Games are invading the real world

Games are invading the real world -- and the runaway popularity of Farmville and Guitar Hero is just the beginning, says Jesse Schell. At the DICE Summit, he makes a startling prediction: a future where 1-ups and experience points break "out of the box" and into every part of our daily lives.

PS3 Games - E3 2012 - Guitar Hero 5

Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Jesse Schell, dives into a world of game development which will emerge from the popular "Facebook Games" era.

Related Information:
Games maybe your only chance to attract the best and brightest talent
The Common Thread of Design Thinking, Service Design and Lean Marketing
Continuous Improvement Sales and Marketing Toolset
The Common Thread of Design Thinking, Service Design and Lean Marketing

Will Lean always internalize the customer?

I was in a recent LinkedIn discussion that referred to Sales and Marketing customer as being the internal organization and their role was to optimize the throughput of the observation. The sales and marketing role was further explained in the terms of takt time based on optimal production of the organization. The goal of sales is to keep the factory optimized?

I respectfully disagreed based on this reasoning.

You can (maybe) do that if you have excess demand. You can then try to improve efficiencies. However, most of us live in a world that supply exceeds demand. It is not about getting rid of waste. We have excess capacity. Tell me a company that won't accept more prospects into their sales funnel or are refusing orders. In sales and marketing you have to drive revenue. I believe that the role of continuous improvement and Lean lies in this area versus the area of waste.

I have a problem understanding applying takt time in relation to sales and marketing. Theoretically, it sounds great but in actuality how does it apply with Takt Time= Net Available Time per Day / Customer Demand per Day. Who determines the acceptable and projected Takt Time for sales and marketing? Is customer demand determined by the capacity of the operations? Or is it by market share?

How can you have takt time without customer demand? Can an internal measurement be relevant to sales? If it is the measurement that we force sales to use, it is not a Lean process. We are pushing in lieu of pulling. Pull comes from the marketplace and is one of the principles of Lean. Holding sales and marketing to an internal measurement that has little if any meaning to the marketplace or the customer confuses me. The fundamental question could be what the marketplace demand is and what our percentage of that market is. That leads into the questions of retention and acquisition. Setting targets in those areas would drive the process of sales and marketing, innovation and hold operations accountable to a realistic level.

The metrics we have been traditional using are based on an economy with excess demand. Since we live an economy that has excess supply, fundamental beliefs must change. Sales and Marketing does need a process for improvement but it is one that must be created from the marketplace and I actually believe the principles of Lean are best suited for that journey.

Another wayward thought or the truth about Process Improvement in Marketing?

I came across a blog post by Brad Powers (a recent podcast guest) on the Harvard Business Review, How Marketing Can Lead Process Improvement. In reading the post the communication with customers seems to be orchestrated. As a result, the examples discussed seem archaic and more an extension of a command and control function than one of empowerment. It left me wondering if there are examples of sales and marketing teams that are being empowered.

Just calling something continuous improvement does not mean that it is. Continuous improvement is not a series of pilot tests and deployment. Rather it is empowering your workforce to practice it every day. In modern organizations it is the practice and the power of continuous improvement that is driving results. Factory workers, Software Programmers and Health Care professionals, to name just a few are being empowered as problem solvers and knowledge workers. I would think that the sales and marketing structure should be leading the way versus being the laggards.

There is not a more important function in sales and marketing than the ability to share and create knowledge with your customer. In the 3 examples given in Brad’s post, I see the key terms optimize, experiments, research versus words like cooperation, co-create, community and surprisingly “value”. I see that heads of marketing need to spend time with employees rather that interact with customers. What’s wrong with spending time directly with customers?

There are companies doing this. A good example is many of the gaming companies that interact regularly with their players. They are highly influenced by the top players and not only seek their opinions but join in and play with them. The players I have discussed this with are amazed at the access they have to top management. Other examples include SalesForce, BMW, Lego, Kraft and P & G.

