WHO KNEW – WHAT’S NEW

Artificial intelligence is not new. 

Most businesses – big, medium and small – have had AI within their operations and systems for 10, 20, possibly 60 years. 

Main-frame computers, in and from the 1960’s, were early incarnations of the concept. In many respects their capabilities and scope were never realised because of a lack of knowledge, vision and expertise of the internal interactive operators. 

Underutilisation persists, primarily because of a lack of recognition of the available resources. That alone contributes extensively to poor, if not stagnant productivity, and compromises returns on funds invested. 

CLASSIFICATION 

The term artificial intelligence is a collective noun. Few branded and packaged units are accessible on shelves and therefore, are not collectable. ChatGPT is a rare exception, but it has narrow applications.  

AI is a broad generic term which can and does utilise algorithms, lasers and multiple other modes of technology. Substantial potential exists in manufacturing, logistics, transport, mining, rural, services hospitality, tourism and the throughout the public sector. 

DISPLACEDS RESOURCES 

Professional and employment redundancy because of artificial intelligence is a widely held fear. 

Rapid uptake of the concept represents a threat in the ability to, and the time involved in re-education of the broader, and specifically affected workforces. 

However, forecasts of a pending doomsday scenario appear to be exaggerated – shades of Y2K. 

GENERATIONAL CHANGE 

Ai is not a contemporary “greens-field” revolution. It is an extended, progressive evolution whose presence and contributions enabled men to walk on the moon. Sadly, it has been a long time since human footprints have been left on the lunar surface. Exploration of that earthly satellite and beyond has been limited and restricted to non-human journeys. 

Capacity has broadened and deepened exponentially, particularly within entities. Information and raw data are more readily retrieved, collated, and stored. But detailed analysis and application have been sparing. 

Select communication, distribution and sharing is possible, but not widely exercised or evident. Much marketing, advertising, promotion, loyalty and reward missives are generalised, repetitive and to some considerable extent not relevant to recipients. That benefits and advantages no-one. 

Like algorithms in the early years of the current millennium, considerable hope was held for these applications. Everyone, it seemed, was developing their own, to little commercial and financial success. 

Paraphrasing the words of a former Australian Prime Minister: 

                    “Every pet shop had its own algorithm galah”. 

ASK THE OPERATORS 

Frontline team-members, whose primary functions involve interaction with, and use of components, technology, data, IT, and a scope of systems are seldom asked about and involved in creating a new and imaginative uses of existing formats of artificial intelligence. Sub-optimal performance prevails, and opportunities remain unfulfilled. 

Individually and collectively, they (the human quotient) are closely aligned to existing internal artificial intelligence resources of differing standards and ages. They are seldom recognised and tapped. 

GET ON BOARD 

On balance, many business owners and managers are like commuters at a railway station awaiting the arrival of the train (read: AI). 

They are actually already “on-board” but are not enjoying the ride. 

Detailed critical reviews of current philosophies, policies, practices and systems, when perceived through differing perspective (that is, artificial intelligence) will doubtlessly identify countless prospects to embrace existing AI. 

REALITY CHECK 

A number of AI aficionados who have been at the forefront of the conception, design, development and implementation of the concept have in recent times expressed concern about the possibility and probability that sophisticated AI will have the capacity to “think” and “act” independently of human control. 

One individual authority has left employment with a hi-tech monolith, established his own foundation and is actively lobbying governments, particularly in the USA, to legislate for a pausing of enhancements to artificial intelligence in all forms.

The implied threats are not immediate. A ten-year horizon is common among authorative sources. Governments and commerce do need to act decisively during that window of opportunity to maintain control, influence and direction. 

Prospects for rogue AI are real and no amount of legislation, regulation, monitoring and control will be universally possible or effective in countering its evolution. However, it could be an emerging repeat of the Y2K crisis during the closing years of the twentieth century. Billions of dollars outlaid with little or no return. 

The palatable alternative, safe AI is shorthand for technology which is controllable and controlled by human beings. 

At this time AI has notable parameters. It is reliant on information and data input. By nature, that content is historic. Moreover, AI is unable to discern facts, preferrable sources and nuances which are best recognised and taken on-board by intuitive humans. 

Therefore, artificial intelligence needs to be embraced, integrated, included in considerations for future recruitment, induction, training, development, marketing, service and competitive strategies. 

An appropriate and good start will be a forensic audit of all existing AI, no matter how rudimentary and the review of its current status and potential to improve productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. Considerable scope appears to exist, albeit largely dormant. 

Adept leaders and team-members can typically adapt. It is an essential narrative. Start the conversation. Ask questions. Provide answers, with and without input from artificial intelligence. 

PLAN LONG. MANAGE SHORT 

Artificial Intelligence in its current guise has arrived with a rush. Growth, differing applications and potential could be exponential in the short and immediate terms. 

However, lifecycles will be short. Accordingly, outlays will need to be capitalised in periods as short as three years. 

Hence, a 10-year horizon (for a possible doomsday scenario) will likely experience up to three incarnations of AI. 

Disciplined visionary planning will be imperative, complemented with astute and assertive shorter-term management of this dynamic new variable and the associated infrastructural support. 

That mix has two dimensions. One will not, or should not, be prioritised over the other. Adaptations and malleability will need to be innate because, if culture eats strategy for breakfast, artificial intelligence has the latent potential to consume both. Welcome to the new world of commerce, politics and society where, obsolescence will be death. 

Barry Urquhart

Business Strategist

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

INTELLIGENCE IS NOT ARTIFICIAL

Think. Originality, innovation and to a large extent, creativity, are not a lineal progression of the past. That alone limits the value and benefits for much artificial intelligence in business, marketing and advertising. 

Likewise, developing a new vision for the future is seldom founded on looking to the past. 

Compliance, conformity and repetition do not, of themselves foster disruption, differentiation and entrepreneurship. It is difficult to standout in a crowded market, particularly when risk tolerance is at a low ebb. 

Hence, the issue is how, not if, artificial intelligence will be integral part, and will influence, the future of sectors, companies, products services and applications. 

UNPRECEDENTED 

People need to control, administer and provide input, goals and outputs for AI. Each of these considerations  mitigate against any  innate and palatable characteristics of artificial intelligence and any suggestion of a “hands-off” approach. When applied to dynamic and  change settings in competitive marketplaces, competitive advantage often requires, unprecedented, unique frameworks, features and outcomes. The concept of artificial intelligence is best applied to internal efficiency initiatives in disciplines and sectors, like engineering, repetitive mass production, transport and logistics. On-site mining operations for trucks, rail and shipping can be, and increasingly are being administered remotely – sometimes thousands of kilometres distant. 

Military strategies and tactics are similarly being deployed (but not conceived) on battlefields and in countries around the world. It maximises outputs, enhances productivity, effectively reduces the need for scarce resources and minimises costs and casualties. Noticeably, each has an internal orientation. 

MARKETPLACE REALITIES 

Attaining, sustaining and gaining from competitive advantages in the open, dynamic marketplace requires different and differing variables. 

KEY LESSON:        An important contemporary rule is that there are no rules.

                               Do not seek. Create.

                               That is intelligent, and not artificial. 

INFORMATION, NOT INTELLIGENCE 

Technology, social media, Big Data, The Cloud and Artificial Intelligence have much to answer. The world, society, education and commerce are awash with information, much of which has restricted relevance and benefit in its base form. 

Investments in capital equipment (hardware) to capture information from transactions, interactions and mobility have in recent times seemed to be boundless. Lacking is allocations in the software (read: skilled, experienced people) to convert the mass information into discrete, meaningful intelligence. 

Hard facts from the past and present are enhanced when complemented with soft nature of social sciences. 

INPUT = OUTPUT 

In the dawning period of the technology era an oft-expressed tenet was: 

                    Garbage in. Garbage out. 

Little has changed. 

Common, and readily accessible to all or many is information. 

Detailed analyses by numerous “experts” inevitably identifies, isolates and enables application of numerous observations, intuitions and conclusions. 

There may, and often is, not one right or wrong answer or action. 

Comparative analyses often profile a range of perceptions, beliefs, values, experiences, and expertise being applied. Noticeably different projections, conclusions and outcomes evolve. Therein lies a strong measure of subjectivity, not irrefutable facts. 

COMPLEMENT, DON’T REPLACE 

Technology is best and most gainfully applied when it complements and does not replace human resources and intelligence. 

Artificial Intelligence is an investment in capacity. Its efficiency and effectiveness can nominally be awesome. 

Left alone it can be, and understandably is, inert, unfulfilled and, in the vernacular, full of promise. 

Converting latent potential into reality, benefits and advantages necessitates capability. That is, adroit application by skilled and skilful individuals, team-members and collaborators. 

NON-BINARY CHOICES 

Intended and actual use of artificial intelligence is not necessarily a binary forced choice. Departing the established and prevailing universe for a presence and future in the metaverse has not been a fulfilling and rewarding experience for many “innovators”, “early adopters” and developers and promoters of the concept. 

LESSON:                Don’t get ahead of yourself…

                              or the economy, marketplace and others. 

