward to joining the rank and file of deep pockets and wide open day-timers. I hope by the time I get there, somebody has decided to sell to me – but don’t go hunting in the burbs. Nobody here but us old people.

Contact roman@myriadinc.com for more information on not missing the market..

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