Author: arnesenandassociates

In preparing a short presentation on marketing, I was reminded of how important internal marketing[1] is in the overall marketing effort.

An organisation can have the best external campaigns in both the traditional and digital media space and great products and or services at competitive prices, yet fail to achieve market its objectives. The reason is possibly poor internal marketing.

Internal marketing is exactly what it says. It’s a specific, well resourced and ongoing marketing effort focused on the organisation to ensure that all the employees know about and are passionate about the organisations brand/s, product/s and services, and even more importantly, the customers of the organisation.

This is easier said than done. It needs the inter-functional cooperation and support from all levels of management.

A vital area of inter-functional cooperation is with the talent [human resources] management team. Time needs to be set aside to align the marketing goals and objectives with the talent’s goals and objectives. Recruiting talent that will get energised about the organisations brand/s, product/s and services is a good place to start… Developing a reward system that reinforce passion for the client is also critically important. The CMO [leader(s) of the marketing team] also needs to engage the CFO, CIO, COO in a similar fashion.

Developing, implementing and sustaining effective internal marketing is a process. Start small, show quick wins and grow understanding and sooner than you may have anticipated, you will have gained all the support and resources needed to implement internal marketing.

For more insight into internal marketing contact john@arnesenandassociates.co.za

[1] Kotler and Keller (2006). Internal marketing requires that everyone in the organisation buy into the concepts and goals of marketing and engage in choosing, providing and communicating customer value.

I recently assisted an organisation that operates in the Business to Business (B2B) space to think through which organisations they should be ‘engaging’. This led me to thinking about how important words are to an organisation.

Words such as client, stakeholder, partner were all used in the conversation but on reflection it was clear that the common understanding of these terms as they applied them in their organisation needed attention.

Two other terms ‘advocacy’ and ‘marketing’ were also part of the conversation, and again on reflection I think there were wide ranging views of these two terms in the leadership team.

I have encouraged them to think about and to reach common understanding of these terms as they apply to their organisation.

I don’t think this is being pedantic; it’s being strategic….

If an organisation wants to have all its policies, practices, processes and systems tightly aligned to its strategic intent, it needs to share a common language. 

In my view, the 5 words mentioned above are all critical to business success. An organisation operating in the B2B space must know clearly who its stakeholders, partners and clients are and undertake advocacy and marketing appropriately. Mixing this up, these terms will certainly be wasteful and could be counterproductive.

This is one example, but there are probably many similar terms to get clarified in your organisation. Getting the organisation to speak the same language is not a ‘nice to have’, its good business sense.

For more information, email john@arnesenandassociates.co.za

In terms of the B-BBEE Act, the South African Marketing, Advertising and Communication (MAC) Sector Code was promulgated on 1 April 2016.

Section 20 of the code refers to responsible Social Marketing. MAC Sector organisations can claim up to 5 B-BBEE points for responsible Social Marketing.

What is Social Marketing?

Social Marketing was first introduced into academic literature in July 1971 by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman in their article Social Marketing: An approach to planned social change (Journal of Marketing, volume 35 pp3-12, 1971).

A comprehensive explanation for Social Marketing would be:

Social Marketing is the practice of the science and principals of modern marketing together with components of other disciplines to:

1. Influence policy makers, the media and the community at large to give due attention to and to dedicate sufficient time, funding and resources to a social challenge.
2. Create sufficient awareness, understanding and motivation within the target group and/or individual to a point where the individual and/or group takes positive and constructive action.

As a result, both the individual and/or group and society benefit from an effective social marketing campaign.

For more insight into effective social marketing contact john@arnesenandassociates.co.za

We often talk about life-long learning but I don’t think we reflect often enough on what it means and how we are practicing it.

I have been fortunate to have worked with Samuel Isaacs, past CEO of SAQA, and UWC emeritus Professor Shirley Walters – both true advocates of life-long learning.

The following diagram attempts to capture what I have learnt from them and many other experts in this field.

The diagram proposes that a person learns from the day they are born till the day they pass on.

Everyday is a learning opportunity.

The diagram also expands the concept by incorporating the dimensions of life-wide and life-deep learning. And finally, the diagram highlights that learning is a mix of formal, non-formal and informal experiences.

Thinking through and reflectively acting on these dimensions is just as important to the individual as it is to the team or organisation.

As an individual, you should at least ask yourself each year, “what formal, non-formal and informal learning do I need to engage in?” You also need to reflect on the focus of your learning. Do you need to expand on a subject [widen] or dig deeper? And you also need to consider what new fields do you need to challenge.

Organisation must do the same. The annual exercise of developing the so called WSP [workplace skills plan] should not be a SETA burden. It must be seen as the opportunity to review the organisations life-long learning journey.

When I was at school in the sixties and seventies your IQ score was the most important factor in deciding whether or not you would be successful. Thankfully this is no longer the case.

I am not suggesting that IQ is not important – It does provide good indication of a person’s cognitive ability.  However, it is only one dimension.

