CommWorld members from all over Europe met for their bi-annual meeting in Lill, France.
The main topic was new business activities and after 3 days of intensive training both current as well as potential clients now will be approached with brilliant new ideas for mutual business development.

We know how important Facebook is to your business and we know how important it is to look good.
If you don’t yet have a Facebook business page, don’t hesitate to get in touch and see how we can set you up with a beautiful new page that will serve as an interactive business brochure to 845 million people. Similarly, if you already have a Facebook business page, we are standing by to transform it (Facebook apps and all) to fit the beautiful new timeline layout.

Change doesn’t have to be hard, call your local Comm-World agency today.

Is it worth it?
Many will claim that because the world changes so fast any strategy is old news before it even gets implemented. Correct, the world does change fast, but that is exactly why one needs a strategy. Those who claim different, has actually not understood what strategy is. Strategy is a set of borders inside of which the company can manoeuvre. Strategy is not the actions themselves. This misunderstanding is also the reason why many companies every year create a strategy. You do not need a new set of borders each year – if you do, there is really something wrong…
But you need to decide what you want to do within these borders – in other words implement the strategy.

Numbers – solace for the weak
The choice of strategy should be based on the answers to a few simple questions – not to the large amount of data one often sees when consultants are involved. It is understandable that weak leaders and outside consultants often hide behind numbers – if only you have plenty numbers, you can partly “prove” anything and for the rest not need to think creatively. But by using too many numbers you run the risk that the course of the strategy is so long that it in reality kills the strategy. At the same time one has to admit that numbers generally always describe the past and maybe the present, but very seldom the future. And strategy concerns the future – how a company should act to ensure future success.

Relevance and realism
It is often management that defines strategy and that is fine and well, but not always necessary. Management has to have both a realistic picture of the current reality and a finger on the pulse of future development. Some have this, but the world is becoming more and more complex and so more difficult to figure out. That means there is a real risk that a strategy is not sensible. This is another important reason why there is not enough implementation – staff members may not believe in the strategy, either because it is not explained well enough, or because it simply seems neither relevant nor realistic.

Challenge the habitual thinking
Every strategy ought to be based on suppositions about the future (much more so than on numbers about the future). But since no one knows for sure what the future will look like, it is important that these guesses are challenged. This demands partly that “ordinary” staff members are involved and that management has the courage to admit that it does not know everything. The same counts for plans to ensure implementation: If you tell people to plan something in their usual field of activity, there is a risk that they will not think innovative. And then it can be difficult to implement a strategic change. Get the specialists to evaluate each other’s plans and come with alternatives. In that way there will at least be the possibility for innovation.

Look at company culture
In many companies there are way too many staff members that are against change, either because it is “troublesome” to do things in a new way or because it unfortunately may hurt their careers to make mistakes. Therefore a clear conservatism exists amongst those that have to implement changes, because if “you just keep on doing things the way you always have, then it can’t go totally wrong”. It is obvious that this way of thinking is harmful to the implementation, no matter how good the strategy may be. This is a very good reason to give the company culture a closer look. The culture is actually at least as important as the strategy, because a company with a good and accepted strategy, the right staff and a strong company culture will always do well.

Clear goals and follow-up
It is important that clear goals are set and that you follow up on them to see if they are reached. These goals should be clear, written down, specific and measurable. If they are not, it is difficult – bordering on impossible – to follow up on them. And without following up you can generally be sure that one will not reach many of the goals, because humans are unfortunately built in that way that only that which is measured, gets done. There are of course always obstacles on the way to the goal, but remember that by far the most of these are inside people’s head and not at all real.

Leaders and managers
One can either be a leader or a manager. In terms of strategy it is often a leader that works out the strategy, while it is a manager that has to implement it. This is also one of the reasons why the implementation often is problematical – often top management leaves the implementation to others after the fun (working out the strategy) is over. That is totally wrong. The risk that the strategy is only partly implemented is even bigger if top management does not actively take part in implementation.
So get out of the ivory tower and jumb into the dustbin!                                                                                        Always remember what Winston Churchill answered when asked the secret behind his immense success:     “I can summarize the lessons of my life in seven words – never give in; never, never give in.”

More inspiration
Every CommWorld member have helped a number of companies in their respective countries with working out and implementing strategies that are both realistic and relevant. If you are interested in knowing more about our services and what we can offer you – just contact the partner agency in your country.

