social media

How Are Your Marketing Strategy and Plans?

October 11, 2018 By kwmccarthy

Tactical terror is on the face of many a business person these days thanks to the fundamental shift in marketing due to the internet, especially as it relates to social media. Despite all the change, the core of marketing remains much the same as it has for the past 50 years.

In today’s On-Purpose^® Business Minute, may I introduce you to the importance of purpose in your marketing strategy and plans?

Purpose brings the power, spirit, or juice to the business model and marketing plan that engages employees, customers, and shareholders alike, yet each differently.

Before you design that new website or write that new brochure or ad, please give the fundamentals of great marketing the investment of your time and energy on the front end. It will save you a ton of time and money on the back end.

Having the fundamentals of marketing in place provides a higher probability that your goals will be met or exceeded.

Regardless of your company size, do you feel overwhelmed, confused, or frustrated with your present marketing strategy and plans?
Are you facing the tactical terror of chasing your tail and not getting the results you want?

Please place On-Purpose Partners CMO Services on your mind to help you order, focus, build, and expand your business so it can go to the next level of performance. If you need help, please drop me an email at kwmccarthy@on-purpose.com.

As promised, here is a link to the Marketing Mix concept by Jerome McCarthy, the author of Basic Marketing (and who is not related to me).

Do You Have a Funny View On-Purpose?

June 26, 2018 By kwmccarthy

Classic OP Minute from Nov. 17, 2009

Purpose statements are challenging to write.

Most who write them are confused about the basic concept and structure so the end product is flawed, often with humorous benefit. Some are just poking fun or trying to be funny.

In today’s On-Purpose^® Minute I’ve culled from Twitter some “enlightening” points of view about the purpose of life. I hope you’ll find the wit and wisdom refreshingly entertaining.

To follow me on Twitter, I’m @kevinwmccarthy. For Twitter users, if you want to reference some on-purpose work, then please use #onpurpose.

Have you seen some funny thoughts about the purpose of life?

Please share them below.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

What Is Your Social Media Currency?

March 29, 2018 By kwmccarthy

You’re sitting at the keyboard staring yet again at your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn login. Yep, you set up your profiles on various social media sites, but as a business person you’re wondering:

Why am I doing this social media effort?
Does Facebook for business make sense?
How do I get the most followers on Twitter?
Are my LinkedIn connections too many or not enough?
What LinkedIn groups should I join?
Who wants to be friends with me?
What in the world am I doing on all these social networking sites?

In a prior On-Purpose Business Minute, I posed the question: What’s the Deal with Social Media? You were encouraged to make sure the purpose of your organization, business design, business strategy, and marketing strategies were in place and aligned. Now, let’s explore a simple, yet powerful traditional step you can make to bridge the relationship of your marketing and social media channels.

Develop your “Social Media Currency,” a term I’m coining (pun) to help my fellow business persons who are awkwardly pounding away with tweets, posts, discussions, chats, and IMs. A little direction can go a long way as you’re learning your way in the world of social networking.

Currency is a store of value; therefore, social media currency is your virtual store of value associated with your online (and real) personality, brand, and identity.

The more I learn about social media and social networks, the more I realize how little has changed in the world of business strategically. Sure, these online mediums shift the means of communication, but the very essence of it still rests on the fundamentals of solid marketing and execution.

Your social media currency is a place or channel-specific extension of your business brand personality.

If I say Apple Inc, you’re probably thinking about your iPod, Mac, or iPhone and attribute the brand qualities like “cool design, youthful, creative, and easy to use.” If I say IBM, your descriptors might be “corporate, smart, safe, mature, and powerful.” Or invest 18 minutes to watch the amazing brand development presentation by Coca-Cola found in this On-Purpose Business Minute to see a great example.

In short, your brand personality permeates your culture, customer service, hiring, product development, and so forth as an essential intangible currency of the relationship that builds consistency and trust. Veer too far from it and your brand value proposition is eroded as your customers are confused. Confusion and doubt damage your value.