In recent years, Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has come to the fore. It certainly adds another dimension to better understand a person’s potential for success.

However, I believe there are a number of other ‘Q’s that should be considered to gain a more holistic view of a person’s potential. While these other Qs may not be substantiated by extensive and rigorous research, as is the case in IQ and EQ, I believe they are all worthy of consideration.

The ‘Qs’ I suggest are

• PQ – personality: This covers factors such as decisiveness, extroversion, detail-orientation
• SQ – spirituality: Where a person’s ‘inner strength’ comes from
• VQ – values: Knowing the difference between right and wrong
• HQ – health: Physical capability

I truly believe that everyone has enormous potential and can achieve greatness.

For example, a person may have a lower IQ and HQ, but that same person could have an amazing EQ, SQ and PQ. There is absolutely no reason that they should be held back or deemed unsuccessful.

I recently came across a graphic on LinkedIn which focused my attention on the fact that society is moving from the Information Era [driven by the Internet] to the Connection Economy; a shift from data focus to a focus on relationships.

Understanding this mega shift has been top of mind for some time. Seth Godin has been one source of insight as well as Porter and Heppelmann’s article on how smart, connected products are transforming competition another.

Products including tennis rackets, bicycles, tractors, windmills etc. are all incorporating hardware, software and connectivity that is allowing extraordinary levels of monitoring, control, performance management and automation. Connecting all the ‘dots’ and more!

Beyond that, the Connection Economy is driving long-term customer relation management as smart connected products continue to connect the customer with the product for as long as the product life cycle allows.

Another major consideration is the question of relationship and trust between the customer and the product seller. Through ongoing post-sale data sharing, the customer is providing huge amounts of information about themselves to the product seller. The product seller could take advantage of this information to the detriment of the customer….

Staying on top of this change tsunami is critical for long-term business survival.

Technology [hardware, software and the ‘cloud’] is connecting everything and everyone in the most amazing ways. Be sure your organisation is strategising how to be a part of this new Connected Economy.

Ref: Seth Godin on the Connection economy – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKXZgTzEyWY

Ref: Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann – https://hbr.org/2014/11/how-smart-connected-products-are-transforming-competition

I recently had the opportunity to listen to Lizzie Harrison talk about social media issues currently facing South.  Lizzie works with Emma Sadleir, well known Social Media lawyer. The talk was a wake-up call about how careful organisations and individuals must be about what they post, like and share on social media. I loved the simple rules that she spoke about but most memorable and I think the best piece of advice she gave was to ask the question “would your mother approve?” BEFORE posting, liking or sharing.

Social media is part of everyday life. It’s tons of fun, often very interesting and occasionally educational even for people like myself. However, every now and then it can cause irreparable damage…. So don’t post, like or share unless you have done the ‘what would mom say’ test. And if you not sure then DON’T.

Lizzie also reminded us that anything in the social media space is both public and for ever… so while you might think a post can be taken down it actually remains in the ‘cloud’ and therefore in the public domain.

This is a new phenomenon which society is just getting to understand. Be safe rather than sorry as you explore and enjoy this new and exciting [albeit sometimes scary] media.

Peter Senge in his book the Fifth Discipline says; “executives need to realise that in this world of rapid change and increasing interdependence, learning is too important to be left to chance”.

While Senge wrote this book in 1995 these words are still very relevant today.

Creating an authentic learning organisation is not something that is left to the Human Resources department. This has to be an all-out effort from everyone involved in the business. Leaders must play their part but so too the employees.

Successful marketing is about developing a truly differentiated brand.

In my view a great brand start with amazing people. People are amazing when they are as developed as can be for the tasks they need to perform.

The conclusion is simple; if you want to have a great brand you need great people. Great people are on top of their game all the time. Great people embrace learning as part of their daily routine.

Therefore, to build and sustain a great brand, an organisation must build and sustain an authentic learning culture.

Ref: https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.solonline.org/resource/collection/0D48369E-E380-4F77-87DF-F37B4BB3D44E/Senge_(1996)_Leading_Learning_Organization.pdf

Every year a new buzzword does the rounds at boardroom tables. Last year ‘bespoke’ was the word I kept hearing… This year I regularly hear the word ‘disruption’ which is often linked to innovation.

The article published in the Harvard Business Review in December 2015 [R1512B] is the perfect reference for people that use these words, or hear the words and want to get a deeper understanding of the underlying theory. The authors Christensen, Raynor and Mac Donald lament that “the theory’s core concepts have been widely misunderstood and its basic tenents frequently misapplied”. They continue to explain that disruption is a process, often building new business models, sometimes succeeding and sometimes not. They further warn against the mantra “disrupt or be disrupted”.

Disruptive innovation certainly is a tool to consider. Using it wisely can be the answer to your business challenge or the route to your next business opportunity.

Ref: https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovation?cm_sp=Magazine%20Archive-_-Links-_-Previous%20Issues