Category: Consulting and Planning

As published in MarketingProfs, the premier B2B marketing publication, STIR shares insights to help brands continue the positive momentum they had just weeks ago before the COVID-19 crisis. We hope the article will inspire you to dodge obstacles, adapt to new opportunities and lead boldly.

Here’s an excerpt:

A fog bank just rolled in on our screaming fast economy and clouded our vision. To freeze your marketing is akin to slamming on the brakes on the freeway. Results are predictable—a pile-up with terrible outcomes.

Year in and year out, corporations spend massive resources seeking ways to tilt the market to their advantage, to disrupt the status quo, to change the model and innovate. Now is the time for an agile and rapid response. Trust that you and your team have the skills to quickly adjust and cater to the new business environment. The best outcome in a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic will come from the agility and presence of mind.

Brian Bennett, STIR founder and president, in MarketingProfs

Read the full article: “8 Steps for Getting Brands Through a Disruptive Crisis Like COVID-19”

Many great business operators have hit a wall when it comes to marketing. They can’t fully buy-in to the expense and subjectivity of it all, particularly when the old tried and true sales orientation has always born fruit. They’ve invested in a web site and some other marketing tools that have cost money but don’t seem to make them money. While they know that in theory marketing works – they often feel it works “for other businesses.”

That’s a very dangerous mindset today. The world – the marketplace has hit a tipping point. Dominated by digital, the way business is done has forever changed. Taking too much time to adapt the way they market their products and brands could be a fatal to their enterprise.  Just as fatal as assuming they don’t need to invest in automation or machine learning in their production facilities.

You can design and build a marketing machine that produces traffic, leads, conversions, sales… profit.

The rise of digital

Look around. Machines are taking the place of humans. You see it in industry everywhere. The momentum is advancing. It is also true in marketing—in fact, the transition in the marketing industry is further along than most. The 1:1 data-driven marketing paradigm that was predicted 30 years ago is here. Through AI, automation, mobile interaction and a host of marcom technologies, people have grown to prefer the heightened level of customization and responsiveness that only digital marketing provides. They prefer to research and shop this way, oftentimes intentionally avoiding personal contact with sales representatives!

This includes your customers and consumers. If you are not catering to these preferences, your enterprise is not scalable for growth and is in grave danger of being eclipsed by the ones that do. Likely opportunities for growth have already passed by without you knowing. Today 57 percent of buying decisions are made prior to reaching out to a salesperson.

Get into the digital marketing game

Metrics-oriented business operators are far more inclined to invest in the predictable performance of a machine. A machine increases power and efficiency. It’s a tool designed to perform a job. When oriented toward profitability, it is easily justified and financed.

Marketing today is no longer “subjective” and can be viewed and operated much like a machine. Designed for a purpose, built to scale, programmed for performance, measured and monitored.  Fine-tuned. It produces a certain and predictable profit.

This machine, like all others, requires the functioning components, a plan for its utilization, trained operators and the raw materials and consumables required to produce its products.

The magic of the machine

You can grow your company by building a marketing machine that produces traffic, leads, conversions, sales… profit. The terrific news is that the technology and expertise required for success are affordable to most forward-looking organizations.  That means your organization can do it. It also means that your competitors can do it, and no doubt will. So a business-building marketing machine needs to be part of your company’s essential capability.  Its core infrastructure. It must be written into your strategic and operational plan. This has implications for other ongoing systems, such as sales.

Many companies have some marketing capability, but not the refined infrastructure, systems and analytics necessary to produce predictable, profitable growth. They don’t have a marketing machine. This includes many large organizations and surprisingly sophisticated organizations.

As with any other technical pursuit, you will need expert guidance on the specification and operation of the machine.  And you will likely want ongoing support and maintenance from experts who can train your team while orienting the machine toward profit.

The first step toward reaching a goal is to assess where you are and what needs to be done to get you where you want to go.

Take the Survey

To help you assess where your company is, STIR offers the following online survey. Fill it out and we will return the results to you with no obligation. Upon request we will provide an interpretation of those results that will help you manage or develop your marketing team. Click here to take the survey.

The key to success in a competitive marketing category is maximizing your marketing leverage. The definition of leverage is the addition of strength, weight, clout or pull. This is absolutely critical in marketing to gain the upper hand against competitors who often have more resources to burn.

Leverage isn’t created by accident. It takes shrewd planning.In our business, this is accomplished in a variety of ways, but it always comes back to developing a heightened understanding of a brand’s customers and their needs. With that information, we apply creativity, generate leverage and create value for our clients. It takes a view of the big picture and a mastery of multiple marketing disciplines.

Let’s take a look at some of those marketing disciplines and how to leverage them:

Strategy and insight

Segment your audience and get to know the mindset of your key consumers. You can do this by building personas that describe the aggregate audience in detail.

By understanding their emotional drivers—what they want out of life and what makes them feel good about themselves—you can craft a highly refined marketing strategy that reaches them at the right time, in the right place and with the right message.

Primary and syndicated research is only one method for gaining this understanding. Even better is observant immersion into the lifestyle/industry through interaction with people in the context of their activity and interest. Gather insights and record them.