A customer does not realize any value from your product/service till he uses it. When you view your product/service as an enabler of value creation versus the center of value than you can see how increasing knowledge flows between you and your customer is at the center of sales and marketing. Value is an input to your company not an output. There is only one person that determines the value of your organization and that is the customer. I think many continuous improvement methodologies have hijacked the term customer. It is not an internal person. The customer is the person that purchases and uses the product.

When viewing Lean and PDCA as a knowledge creation vehicle versus a waste reduction tool, Lean becomes applicable to sales and marketing. Without this understanding, I see little hope for Lean in the sales and marketing process.

Related Information:
In love with your products more than your customers?
The Service-dominant Logic of Marketing: Dialog, Debate, And Directions
If all of us need to be marketers, what’s the framework?
7 Principles of Universal Design & Beyond
The Common Thread of Design Thinking, Service Design and Lean Marketing

Is your marketing firm having this conversation with you?

Essential concept in the new way of thinking about Marketing the SD Logic, is that customers are always co-creators of value... It's the way that the customer sees value, whether it's in the physical good, or if it's in a service or a combination of both of those and if they don't see benefit to them they're not going to engage with you.

So, is your marketing firm having this conversation with you? If words like SD-Logic, Service Dominant, Co-Creation, Value in Use, Customer Decision Making Process, Experience Economy, etc. are not just part of your normal marketing conversation, you may need to re-consider your marketing communication efforts. 

Related Information:
5 Cs of Driving Market Share
How new is Service Dominant Logic and does it apply now?
Will Product Managers embrace Open Innovation?
Putting Customer Value in the Product Lifecycle
Lean Sales and Marketing Cycles are Knowledge Building Tactics

Knowledge Management Game eBook

Jack Vinson, a Knowledge Management and Theory of Constraints expert, was my guest on the Business901 Podcast, The New Knowledge Management Game. This is a transcription of the podcast with four pages of additional material that was cut from the podcast. 

The New Knowledge Management Game

Jack has been a knowledge management advocate and technology enthusiast and is the president of Knowledge Jolt, Inc., a knowledge management consultancy (2004 - 2007). He is deeply interested in how people work, whether that is as individuals, in small groups or within organizations. Within Knowledge Jolt, he focuses on helping organizations understand how they use their information.

Related Information:
The Perfect Storm has come together of Excess Capacity and Product Variety
Theory of Constraints equals Focus and Leverage
Using the Theory of Constraints in Services
Problem Solving – Think 3, Not 5
Improve throughput, cut your customers in half!

Can we build organizations to foster good ideas?

New ideas come from networks and forming new networks create new ideas! People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the "liquid networks" of London's coffee houses to Charles Darwin's long, slow hunch to today's high-velocity web.

Great story on how GPS was discovered. Fascinating!

Related Posts:
Is the war room Still Useful?
Practical Approach to Innovation used by Disney
Lessons from Escaping the Improvement Trap
Outside in Strategy– Customer Value
Storyboards give Insights to Space and Time

Are you an influencer?

The word of business is changing. Your typical hierarchy structured in an organization chart may still exist but the age of communication has really changed the work structure and who is influencing the way you do work and from a marketing perspective how your customer is influenced. 

Learn the basic concepts of influencing through this video: 

INFLUENCERS is a short documentary that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment.
The film attempts to understand the essence of influence, what makes a person influential without taking a statistical or metric approach. Written and Directed by Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson, the film is a Polaroid snapshot of New York influential creatives (advertising, design, fashion and entertainment) who are shaping today's pop culture.
"Influencers" belongs to the new generation of short films, webdocs, which combine the documentary style and the online experience.

INFLUENCERS FULL VERSION from R+I creative on Vimeo.

For more information:
influencersfilm.com
facebook.com/​influencersfilm

Good book on how to adjust to this new structure: Make Work Great: Super Charge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture, and Gain Influence One Person at a Time (A definitive guide for today’s multicultural, decentralized business environment)

Related Posts:
Why Lean Marketing? Because it is the Future of Marketing
Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or is it just a Marketing Funnel?
The Pull in Lean Marketing
Are you focusing on your customers conversations?
What happens when the factory goes away?
The Death of the Marketing Calendar – Part1

Outside in Strategy– Value

I did a podcast with Christine Moorman, the co-author of the book (Amazon Link) Strategy from the Outside In: Profiting from Customer Value. As you know from browsing my site, I have a strong belief that Customer Value is not old hat. I think it is a pretty important item to have on your agenda. However, the way you and your organization look at it could possibly use a little tweaking and her book is a great way to start. For more information visit the McGrawhill Website: Strategy from the Outside In Website.

