August 26, 2007

The Power of One

We all know the power of storytelling in marketing and communications. But sometimes we forget the power of stories focused on one single individual.

Numbers can be numbing. Six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. But tell the story focusing on one individual - Anne Frank, for example - and the issue comes alive.

Friday, we were talking about a Website we're working on. Mike Iannelli kept bringing us back to personalizing the subject matter. "We should tell the stories of individuals who have been in the situation we're talking about," he would say. And then he'd give examples, and yes of course it all made more sense.

An article in Oprah's magazine quotes a study in which three groups of subjects were solicited to give money to desperately poor children in Mali. One group was asked to give to a boy; one, to a girl; and one, to both. The one to both generated the fewest responses. Another study asked two groups of subjects to donate to lifesaving equipment...in one case, for one sick child and in the other, for a group of 8 sick children. Again, the individual garnered far more support.

Imagine the power of a national news program that focused each week on the life of a different individual who is still trying to recover from Katrina. This national tragedy and embarrassment (in terms of governmental response) could catapult to the top of our consciousness and catalyze action that is long overdue.

The Playbook of a Successful CMO

The Booz Allen strategy + business Books group has recently published CMO Thought Leaders: The Rise of the Strategic Marketer, in which they highlight the six keys to success for CMO's:

Put the consumer at the heart of marketing
Make marketing accountable
Embrace the challenges of new media
Recognize the new organizational imperative
Live a new energy paradigm
Remain adaptable

Getting close to customers, listening to them, engaging and involving them has become more important than ever. Smart companies are finding new ways to connect with customers, often through Websites that are created by the companies but not company-focused (such as P&G's sites www.homemadesimple.com and www.vocalpoint.com.

Booz Allen research reveals that "90 percent of marketers across nine industries refer to the measurement of marketing effectiveness as a major challenge." And it's what gets CMO's regularly beaten up by top management. Personally, I think we have to be careful that we don't try to apply metrics to everything and discount that which does not lend itself to measurement. After all, can you really measure feelings? ("You love me how much?")

With respect to the challenges of new media, I like a quote from Yahoo's Cammie Dunaway when asked the most important capability for a new marketer. "Intellectual curiosity," she said. "To be a great marketer, you need to be a great student.

The new organizational imperative harks back to Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind thesis that successful marketers are going to be people with both halves of the brain: the analytics and the intuition. Training is also an important part of the new organizational imperative, as is full and genuine integration not only across all marketing disciplines but also between marketing and the rest of an organization. That's a tough one...but, boy is it important.

The new agency paradigm requires us to stay ahead of the curve. And that curve is moving quickly. Beware of the agency that's still doing things the old way and stubbornly defending it.

Successful marketers must remain adaptable. They must embrace change. We'll succeed not by following trends but by participating in them.

And, of course, we can always learn from the successful marketers out there. When facing a marketing challenge, it's always fun to think of a company that may have faced an analogous challenge and study how they did it. Last night a lawyer friend told me how he was asked by his client if he could do such-and-such. Although he had no relevant experience, the lawyer said "Yes" because he immediately thought of an analogous challenge successfully faced by another company in another industry. He knew that he could analyze that and use good judgment to apply it to the challenge at hand. And that's exactly what he did.

It goes back to Cammie Dunaway's point about intellectual curiosity. If you've got that, the information is out there (thanks to the Web) to put the pieces together and shine.