SYMMETRY 

Artificial Intelligence has parallels to market research and omni-channel marketing. 

No research will eliminate risk or identify and provide all answers and solutions. It will typically reduce, and some instances, minimise risk. That enables leaders and business owners to make informed and better decisions. In short it is a tool. 

Likewise, omni-channel marketing. Its key role and inherent benefits are evident. Social media complements, not replaces mass- and analogue media. 

Collectively, they are proficient purveyors of messages, stimulants and influences. They are not, however, the content and should be recognised, respected and utilised accordingly. 

Hence, artificial intelligence is with us. Its presence, influence and potential will grow, in many instances exponentially. 

Maintaining control will be an (profitable) artform. Therefore, don’t be overwhelmed. Invest astutely. Recruit discerningly. Strategise prudently. And, above all, integrate, adapt and develop assertively. 

Barry Urquhart

Business Strategist

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

THE PARTY IS OVER

The party is over. 

Tupperware in Australia is on the verge of liquidation and closure after 76 years of trading, founded on its unique party-plan distribution network. 

It’s a comprehensive case study with many layers of lessons for those in commerce. 

Immediately after the conclusion of World War II, was an era where few married women worked. Tupperware provided opportunities for socialising, earning additional family income, and introducing food storage in well designed, functional packaging which was appropriate for parties and relatively small compact refrigerators. 

Relationships and impulse purchases were pillars on which a global business evolved  and then rapidly expanded. 

However, there were numerous fundamental flaws in the business model: 

PRODUCT LIFETIME 

The solid plastic product composition was durable, often extending to three decades. 

Individual products literally became transgenerational family kitchen heirlooms (with little attendant value). Grandparents handed them onto grandchildren. 

Therefore, repeat purchases were limited with little or no reflection on customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The utility (read: durability) of items were laudable. 

FASHION, DESIGN, COLOUR 

The kitchen- and pantry-ware range was built for purpose. In the early years of the company and product lifecycles, the items were not conspicuous. 

Lifestyles changed, rapidly and continuously. Kitchen- and pantry-ware morphed into fashion statements. Regrettably, Tupperware was largely bland, colourless and lacking design statements. The pastel colours were intentionally understated. No suggestion of Hi-Viz. 

THE EVIL OF PLASTIC 

In more recent times plastic has been tainted in image and marginalised on market acceptance and preference.

Competitive and substitute products, brands and supply-chains entered the marketplace, often aggressively. The social consciences of consumers induced a willingness to pay premiums for stylish, colourful and non-plastic alternatives. Tupperware was exposed and vulnerable. 

SUPPLY CHAINS – THE MISSING LINK 

Social and digital media have revolutionised commerce and lifestyles. Expectations have been elevated. Immediacy has become an imperative. 

Party-plans whilst quaint, did not fit. Service and delivery gaps appeared. 

FUTURE IS SETTLED 

The design features of Tupperware were and remain laudable. Lids sealed well, and ingredient freshness was extended. 

However, consumption patterns were changing, among NOW consumers. Vacuum packs quickly became obsolete and redundant. Visits to supermarkets and food-stores increased, with many products purchased today, eaten today, and the remains disposed… today. 

Put simply, the Tupperware brands, products and services were overwhelmed by complex, comprehensive market forces. 

KEY LESSONS

Self-induced obsolescence, innovation and creativity are virtues. Internally driven change contributes to maintaining relevance, competitive advantage and client/consumer interest and loyalty. There was little evidence of such with Tupperware. 

Emotions remain fundamental and essential ingredients in decision-making. Accordingly, they should be present and well-articulated in marketing, merchandising, promotion, and sales communication. 

However, that is very different to nostalgia. Past preferences, loyalty, purchases, and consumption are – well, past. That is a sentiment which is acceptable in reflective moments, and for short periods of time. 

DING DONG 

The Tupperware case study is not without precedent. 

Avon was, globally, the largest selling brand of cosmetics for longer than three decades. Its initial and sustaining success was, primarily a function of its comprehensive door-to-door sales and distribution networks. 

Regular, periodic visits by Avon field-staff maintained contact, communications and relationships. Trust was built between customer and the Avon agents.

Order-taking, payments and deliveries necessitated repeat visits, which provided opportunities for upsells, cross-sells and new release promotions. There was little scope for competitor and substitute intrusions. 

Long before the introduction of social media and online sales channels, society changed. Full-time dual head-of-household incomes became the norm. 

That contributed to difficulties in recruiting part-time commission-based field-staff and limited times for visits to customers. Residences were vacant for long periods of time each working day. 

Time and timing were fundamental determinants of success, and ultimately, to faltering revenues and to failure. 

Bricks ‘n’ mortar stores, visual merchandising and personal customer service, delivered at point of purchase by professional, qualified beauty consultants assured their own lustre and alure. Indulgence was assigned premium value. 

NOTHING IS ASSURED 

Post-war baby boomers will doubtlessly recall the weekly, fortnightly, or monthly visits by insurance salesmen (from entities like MLC, CML, NML, Prudential).

In the early years of the consumer era (from 1963, when baby boomers typically first entered the workforce and had their own disposable incomes), the sales “pitch” centred on the virtues of long-term savings. 

Compound interest was not explained, understood, or valued. 

Substantial up-front commissions were paid to the insurance agents. 

These often were well in excess of the annual contributions of the insurance policy holders. Periodic trailer commissions were a further drain on the investment capital. 

Many teenage and younger policyholders, with a lack of life experiences, financial literacy and savings expertise were dismayed when they discovered their account balances were negative in the early years. 

Perhaps expectantly, investment account (policies) attrition rates were high, and the negative stereotypical images of insurance industry agents widespread. 

Value was difficult to package during the initial period of policies, the advantages of insurance hard to sell to the young, who believed in their own immortality and indestructability. 

Life insurance rapidly was subsumed by financial planning and became a minor consideration in the overall value-package. 

STAND AND DELIVER 

In recent times an increasing number of businesses have fallen over. 

Inadequate, expensive, and unviable supply-chains, distribution networks and delivery systems were, and remain foremost among the major contributing factors.  Indeed, delivery companies, including Deliveroo, Milk Run and Door Dash have been among the fallen. 

High and increasing consumer expectations for rapid delivery among time-poor and intolerant clients and consumers introduced what ultimately became unviable service standards. One, two- and three-hour delivery promises had innate high operating costs – fixed and variable. 

Like the April 2000 dot.com crash, growth in volume, customer numbers and businesses served – was the overriding key performance indicator. Profit was not a primary consideration or goal. Sadly, actions and philosophies have consequences. 

That is evident in the recent declines in the fortunes of the Buy Now-Pay later sector, and of individual entities.

                              Newton’s law of physics persists:

                              “To every action there is an equal

                                and opposite reaction”. 

          In other words, rapid incline: rapid decline. 

FINAL WORDS 

The essential lessons are complex. Growth and dominance can be fleeting. Change is omnipotent. Innovation is essential. 

There is no single formula for success. 

Monitoring, measuring, and modifying are imperatives. 

Rules are not universal or immutable. 

“Too big to fail” is a myth. Read the headlines. Then script your own narrative. 

Barry Urquhart

Business Strategist

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

REINVENTING: THE BUSINESS, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND BRANDS

The dawning of a new era. 

As consumers, commerce and communities emerge from over three years of COVID lockdown, they are awakening to a new landscape.

Explicit, implicit, profound and subtle changes are omnipotent. Pronounced changes in consumer and client perceptions, preferences, purchases and buying decision criteria are themselves necessitating changes. The alert, discerning and responsive are alive to the need to reinvent, reposition and repackage. 

These refinements extend beyond structure, operations, product/service ranges, merchandising layouts, advertising, skills, expertise, experience, supply-chains, and distribution networks. At the forefront is the need for strategic alignments of philosophies, missions, purpose, goals and culture. 

In many instances, collectively, these essentials are not rebirthing initiatives, but rather are birthing rights. That’s right, a reason for celebration, sharing and nurturing. 

The case studies are enlightening. 

DO-IT-YOURSELF 

Bunnings has declared itself to be in a new, broadened phase. The categorisation of hardware has been extended to lifestyle. 

The focus remains on and in the home. Man-caves have lapsed from isolation to inclusion. Families are foremost, and that includes pets, fur-babies if you will. 

Their needs, indulgences and well-being have been recognised, analysed and are now, and will increasingly be, available from the shelves in Bunnings warehouses. 

References to dogs, cats, birds and small pets have been integrated into the company literature. 

Long-established, recognised, respected and preferred pet industry brand names are profiled. 

In a nice twist, Bunnings is providing existing and prospective customers DIY (do it yourself) ideas for “furry friends” (family members). 

This is one sector that is exhibiting all the characteristics of essential staples. No suggestion of heightened discretionary purchases. The unconditional love of pets is being reciprocated with unconditional buying patterns. 

The regular, tight and recuring purchase cycles are appealing. The prospects for income enhancing product adjacencies seem boundless. 

Pet insurance is doubtlessly on the list and Fly Buy reward points are available now. 

