Back in 2014, I was helping brands with their Marketing, typically either auditing existing teams and activities or helped to build our their department and work with teams on workshops and developing long term campaigns.
In a recent googlemail search, I came across a deck I ran through and worked with a large travel company.
The sign that it was a good deck, you could still reuse the majority of the slides.
A go to popular slide that really stood the test of time was:
You Have To Be
- “Kings of content”
- “Queens of data”
- “Chiefs of engagement”
- “Leaders of common sense”
- “Presidents of user signals”
- “CEO of Personalised Marketing”
It dawned on me that these are still true, over the last two years we have slowly seen every brand become a media company, some are media first others are product first with (content) media building trust and audience.
I thought it would be an interesting exercise to review these statements and tweak for 2021.
“Kings of Content” – still true, could be improved with rich media.
“Queens of data” – still true and going to continue to be. The question of needing more internal data vs using external data will be the debate for many businesses moving forward.
“Chiefs of engagement” – still true and requires more handholding and more great content and one to one engagement versus one to many as it was back in 2014.
“Leaders of common sense” – still true and actually should be doubled down on much more now than before. Particularly with the rise of personal brands and multiple brands within businesses.
“Presidents of user signals” – “Presidents Of User Intent” still true however could be improved to user intent. User signals were more specific to the requirement to SEO first businesses in 2014, today intent is a much better metric, signals are still a vital part of the funnel or loop.
“CEO of Personalised Marketing” – still true, however, in today’s world we are now living in an over personalised marketing landscape, this could be improved and optimised to CEO of marketing personally.
NEW: Masters of Distribution – By far the area of marketing and growth that is grossly misunderstood and still too spray and pray versus being more intentional and deliberate in tracking and optimising for the user and each user. This is not easy but the data and tools are available to make the best distribution action plan at a personal level.
Any new product or a product that is winning in 2021 has three components:
1/ User brings their network and creates a must use narrative,
2/ We serve you great & right content – you will share this to your closest friends and family (one to one or one to few) not blast (vs one to everyone) which brings a recommendation referral to the product or service
3/ This product is going to replace one very clear activity or action – we know our audience doesn’t need millions of tools, or one master tool we need one tool that does something brilliantly and bundles or unbundles current below par products.
NEW: Customer Champion – We live in a time of customer power and empowerment. Are we doing enough to market to our customer at the right time for them, on the best channel for them when it is convenient for them? This is the question to answer in 2021 as reducing churn and driving repeat usage, repeat purchases (retention) as we come out of this cycle.
This all means there is a lot of work to do but core principles you can follow and the problems you can answer for you and your customers.
On your next campaign or pitch, consider these statements and build towards making you the Kings of content, Queens of data, Chiefs of engagement, Leaders of common sense, Presidents of user signals, CEO of Personalised Marketing, master of distribution and customer champion.
Important Related Reads To Improve Your Marketing & Growth
In “marketing is” I break down the 9 actions you have to think about to deliver a great campaign.
In the 9p’s Problem, Pick, Plan, Prepare, Predict, Present, Preview, Prove, Proof I offer the steps you need to go through to build out the right process to help internal stakeholders buy into your marketing efforts and succeed as a marketing and growth leader.
If you would like to understand where you are in the brand hierarchy or brand class system read the 7 brand classes.