How to Coin Your Social Media Currency

You’re probably not the CEO of a major corporation, but a SOHO, small-business person, salesperson, agent, or such. This is all the more reason why being smart online can pay for you and your business. You don’t have the big budget, ad agency, or marketing department defining core marketing strategies.

Early in my foray into social media, Mark Carbone, a business associate, encouraged me to articulate what he calls the “Five Pillars” for my online presence. Immediately, it made sense to me. After asking clients to give me five words to describe me, here is what I got back in rank order as my brand personality: Insightful, Authentic, Confident, Entrepreneurial, Spiritual.

My business partner, Mary Tomlinson, who used to head up Walt Disney World’s internal ad agency, and I often help our business advisory clients develop their brand personality. Same basic concept, just a corporate version.

Thanks to Mark and Mary’s training, my social media currency is defined with five words that describe me.

So, What is your Brand Personality?

Give it some thought for you. What five words best describe your brand personality? Engage the help of business peers, associates, clients, employees, etc., by asking them to give you a list of the five words that they think collectively best describe you.

When you’re finished with your words, use the comment section to post them. Then, you can tell me what five words best describe me. Thanks!

Now, go out and wisely invest your social media currency.

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

Why Is My Business Struggling?

December 21, 2017 By kwmccarthy

Fortune 1000 company CEOs and small start-up business owners who have yet to make $1,000 often share the same problem—a business struggling to succeed. Economic conditions can definitely have an effect.

Many of the business challenges I see, however, are self-inflicted!

Business problems due to lack of sales revenue are most often addressed at the surface level—”We need a new website, lower prices, more salespeople, and so forth.” Sales and marketing are obvious places to look by the entrepreneur or even seasoned CEO.

Business solutions like these are where hordes of consultants and advisors earn their fees. Most often they are well earned and justified.

But wait—there’s more!

My experience as a business advisor for CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies and one person start-ups tells me that these tactical plans and approaches to problem businesses are often futile. It leaves the business struggling and focused on the wrong activities, even if well intended.

The culprit of many a business challenge lies below the surface.

If the basic business design, model, and plan have flaws then the entire business is off the mark. The larger the business, the more it lives within the corporate culture—for better or worse. Even a small defect at the core of the business can be expensive.

What To Do

Watch this video on The On-Purpose Business Plan. Invest 9 minutes right now. This will help you find undiscovered wealth within your business. As you’re watching ask yourself if your business has this kind of thinking and structure in place and developed. Better yet, ask yourself the value of it if you did have it in place. When you build your business on your purpose, then you’re capable of offering a full-bodied expression of your business instead of the typically tactical and anemic offerings of today.

If something is missing in your business … it is probably here!

2. Do This: STOP! = Start Thinking On-Purpose!

How to do that: Try this simple exercise. Write down your “truths” about your business. This could include your assumptions about your customers, the market conditions, what it takes to sell, the benefits and features of your product or service, costs, the quality of your team or delivery … you get the idea. Jot down what you hold as a reality or truth in your business. These are your assumptions and concepts.

Next, take your list to two or three people outside your industry and ask them to review the list and to tell you their take on your observations plus their thoughts and perceptions. Avoid defensiveness. Wear your R&D and market research hat and listen—don’t tell—and just ask.

Finally, interview a few customers or targeted prospects to learn if your truths are reality or simply impressions that constrain your business development and growth. Ponder it and then adjust accordingly!

Business Building: A “ME” or a “WE” Business?

December 7, 2017 By kwmccarthy

Business building is exciting.

Don’t let the excitement get the better of you. There’s a fork in the road in your business design that is too easily missed or goes unrecognized. The strategic and performance implications are profound.

If you are planning to start up a small business or are already running one, then you have a deep leadership decision about the orientation and attitude of your business as a “ME” business or a “WE” business. This orientation will play a major role in defining your corporate culture as well as the long-term sustainability of your organization—even its viability to be sold.