REINVENTION KEY POINTS 

·       Increased brand name relevance and resonance

·       Enhanced warehouse visitations

·       Complementary purchase opportunities

·       Broader, in-family customer profiles

·       Stable, regular buying patterns 

POST FITS 

Post Offices are also being subjected to makeovers. Some would say, being dressed up. 

Fitting rooms are being introduced to a small, select but increasing number of outlets to enable garments purchased online and delivered by Australia Post to their onsite “community hubs”, to be tried on, accepted, or returned. 

The initial orientation will be to rural and regional communities. 

It is further recognition that post, mail and Post Offices are evolving. The typical Post Shop has some 1450 products and services available. Around 17 relate to postal and philately products and services. That parallels to the number of SKUs (stock keeping units) available in an Aldi supermarket. 

Banking and public utility payment fees are generally thin and need to be complemented. 

Creating, maintaining and promoting communal hub facilities can be, and is, an emotive, social service. 

One key issue which does not appear to have been addressed is branding. The word “Post” seems misplaced, misleading, irrelevant and obsolete. 

HERE IS THE NEWS 

During the 1960s, 70s, 80s and possibly the 90s retail newsagencies were a popular investment for transiting middle-aged and older individuals and couples who were essentially buying a stable income, with the potential for a later sale to establish a retirement fund. 

In the slower moving analogue era it appeared to be sound logic and financially prudent. 

The arrival of digital changed commerce, retailing in particular. Online transactions reduced the need for local bank branches, police stations, corner stores and countless smaller operations. The composition of High Street precincts changed and contracted. A coffee culture was insufficient to compensate for all the losses of the local physical presence of many categories. 

Today, Lotto and like gambling services represent 75% or more of the revenue of many newsagencies. The threat of a paperless future still looms. 

Easter, Mother’s Day, birthday and greeting cards seem to be quaint memories from the past – all typically purchased from newsagencies. 

Store branding, premises sizes, product ranges and possibly store integrations are each strategic issues that need to be addressed-and soon-for the reinvention of newsagencies. 

INSIDE OUTDOORS 

Demand for and the sales of outdoor furniture have traditionally been highly seasonal. Revenues increase and peak in the period between, and including, November and March. 

Late spring, summer and early autumn are nothing if not seasonal. Lifestyles and outdoor furniture usage are determined and adjusted accordingly. 

A little reinvention and rebranding to alfresco enhances and extends the relevance, appeal and use of furniture, barbeques (alfresco kitchens), bars, refrigerators and entertainment features (often centred on big flat-screen television sets). 

Home redesigns readily accommodate the reinvented environment and life-experiences. 

Alfresco lifestyles have year-round appeal, and associated demands, sales and profits. 

IT ALL ADDS UP 

The trend to reinvention is not limited to retail. Services too are being recalibrated. 

Accountants, who are protective of and territorial about client bases have in recent times contended they possess skills in recruitment, law, advertising, marketing, strategic planning, graphic design, financial planning, demography and of course auditing. Significantly, the major global accountancy practices are increasingly dissembling their own-created monoliths. Specialised skills are sought and needed by discerning existing and prospective clients. 

Moreover, overriding corporate cultures are determined, managed and maintained by tax compliant and conforming philosophies can be noticeably limiting in the other creative and innovative disciplines. Risk taking is abhorred by many conservative accountants. 

ENTERTAINING SHOPPING 

Shopping centres are quickly recognising the need, desirability and advantages of reinvention. Tenancy mixes are being changed substantially, often driven by the reality of vacant premises from departing retail operations. 

The drive toward greater entertainment and experiential retail is not without challenges. Spaces, area configurations and viable rentals need to be addressed. 

Outlet agencies must also be considered and accommodated. Increased emphases on health, well-being, in-centre dining and interactive merchandising like Lego, contribute to changes in customer foot-traffic flows. Hours of trade and peak trading periods often differ. 

Access to parking areas are key, and rental influencing factors. 

Colours, lighting and audio dimensions are other variables that must be refined to achieve optimal ambiences for discrete arcades, precincts and premises. 

At present there is considerable talk and declarations being made about retail entertainment and experiential merchandising. The onsite impacts appear marginal, with low registers of recognition among consumers. 

Effective reinvention often requires more than formulas. Engaging all senses is an artform. So too is contemporary retailing. 

NEVER-ENDING PROCESS 

Reinvention is a never-ending process in commerce. It is in reality increasing in rapidity and is happening around us. 

Obsolescence and irrelevance inevitably leads to uncompetitiveness. 

The need for and nature of reinvention need to be recognised, respected and embraced … not occasionally, but constantly. 

                              There is a better way –  

                                        FIND IT 

Barry Urquhart

Business Strategist

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

MIND THE GAP

Familiar message. Different times. 

Gaps can be dangerous. Particularly when they aren’t recognised. 

That is the common scenario for many entities at present. Assessments of service standards by consumers, clients, business leaders, staff-members and external consultants are not aligned. 

Consequently, a disturbing and increasing number of businesses have, and will, fall into those gaps. Some will contend, serves them right. Self-assessments on customer service standards and experiences are often illusionary. Absences of customer complaints are not good and accurate measures of prevailing levels. 

Customers are simply leaving, not registering their dissatisfaction, then taking their business, needs and revenues with them. 

Often frontline service providers are the “meat in the sandwich”, but are reluctant to provide management accurate, timely, ongoing, and objective feedback. That gap in information exchange exacerbates the gaps in service expectations. Management is none the wiser. 

It is difficult to reconcile the different and differing measures of service. Varying bases are being employed. 

The final and most important arbiter is, and must be, the customer. Managers need to speak and interact more often with existing, prospective and past customers. 

THE SILENT MAJORITY 

Little more than 6% of customers and clients have or are inclined to express their disappointment and their intentions to take their demands, needs, expectations, revenue and business elsewhere. They do, however, share such with associates, fellow workers, family members and others in  numerous networks. Brand damage is immense. 

The lack of feedback can, and often does, extend for weeks, months or longer before it registers with the offending businesses. In that time new relationships are established and developed. 

Understandably, many affected customers and clients are unwilling to contemplate a return to the previous service provider, and to forgive past shortfalls and deficiencies. 

Too often, business owners and senior managers are not advised of the circumstances and consequences. 

SERVICE BUIDING BLOCKS 

The foundations of service excellence include: 

·       COMMUNICATION

·       PUNCTUALITY

·       PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY

·       REPONSIVENESS

·       MALLEABILITY

·       CONSISTENCY

·       CONTINUITY

·       ONE-TOUCH

·       FOLLOW-UP

·       FOLLOW-THROUGH 

Other factors do contribute to and reinforce positive customer experiences. Each of the ten listed dimensions, when appropriately formulated, documented, implemented, promoted, and supported are effective in establishing, sustaining, and enhancing expectations. 

Management of those expectations and ensuring that no gaps evolve, exist or persist provide a template to make, and to consistently deliver promises. Fulfilled, they result in customer satisfaction, repeat business, loyalty, referrals and brand advocacy. 

Ongoing two-way communication is the pillar of extending relationships, refining purchasing criteria, accelerating trust, multiplying confidence, and facilitating satisfaction.  

Communication involves time, money, and resources. Diligence, overviews, reflection, and discipline compound positive customer service experiences. 

Complaints about too much communication are rare, the reverse is another matter. 

TIME, TIMELINESS 

Unquestionably, in commerce time is money. Timeliness is a virtue. 

Keeping people informed (often in real-time) fosters trusting, reassuring interactions and mutually rewarding relationships.

Customers and clients are able to make informed decisions, refine schedules and priorities, while appreciating and valuing the choices they have exercised. 

 QUICK FIX 

On issues of service excellence there are no quick fixes. Likewise, single-shot initiatives are ineffective and inappropriate. 

Quality customer service is an all-embracing comprehensive culture value to which all need to commit and to adhere. There are no exceptions. Rank does not equate. Nor do suggestions of the existence of internal and external service standards. 

In short, there are no gaps. Promising, delivering, maintaining, and enhancing service standards should be, and is, seamless. 

Shortfalls do occur. They are tolerated, short-term. 

A good starting point is to review and upgrade communication channels. They should be multiple, open, responsive and provide ready access to local frontline service providers who are well trained, qualified, experienced and authorised to address and fulfill customer and client needs, expectations and wants. 

Business owners need to initiate undeclared and nondisclosed contact with their entities. 

The experiences are always enlightening, sometimes dark. Closing the gap between the two is challenging and rewarding. Eliminating the latter is fulfilling and imperative. 

BY ANY MEASURE 

A disciplined, structured countdown to each of the 10 pillars of service excellence is a great application of the concept, particularly when applied to responding to this text. 

THE AUTHOR

Barry Urquhart

Managing Director

Marketing Focus

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

Barry is the author of the two largest selling books on Service Excellence in Australasia, is a popular facilitator of development workshops and a respected international conference keynote speaker.

GOOD NEWS

Headlines capture attention. They seldom capture the full and true story. That is not necessarily good news. 