We developed several personas for our client NL Suits with each one detailing exactly who the customer is and what he is looking for in a custom-made suit—down to the cuff-link stitching and personalization on the inside breast pocket. This knowledge was leveraged and came to life through a photo shoot. The stunning imagery can then be leveraged through marketing, such as NL Suits’ website, social media channels and in-store promotions, just to name a few.

Creative

Start with the creative product. Strong, disruptive creative.

It attracts more attention, generates more interaction and is more memorable. This makes media dollars work exponentially harder—up to five times harder, according to Comscore.

Creative appeal is a personal thing. The key is to speak to the heart of the consumer, so it takes exceptional execution and the right core messaging strategy. Invest in proprietary imagery and develop an extendable idea. Consistency over time in style, voice and strategy will pay off.

Media

View media as a resource. Yes, you can drive the cost down through a variety of planning techniques, but the trick is to maximize the value and leverage that they have in the market, which often crosses over into promotional and editorial considerations. Media is seeking deeper relationships and can do many favors.

Look at how we can help the media’s business to drive value. How can we supply content for them? They’re often much more willing to give up more of their precious inventory if it can be justified editorially.

Approach the media buy with pre-determined public relations, product placement and promotional ideas that add significant brand value and help both parties. Turn media vendors into enthusiastic promotional partners. Leverage all the contacts that they have in the market. Leverage the goodwill they generate with their loyal followers. Develop programs that fit strategically with your strategy and creative direction and therefore build your brand.

Public relations

PR is about leveraging relationships and telling stories. Editors need more and more content as staff reductions continue. They’re in the business of telling stories, and by providing fresh content in the right format, we can get them to tell our story.

To do this, we need to invest the time to understand what editors want to write about and then provide them with a customized approach. By staying close to the market, we’re actually in a position to tell editors what their readers are asking for and interested in. We can develop content and package news that fits their editorial needs and format. Be mediagenic. Create interest and news with the unique ways that you execute your message.

Promotion

Promotion is about giving people a reason to take action. People are busy and only have so much time in the day. So, the action we are requesting of them must be simple and easy, and it must appeal to their needs and interests.

Not all promotions need to offer a price discount. All too often, this cheapens the brand and trains the consumer to shop on price. By understanding consumers and their needs, we can provide them with:

• An opportunity for an experience
• Access to information
• Invitation to a special event
• Added value gift

Every company has assets that can be leveraged to develop interesting offers, such as:

• Expertise/advice
• Access/distribution
• Partnerships
• Inventory

We have leveraged media companies and developed co-branded promotions with strategic partners. By leveraging the assets you have at your disposal in a creative way, this work can be done without breaking the bank.

At STIR, we do this every day. By leveraging our product and category knowledge, we generate a higher return on investment for our clientele.

Human emotions color our world, determine our reality and control much of what we do. In marketing, we want to harness emotional energy as best we can.

That’s because the inescapable truth is that humans make up to 95 percent of their purchase decisions based on their emotions and subconscious [Harvard Professor Gerald Zaltman]. This explains why nobody wants to admit they behave this way.

When we say ‘emotion,’ we are referring to the subtle drivers of our subconscious which include:

• Safety / security
• Self-image / vanity
• Pride / envy
• The need to feel and give love

Logic-driven approaches to advertising that feature product attributes entirely miss the human element in the decision-making process. This explains why most of what we purchase delivers far more than what is required for survival, from a logical standpoint. This is the essence of brand building and brand equity. It’s also the genesis of selling. Another way to understand this is to feature the benefit. 

At STIR, we say we care more how your customers feel, than what they think. If they feel good about your brand, they will always justify their purchase. This is true at work (B2B) and at home (B2C). Higher order communications strike an emotional chord. This concept is so important to our philosophy that we have painted the statement on our office walls.

So, while marketing based on emotion is inherently illogical, it is entirely based on science. Wrap your logical mind around that and you’ll see it makes perfect sense.

This simple statement is loaded with insight and potential. It is a basic foundation stone of STIR’s integrated messaging philosophy.

When we refer to ‘the benefit’ we are referring to that physical, emotional or spiritual need that the brand or product fulfills for the consumer. That certain something is achieved by consuming or even through association with the brand.

Many times, brands are simply associated with an idea and the functionality of a product or a brand is never actually utilized. For example, a sports car that can go 175 miles per hour or a watch that you can dive to 100 feet with. Ownership of these products speaks to the suggestion that people are rugged, daring or just plain wealthy — even when they may not be.

‘Sharing’ is another concept altogether. Sharing suggests more than a headline or copy. It is more than an ad or a social media post. It is an immersion into the psyche and culture of a brand. It is inclusive and conversational. It represents giving, rather than selling or asking.

If the benefit of a product or brand has interest and magnetism, then people will want to be involved. By sharing that benefit, we include the audience in the enjoyment of that benefit. Through artful messaging, consumers will be drawn to the brand.

This is why the phrase ‘Share the benefit’ adorns that walls of STIR. We execute integrated messaging for the many brands that we represent. Each person, each day, must play a role in an inclusive and magnetic dialog.