That is my belief and in my 40 years in the communication business I have not yet come across anyone who has disagreed.
I have, however, met some companies that didn’t live by this rather logical rule. Instead they decided ”where to go and how to get there the easiest way”. Eventually they learned their lesson – often at a high price.
Either they went the wrong way or it was an uphill struggle that they couldn’t overcome. In some cases such experiences “only” cost the companies a lot of money but in other cases they killed the company…

Even though most companies try gaining new market shares, their poor marketing efforts are often hard to distinguish from their competitors – a sure way to be switched off…

Good, better, best
Today’s salesmen face harsh realities because poor products no longer exist. Of course, some products are still slightly better than others but basically, companies producing poor products have been forced to close long ago. This means that products become more and more similar, and it thus becomes hard to constantly create and maintain unique product features. And honestly, are your products really better than those of your competitors? Hardly not, and that is why customers are having such difficulties shifting supplier – because why should they?

Act differently
Most marketing departments follow the footsteps of their competitors and thus, customers cannot see the wood for the trees!
Here’s the proof – try this: compare your brochure with your competitors’ brochures by covering the different logos or brands. Then observe whether in fact the text in the brochures are identical because then, you might as well just switch around the logos or brands…
There are many explanations to this uniformity – for instance, many marketing departments lack of imagination or courage to innovate, and/or press from their sales department demanding company data sheets and brochures to resemble those of their competitors.

AIDA is still going strong
AIDA isn’t just an opera by Verdi, it is also a very simple way of thinking, telling that communication is first of all about attracting ATTENTION. This is done in order for the customers to show INTEREST for a product and then DESIRE it so much that they take ACTION and actually buy it.
Thus, no attention, no purchase! But how do you then attract attention to your marketing message? Due to loads of information and the many options and changes in the marketplace, it becomes practically impossible to keep track on all activities – and that is why so many people simply switch off.

What is safe is easy
Everyday, we are exposed to more than 3,000 marketing messages! More than half of them are ignored – unfortunately, also several relevant ones. Within each product category, there is an abundance of options, but nobody has the energy to acquire information about all of them. This might also be a wise move, because in the wake of the technological development and the present competitive situation, new products and new product varieties keep entering the market, adding even more insecurity. The situation is turning even worse due to the fact that technical products are generally becoming more and more complex, and yet it seems that all suppliers are using exactly the same messages! Therefore – why risk one’s neck by replacing a usual and trusted supplier with a new one?

Relevancy is key
Basically, attention is the customers’ most limited resource, meaning that you really have to qualify for it! In practice, this is only possible by having a different marketing message but also a message that is relevant for your customer. Differentiation is mainly about positioning (a now forgotten concept, replaced by the more diffuse notion of branding), while relevancy is mainly about adapting the message to the individual (in extreme cases) or at least to a very narrow target group with people sharing similar interests, doing the same things, and having similar attitudes towards certain issues. All it takes for you to carry this through is “just” detailed knowledge of the receivers of your message! But not many people in the marketing world possess such valuable knowledge, even though it’s really quite simple to gain – all you have to do is to ask your local CommWorld agency!They can help you make sure that your communication differentiates positively from your competitors and thus ensure that you attract plenty of attention. Interested in learning more about our services in practise? Don’t hesitate – let’s make a non-binding appointment!

3 tips to turn great ideas and strategies into reality

Innovation and strategy are useless if you can’t carry them out…
These three tips might be helpful to you:

1. Put equal emphasis on strategy, process and outcome

2. Create a strong, but flexible strategic roadmap with ‘SMART’ goals:
- Specific
– Measurable
– Achievable
– Realistic
– Timed

3. Make sure you have the internal or external tools and mechanisms supporting both communication and feedback

 
You communicate all the time
You are communicating no matter what you do. Even not saying a word is in itself communication. Therefore you may as well make sure that what you are communicating, contains what you want – sending the right message to the right people. But which are the right signals? And who are the right people? These might sound like simple questions, but they are in reality some of the most difficult to answer, because they deal to a large extent with choosing a message with appeal to a small group that is willing and able to spread the message. And what is necessary for a message to have appeal? It first and foremost has to be different and courageous, and this is where most companies miss the bus. Maybe because they have the wrong idea of what marketing actually is.

