I admit it, I’m a Tinkerman. Not as much as Claudio Rainieri, but I still like to change the shape of my team at least once a year. That way we can adapt to market changes, align performances with skills as well as expand our horizons.
One key element of change is however clarity on the underlying concept and focus on the key tenets of, in this case, marketing. I split marketing into three key pillars: reputation, optimisation, innovation. All three are interdependent and feed each other and need to be on the mind of every single team member all the time.
Reputation: One’s reputation is incredibly important and in a world of social media, reputation goes a long way. It needs to be built carefully and boldly and is influenced by every single interaction with the outside world and with each other. I refrained from calling it branding as I want to ensure that everybody understands their impact, their rights and their responsibilities on a company’s reputation.
Optimisation: A key component of longevity and sustainability. We always strive to make everything smoother, better and more impactful and most of this isn’t the initial innovation, but the reiterative feedback and feedforward loops. Optimisation can also be incredibly refreshing, especially when new impulses come from outsiders.
Innovation: The key of success, but innovation without reputation can be a laggard, innovation without optimisation is unsustainable. At the same time reputation and optimisation can and need to be innovative. And while I agree with signature innovations, the little day to day innovations are often the more exciting and increase the impact of a business.
Just to be clear, I don’t split my team into these three parts, as I believe they are the undercurrent of every marketing activity. I use this framework of reputation, optimisation and innovation when assessing the marketing performance of other brands, but can also be used across other functions and as a framework for personal branding – with Steve Jobs being one of the biggest personal innovators.
photo credit: Newsbie Pix
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Twitter: garyr0binson
says
Congratulations on the new blog, Felix. It’s been long overdue
Your definition of ROI (reputation, optimisation and innovation) is a worthy alternative to the financial version. It’s a good way of focusing your approach, be in tactical or strategic.
I look forward to reading more of your thoughts.
Gary
Very nice first post. I enjoyed it. Congrats.
Twitter: macdaddy75
says
Good stuff Felix. I would be interested to hear more of your thoughts on how to sustain that balance, and how it fits into your recruitment ideas. Do we develop what we have, and hope that the raw materials are already there, or do you recruit to “load” the balance when you feel one of the three is lacking…?? We want more!
Thought provoking as ever. The optimisation ‘pillar’ stands out to me particularly and the need to constantly strive to improve things for our customers, ourselves, our business. Looking forward to the next one.
Thanks, guys, for the really nice and encouraging comments.
Joe, to answer your question: it depends on how out of balance the three are: sometimes recruit to load is the only option, but often a little reshuffle combined with coaching and training does the trick. But you are right, it is a permanent balancing act.
Twitter: katyjo
says
Though provoking – like the idea of applying this type of ROI model to your own personal branding, an important aspect of ‘self’ in use of social media today.
Applying the same personal model across both professional and personal decision making could help induce that work/life balance I strive for – relish the idea of applying optimisation skills into personal life!
Look forward to the next post…
Interesting as always Felix! It would also be interesting to see a future post on your assessments of some specific strong/not-so-strong brand in the context of your ROI framework? Or maybe extending it to assess brands in a wider context – personal brands, as you’ve mentioned, or nation brands?