Excerpt From the McGrawHillPro You Tube Site:

We've spent years looking at these companies (and many less successful ones) searching for patterns and commonalities that explain their stellar results, and we've concluded that they offer these important lessons: * These companies approach strategy from the outside in. They begin with the market, not their own capabilities. While that may sound easy, it is incredibly difficult. In the vast majority of companies inside-out thinking dominates practice and inevitably leads to eroding customer value and company profits. * These companies invest in generating and deploying unique market insights to inform and guide their outside-in view. They don't guess or fly blind. * These companies focus every part of the organization on achieving, sustaining and profiting from customer value.

These actions are the major focus of our book because we find it's what really distinguishes market leaders from other companies that are just muddling through over the long-run. Market leaders stay focused on creating and profiting from customer value by excelling at four principles we call the customer value imperatives.

In Strategy from the Outside In, we explain that the key to lasting and highly profitable success is the ability to compete on and profit from customer value using the customer value imperatives. We show this means seeing, operating and living from the outside in. It means always building strategy on market insight, and ensuring that every part of the company puts customer value first.

We will take you from theory to practice, with an emphasis on real world stories, practical models, and usable metrics so that you can profit from customer value. From the outside in.

Related Posts:
Lean Marketing Creates Knowledge for the Customer
Profiting from Customer Value
Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or is it just a Marketing Funnel?
The Pull in Lean Marketing
Value Stream Marketing and the Indirect Marketing Concept
Are you focusing on your customers conversations?

Jason Fried, 37 Signals, Marketing by Sharing

Jason Fried is the co-founder and President of 37signals, a privately-held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary. 37signals' products include Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire, Ta-da List, and Writeboard. 37signals also developed and open-sourced the Ruby on Rails programming framework. 37signals' products do less than the competition - intentionally. Jason believes there's real value and beauty in the basics. Elegance, respect for people's desire to simply get stuff done, and honest ease of use are the hallmarks of 37signals products

Great Lesson on marketing by Jason. If you have not read Rework, Jason co-authored this, you should. His emphasis on sharing is very interesting. He has one blog post that has had 800,000 views and linked by 700,000 other sites.

Related Post:
Developing a Minimum Viable Product
Can you Master Continuous Improvement?
If Nothing Bad Happens, You Must Be Doing Something Right?

Measuring The Customer Experience

Even Forrester Research keeps their measurements simple.

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent technology and market research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. For more than 24 years, Forrester has been making leaders successful every day through its proprietary research, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. Learn more at www.forrester.com

Related Posts:
Marketing Effectiveness
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Use Intuition or Six Sigma for your Marketing Data?

if your constraint is in the marketplace, Do this!

My guest this and week was “Dr. Lisa” Lang. She is considered the foremost expert in the world in applying Theory of Constraints to Marketing and currently the President of the Science of Business. She recently served as the Global Marketing Director for Dr Goldratt who is the father of Theory of Constraints and author of The Goal. Dr Lisa has a PhD in Engineering and is a TOCICO certified expert in Theory of Constraints. She is currently serving on the TOCICO Board of Directors.

This week podcast centered on applying the Theory of Constraints externally or when your Constraint is in the market place. Dr. Lisa offers some great ideas on how to market utilizing the Theory of Constraints and creating that all important "Mafia Offer." If you would like to learn more about the Mafia Offer, go to Dr. Lisa's website the Science of Business.

Dr. Lisa is the author of 3 books: Maximizing Profitability, Achieving a Viable Vision, Increasing Cash Velocity, and Mafia Offers is due out in May 2010. Science of Business specializes in increasing profits of highly custom businesses and applying Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma to sales and marketing, having developed the Mafia Offer Boot Camp, Velocity Scheduling System, and Project Velocity System.