Increasingly narrow spans of attention are compounding the issue of people not having the full facts and balanced presentations of consideration. Consequently, informed, objective and detached decision-making is becoming rarer. 

This is important for the consumers of news, reports, and texts (business leaders in particular) because it is on these bases that perceptions, expectations, investments, decisions, actions, expenditures, budgets and plans are formulated, documented and implemented. 

STUDY THE SOURCE 

Journalists and reporters seldom write or influence headlines. Therefore, a noticeable divide exists between the stimulating of interest and the outlaying of underlying realities. 

Directives from mass media editors, managers and business owners on content, orientation and objectives often determine topics, messages and emphases. In essence, the overriding narrative is set. Inputs from external resources (spheres of influence if you will) tend to be affirmations of contentions or hypotheses. Countervailing, conflicting, or contradictory opinions inevitably are screened out, filtered or edited. 

In many instances these circumstances and characteristics are not transparent, to those seeking information and input for their planning processes.

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE 

All reporters, journalists and media commentators should be investigative by nature and as a consequence of their education, training, experience and nurturing the operative word in the preceding sentence is should. Prevailing corporate cultures impinge on free thinkers. That is apparent in the storylines of competing media outlets and channels. 

Thinking consumers of media output look for, appreciate and value balanced presentations with for and against propositions carefully and clearly detailed. Most are happy to make their own conclusions and decisions, and to accept responsibility for the consequences. 

In periods of intense competition, innovation, change, disruption and geopolitical turmoil risk tolerance trends to decline and the premiums assigned to effective risk-management are increased. 

The bottom-line is to be wary about readily accepting at face-value media storylines. 

READ BETWEEN THE LINES 

Market research, like mass media stories, contain innate biases. Simply conducting a study or writing/broadcasting/telecasting a story is selective. So too are the questions asked (and not asked) or the medium chosen. Targeted audiences, sample sizes, the degree to which technology is applied, timing and the length or scheduling of interactions can and do materially influence responses and outcomes. 

Therefore, it is prudent to contemplate the intent or purpose of subject matter. Invoking that process will often enable assessment of relevance, resonance and worth. 

Conscious and intended repeat exposure to missives, introducing personal perspectives (paradigms for the ‘engaged’) can and do provide invaluable insights and overviews. The investment of additional time is usually rewarding. That is good news, particularly for business leaders. 

INTUITIVE CONCLUSIONS 

In the contemporary over-communicated world in which we live and do business selective perception can be a virtue. Limiting focus and exposure does enhance productivity and chosen outputs. 

The artform that needs to be utilised is the actual selection of which headlines are pertinent, beneficial and potentially advantageous. 

Yes, it is itself subjective and of questionable value. However, conscious screening is personal and therefore “ownership” and accountability is forefront. 

Much of the mass media content throughout the USA is commentaries, rather than objective, detached, detailed and balanced reporting of the facts. Joe Friday, (1950’s radio program “Dragnet”) where are you, when you’re needed? Accept that all media communications can, and should be reduced to:

                                                                      That’s one point of view 

Recognise, respect, and utilise it as such. Seek out alternative authorative sources. 

For deep and meaningful analysis… Do your own. 

Barry Urquhart

Business Strategist

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

IMBALANCED, ASYMMETRIC FORCE

Punching above your weight. 

The phrase has a nice ring to it. Implications in the boxing ring are significant. So too in military and commerce spheres. Napoleon Bonaparte once declared:  

                              “ God is on the side of big armies”. 

Not anymore. National army, navy, air, and space forces are contracting in size and volume but intensifying in power and impact. Australia currently has less than 60,000 in uniform. 

Special forces and commando groups are increasingly being deployed to achieve specific goals and outcomes. Concentration of skills, material and strategies consistently and continually enjoy success against numerically larger forces. Look no further than the eastern regions of Ukraine. 

In Australia public acceptance of the proposal for a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines is increasing and broadening. Understanding the logic for such a decision is less developed. 

The nuclear propulsion system will enable the submarines to extend their spheres of operation undetected. Therefore, the national Australian Defence Forces’ capacity to retaliate in a meaningful, ‘hurtful’ way will be upgraded. Defence and retaliation are the operative words.  

                    Pardon the pun, Australian businesses need to get on board. 

BUSINESS APPLICATIONS 

The global nature and networks of business are understandably under review. Supply-chain disruptions have heightened sensitivities about supply security and continuity. 

Prussian General and military strategist Karl Von Clausewitz contended that supply-chains should be short, narrow, and malleable. Long transnational distribution networks are exposed, vulnerable, inherently resource-intense, and subject to numerous external forces and influences. 

Consistency, continuity, efficiency, effectiveness, and higher rates of productivity are difficult to achieve, and to sustain with large complex supply lines. 

Decentralisation is becoming increasingly attractive. Power and energy generation and distribution are a strong focus in commercial circles. The highly politicised governmental bureaucracies are less advanced in their thinking, strategies, and investment policies. 

Democratisation of rooftop solar units is supplying centralised power grids. However, they consistently fall short of expectations and are proving to be relatively expensive. 

The same characteristics are evident in warehouses, fulfilment centres and inventory hubs at large. 

Multiple, dispersed facilities which are close, accessible, and responsive to local clients, customers and outlets are contributing to enhanced presence, appeal and competitive advantage. 

Businesses are awakening to the reality that they do not need “saturation” coverage to be competitively advantaged and well placed to service and satisfy the needs, expectations and demands of existing and prospective clients and customers. 

A store on every corner is a concept long since lapsed. The inability, sustainability and appeal of pop-up outlets are also waning. Astute deployment of limited resources, employing asymmetric strategies and tactics are recoding improved performance in the short, intermediate, and longer terms. 

ASYMMETRIC FUNDAMENTALS 

Embracing, deploying, and enjoying the benefits and advantages of asymmetric principles requires disciplined and often different thinking. 

Organisation structures are best designed with an emphasis on smaller, multi-dimensional skill sets. Interactions with, and reliance on, group members are close, personal, intense, and ongoing. They foster empathy, understanding, belief and mutual dependence.  

Individuals and groups are highly trained, well-equipped, delegated authorities to initiate, act, respond and to be accountable. 

Fear is not an overriding presence. Risk tolerance is high. Capacity for independence well developed. Use of stealth, online real-time communications, assertive actions and adroit withdrawals are characteristic of an “asymmetric” practitioner. 

It is an early phase, evolving concept. Precedents are few. Guerrilla Warfare from the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s are rudimentary forerunners. 

Asymmetric strategies and tactics are mainstream. Traditional hierarchies are challenged. Successes are recognised, respected, celebrated, and rewarded. 

Practitioners are typically lowkey and low-profile. 

The innate nature of asymmetry is that there is no traditional balanced status, distribution of force is uneven (possibly unexpected), outputs are variable and therefore, to some considerable extent unpredictable. 

Achievements are typically beyond perceptions and recognised abilities, talents, and attributes. 

The superior and superordinate measures are founded on belief, enthusiasm, discipline, integration, flexibility, and the ability to ‘hit’ hard, fast and to follow-through. 

WORKSHOPPING DISCIPLINES 

Free-wheeling, unstructured, creative development sessions, facilitated by a moderator familiar with the concepts, principles and practices establish their own frameworks, parameters, and priorities. 

It is difficult to be judgmental in such high-energy settings. 

Upsides and downsides are identified, isolated, analysed and introduced to strategy audits. Contingency plans, and the scope to respond, adapt and innovate are essential. This is an artform, well short of assured scientific outcomes. 

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS 

Asymmetric forces are relevant and potentially beneficial to multiple audiences, stakeholders, if you will – suppliers, distributors, associates, clients (existing and potential), competitors, substitutes and team-members will be impacted. 

Discussing, promoting – but not specifying – asymmetry has the capacity to influence thinking, actions, perceptions and preferences. For internal sources it is typically inspirational and motivational. Shades of: “Yes, we can”, a theme that inspired millions, raised funds and contributed to two successful Presidential campaigns by Barak Obama. 

Asymmetry is an unfamiliar word, a ‘big’ concept that is not dependent on absolute size which is marshalling the interest and latent potential for some 2.8 million small to medium-sized enterprises through Australia. 

Barry Urquhart

Business Strategist

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

MANAGING RISK

All businesses, regardless of size and sector, are exposed. Risks, disruptions and distractions abound. Influences rather than influencers are impacting individual entities in significant ways. 

Competition is intensifying. Substitutes are emerging. Supply-chain issues persist. Global networks are fracturing. The nature of each and all is direct and immediate. 

IT IS CULTURAL 

Foremost among the marketplace influences are the cultural-based, value-driven aspects of ESG – that is, environment, social and governance. Corporate social responsibility in isolation does not embrace or articulate the comprehensive, if not universal character of those three factors. 

ENGAGING ENVIRONS 

Consumers, employees, associates, governments, and the media have developed sensitivities about the importance, consequences and potential advantages and disadvantages of the broader concepts. 

Responsible product and service sourcing, with minimal impacts on the environment and ecology, has rapidly become a fundamental primary criterion applied at large for company, product, service selection. 

