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The key to being top of mind
A marketing lesson for consultancies from my plumber.
The way people buy things is complicated. Their likes and dislikes are built over time and the specific effects of different elements of marketing are hard to gauge. There is, however, usually one activity that prompts a sale. For consumer goods, it’s usually something simple like an in-store promotion. For consulting firms, such activity is much harder – it’s difficult to target marketing activity at the exact moment someone’s putting together a pitch list.
So how can firms make themselves top of mind when they can’t easily be present at the point of the critical decision?
The best example I’ve seen of staying top of mind at the crucial moment is from my plumber, Ash. He does it using a radiator key. He’s had his phone number etched into hundreds of radiator keys and gives one to every customer. It’s cheap and it’s useful.
Ash’s thinking is that the only time people really worry about their heating is when it isn’t working. And the only thing that most people really know about radiators is how to bleed them.
So if their heating is below par, they bleed their radiators. If that fixes it, great. They’ll hopefully remember Ash gave them that key. If bleeding the radiators doesn’t work, his phone number is in their hand the second they realised they need to call a plumber.
Ash understands his customers and he’s found a way to be top of mind when they need him.
It’s hard for consulting firms to copy Ash. Consultancy purchases are rarely driven by a pressing need and there isn’t a uniform point at which clients decide to write a pitch list. Yet, the fundamentals are the same: you need a useable insight and a creative execution that puts your firm in the room when you’re not physically in the room. That’s the key to being top of mind.
#WickedWords
People often think of some words as good and others as bad. But words are themselves amoral; words are a tool. We load values into them based on the people using them and the purpose to which they are being put.
Sometimes words are used well. Other times they are used poorly. Some people are very good at using words, others make a complete hash of them. Whether you want to convince one person or millions, the better you are with words, the easier it will be.
People can be bad. And bad people can be good with words.
Follow #WickedWords on Twitter and Instagram where we’ll be sharing examples of strong use of words by some of history’s worst people. We’re not lionising them – we’re showing the power of words.
We’ll publish a new quote every Wednesday. Follow #WickedWords on Twitter or Instagram or bookmark this page.
Leopold II
Leopold II reigned over the Belgians as European countries were building empires. This quote captures the lightness with which he described what became the looting of Congo’s wealth, the deaths of millions and one of the biggest scandals of the early 20th century.
Mussolini
With Mussolini fan Donald Trump riding high in the polls, we thought it pertinent to share this gem of Il Duce sharing his views on democracy.
Idi Amin
A seemingly simple reference to his lack of education, Amin frames himself as ‘man of the people’, a deep thinker and dangerously unpredictable in one short sentence.
Genghis Khan
Absolute focus and conviction expressed succinctly by Genghis Khan, who grew one clan into an empire that stretched from the Pacific ocean to the Caspian Sea.
Stalin
Better known for purging people than encouraging differences, Stalin had a knack for using powerful imagery.
Robespierre
From revolutionary hero to key player in the Reign of Terror, Robespierre sent many opponents to the guillotine but was equally sharp with words.
Chairman Mao
Mao Zedong is not known for encouraging debate but, when he did, he did it eloquently.
The properties of reputation
Reputation is both simple and complex. At first glance, it’s very simple indeed; it’s what people think of you. However, when you try to formalise it and then try to measure it, things gets much more tricky.
Borrowing from science, it is sometimes helpful to observe a subject’s properties in order to better understand it.
I’ve listed some of the properties of reputation below. I’ve found them helpful in understanding its complexity and managing it. Do you agree with them? Would you add to them or remove any of them?
Divisible
Reputation is divisible right down to the individual – you can have a different reputation among different groups.
Connected
Reputation is connected – if you change your reputation among one group, your reputation among others might change too.
Clustered
Some people or groups have more influence over your reputation than others.
Irregular
Reputation cannot be accumulated or diminished in standardised units – it cannot be spent like money. This does not mean you cannot draw upon a good reputation during troubling moments
Sticky downward
It’s easier to lose a good reputation than it is to build one.
Reputation: what is it good for?
We focus too much on the value of reputation at the expense of its purpose.
Business leaders increasingly recognise the importance of reputation. But is there too great a focus on the value of a good reputation, instead of asking: a good reputation for what?
Shareholder value skew
Many of the metrics that seek to measure the monetary value of reputation base their models on market capitalisation. This is not dissimilar to the way brand equity is measured. The problem is not only that reputation equity metrics are over a decade late to the party, but a number of research papers point to the deficiencies of focusing on shareholder value for the long term performance of a business.
Shareholder value, when coupled with quarterly reporting, incentivises quick wins over long-term performance. This means firms with large reputation equity values, might be artificially overcooked and see sharp falls in the future. Shareholder value also focuses reputation studies on publicly listed companies and, particularly, US stocks because of the large data sets available about them. This skews our understanding of reputation to one type of company listed in one part of the world. We end up with a very US-centric outlook.
Value, purpose and direction
Reputation is often referred to as a strategic business asset, however, if something is truly strategic, you need to know more about it than its monetary value or whether it is ‘good’. You need to know which factors affect it, where it helps your business, where it’s a hindrance and how it can be deployed advantageously.
London’s black cab drivers have a good reputation. Their vehicles are iconic the world over and they know London intimately. Their great reputation for getting people across the city quickly hasn’t stopped them being Uber’d by a cheaper, on-demand rival whose drivers have satnavs.
Meanwhile, the dabbawalas of Mumbai, who equally have a fantastic global reputation and are also known for getting things across a city quickly, are now working in partnership with Flipkart, an Indian online retailer, to deliver online purchases across Mumbai.
In both examples, the group in question has a good reputation. However, what they have a good reputation for and the context within which they operate mean that while one group sees eroding incomes, the other is growing into new roles.
Disruption
As we see disruption across a number of business sectors, reputation has become one of the few protectable and transferable assets companies have. However, to fully capitalise on your reputation you need to understand its drivers.
Tata Group, the Indian conglomerate, has a reputation for hands off ownership, trusting management and investing in the companies it buys. Its purchase of Jaguar Land Rover saw Tata enter the luxury segment of the automotive market when its previous sector experience was largely limited to manufacturing and selling very basic trucks and buses almost solely for the Indian market.
Jaguar Land Rover has grown strongly under Tata’s ownership following years of anaemic growth under previous owners Ford; a company that on paper had the experience and scale to grow the Jaguar Land Rover brand.
Tata went through extensive discussions with suppliers, union representatives and government officials to reassure them of its plans. Its reputation helped the firm buy its way into a new sector in which it has subsequently built a strong market position.
Strategic view
Reputation can be strategically important and it’s right that chief executives are increasingly showing awareness of this. However, we should move beyond discussions of good or bad when talking about reputation and stop trying to construct value metrics derived from shareholder value.
Only by understanding what companies have a reputation for and the context within which they operate can we provide truly strategic advice on business issues.