Marketing is not just communication
In many companies on the industrial market one unfortunately still sees that marketing is considered to be “just” making brochures and advertisements. But that is totally wrong – those are only a small, but very essential part of marketing. Marketing is to a large extent ensuring that all aspects of the business has taken consideration to the market – that the products live up to the expectations of the market, that the distribution channel functions optimally, that the price is right (neither too high, nor too low), etc. Marketing is also much more than a department, it is a way of thinking. If this way of thinking does not filter through the whole company, there is little chance for it to be noteworthy.

Don’t be afraid to choose
If you want to be everything for everyone, you very easily risk to end up being nothing for anyone. Why? Because it is of course not products which are in demand these days, but customers. And if one tries to create a product with broad appeal, there is a high propability that it will end up looking like something that is on the market already. It is therefore important to choose a niche one wants to make a name with. But one should be aware that choosing some things means one decides there are other things one can do without. There are too many people that don’t dare to make that choice and that’s why they look like all the other players on the field – especially in regard to what their products looks like. It is a shame and totally unnecessary, because it is exactly the fact that so many play it safe, that makes is so terribly easy to differentiate oneself.

Send a precise message
When you have considered the market in everything you undertake and you have had the courage to choose a niche, you have to communicate the message. In this regard it is also important to remember that you do not gain anything by hiding in the shadow of the competitors. Have the courage to do something different. Beside that, you should also remember that the message, of course, is vital in making your products noteworthy. So it is also important that the message is simple and precise. If you can answer the next five questions, you are well on the way:

1. Who is your actual target group?
2. What are the 3 most important arguments for buying your products?
3. What are the 3 most important reasons for using your company as a supplier?
4. Who are your 3 most important competitors?
5. How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors?

Find the significant customers
Now that the message is in place, you are on your way to success. But there is nothing that sells itself and even if the amount of relevant competitors have been cut down drastically (otherwise you have chosen the wrong niche), there is still a major amount of work to do. Why not get the market to help you? In whatever market you will find four types of customers:

* Innovators
* Fast followers
* The majority
* The latecomers

It is obvious to aim – in the beginning phase – at the innovators, because they are the first to buy new products. But there is another reason to aim at that group – they can spread your happy message for you in a cheaper and more effective and believable way than you are able to. In that way a relatively small company can be successful abroad, even if it at first glance seems to be up against giants in an unfair fight. Remember that ”a small clever one is better than a slow big one”.

1. Know what YOU want in 2012: what do you want to achieve personally from your business next year? Including, how much reward do you want from the business (both financial and other types of reward), what role do you want to be doing, how much of your own time and energy do you want to be putting into the business, what things do you want to achieve and protect outside your business?

2. Start with the end in mind: do you know where you want your business to be by the end of 2012? Have your clearly articulated your goals and targets to your team?

3. What gets measured gets done: are you and your team focused on a few key metrics for next year? Do you review your progress regularly?

4. Assume nothing: when did you last challenge your assumptions about how your market and customers behave? When did you last talk to your customers about what’s going on in their world?

5. Be distinctive: are you confident about the distinctive benefits your products/services bring to your customers? Have you articulated these distinctive benefits clearly in all your marketing messages?

6. Mind your margin: do you have a clear plan to maintain and, if possible, increase your profits in 2012?

7. Focus on cash: do you have a clear and regular view of your cash position? Can you anticipate when you might need additional financing and where you might get it from?

8. Deliver through great people: are you recruiting the best people you can afford? And are you engaging them in the vision for your business and rewarding their contribution appropriately?

9. Develop your team: are you enabling and helping your management team to do the best possible job for you?

10. Create space to be a strategist: do you dedicate enough time to working ON your business as well as IN it? How can you ensure you lift your head up from the day to day running of the business and regularly look forward and outwards?

11. Be the best you can be: how will you keep yourself at the peak of performance, maintaining your passion, energy and focus through 2012? Are you a potential barrier to, as well as the biggest enabler of, growth in your business? How will you develop yourself so that you become the leader your business needs you to be?

12. Be a Victor, not a Victim: what do you do when things don’t go quite as you’d hoped? Victims blame outside factors or other people so as to maintain their innocence. And, the price of innocence is impotence – if it’s nothing to do with you, then you can’t put it right. Victors see themselves as integral to the system or process that created the unwanted result and know that they are in absolute control of their own actions, decisions and behaviours. They take “response-ability” – retaining the ability to respond.