Here are two basic ways to go about business building:

M.E. = My Ego

W.E. = Winning for Everyone

Many professionals’ offices and mom and pop businesses are “ME” businesses simply by default or lack of knowing any better. “ME” businesses may provide adequate customer service, but they are more likely a source of periodic customer service nightmare stories.

Being a business advisor for over three decades, I’ve observed that most ME businesses do not have happy endings for the business owners who are unaware of the “ME or WE” business model. Either the business success is so dependent on the person that there isn’t a viable exit strategy, or the reputation of the business is so poor there’s no goodwill worth buying.

The employees are workers doing the owner’s bidding, so in the boss’s absence they’re lost or unable to act independently.

Sale of the business is next to impossible, or it will be bought for pennies on the dollar.

Family members capable who would be a logical part of the succession planning have long since departed the scene to carve their own way. Or worse, they’re still around as dependents. This latter situation can get ugly fast.

Generally, these ME enterprises close when the dominant or alpha personality departs by either retirement or death. If by chance, the business is sold, the valuations are almost always discounted or only asset-valuations based because the business is so revenue and operationally dependent upon the owner.

However, if you’re unwilling, unable, or just don’t care about the long-term sustainability or saleability of the business, and if you’ve made an informed decision about having a “ME” business, then press into it all the way.

As long as you’re building a ME business by design and you understand the downside and can accept it, then there’s nothing inherently wrong with just shutting the doors when you’re done.

“WE” businesses are looking for win-win outcomes for everyone involved.

Candidly, the “Everyone Profits” mindset is a challenge to design, create, and execute, but done well is far easier to sustain and manage. (Here’s a huge tip: use The On-Purpose Business Plan as a guide.) When the people thrive, the business is more likely to follow suit.

An owner who cares about people infuses that attitude to the employees, who pass it along to the customers, who in turn send their referrals.

The spirit of customer service begins with a decision about whom the business serves. If you’ve never thought about your business orientation as “ME” or “WE,” then invest a few minutes to take a hard look in the mirror. I promise you that you can improve your lifestyle, position, and business performance if you will make a decision regarding your business orientation and then take it deeply one way or the other.

Don’t stay in the mushy middle. Pick a direction and run to it.

The On-Purpose^® Approach is a service concept with “WE” checks and balances. Yes, it is more difficult to design and develop, but it brings a sustainable and durable dimension to the business. If you need help forming or transforming your “WE” business, let us know. We have business advisors who can guide you regardless of the size of your business.

On-Purpose Profile: Hugh MacLeod of GapingVoid.com

March 9, 2011 By kwmccarthy

permissions granted for use of the above cartoon by Hugh MacLeod

In spite of my classic business education and conservative ways, I have a deep appreciation for artists who tear into the essence of the human condition to challenge the traditionally held views of society. All is not right since that one bite in the Garden of Eden.

A recent post I saw in Copyblogger.com by Hugh MacLeod inspired me to dig into his story. His artwork brought a smile of irreverent recognition for the prevalent challenges with so many in the workforce. Hugh's website, GapingVoid.com, includes a number of edgy "Cube Grenades" that he fiendishly lobs into the lives of his corporate captive audiences. Take a scroll around his cartoon log. Be sure to subscribe to his daily cartoons for an emotionally explosive reminder of how your work can be a noble expression of your purpose… or not!

If you're a fan of the hit TV show The Office, then for sure, Hugh's artwork will curl your lips upward. A bit of parody mixed with a dose of purpose may be just the recipe for prodding you to be on-purpose.

Hugh provides us with a great example of a person with a love and talent for something that doesn't fit the mold of what's expected. Instead of compromising who he is to become someone he isn't, he's growing who he is in order to be more of whom he can become. Sure, he's working hard at it! Sure, you're working hard too. Hugh provides yet another profile of a person building a life where the inner work and outer work are aligned and integrated in a productive and profitable manner.

Thanks Hugh for your Cube Grenades that blow holes in the facade of living with contented, unexamined mediocrity. You're encouraging us all to step into the boldness of being on-purpose: Be Yourself> Prosper> Make A Difference.