Quite simply, marketing is the process of connecting customers to our products and services.  For years, marketing plans have guided organizations to achieve their goals. Now with the ever-changing market conditions, plans need to be updated every 9 months.  If you do not adjust marketing strategies, your competition will blow you away. 

The first step in developing an impactful marketing strategy is to analyze the current business and workforce trends.  Here are the trends changing the way we conduct business and the manner in which we attract customers to products and services.

Brand & Customer Loyalty

Organizations spend years building their brand and customer base….and it only takes one unethical situation, a toxic employee, or an unfilled promise to have the brand go up in flames.  What do your customers say about your organization, the board of directors, or the customer service you provide?  Do the products and services fulfill their need? 

Branding is more than a logo or a mark.  A brand is integrity, keeping promises, and earning the trust of a customer.  A brand is about your organization’s reputation.  Reputation is about earning credibility, not expecting it.  Your organization must work hard at building and maintaining credibility so that others are confident about doing business with you.  What do your customers say about your organization’s brand?  Are you willing to correct it?

Word Of Mouth Marketing

Do not under estimate the power of word of mouth (WOM) marketing.  WOM is the passing of information from one person to another in a verbal exchange.  Since the beginning of time, humans have relied on the "grapevine" for recommendations and information from one another for just about anything.  Think about it - how many decisions have you made this week based on a colleague's or family member's recommendation?  What is the best association to belong to?  What is the best certification to have?  Who do you recommend I hire for this position?

WOM marketing has become highly valued because this form of communication has a credible source.  The person communicating the information does not have the ulterior motive that they are out to sell something.  They are speaking with passion and experience to someone they have an established relationship with - definitely a competitive advantage over a direct mail piece or a cold call.  The objective of WOM is about generating a buzz. You want as many consumers, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances as possible talking about your brand, product, or service.  Who are your WOM evangelists?  Are you engaging your customers?  Do you update them on the latest information about your organization?  Are you communicating through the social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, or E-cademy,

Email

How do your customers want to be communicated with?  Many organizations rely solely on email blasts to share information with their customers.  Email does make it faster and easier for the organization to communicate information and data but what happens with all the emails caught in anti-spam programs?  Are you on your customer’s pre-determined list?  The future will deliver powerful information management systems tracking messages more efficiently.  Also, we will see systems developed to help everyone check email, voice mail, mobile messages, and faxes from a single inbox. 

Interactive Marketing

Technology has changed how organizations and their customers communicate.  Interactive marketing has moved from a transaction method to a conversation with our customers.  The key elements are to address the customer, remember what they said, develop or re-design the product or service, and deliver back to the customer what they have requested.

According to Forrester Research, interactive marketing accounts for eight percent of all ad spending.  Online advertising will increase by 18% of marketers’ total advertising budgets in the next five years.  There are a number of interactive marketing channels to reach customers such as e-newsletters, RSS Feeds, Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, digital sound, video ads, and mobile marketing.  Is interactive marketing built into your marketing plan?  The marketing phrase “build it and they will come” is not applicable today.  The new proverb is “the customers are already here – let them build it.” 

Business Acumen

What drives profitability?  Business acumen is the process of understanding how an organization makes money. Without acuity, and organizations unable—or unwilling—to share this information, employees are in danger of becoming irrelevant.

Typically, management is completely focused on results and performance.  Therefore, it is critical that employees focus their attention on linking their day-to-day responsibilities to profitability. Understanding the overall goals of the organization, the annual report, and the financials are the first steps in knowing where the organization has been and where it is going. What are the priorities of senior management?  What are the most profitable products and/or services the organization produces?  Now more than ever, management wants employees to have a thorough understanding of what drives profitability.

Leadership Talent Pools

In the olden days, an organization never spoke about who their next leaders would be.  Succession plans were always kept a secret. Now, with the anticipation of the baby boomer generation retiring, organizations are discussing and developing comprehensive plans to groom future leaders.  Two markets to pay attention to are women and seniors. 

According to the international placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., a very large number of educated women are going to blur the line between men and women working.  Between 1979 and 1999, the number of women earning four year college degrees jumped 44 percent whereas men earning four year college degrees has dropped from 532,000 to 500,000.  As women move up the organizational ladders, the workforce will have to create a balanced  environment between work and home life.  Additionally, women are searching for re-entry opportunities after they have left the workplace for a few years to raise a family. 

The recruitment of older workers is an important benefit to organizations.  They are loyal, have experience, and take less time to train.  It is important for organizations to pay attention to what seniors  want and how to recruit them.  Seniors work not only for money but enjoyment  and a sense of purpose.  Flexible schedules and time off as well as health insurance and a pension is the ideal situation. 

Developing a pool of leadership talent is becoming transparent within organizations. Is your organization prepared to make these adjustments?

Freelancers & Consultants

Organizations are fixated with outsourcing as a way of controlling labor costs and having flexibility with projects.  Dan Pink, author of Free Agent Nation, predicts that corporate workplaces will evolve into a continually shifting mix of employees and freelancers.  With the potential of affordable health insurance for the self-employed, freelancers and consultants will develop long-term affiliations with organizations to the point where it will become difficult to distinguish them from the employees.  Is your organization’s culture prepared to accept this trend?      

Telework

According to Sulzer Infrastructure Services firm in London, today 18 million people telework compared to four million in 1990.  Millions more work out of the office one or more days a week.  Thanks to faster internet access and mobile technologies and the high price of fuel this number will continue to increase.  Organizations are adjusting internal policies and procedures for employees working away from the office.  These policies will include mandatory face-to-face meetings to remain connected with one another and the culture of the organization.

Health & Wellness

Health and wellness goes beyond rewarding employees for maintaining good health.  All of us know someone that is carrying a heavy emotional load.  Compassion in the workplace is the future.

There are tens of thousands of us who are dealing with or have dealt with personal issues and tragedies throughout our lifetime. Whether it's becoming a caretaker for a parent, the death of a child, diagnosis of a severe illness, a relationship breakup, financial problems, a job loss, or legal issues, there are many of our colleagues who are hurting and/or grieving.  Many employees have family or friends to share the load, but what about at work?

The authors of Leading in Times of Trauma conducted three years of research at the CompassionLab, a joint project between the University of Michigan Business School and the University of British Columbia, and demonstrated that it is universally natural for humans to show compassion. But organizations either restrain compassion or create a culture of demonstrating compassion. The researchers clearly proved that expressions of compassion do heal.   A compassionate work environment allows employees to not use up their energy trying to hide their pain from others.  Compassion is a critical component within the workplace because it maintains a high performance in others, lessens the immediate suffering of those directly affected by the trauma, and increases company loyalty.  One thing we know for sure: Genuine compassion and empathy heals every hurting human soul and lightens their yoke.

Michele Wierzgac is an inspiring speaker helping people and teams build their business skills in the areas of leadership, self-branding, and marketing.  Her messages are compelling and forward thinking.  Visit www.micheleandco.com and contact Michele at (708) 710-7055 or michele@micheleandco.com

Copyright 2012 Michele & Company, Oak Lawn, Illinois U.S.A.  All rights reserved under both international and Pan American copyright conventions. No reproduction of any part of this material may be made without the prior written consent of the copyright holder

To schedule Michele for your next conference or meeting, call (708) 710-7055 or email at mail@micheleandco.com