Undertaking such initiatives should necessarily be complemented with promotion, articulation, and reinforcement of such facts. That dimension alone surpasses price sensitivity and contributes to acceptance of any suggestion of “price premiums”. 

The principles are applauded by an overwhelming percentage of team-members. It enhances pride, reduces employee attrition rates and both deepens and broadens brand-name virtues. 

Active involvement of shareholders and the information of collegiate arrangements creates scope for increased transparency, accountability, and authenticity. 

Doing things right and doing the right things matters in the current marketplace. They are key influences. 

SOCIAL IMPORTANCE 

Providing a safe, positive and enjoyable workplace attracts attention, admiration and interest. It is a catalyst for effective staff recruitment and retention.

In short, it is a good reason for people “to get up in the morning”. 

“Peace-of-mind” is an understated presence among clients and customers, who seek value. Likewise for employees, women in particular. 

Dress-codes, language, training, recognition, respect, and celebration are all part of the fabric of a compellingly attractive culture and purpose. 

CHANGE THE FOCUS 

Marketers in particular are inclined to promote and value exclusivity. “Dare to Be Different” has been a long-standing call-to-action. Rightly so. 

Endeavours to establish and sustain relationships are best implemented based on inclusivity. Involving, engaging, and encouraging stakeholders is a social driving force, and often purpose. 

Consistency and continuity of such contributes to stability, adherence, repeat business, loyalty, and referrals. 

Where possible, include – and don’t exclude. The returns are appreciable, cumulative, and potentially, exponential. 

The social aspect of commerce has many layers. 

HOLD ON GOVERNOR 

Governance is not and should not be contained to the c-suite and corridors of power. True leadership provides vision, direction, focus, belief and above all understanding. It is all encompassing and embracing. 

Commitment by all ‘to values’ of a business, entity, community, and nation ensures cohesion, self-belief and resilience. 

Open cultures and societies facilitate contributions, refinements and understanding. 

Top-down management and decision making have been marginalised in the prevailing setting. Ownership of decisions and actions is universal. Everyone is accountable, and therefore, more inclined to be responsive. 

Titles count for little in a literal horizontal organisation structure. The focus is not on processes. Outcomes count and are accounted and rewarded. 

EMPHASIS 

Rightly so, each variable addressed in this text has been and is addressed in most operations. 

Some have been deployed adroitly, to the advantage of companies, products, services, and applications. Moreover, certain components have been sustained over extended and varying periods of time. 

The issue at hand, and the challenges confronting business leaders, owners and managers is determining the emphasis, sequence, and importance of those variables. 

Dynamics and fluidity in the broader economy is dictating the need for ongoing review, refinement, prioritising, and reinforcement of those influences. 

In reality, the key determinants, and value-judgments are the province of existing, prospective, and past clients/customers. To that extent, they are influencers. However, their influences are more omnipotent, conspicuous, and telling. Their advantages, benefits and rewards are best qualified in measures of value, itself a subjective noun.  

Barry Urquhart

Customer Service Specialist

Marketing Focus

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

MAKE AN EXHIBITION OF YOURSELF

During, and because of COVID19, many people have lost touch. 

Little wonder there is intense interest in and demand for conducting, and engaging with exhibitions of products, services and applications. Social isolation and quarantines do that to the psyche of people. Most long to reach out, connect and engage with people who matter. That includes clients, customers, suppliers, associates, and team-members. 

Little wonder astute business leaders are taking the opportunity to make an exhibition of their companies, brands, products, and people – sometimes extending to themselves. Being an exhibitionist seems timely. 

Reservations about contaminations, intent and understanding are readily and rapidly overcome. 

Exhibitions, in their many incarnations and sizes are filling needs, and stimulating interest in new and established products, services and apps. 

Relationships are being rekindled, established, and extended. Increased business activities are natural consequences. 

Hosts are from a broad cross-section, including professional associations, buying groups, marketing networks, manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, and retailers. 

Creative concepts in invitation designs, displays, demonstrations and samplings are generating interest in and demand for brands. 

The shadow of the pandemic and its evolving variants overhang the marketplace. Attendance totals tend to be down. So too are multiple registrations and participants. Trials and tribulations associated with travel remain a perceptual, if not a real impediment and filter. This has been a catalyst for the programming and conduct of multiple, smaller events. 

Among the by-products are increased engagements, interactions and transactions. 

SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS 

One significant trend that is emerging centres on contractions in and terminations of social media campaigns. 

Increasingly, funds and budgets are being allocated to re-entering and profiling a strong physical presence among existing, past and prospective clients, customers and collaborators. 

Self-conducted exhibitions provide platforms with certain endearing and enduring features. These include exclusive access to time-specific events, which in themselves stimulate interest and generate a sense of urgency. 

Promoting new products, the full complementary range, infrastructure support, service arrangements and specific offers, capture attention and often represent enhanced value. 

Everything old seems new again. 

In many instances, and covering numerous aspects, these events are relaunch and launch occasions. They should be considered new, with formats free from traditions and past practices. Interactions, communication, and networking remain the key, fundamental and effective lubricants for commerce. 

Social media and technology should be deployed to complement, not replace the human quotient. Multi-channels, when integrated are optimal when positioning companies, brands, people, and products. 

Facilitating interactions, including peers, should be a feature of the programs and schedules. Smaller, targeted events are seemingly, appealing to promoters, invitees and participants. However, care must be taken to avoid overburdening targeted entities, executives, associates, clients and customers with missives, invitations and opportunities. Saturation via social media has been a key determinant in declining use of those media. 

BE OBJECTIVE 

In the prevailing time-poor, pandemic affected marketplace, with attendant and consequential reluctance to be over-exposed to viruses, infections and both medical and social contaminations, it is imperative for set and specific objectives to be determined for exhibitions and similar events. 

A good starting point is a clean slate. Traditions and past practices, including scheduling, should be at least marginalised, if not deleted. 

Attendee benefits, advantages and rewards need to be conspicuous, alluring and indeed compelling. Even in periods of recessions customers, clients and purchasing managers find satisfaction and delight in purchases. 

That is reason enough to contemplate the planning, promotion and conduct of exhibitions and similar events. New venues, presentations and packages enhance appeal. 

GET EXCITED 

Against a backdrop of several variants of COVID19, it is important to remember that in commerce few things are more infectious than excitement and enthusiasm. 

Barry Urquhart

Keynote Speaker - Exhibitions

Marketing Focus

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

DID YOU KNOW?

Really! 

A total of 63% of consumers who had dealt with individual products and services providers for three or more years self-declared that they were unaware of the full range of offerings from those established sources. Reality suggests that figure may understate the true statistics. 

In business-to-business situations the percentages are slightly higher, dependent upon the sectors, concentration of supply and geographic locations of both providers and clients. 

SEEK AND FIND 

The current marketplace dynamics are dictating the need and inclination to identify additional income streams and possible supply sources. Increasing prices, inflation, expectations of a pending recession, contracting expenditure patterns and reduced foot-, telephone- and online-traffic are common. 

Consequently, pursuit of new customers is now the norm. However, given the prevailing states-of-mind, reception of cold-calls and initial contacts tend to be relatively cold, if not dismissive. 

Significantly, the facts detailed above profile a ready pool of potential incremental demand, revenue, and profits. 

Moreover, there are multiple and justifiable reasons for initiating contact, with existing customers and clients. Educating, informing, encouraging, and reassuring people about needs and wants, fulfilment and satisfaction can be, and often is, mutually rewarding. 

Prescriptive and pre-determined selling approaches are deficient in many respects, and may not identify, isolate, analyse and satisfy recognised and unrecognised needs. 

Utilising available internal data does provide valid and appropriate platforms to initiate conversations. Legal practitioners declare such are invitations to treat. 

PIONEERING CHARACTERISTICS 

A significant majority of customers and clients are reluctant to be pioneers. Indeed, in most case studies innovators tend to represent some 2-5% of the marketplace. 

Early adopters typically number between 5 and 10% of targeted audiences. 

For many, reassurance and confidence emanates from the buying preferences and patterns of others. That extends well beyond the influence and importance of self-promoting brand ambassadors. Follow-the-leaders implies less risk. 

Multiple leading global, national and local brands have founded, and sustained their market presence and brand leadership on marketplace acceptance and consumption. Recommendations, endorsements and advocacy are implied. No financial consideration need be, or is, contemplated or paid. 

SHARE THE LOVE 

Some business leaders, owners and analysts simply love statistics and facts. Many make sales, profits and create wealth from those. 

Base information is available to many. Far fewer take that information and convert it into intelligence. It is the latter composition that can be packaged and monetised.  

Take for instance the fact that targeted clients and customers are among the 20% of purchasers for the top-selling products, services and applications. That categorisation is of value to certain people. Psychic-income is emotive, evocative, and influential in enhancing relationships, extending trust and being instrumental in accelerating repeat business. (Read: I belong. Therefore, I buy.) 

To be further informed that one is not in the top quartile of those purchasers who complement the transactions with one, two, three or four compatible products or services is often reason enough to take pause and consider additional actions. Additional revenue. 

