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Going for Gold

8/5/2012

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What do the U.S. Olympics Women's Gymnastics and Swim Teams and The Avengers have in common? They have well-assembled teams that get the job done.  Do you have a team that is poised for greatness?  Building or leading a successfully sustainable business is no easy feat, but having the right team in place can get you there.  For the purpose of this post and in keeping with our area of expertise, let's focus on your marketing team.

1) Take a critical look at your current capabilities.
Do you even have a marketing team and if so, is that bench both deep and wide?  If you're a sole proprietor, you should stop fooling yourself into thinking you'll find the time to tackle your marketing needs someday.  Someday means way down the road when growth opportunities have passed you by. If you have a marketing team, what do they cover?  Marketing is more than selling or direct response or advertising.  Do you have the right people ensuring
- the product set is optimal?
- there is a pipeline for new products or services?
- consumer insights are being mined?
- messaging is on target?
- the pricing structure is sound?
- sales tactics make sense?
- product/service delivery meets customer expectations?
- brand delivery is consistent?
Surely, this is beyond marketing, you say.  Actually this is just the tip of the iceberg for stellar marketing teams.

2) Be discerning about who gets on the team.
Time trials and psychological profiles would be overboard, but shouldn't you make sure you have the best people in the right roles? Just because someone has ten years of direct response experience, it doesn't mean that she is your best bet for handling social media.  Similarly, that graphic design agency that also purports to be brand experts may not actually fit the bill. Because marketing is such a wide and compartmentalized discipline, it is critical that you look for specific expertise and skills in the area that needs addressing. In the same way combat strategy fell to Captain America or Allison Schmitt is responsible for the freestyle leg, every team member should have a clear role based on a true area of expertise.  Don't be put off by so-called one-trick ponies.  Sometimes, you need McKayla Maroney to come to London just to do the vault.

3) Set clear expectations and then let them do their thing.
Make sure your team clearly understands the mandate.  Specifically spell out objectives, KPIs, deliverables, parameters, etc.  Give your team your full support and then get out the way.  If you've done a great job in assembling the marketing team, you can rest assured they'll bring you the gold.
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Photos courtesy of London2012.com, washingtonpost.com and IFC.com.
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Branding Restage - Gatorade

6/22/2012

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As a follow-up to our previous post, Gatorade serves as an example of a well-conceived brand restage with results to prove it.

We believe their approach works because
- they knew what problem needed solving before the rebrand. There is no point to rebranding just for the sake of it.  Clear objectives are a must.
- they took a long, careful look at their core consumer (C1) and made the difficult decision to focus more specifically on the core's needs.
- they respected the roots of the Gatorade brand and considered its role within the company (C2)
- they understood that it was crucial to distinguish themselves from competitors (C3) in a truly meaningful way.
In short, the Gatorade team kept its eye on all three Cs.

Just as important, though, they walked the talk. Everything that the new brand stands for is evident in every part of the business - from the product line to where they advertise.  Sound strategy is absolutely critical, but committed execution wins the game.

Fast Company (required reading in our office) shares more of the background and particulars in its article, "How to Redefine a Flagging Brand."
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Are Sports Fans Built from Personal History?

7/7/2011

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If you are like most Americans you neither know nor care that the U.S. men's team recently played in the Gold Cup or that the women's team has just advanced to the quarter-finals of the World Cup.  Although viewership of the Gold Cup finals reached 8.9 million in the U.S. and there are more soccer moms in every American suburb than there are old-growth trees, soccer is still less of a main stream sport in this country.  Along with its cousins, tennis and hockey, soccer just doesn't have the following that football or baseball has.  Super Bowl 2011 brought in over 110 million viewers. Even the 2010 World Series, which some would argue did not have the most interesting teams, enjoyed about 15 million viewers for Game 5.  

Lack of monstrous sponsorship and advertising dollars notwithstanding, I believe one of the reasons behind Americans' lukewarm love for soccer is lack of personal history.  Think about your own experience.  What teams do you follow with a fervor? What sporting events do you just have to watch?  More than likely, there is some thread of personal history involved.  Maybe you completely come alive during Virginia Tech football season because VT is your alma mater and, however subliminally, you equate Tech football with your carefree college days.  Maybe you gnash your teeth for days when the Boston Red Sox fall apart late in the season, because you and your dad (and his dad) spent many a warm afternoon watching them play at Fenway. Sport fanaticism is so personal and so often rooted in history that fans often feel like they are part of the team.

Soccer is still a relatively young sport in the United States and players often have to go abroad to get the experience and training they need to become world-class.  Thus soccer is automatically at a disadvantage for getting into Americans' personal histories.  Over time and as the demographics of the country evolve (i.e. higher proportions of Latin Americans, who revere "football"), soccer may well come into a larger following.  Until then, though, Major League Soccer (MLS) should consider ways to weave itself into the personal histories of American viewers.  Perhaps, MLS can offer " Daddy (or Mommy) & Me" promotions where local, junior soccer players can play a short scrimmage at half-time and get discounted tickets for their parents to watch the rest of the game with their kids.  Should MLS players do more grass-roots marketing such as guest starring at soccer clinics for local clubs?

Tapping into personal history can be an important marketing strategy for any consumer business, not just sports.  Kraft macaroni recently launched Homestyle Deluxe.  No longer are they just offering a quick and easy way to get dinner on the table, but they are tapping into people's history (real or imagined) of homemade mac and cheese lovingly prepared by their mothers.  How can your business tap into consumer's personal history to create growth and loyalty?
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    Author

    Betsy Kirkland, Hat Trick 3C's General Manager, loves branding and marketing so much that she sees opportunities for organizations to strengthen their brands everywhere she turns.

    Author

    Gail Legaspi-Gaull is the founder of Hat Trick 3C.  She lives and breathes marketing - sometimes to the consternation of her husband and kids.

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