Before becoming a consultant, Dr Lisa was in operations, strategic planning, purchasing, R&D, and quality while working for Clorox, Anheuser-Busch and Coors Brewing. She is known for having developed the Anheuser-Busch plastic beer bottle. In addition to consulting, Dr Lisa is a highly sought after Vistage/TEC speaker on “Maximizing Profitability”. Dr Lisa also provides professional keynote speeches and workshops for organizations like: TLMI, ASC, NTMA, MCAA, NAPM and private events for corporations like: TESSCO, Bostik, GE, Pfizer and Sandvik Coromant.

P.S. The Mafia offer is only as good as what you have created using the Theory of Constraints internally. Listen to Part 1 of this podcast first, Theory of Constraints equals Focus and Leverage

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Technorati Tags: theory of constraints,marketing,mafia boot camp,manufacturing,machining,velocity

Big Book of Marketing interview with Author Anthony Bennett

I had the pleasure of interviewing Anthony Bennet editor of the new book, THE BIG BOOK OF MARKETING released in January 2010 by McGraw-Hill on the Business901 Podcast. The book is based on material developed for one of Georgetown University Business School’s most popular marketing courses, THE BIG BOOK OF MARKETING is a unique and comprehensive guide to essential marketing practices from the world’s best marketers. The 86 companies represented in the book are industry leaders representing a range of goods and services, high-tech and low-tech industries, and industrial and consumer fields. Each chapter offers their real-life lessons and practical takeaways on every topic necessary for marketers to master today. This is a transcription of that podcast.

Big Book of Marketing Ebook

Podcast: Big Book of marketing from Atlas Air to Boeing

Related Posts: Lean Marketing House

Technorati Tags: Marketing,Brand,Busienss Development,Indistry,Marketing Practice

Content Marketing Secrets from The Ritz Carlton

These guys are just all over my radar screen lately. Read the rest of this post from Content Marketing Today, and written by Newt Barrett

Supurb In Person Content Marketing: Continuous process improvement enables great people to function in an optimal way. For example, the ability to promise immaculately clean rooms in which everything works is the result of processes that have been established for that express purpose. The successful operation of each hotel property is the end result determining how to optimize each critical process that leads to a wonderful guest experience. Done right, optimum results are achieved with great efficiency of effort.

In Person Content Marketing Lessons You Can Apply to Your Business

1. You need to put the right people in the right positions. For example, at Conditioned Air in Naples, FL, they work very hard to make sure that those individuals who work closely with customers truly enjoy and thrive from regular customer interaction.
2. Developand keep improving processes that make it easy for your team to succeed. Don’t let a lack of process or bad processes make it hard for them to keep your customers happy.
3. Happyemployees who, in turn, makes customers happy will motivate your customers to sell your products for you by sharing their positive experiences. Since so much of that sharing now winds up on the web, the world will soon know how wonderful your company is–or isn’t.

My other post about Content Marketing

 

Technorati Tags: ritz-carlton, marketing,in-person content marketing,customer service,quality,process improvement,

The Makings Of A Perfect Lean Market

Beyond Lean: The Perfect Lean Market: While 80% of manufacturers have lean initiatives, less than 1% have lean practices in place. This article was written by Pamela Lopker, president and chairman of QAD Inc. She went on to say, "The Makings Of A Perfect Lean Market - There are three primary attributes to a perfect lean market. Clarity is one: The second attribute of a perfect lean market is agility, responsiveness to changes in the marketplace. But lean practices won't get information to the right place at the right time. That's where technology can introduce agility, through systems that can receive and process information quickly, even instantly, through automation. Unity is the third attribute of a perfect lean market. Getting information to the right place at the right time can fuel that kind of unity."

She was talking about the waste in supply change management practices. But when I read it, the correlation to Lean Marketing is very apparent.

1. Clarity: How many times have you looked at a marketing piece and questioned the meaning, the reason for it or maybe you just tossed it. We encourage  marketing pieces to be educational or a call to action that ultimately has a benefit for the customer as a result of a response.