Internal statistics can also reveal those existing clients and customers who are not securing the advantages, benefits and rewards of select offerings. 

The resultant interactions and conversations can be meaningful, and financially rewarding. 

IT ALL ADDS UP 

Astute business leaders and marketers will typically conclude that they do not need or want additional clients and customers.

Their focus is oriented to additional revenue and profits. That is, securing increasing share-of-wallet, in preference to the seeming perennial pursuit of share-of-market. 

And so it is that often the means to greater success, sales, profits and competitive advantage is readily available and accessible. Its presence is simply not recognised nor capitalised upon. 

In other words, old information looked at through new perspectives creates new information. 

Allocating sufficient and appropriate resources to reviewing, analysing and deploying existing, available internal information can be financially rewarding. 

Attitude often determines altitude. “Per ardua ad astra”. That is; 

                              Through adversity to the stars. 

Barry Urquhart

Customer Service Specialist

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

FAIR WARNING

Always consider the consequences.

When warnings are issued and shared, expectations, good and bad, are established. 

Delivering on those warnings, or whether falling short of or exceeding them impacts on experiences, images, and brands. In essence, intentions count for little. 

Lessons were learnt from the recent scenarios throughout Australia in which airlines, airports and government tourism and hospitality ministers announced probable delays, disappointments, frustrations, and costly inconveniences for intending holiday makers. The outcomes were telling. School terms were about to finish, vacations were about to commence and travel bookings were up, appreciably. 

Many of the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic were over. The prospects for the return to economic buoyancy were high. Anticipation for “good times” was infectious. 

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS 

Domestic air-travellers were advised to arrive at the airport at least two hours before departure. For international travellers it was three hours. 

They were prepared for congested car parks, long queues in the terminals, increased delays in departure times and flight times. Flight cancellations were expected to increase and instances of “lost” baggage were concerning. 

Alternative flights could not be guaranteed at preferred times, and costs may escalate. 

The only communication deficiency was an absence of best wishes for a great holiday and travel experience. 

Disappointingly, each aspect was delivered in spades. 

EMOTIVE REACTIONS 

Each point was, and is, a trigger for frustration and customer rage. It is typically front-line service providers who are subjected to emotive outbursts.

The media were quick to provide blanket-coverage with personal interviews onsite. For the airlines, airports, and political ministers there was no place to hide. 

PREVENTATIVE, REMEDIAL ACTIONS 

Understandably, affected consumers had little interest in apologies and requests for understanding and tolerance. They had planned, booked and paid for the pending travel. 

Their expressions of exasperation centred on why increased flights had been scheduled, and bookings accepted. Staff shortages and recruitment difficulties were well known and relatively long established. 

Sorry seems inadequate, inappropriate, and offensive. 

Measured, reduced, offerings were alternatives. Disappointment would not be removed or avoided. However, travel-day surprises would be excluded. 

Moreover, the consequential impact on bookings, revenues and profits of dependant and complementary service providers would have been forecast and budgeted. Inventory, staffing, and service purchases would have been better managed, margins retained, and cash-flows protected. 

For those businesses seeking to embrace the concept and principles of “Customer Obsession,” single-minded endeavours would have been: 

                    “How do we deliver the promise?” 

Noticeably, qualifications, rationalisations and justifications for shortfalls would not be considered or necessary. 

A pillar of the concept is that businesses do not exist to make a profit. They persist to satisfy the needs, values, drives and expectations of existing and prospective customers and clients. 

The better and more often that they do so, the better the consumer interest, demand, sales, revenues and yes, profits. Profits are a consequence, not the sole purpose for those driven by customer obsession, one would expect little less. 

OBSESSED CONCLUSION 

If it is possible to determine the need to issue warnings, it is probable that there is sufficient time to formulate, document and implement remedial actions that will satisfy (most) customers and fulfil their expectations.

Promises made need to be delivered. 

Developing skills in issuing apologies is wide of the mark sought and expected by customers and clients. 

Customer obsession necessitates investments of time, resources, and finances, regardless of the costs borne by intending service providers. The psychic-income returns are measured (subjectively) in the smiles, satisfaction and future return and referral business of customers. That is the bottom-line. 

Barry Urquhart

Customer Service Specialist

Marketing Focus

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

MEASURES OF SUCCESS

Performance indicators abound. 

Some are objective and measurable. Others are subjective, emotive, and evocative. 

Identifying, isolating, analysing, embracing, and implementing the limited number which can be appropriately accepted as key requires discipline and objectivity. 

For start-up and established entities observable and measurable indicators can typically be grouped into three categories, being: 

·         Essential benchmarks

·         Growth levers

·         Power of customer-first 

Appropriately determined and qualified benchmarks enable delegation of both authority and responsibility. Specific tolerance(variance) measures negate the need for ongoing micromanaging by senior executives. “Management By Exception” is a concept warmly applauded and typically embraced by people of all ranks. In such cases, leadership overviews and interventions are themselves exceptions. 

At best, senior intrusions may centre on refining and redefining the benchmarks themselves, which are focused on individual rather than industry, groups and geographic clusters and performance records. 

It is rare that all relevant competitors and substitutes have identified status, standings, and development stage presence. 

AVOID THE MUNDANE 

Essential benchmarks are distanced from typical month-on-month or year-on-year comparative analyses. Gross sales figures reveal little of meaning and substance. Sales increases can usually be accelerated and elevated by rampant price discounting. The real impact is on profits and sustainable financial viability. 

Likewise, profits can be misleading. For example, a run-down in inventory levels and warehouse capacity can reflect immediately and extensively on short-term profits. Such instances project a false economy and skewed perspectives. 

DYNAMIC REFLECTIVE, PROJECTIVE BENCHMARKS 

Verifiable stock-turns, velocity, and complementary volume rates, along with sales/contract conversion ratios provide comprehensive overviews and insights on performance and “fit” in the marketplace. 

Collectively, they can be and usually are catalysts for appropriate management strategic actions.  

GROWTH LEVERS  

The word and concept, growth is interesting. They can relate to absolute and relative measures or be vertical, horizontal, and multi-dimensional in nature. For some, growth can be, and is, applied to positive and the negative. Go figure.  

Market share is not unidimensional. It can be quantified to an overall market, target segments, geographic spreads or, disturbingly reflect fragmentation – in its many guises.  

Growth, advancement and spread can lead to exposure, vulnerability and both competitive and strategic sustainability. 

Getting the right measure and balance is an art-form. Being right or wrong are binary and constant. 

Identifying, isolating, analysing, formulating, and applying custom company/brand/product/service/applications contribute to competitive advantage. Benchmarks and levers will optimise performance, sustain viability and be fundamental in malleability. 

Heightened sensitivity to the nature, applications, advantages, benefits and rewards of benchmarks, levers and corporate philosophies substantiates ongoing investment in such. 

The true art is in the management and manipulation of chosen levers. Thus, the HOW and WHO outweighs the importance and effectiveness of WHAT. 

CUSTOMER-FIRST

The terms “customer-driven” and “customer-first” have in recent times been overtaken and overwhelmed by new labels including customer obsession and customer regency. 

Customers should always be first, second, last and absolute. They are the very reason for being for companies, products, applications, and brands. 

Service excellence is founded on the principles of never saying no to a customer. An inability to satisfy and fulfil needs with one’s own offering does not preclude the opportunity and reality of suggesting and recommending alternatives, substitutes or reassessment of perceived and real needs and wants. 

Compromise is never an acceptable option.  

A laudable statement, culture, declaration, promise, and positioning base were for one department store in the US, Macys, a longer-term competitive advantage: 

Satisfaction Guaranteed. Period. 

There was simply no soft edge to those words and intent. Understanding, embracing, and applying the underlying brief of, and in such were integral to the recruitment and induction processes of all Macys people. 

CONCLUDING WORDS 

Winners are grinners. They are also magnets for customers, clients, and prospective team-members. Recruitment issues are typically quickly resolved. 

The absolute best know, share, and declare their unique measures of success. 

In times of turmoil, simple things are often the most effective in achieving cut-through. 

Barry Urquhart

Marketing Focus

Business Strategist

M:        041 983 5555

E:        Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:       www.marketingfocus.net.au

THEY’RE ALL THE SAME

Wrong. On both counts. 

Businesses which consider, act, and conduct commerce as though all customers, clients and consumers are the same, miss some fundamental points. 

Individuals, including the leaders of companies, are (rightly) inclined to believe that they, their circumstances, and needs are unique, different, and yes, exclusive. They act, expect, perceive, and buy accordingly. 

A deep and meaningful understanding of this reality develops an appreciation of the nature and importance of the word and concept, WHY. 

It explains in part why people are so inconsistent, unpredictable, and seemingly irrational in so many attitudes and actions. Group norms are seldom definable. Little wonder that marketers are questioning the relevance and application of market segmentation. Within subgroups varying perceptions, beliefs, values, and aspirations exist and influence. Uniformity is rare. 

Online algorithms and AI (artificial intelligence) exhibit the same or similar deficiencies and limitations. Past and present behaviours are not necessarily good and accurate indicators of future actions, buying and consumption patterns. 

