April 7, 2009

BE DiFFERENT Practices #7 and #8 - Renew your Organization

A volatile economic presents an opportunity for organizations to renew themselves. This is the fifth instalment of the series that explains how to do it.

BE DiFFERENT Practice #7 - Plan on the Run

Once your execution efforts begin, it is important that you carefully monitor the results you are achieving. I recommend that you develop performance metrics and monitor them on a weekly basis. During recessionary times you can’t afford monthly results tracking; you need immediate feedback so that remedial action can be taken if results fall below expectations.

The Plan on the Run formula is: Plan - Execute - Learn - Adjust - back to Plan. Don’t get fooled to believe that your renewal plan will go as planned. There are always unforeseen events that happen and execution parameters that fall short that require you to make adjustments to your plan on the run. Learn from your ongoing results and adjust your plan accordingly.

BE DiFFERENT Practice #8 - Customerize your Marketing Efforts

Declining customer demand, more rigorous researching by customers before making a purchase decision, acute price sensitivity, expected value for the buck, and intensifying competition are the challenges facing the marketer in an economic downturn.

These ‘business as unusual’ market factors require a DiFFERENT approach to marketing. Marketing 101 is largely a product-centric world where one tries to sell as many products to as many potential customers possible. Customerized marketing, on the other hand, seeks to understand the deep intimate requirements of smaller groups of customers and provide packaged offers that reflect the broad holistic needs of customers in the chosen customer set.

The whole premise of Customerized Marketing is to customize and personalize the Offers to make them as relevant and compelling as you can to the customer and avoid flogging the features and benefits of a narrowly defined product to a more mass market. Unique Offers that have personal relevance and a strong value proposition will definitely be more successful than common products supplied by a number of competing companies.

Stay tuned for more. Cheers, Roy Osing

Blogs in the BE DiFFERENT Practice Series:
Introduction
Practice #1 - Renew your Strategy
Practices #2, #3 and #4 - Focus, Modify Business Processes and Cut the Crap
Practices #5 and #6 - Be Anal about Execution and Set Cost Objectives
Practices #7 and #8 - Plan on the Run and Customerize your Marketing
Practices #9 and #10 - Dazzle your Customers and Sell Intimate Relationships

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Posted 4.7.09 at 05:14 pm by Roy Osing | Read Comments (0) | Leave a Comment