2. Agility: I do not mean responding to the marketing idea of the week but having a process in place that allows you to have active content. This can be easily done with a company blog and with joint participation the excuse of a time factor is completely removed. The only factor that matters now is the accountability factor.

3. Unity: This is the most neglected attribute. Your marketing to be effective is not a one-way street anymore. It is about communication. Building platforms that your organization can increase the communication with your customer is the actions we take by monitoring news about our customers, building social sites that allow our customers to post, blog and add videos on their own. Being transparent and mixing it up in front of your customers is maybe the largest selling feature you can have.

Takend form a recent post on Business901.

Technorati Tags: Lean Market,Lean Marketing,Lean Six Sigma,Manufacturer Marketing,Industry Week,QAD

Succeeding in an Economic Downturn

"ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom dedicated to Marketing, Advertising and the Creative Process" -

Succeeding in an Economic Downturn by Jim Kasper To succeed in a down economy, you’ll need to step up your sales game. Here are eight adjustments you need to make to keep selling during these tough times.

The affects of the 2008 economic stimulus package presented by the President and Congress are long gone and there's talk of another one. The news about the $700 billion dollar "bailout" and global recessionary trends are dominating the headlines. Add to that the distress caused by election year politics and we, as professional salespeople, have been challenged to remain focused and productive in a slowing economy. Economists are predicting a tough calendar 2008 fourth quarter and a sluggish 2009, but our role in sales dictates that we need to attack rather than react. Selling in a tough economy requires extra effort, better planning, more control of your sales cycle and tenacity. Remember one thing: The top 2% of all salespeople automatically turn up their activity a couple more notches when things get tough. By doing so, they're the ones who'll be standing tall when the economy turns around. The top 2% do this because:

• They are true competitors and hate to lose.
• They have been in this position before and learned what it takes to win in an economic turndown.
• They refuse loss of income.

Below are eight ideas to help you sell like a "top 2 percenter" in a tough economy:

Double and triple your call activity Honestly, your competitors do not have the stuff to compete under these circumstances. Average salespeople buy into the "woe is me" philosophy and decrease sales activity. The top 2% know that an economic slowdown is an opportunity to edge out competitors.

Re-allocate your field time Work more with your "A" accounts and in lieu of your "B" and "C" ones. Your purpose should be two-fold: 1) Your top producing accounts have the capacity to buy more from you; that's what makes them "A" accounts; and, 2) You'll be securing your position with these accounts from potential attempts by the competition to wrest them away. Don't allow that to happen! Remember, this business cycle is affecting your competition too and they'll be aggressively looking at your "A" accounts as a source of new business.

Examine prospecting efficiency Both rookie and veteran sales professionals tend to let their prospecting slide when times are good. As a result, their prospecting skills and prospect targeting abilities get rusty. This is a good time for you to hammer out your prospective customer dimensions. In other words, delineate what your ideal prospect looks like. Then, identify key prospects in your area and proceed to develop your capture and execution plans.

Fire stalled prospects and move on Your income and success depend upon calling on true prospects and current customers who can (and will) do more business with you. Assess the prospects you are calling on and don't be afraid to "fire" them, particularly if your extra effort is not showing any results. Remember that you have a business objective for every call you make. If you don't, your call will be reduced to a social nature and you don't get paid for those.

Go the extra mile for customers and increase value-added activities You need to be creative in low or no-cost ways to help your accounts cut costs or stimulate new business. Go out of your way for your top accounts. Now is the time to establish yourself as a source for best practices. Share ideas on how your other accounts have benefited.

Make every call count Be prepared to make the most of every call. What value are you deriving from each customer visit? Who is controlling the call – you or the customer? Experience and research have demonstrated that formal pre-call planning generates more successful outcomes for all sales activities. You should never take sales call effectiveness for granted – especially in tough economic times. The days of "blowing through" a call are over. The simple fact is that you are paid to move the customer to the next stage in your sales cycle. In today's economic climate, you've got too much at risk not to plan for success. Now, more than ever, craft a strategy to overcome such objections as:

"Until things improve, we're not undertaking new projects." "Now is not the time to change. We need to stay with our current supplier." "With economic conditions as they are, we're looking for low-price suppliers."