Statistics alone cannot and do not identify and enable analysis of innate nuances, perceptions, preferences, and purchases. Each possesses a significant amount of subjectivity. In short, they are often a record of what has taken place. In many instances they provide insight and glimpses on how things were done. (past emphasis). 

A seeming gaping hole exists and persists on WHY. Intuitive marketing, necessarily, is centred and based on personal interactions and understandings. 

SAME COIN – DIFFERENT SIDE 

Consumers often reflect the values and perceptions of corporations in their evaluations on, and value-assessments of trading entities, brand-names, products, services, and applications. 

A common contributing factor is the inability of companies to determine, isolate, analyse and effectively project essential points of difference, uniqueness, and exclusivity. 

Consequently, in a “sea of sameness,” price is often the only differentiating factor.

Sad, costly, inefficient – but … true. 

Therefore, initial emphasis in communication strategies should ideally centre on branding, purpose, and differentiation. That can, and does, favourably position a company, brand, product, service, and application on the shopping and buying list. 

Familiarisation is important. It simplifies and expedites the buying process. That is peace-of-mind. Differentiation influences purchase criteria and establishes absolute and comparative value. 

In both instances, being the centre of attention and an effective datum point establishes a strong influence and presence. For example, IBM and IBM-compatible implicitly stated that in the past the IBM brand was the anchor-point against which all competitors and substitutes were measured. 

The marketing and advertising statement, “Coke is the real thing”, discounted and dismissed the alternative brand. 

Alas, “They’re not all the same.” 

CUSTOMER PROFILING 

Racial profiling is considered by many to be socially and morally reprehensible. Moreover, it is consistently and substantially inaccurate, and therefore misleading.

Arithmetic-based algorithms and AI formulae provide a tentative, opening database upon which human intuition must be applied to identify broad trendlines – not narrow, defined answers. 

Facial recognition can, and does, identify and isolate physical characteristics. However, that too has qualifications, given the repeated experiences of police and crowd-control initiatives which have embarrassingly precluded people from attendances or been responsible for screening and arrests. 

A lengthening and substantial record of legal actions and compensation payments is evidence enough of the need for caution and appropriate social prudence. 

Consider the following phrase and its implications. 

                    “Not all …. are terrorists, but

                              all terrorists are ….”  

Which percentages apply to what? Moreover, can any credence be assigned to such sentiments, even when supported by algorithms and AI data? 

A pertinent extension of that scenario is the dilemma where the targeting of marketing, sales and service communications are determined by digital marketers, utilising algorithms, and artificial intelligence. Often, they are found to be wanting on the criteria of sales conversion, revenue, margins and repeat business. 

To emphasise, reinforce and substantiate the phrase “they’re all the same”, it is apparent that those who stand apart are difficult to integrate into companies with comprehensive, professional, qualified, and experienced infrastructure support. 

That underscores the importance and realisation that advertising advertises. It needs the support of responsive networks and people to achieve, sustain and develop optimal performance. Selling, merchandising, and promoting are distinct, complementary disciplines. Those disciplines too, are not the same. Leaders need to join the dots and integrate. 

Hardware, including the software which is captured, and retained in the cloud – possibly offshore – simply opens the door of opportunity. In other words, it provides latent potential. 

To close the deal, software, that is, the human quotient, is complementary and essential. Intuition is subjective but can delineate primary target audiences. 

MULTI – CHANNELS 

Active, responsive, and rapid social media are non-negotiable imperatives for all business, and public service entities. 

The capacity of the hardware can only ever be fulfilled by, and with the capabilities of the software – people. Importantly, they are not all the same. 

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL 

Modern society, technology and commerce enable most people access to the same of strikingly similar offerings. The essential points-of-difference are the applications. 

Those who are winning, enjoying competitive advantage, and enhancing mutually rewarding relationships de-emphasise the roles and influence of physically remote and centralised global talent pools and are committing to decentralised presences, which enable team-members to be up close and personal. 

It does not take much to remove the shackles of sameness. 

Insurance premiums, petrol prices and tyre costs can be, and are stereotypically perceived to be the same. One essential variance is ready and immediate access to a local service provider. Priceless. 

CALL TO ACTION 

The current challenge is to compete with and beat yourself. It is one sure way to cast off the cloak of sameness. 

Barry Urquhart

Marketing Focus

Business Strategist

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

WOKE UP – MAKE A STAND

CHALLENGING DISCUSSION TOPIC: 

I dare you. 

Regards, 

Barry Urquhart 

WOKE UP – MAKE A STAND 

I have decided to take a stand. 

Ageism is insidious, growing and is socially unjust. Henceforth, I intend to identify professionally as 34 years of age. 

Woke Culture advocates, often referred to as social justice warriors, will doubtlessly be accepting, understanding and supportive, as will my now-peers, the young. The only thing I expect to be cancelled is ageism itself. 

The contention is consistent with the issue of transgender, where the sex of an individual is determined and classified by biological fact. Gender, according to respected ethicist, Professor Margaret Somerville of Notre Dame Australia, is a culturally assigned characteristic. 

Likewise, I choose to be forever young. 

WARDROBE ASSIGNMENT 

The good news is that I will not be effecting changes to my wardrobe. Disney will be pleased. They felt obliged to introduce a new pants suit and footwear for Minnie Mouse, to satisfy the ever vigilant woke warriors. 

PROFESSIONAL OUTCOMES 

I expect many benefits from this stand and declaration, including empowerment, transparency, inclusion, and equity – the catchcries of woke culture. 

Lifetime experiences, expertise and learnings will be set aside for the foreseeable future. 

Barry Urquhart

Managing Director

Marketing Focus

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au 

FOOTNOTE: I foresee this reality to be short-term.

GET ON WITH IT

We all have a job to do. 

Right. But be careful. 

Defining, valuing, respecting, and adhering to specified duties is difficult, particularly in times of a pandemic when so much is expected of all. 

In recent times there has been increasing evidence that job descriptions have been set aside. So too have skill-sets, expertise, experience, and training. Everyone, it seems, is being asked to dig in and do more. 

Geographic and operational boundaries have been dismissed, marginalised and (seemingly) removed from organisational charts. Coverage has been “thinned”. That is, State Managers have morphed into Regional Managers, notwithstanding the difficulty of travel and the need for closer and more repeated support and interactions. 

Business Development Managers, Franchise Support Executives and Member field staff-members are less conspicuous and fewer in number. 

During testing times each of these initiatives can be justified, reconciled, rationalised, and tolerated. However, they do come at a cost. 

CAREFUL 

Declines in morale are among the most noticeable consequences. Increases in staff mobility and attrition rates are others. Fractures in group cohesion evolve. People dislike change, particularly unannounced, and when arbitrarily applied. 

The costs do impact the bottom-line. Productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness measures typically reflect downturns. The cascading effects are evident in margins, profits, longer-term competitiveness, viability, and sustainability. 

New and redefined duties should not be a consequence of an individual’s geographic proximity to senior managers who are delegating and attributing duties and responsibilities. 

A reasonable contention, seldom expressed, is the need for the rescripting of job descriptions, conditions of employment, remuneration packages and job specifications. The latter tends to be a rare document. It details the human requisites and characteristics necessary to fulfil a position. Alas, a marketing manager may not be appropriate to undertake one-on-one counselling with those in networks. 

Graphic designers may, and often do, fall short in taking up all the duties of a social media or digital marketing executive. It does equate to horses for courses. 

COMMUNICATION CONSEQUENCES 

In trying times established rules and practices are inclined to be set aside. 

The implications can be, and often are personal. Understandably, many people become introspective. They withdraw from formal communication channels. Casual, informal, and non-recorded discourse increases. 

Among the common resultant phrases and statements shared are: 

·       That is not my job.

·       I was not recruited to do that.

·       Those new duties are a distraction.

·       What do I prioritise?

·       I do not have the resources necessary (to do that).

·       I have the responsibility, but not the authority to achieve. 

Many team-members feel that they are already stretched. Additional duties will be undertaken at the expense of others. Choice and priorities do not appear to be within the realm of the lower-order staff-members. 

Moreover, in some instances duties can be incompatible. That is emotionally challenging for those implementing the changes and for those being subjected to the outcomes. 

RESTRUCTURED PRIORITIES 

Reassigning duties tends to be a defensive, if not a holding, endeavour. It is by nature tactical. 

Addressing immediate needs and circumstances are understandable and appropriate. However, realigning shorter-term targets can have significant, profound, compromising, and negative consequences for higher-order, long-term focused strategies, and goals. 

Therefore, to maintain cohesion, focus, integration, and harmony, it is imperative that consideration be given to impacts and cascading consequences of “corrective,” remedial short-term and opportunistic management decisions and initiatives. 

In short, if a tactic, target, and duty are changed, consideration needs to be given to the necessary refinements to objectives, goals, missions, cultures, purposes, job descriptions, job specifications, terms of employment and remuneration packages. 

Phew! Spontaneous decisions, which seem so easy to make, have broad, specific, cascading, and ongoing consequences. It is time to recognise and respect that no man, woman, or workgroup is an island. They seldom, if ever work in isolation. Consideration must be given to others.  