The challenge of client magazines                                                                                                                               Never forget that decision makers are a sophisticated and demanding audience. They will not respond to rehashed marketing material. You need to get under their skin to find out what article topics are going to get their attention. This means respecting your customers and thinking about them as readers who can turn to several other high-quality independent magazines if they find your magazine boring or irrelevant. Only then can you use your magazine to reinforce your company’s position as a trusted partner. This is the fundamental challenge that separates effective client publishing from either marketing collateral or trade publications.
Understanding this challenge is just the first step to publishing a successful client magazine. Next, you need to define what, specifically, you are trying to achieve. Cross-selling services and broadening the client’s customers understanding of the range of services your company can provide are common objectives, and ones where a good magazine can deliver outstanding results.
Publishing a high-quality client magazine can deliver significant benefits, but a decision to start publishing a magazine should not be taken lightly. This is a complex area requiring knowledge and skills. Producing one issue of a magazine is a challenge; publishing three or four issues throughout the year in accordance with a strict schedule of deadlines requires a high level of commitent.
So what can you do to make sure you get it right?                                                                                                 First you have to ask yourself simple questions like: -What kind of magazine do you envisage? -How much money are you willing to spend? -How many pages? -How often will you publish? -How many copies? -How much is budgeted for content (both articles and artwork)? etc., etc… A publication audit might help to overcome financial resistance. What are you producing already and what does it cost? Could you replace several low-impact newsletters and outdated brochures with a single high-impact magazine?                                                                Finally you might consider advertising revenue from your magazine. Financial resistance from the company’s management tends to disappear like fog in sunshine if a probability calculation shows that your client magazine can be published purely or partly by advertising revenue.

What is branding all about?
Branding is simply about how the consumers perceives your company or your product. The aim is to give the consumers a reason to prefer your product or service to that of your competitors – an aim shared by every other part of your marketing communications.

The mystique arises because self-styled “experts” have managed to turn branding into a black art. It isn’t. It’s simply a matter of common sense, creativity and craftsmanship.

You are not alone
Every company and every product has competitors, who are all striving for market awareness and approval, just like you.

That’s why branding alone is not enough. You have to find positive differences between you and the competition – a process also known as “positioning” – and one can argue that branding is only the first step in creating a strong market position.

Customers are selective
Consumers are exposed to vast amounts of information on a daily basis. If you want to influence the way they think about your company or product, you must bear in mind that there are three obstacles to overcome:

1. Selective exposure
Your customer decides for himself what to read, watch or listen to. Therefore your first step is to select the media which give you the best chance of reaching him. Even in the industrial market, this is quite an art.

2. Selective attention
Consumers don’t read magazines and websites from cover to cover. They dip, they skip, they browse. The trick is to attract their attention and arouse their interest so that they invest time in reading your message.

3. Selective memory
This is probably the most difficult obstacle – and the most crucial. If the consumer can’t recall your message at the point of purchase, all your effort and investment have been wasted. It must stand out like a lighthouse in the ocean of information that surrounds us; only then will it be stored in the buyer’s long-term memory.

The craftsman’s tools
To earn a strong and positive position in the minds of your customers, your message must be both plain and focused. It must also take into account the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors – not easy, but if you focus on something special or different about your own company, not as hard as it might seem.

There are 5 key questions which will help you get to the core of your message:

1. Who is your target group?
2. What are the top 3 arguments for using your type of product or service?
3. What are the top 3 arguments for choosing your specific product or service?
4. What are the top 3 reasons for dealing with your company?
5. Who are your 3 most important competitors, and how do you differ from them?

You can, of course, work through this process yourself – but an agency such as the agencies in CommWorld is experienced in finding small but crucial points of difference, and of course, in formulating your message concisely and memorably.
Whether you call in outside help or not, it is worth taking time and trouble over your positioning message, because you’ll be together a long time. (Frequent changes of positioning simply confuse the customer; consistency is the key).

Positioning abroad
It’s not always easy to break into a foreign market. Big, established competitors, unfamiliar media, language problems …. It can be a daunting prospect.

On the other hand, a small, alert company can often win out over a large and complacent competitor – even one with home advantage. And we can help you to do just that.

Through the CommWorld network, we can offer you the same levels of service abroad as we do in our individual domestic markets.

You’ll find CommWorld members in almost every European country – all independent agencies handling a wide range of consumer, business-to-business and public service clients. We can offer you an immediate and up-to-date advice and assistance, as we all offer you a proven working relationship in cross border communication.
Just contact your local partner agency in your country.