Write a long list of discovery questions that will uncover hidden opportunities.

Plan to succeed You will not survive an economic slowdown by simply hoping that you sell more or your current customer base buys more. Account planning, territory planning, and pre-call planning are the keys to efficient selling in a down economy. It's time to review account plans or develop them, if you haven't already. Account plans are your road map to selling more to your "A" accounts. It may be time to reassess pricing or bundling in order to pick off some of your competitors' offerings. In addition, you should ask yourself the following questions:

• How efficiently are you managing your territory?
• How much time do you spend traveling? Are you touching all of the accounts you need to?
• How many of your prospect calls are interspersed within current account visits within your territory?
• What accounts are at risk and what actions have you taken to reduce that risk?
• What value added activities are you planning for your key accounts?

Reassess your priorities This is not the time to perfect your golf swing or take extended take extended time off. This is the time to dig in and take charge of your sales activities. By doing so, you'll be able to survive the current tough times and will be positioned to reap the benefits when the economy bounces back because you'll be ahead of your competitors who didn't!

From: Jim Kasper is the founder and president of Interactive Resource Group. Mr. Kasper has over 26 years of practical experience in direct sales, sales management, sales training, and marketing. Contact him at www.salestrainers.com or call 800-891-7355.

via "ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom dedicated to Marketing, Advertising and the Creative Process" -

Focus On Digital Marketing

 

Here's an old sales question for you:

Is it easier to sell one person one item for one million dollars, or to sell one million people something that costs one dollar?

It's not a trick question and the logic goes that it's much easier to sell one person something for one million dollars.

Here's the challenge: don't get sucked into the mass media mind-set when it comes to online.

The Digital Marketing channel offers you the ability and the channel to focus.

Harness it. Check out Mitch Joel's entire blog at

Six Pixels of Separation

Tags: advertising business chris anderson cpm digital channel digital marketing ebay marketing mass media

50 Easy ways to Improve Your Twitter Experience

 

By Jessica Merritt

Twitter is an excellent, addictive tool for getting connected socially and building your personal brand. It’s also a simple tool, but there’s a lot you can do to improve upon it. Make use of these tips, tools, and other resources to make your Twitter experience better than ever.

50 Easy ways to Improve Your Twitter Experience

Good post just for nothing else to open your eyes at what you can do with 120 characters.

Technorati Tags: Social Networking,Twitter,Jessica Merritt

More People Using Internet in New Ways, Embracing Web 2.0

Nearly a quarter of the world’s population (some 1.4 billion people) - will use the internet on a regular basis in 2008 - and that number is expected to surpass 1.9 billion, or 30% of the world’s population, in 2012, according to IDC’s Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast.

“The internet will have added its second billion users over a span of about eight year...read more

 

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing,Marketing Charts,Web 2.0

Best of RWW: Making Facebook Useful - ReadWriteWeb

Best of RWW: Making Facebook Useful - ReadWriteWeb

We just can't get enough of this social media stuff, can we? Let me know your thoughts, does anyone care except for marketing people?

Technorati Tags: Social Media,Facebook,Best of RWW,The Marketing Twins

The Origin of Brands Blog

Great summary on social networking,  I  have a tendency to agree with her and think LinkedIn is where I need to be. However the popularity of Facebook is sometimes overpowering.

The Origin of Brands Blog

 

Technorati Tags: Facebook,LinkedIn,Social Networking,Laura Ries

2008 Marketing trends

How does this influence your business in 2008?

• A shift from traditional to alternative media
• A growth spurt for interactive marketing
• More off-line support for online campaigns
  Based on an article by Kim T. Gordon for Entrepreneur.com, expect these trends in 2008:

But don’t jump to quick. Make sure before you ever click on a mouse or upgrade your web presence that you have a solid marketing plan in place and a marketing calendar. Without either you will make costly mistakes. Remember when you do change content you want it change from a static website to a dynamic style. If that is the case, who will be updating it next month?