My partner Mats Lederhausen, formerly worldwide head of strategy for McDonald’s, introduced me to “Strategy Trees.” The concept is, like most useful things, deceptively simple. It forces you to get at the heart of what you are trying to achieve. The “tree” analog comes from the linkage between the questions in a Strategy Tree. Start at the root purpose of why you are doing something and link it to your goal and how you will measure progress. Graphically, it looks more like a series of adjacent boxes, as illustrated below:
Business One Page is an free creative one-page theme for WordPress that can be used for any business to create beautiful, clean and professional websites with fully responsive capabilities. The design allows you to include various sections like testimonials, portfolio, services, team, etc to beautifully showcase your business through your website. Moviesherlock 5 9 8. It comes down to asking the “Why, what, who, and how” of your business, arraying it across one page in a way that makes it extremely useful as an alignment tool amongst management or board.
It comes down to asking the “Why, what, who, and how” of your business, arraying it across one page in a way that makes it extremely useful as an alignment tool amongst management or board members. This is hardly a novel concept, but it falls into that category of common sense that is not so commonly done. There are various permutations of these questions, but here are four that I have come to use in trying to summarize the big picture of a portfolio company (with an example provided):
1. Why do you exist (what’s the big idea)? Why does your business have a right to exist and what purpose is it trying to achieve? For example, in one of our portfolio companies, nail salon chain MiniLuxe, its purpose is to try and “Starbuck nail salons” by offering more consistent service and labor practices to the most used, but most under-regulated beauty service. There are 65,000 nail salons in the US, but they are largely mom-and-pop shops with no serious chains offering consistent quality.
1. Why do you exist (what’s the big idea)? Why does your business have a right to exist and what purpose is it trying to achieve? For example, in one of our portfolio companies, nail salon chain MiniLuxe, its purpose is to try and “Starbuck nail salons” by offering more consistent service and labor practices to the most used, but most under-regulated beauty service. There are 65,000 nail salons in the US, but they are largely mom-and-pop shops with no serious chains offering consistent quality.
2. What is your value proposition? This is a statement geared towards the customer. For MiniLuxe it is to be the place to go for healthy and happy nails — by being the most hygienic, highest quality, convenient, and bang-for-buck experience around. In writing down your value proposition “answer,” think about the unique capabilities and assets that your business has that clearly differentiates it from the competition. In the case of MiniLuxe, the company uses medical grade autoclaving equipment (a sterilization process for the instrumentation) and exposes that process through an glass “clean lab” where clients can see the tools being sanitized and sterilized. That is a unique process and asset in the nail salon world. What do you have that is different and appealing to the customer?
3. Who are you trying to serve? This is a question about your targets and being as specific as possible about them. For MiniLuxe, each store targets those who are living within one mile of a location, predominantly women between the ages of 20 to 55; from young single professionals seeking beauty maintenance, to moms looking for that “pick-me-up,” to the mass-affluent who see this as a regular social and “quick bliss” experience. Think about your three, or at most four top customer clusters and focus on the ones that will be of highest recurring value to your business.
4. How do you know you are winning? Putting down the key customer and financial metric goals and where you stand against them is key. How many client visits per week should you target and what mix of service offerings is right? What is a good client happiness metric? MiniLuxe uses Net Promoter Score, a measure of how likely a client would be to recommend the service to another person. They also measure weekly financial metrics with the most critical ones being year-over-year sales growth comparables; time to positive cash flow in a new location; and sales per square feet. As I have espoused in the past, knowing your 2-3 key operating metrics and 2-3 top financial metrics makes managing a business a whole lot easier. Start with best guesses at the right target levels for each of your metrics, start measuring, and adjust as necessary.
The Strategy Tree is a variant of a decision tree, except it is less about forcing choices along a path than simply outlining a path for strategic purpose and growth. It is very effective for fostering discussion on what is truly important, and if done in a collaborative manner will create alignment on the most critical priorities. On a single page you get the big picture and linkages. Start with the purpose and objective of the “why” and the “what,” and move through the “who” your business will target, and “how” to measure progress, and you will get better alignment, faster — which hopefully translates into better results. Common sense, not commonly done.
Combining your marketing with another business's can produce results greater than the sum of the parts.
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Can you imagine bringing together two different businesses for a single advertisement? Say Bud Light and GEICO create a Super Bowl ad together, or a local clothing retailer and a delicatessen join up to co-invest in a Yellow Pages ad. It's a strange idea, but it's not so unusual in a world in which marketing is more about adding value to customers' lives. Many businesses are discovering a way to drive efficiency, sales and happier customers by joining with other businesses around their common interests. This is one example of how the future of marketing will look a lot different--and a lot better--than the past.
Success with marketing increasingly does not lie in crafting new and better ways of placing advertisements in front of a customer. That traditional model is falling apart thanks to people's growing use of digital technology. In a world of growing customer control, the only thing we as businesses can do to attract people and grow sales is to create advertising that people choose to engage with and marketing that itself improves people's lives; a concept I call 'Marketing with Meaning.'
When you think about how your marketing can add value, seemingly strange ideas like partnering with another business suddenly make sense. Two businesses working together can create a better, combined solution or experience that benefits their joint customers and bottom lines.
For example, each year my suburban township holds a 'Daddy-Daughter Dance.' The dance is such a big event that it actually stretches over two nights to accommodate all of the demand. Herein lays an opportunity for relevant local businesses to band together, making the experience even greater for all and to sell heaps in the process. A children's clothing store and men's clothier could combine to host a fashion show for mothers and daughters to pick out dresses and ties.
Rhinoceros 5 4 – versatile 3d modeler download. The core idea of marketing with meaning is that businesses must take a step back and consider the higher level needs of your customers. People don't visit a restaurant for a meal--they actually want to have a lovely night out. Therefore a restaurant owner might partner with local theaters and babysitting services to help deliver on this need. People trust their accountant with their taxes, but they have higher level needs for income security and professional advice on life changes. Therefore an accountant might team up with a personal attorney to offer a seminar on retirement planning and living wills.
Before moving forward with a partnership, make sure both your target customer base and business cultures overlap. Building a strong, personal relationship with your partner business is crucial--so if you don't feel trust, back away quickly.
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And don't limit yourself to other small businesses. Even large companies and brands may be willing to partner. Specifically look for those with a strong local presence and desire to bond with the community. For example, recently at my neighborhood Starbucks the store allowed a personal trainer to hand out fliers offering a free class.
Whether it's a Starbucks store manager or a fellow entrepreneur at a community luncheon, it costs nothing to reach out and pitch the possibility of partnership. Just make sure you know what's in it for them, for you and for your joint customer. You just might reach a new audience, lower your marketing costs and create something that customers rave about.
Bob Gilbreath is Chief Marketing Strategist of Bridge Worldwide, a WPP digital and relationship marketing agency, and author of the new book, The Next Evolution of Marketing: Connect with your Customers by Marketing with Meaning. The Next Evolution of Marketing can be applied to billion-dollar brands or small businesses, to consumer marketers and B2B firms, in both highly developed markets and developing nations around the world. He blogs regularly at www.marketingwithmeaning.com and can be found on Twitter at @mktwithmeaning.