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January 18 - January 23, 2020
Plots you find in the Chicken Soup book series are examples of connection plots. In this type of plot, the brand is bridging the gaps that exist in everyday lives: racial, age, gender, and so on.
The creativity plot, on the other hand, is typical of television’s MacGyver series, in which MacGyver always finds a way to solve issues with his brilliance. Virgin is well known for using this type of story with Richard Branson playing the MacGyver character.
Most visionary leaders do not make up the stories. They simply spot the available ones floating around in everyday lives. Most stories are out there. That is what makes them sound and feel so relevant. But of course, you need to be sensitive to be able to capture the stories.
Deep metaphors are encoded unconsciously in every human at a very young age. Using the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), we can pull out the metaphors to understand how to construct our stories and how consumers are likely to respond to the stories. Zaltman’s seven metaphors, which represent 70 percent of all metaphors, are called the Seven Giants. They are balance, transformation, journey, container, connection, resource, and control.
Characters are central in a story. They symbolize how the brand is perceived by the human spirit. A plot structure shows how the character navigates among the network of humans who will rewrite their own version of the story. Metaphors are the unconscious process happening in the human spirit. Stories with compatible metaphors will gain relevancy and be perceived as truths by consumers. Stories that move people have all three of these core components: character, plot, and metaphor. Creating a good mission is a giant step for companies. Spreading it through storytelling is another.
Consumer Empowerment
In the horizontal world, people like to empower lesser known figures. They see the figure as a symbol of themselves: consumers with less power among the corporate giants. Giving consumers a sense of empowerment is therefore crucial in the pursuit of a brand mission. Show that the mission belongs to the consumers, and it is their responsibility to fulfill the mission. It is not only about getting buy-in but also about making an impact. Although the individual consumer is weak, their collective power will always be bigger than the power of any firm.
The value of consumers’ collective power is rooted in the value of a network.
Many-to-many conversation is what makes a consumer network so powerful. A brand story has no meaning when consumers are not talking about it. In Marketing 3.0, conversation is the new advertising.
Frederick Reichheld offers a practical tool called the Net Promoter Score to measure loyalty based on the willingness of consumers to recommend a brand to their networks.
SUMMARY: PROMISE OF TRANSFORMATION, COMPELLING STORIES, AND CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT To market the company’s or product’s mission to consumers, companies need to offer a mission of transformation, build compelling stories around it, and involve consumers in accomplishing it. Defining a good mission starts with identifying small ideas that can make a big difference. Remember that mission comes first and financial return comes as a result. The best approach to spread the mission is through storytelling. Telling stories around the mission is about building character and plot based on metaphors. To
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CHAPTER FOUR Marketing the Values to the Employees VALUES UNDER FIRE
In Marketing 3.0, companies must convince both their customers and their employees to take their values seriously. Employees are the most intimate consumers of the company’s practices. They need to be empowered with authentic values. Companies need to use the same storytelling approach with their employees that they use with their consumers.
Privately-held companies usually have better chances at building strong values. They usually grow at the right pace without pressure from investors. They can ingrain their values one employee at the time. Attracting business is done within the framework of the company’s values.
VALUES DEFINED
According to Lencioni, there are four different types of corporate values.7 Permission-to-play values are the basic standards of conduct that employees should have when they join the company. Aspirational values are values that a company lacks but the management hopes to achieve. Accidental values are acquired as a result of common personality traits of employees. Core values are the real corporate culture that guides employees’ actions.
Shared values are one half of the corporate culture. The other half is the common behavior of employees. Shaping a corporate culture means aligning shared values and common behavior. In other words, it is about demonstrating the values through everyday behavior within the corporation
Good values are the ones aligned with the forces at work: collaborative technology, globalization-driven cultural transformation, and the rising importance of creativity.
Table 4.1 Select Examples of Shared Values
Figure 4.1 Shared Values and Common Behavior in Marketing 3.0 Context
VALUES WILL DO YOU GOOD
Attracting and Retaining Talent
Back-Office Productivity and Front-Office Quality
The best salespeople are those who use their own product and understand it inside out.
Integrating and Empowering Differences
PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH
To instill values, most companies rely on formal training and informal coaching. Values training is necessary but it may have some weaknesses. The training can turn into preaching instead of practicing.
Marketing 3.0 is about more than just training and coaching. It is about aligning values with behavior. According to Jim Collins, there are two parts to creating such alignment.21 First, a company should examine current corporate policies that might weaken corporate values. This is challenging because most corporate policies are more institutionalized than corporate values themselves.
Second, a company should create a mechanism that directly links actions with values. For instance, a company can create a mechanism that requires 30 percent of revenues to come from new products to strengthen the value of innovation.
Change the Lives of Employees
Studies by Erickson, Dychtwald, and Morrison reveal six segments of employees: 1. The low obligation and easy income segment is a group of employees who look for quick wins. 2. The flexible support segment is a group that goes with the flow because they do not see a job as a priority yet. 3. The risk and reward segment includes employees who see jobs as opportunities to challenge and excite themselves. 4. The individual expertise and team success segment seeks jobs that offer teamwork and collaboration. 5. The secure progress segment looks for a promising career path. 6. The expressive legacy
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Empower Employees to Make Change
A Chinese proverb says, “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” This is relevant to employee empowerment. Employees need to be involved and empowered. Their lives have been changed by the company’s values. Now, it is their turn to change the lives of others. It is about creating a platform for employees to make a difference.
Employee empowerment can come in various forms. The most common one is volunteering.
Another form of empowerment is through innovation.
SUMMARY: SHARED VALUES AND COMMON BEHAVIOR In Marketing 3.0, corporate culture is about integrity. It is about aligning the shared values and common behavior of employees. In the context of the forces at work, corporate culture should be collaborative, cultural, and creative. It should transform the lives of employees and empower employees to transform the lives of others. By building their integrity, companies can compete in the talent market, improve productivity and the consumer interface, and manage differences. Marketing its values to employees is as important as marketing the mission to
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24 Tamara J. Erickson and Lynda Gratton, “What It Means to Work Here,” Harvard Business Review, March 2007. 25 Charles Fishman, “The War for Talent,” Fast Company, December 18, 2007.
CHAPTER FIVE Marketing the Values to the Channel Partners GROWTH MIGRATION AND COLLABORATION IMPERATIVE
CHANNEL PARTNERS IN MARKETING 3.0
Channel as Collaborator: Selecting the Fit
In Marketing 3.0, channel partner selection requires the process of mirroring the Purpose-Identity-Values. Mirroring means that companies should select potential partners that have identical Purpose-Identity-Values
Figure 5.1 Selecting Compatible Channel Partners
The first step for a company marketing its values to its channel partners is to understand the partners’ own values. In Marketing 3.0, collaboration between two business entities is like a marriage between two human beings. Mirroring the purpose, values, and identities—beyond understanding each other’s business model, applying win-win negotiation, and writing sound legal contracts—is essential. That is why the personal approach, exemplified by Anita Roddick, is always the best.
Channel Partners as Cultural Change Agent: Distributing the Story
The growth imperative requires a company to have channel partners manage their consumer interface. Therefore, the company becomes highly dependent on the distributors to market its values, especially when the company does not communicate directly to the consumers through promotional media.
Channel as Creative Ally: Managing the Relationship
In Marketing 3.0, the power belongs to the consumers. Unfortunately, not all companies have direct access to the consumers. Generally, there are intermediaries between them and their consumers. These channel partners not only distribute the products to the market but also provide a consumer touch point. In some cases, channel partners are perceived to be more important than the manufacturers.
In the most advanced distribution systems, there exists a division of tasks among a company’s various channels. With this division of tasks, several different types of channels can coexist within a segment or regional market. Instead of competing with each other, the channels will collaborate. This fourth level is the Integrated Multi-Channel stage, in which a company divides tasks between different channels. Multiple channels may coexist within a regional market or market segment by working together and not competing for business.
SUMMARY: VALUES-DRIVEN CHANNEL PARTNERSHIP In Marketing 3.0, channel management begins with finding the right channel partners with similar purpose, identity, and ultimately values. Partners with compatible values will be able to deliver the stories convincingly to consumers. To bring the partnership one step further, companies should integrate with the partners to bring integrity to the stories.
CHAPTER SIX Marketing the Vision to the Shareholders SHORT-TERMISM HURTS THE ECONOMY