So too, targets, tactics, and duties. 

Each need to be reviewed, refined, extended, and developed – but never in isolation. 

DISCIPLINED ACTION 

A forensic review of strategic, business action plans, along with assessments on the currency of job descriptions and specifications, and evaluations of operational procedures should be undertaken and documented periodically. The experience can be insightful, beneficial and, for some, cathartic. 

The word and concept, discipline, is an essential driving force, if one is to seek, attain and sustain optimal performance, productivity, competitiveness, and relevance. 

Just get on with it.  

Barry Urquhart

Marketing Focus

Business Strategist

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

THE DNA OF BUSINESS

Well developed foundations and building blocks anchor structures. Durability is a consequence. 

The pyramids in Egypt are a classic case study. 

In commerce, organisational structures are not as stable and as enduring. The need for adaptability is recognised and accepted. What is often missing is a core, from which values, virtues, relevance, and resonance emanate, is lacking or deficient. This highlights the need to determine, define and articulate a purpose. 

Innovation, technological change, disruption, and outright creativity necessitate malleability, flexibility if you will. Those attributes can be design features which complement, not replace the importance of a business’s foundation. 

They seldom necessitate the need to change the foundations, core, and purpose materially and structurally. Broaden and re-orient such, certainly. 

Over millennia, countless bridge structures have collapsed. Tolerance, for mobility, was in-built. Permanence was not. Societies and businesses need both. 

In recent times religions have seemingly ossified. Modern cult movements have disappeared, arguably by the process of self-destruction. Often the foundation centres on the individual, the founder. Shortened lifecycles and mortality come into play. Such leaders fail to differentiate mortality from the attributes of being eternal. 

The overview reflects the words and title of the US radio feature, hosted by John Doremus:

                    “The Passing Parade” 

The speed of that passing is accelerating. 

RESPECTING THE CHARTERS 

Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards are philosophically given the charter to ensure financial prudence, ensuring persistence, achieving resonance and relevance, and retaining the capacities of growth, innovation, and change. 

Typical board compositions and competencies do limit capacities because insufficient emphasis is given to capabilities. Investments in operational and technological hardware are seldom matched with outlays on software, i.e., human beings. 

Organisations exist, adapt, develop, and achieve through people. Better people make for better organisations, particularly under good leadership. 

However, the influence of each is typically short-term.  

“OPEN” BUSINESS 

The COVID pandemic has been a prime catalyst for organisations embracing “open” design offices, WFH (working from home), “open” cloud computer systems, “open” multi-channel communication networks and online real-time interactions with suppliers, distributors and collaborating associates. 

Less open are delegated authorities, personal interaction (internal and external), risk-taking and resourcing for innovation, change and new products, services, and applications. 

As a result, emphasis is given to increased internal efficiencies and productivity. 

External effectiveness, founded on relationships, repeat, loyal and referred business, have floundered somewhat. So too has originality. 

Not surprisingly, morale is down and attrition throughout the workforce continues to increase. 

Better balance between the tactical and the strategic will facilitate greater stability and durability. 

DOUBLE HELIX 

Beyond the hallowed halls of academia and scientific laboratories few people can attempt to visualise the double helix of their own DNA, the core of their very existence. 

Leadership and management teams in commerce exhibit similar characteristics and dispositions. Consequently, entities can “drift” in the marketplace and rapidly expire. 

That can, and does, raise justifiable questions among team-members, associates, suppliers, and existing, prospective, and past clients. 

Innovations, adaptions and changes to products, services, product/service lines, perform best in the short, intermediate, and longer terms when they are attached to and anchored by strong DNA.  

Remember, purpose promotes pride. 

TAKE TWO 

Invaluable insights were recently gleaned from an unstructured interaction with the leader of a religious-based community group whose prime purpose was to engage with people, many of whom were homeless, unemployed, and dependent (to varying degrees) on a range of drugs. 

His and the entity’s endeavour was to have the targeted people re-integrate into society, families, and local communities.  

The complexities and vagaries of the pandemic have affected financial supporters, contributing health professionals and the operators of essential infrastructure amenities. 

Income was trending down. So too the pool of resources. Reaching out and connecting with those in the targeted audience proved more difficult. 

Engaging with all and sundry seems to be a step too far. 

An extended session in which the DNA and purpose were reviewed, analysed and tentatively recalibrated, was energising. 

The principal activities and resources of the entity were ultimately identified to be and accepted by activities and resources – not the purpose. 

What evolved was the realisation that the purpose of the community group was.... purpose. 

That is, to provide purpose for the intended recipients, (clients, customers, patients or whoever) was illuminating and provided a purpose to approach and re-approach sponsors, financial supporters, medical and health professionals and infrastructural amenity owners and operators. They felt rewarded and engaged by accepting, endorsing and contributing their purpose to the endeavours. 

The recipients responded positively and enjoyed enhanced self-worth because of an acceptance of them having a specific... purpose. 

ARRESTING STATEMENT 

Websites, submissions, and literature that declare and detail company/entity DNA which centre on relevance, advantages and benefits to existing and prospective clients are compelling in their appeal. 

When the focus is external, interest is stimulated, and value is enhanced. 

CONCLUSIONS: 

In many instances the activities that occupy the time and attention of many seem meaningless. When the purpose is identified, defined, embraced, articulated, and implemented a new, fulfilling realm materialises. 

That progress is, well, purposeful. It also underscores the fact that the purpose of a business is seldom, if ever, to make a profit. 

That profit is a consequence of attaining and sustaining the purpose. The better and more often you do that, the more profit you make. 

Barry Urquhart

Business Strategist

Marketing Focus

M:      041 983 5555

E:       Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

FOOTNOTE: Complex and confusing. I wrote it that way on purpose … to stimulate your creative juices.

OPEN UP

National and state borders are opening up. The capacity and temptation to travel are being recognised and are being deployed and enjoyed. 

Above all, in commerce, people are greeting, meeting, interacting and sharing. Receipt of invitations to participate ensures positive reactions, attitudes and perceptions. People want to get involved. 

Measured hesitancy persists. It is reasonable for sensitivity to the prospects of further disruptions, and for distractions to return. 

REALITY CHECK 

Resilience is the ability to return to the original state. It is probable that many entities, economies, communities, distribution networks and brands will not seek, or have the ability to return to the pre-pandemic era, which ceased in February 2020. 

To re-establish a robust presence will involve lead-times. Empty supermarket shelves will not be corrected for at least four, and possibly six weeks. 

Readily available stock of new vehicles will not evolve for possibly six months. 

Variable supply-chain, logistics, geo-political, labour, skills and inventory circumstances will, individually and collectively, retain a degree of volatility, apprehension and risk in the marketplace. 

Coming together, facilitating open discourse, establishing mutually beneficial collegiate arrangements and initiating collaborative actions will create their own momentum. Sustained momentum will be an essential pre-requisite for optimum productivity. Enhanced margins and profitability will be natural consequences.  

It just takes time, engagement, communication and a little self-belief. 

We at Marketing Focus are witnessing the processes and financial outcomes from an increasing schedule of customised keynote addresses to select targeted audiences, hosted by manufacturers, distributors and professional association executives who are keen to leverage the prevailing, latent (that is, unfulfilled) potential into reality. 

Get started. Get together. And, get those business opportunities. 

Barry Urquhart

Marketing Focus

M:      041 983 5555

E:       urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:      www.marketingfocus.net.au

THE NEXT STEP – FROM WHY TO WHY NOT

Belatedly, an increasing number of external professional business consultants, accountants included are appreciating the value for clients is not asking WHAT or HOW, but rather WHY? 

There is a noticeable awakening among business owners that many answers to the question Why? are inadequate, lacking depth, understanding and strategic competitive value and advantage. The sources to those answers reside with client principals and traditional constituencies. 

Training, experience and expertise in accountancy, human resources, organisation design, law are specific process-driven skill sets and are therefore insufficient for purpose. 

Innovation, creativity, originality and disruption tend to be beyond the scope of many external spheres of influence. 

Business workshop facilitators and moderators likewise are perceived to lack the capacity and drive to be catalysts for identifying, developing and articulating “stretch-goals” and quantum-change initiatives. 

ASSERTIVE FORCE 

Shaking up and dispelling states of comfort will typically not be achieved by external sources asking “easy” questions. The need exists for contributors to pose “hard” questions enthusiastically and unapologetically. 

These can be, and often are confronting, challenging and inclined to elicit personalised defensive responses. 

Sometimes, to effect significant and sustainable change the structuring and delivery of “hard” questions exposes the fact that in these instances and times: 

                                                There is no place to hide 

And so it is that a key fourth question is evolving, WHY NOT? 

Fundamental is the presence of contentions, propositions and considerations, but never conclusions. 

Conclusions rightly remain the province and responsibility of the client, owners and leaders. They cannot and should not delegate the authority of such to external catalysts and facilitators for change, innovation, creativity and, yes, transparency. 

A sense of discomfort seems innate in such scenarios. That reflects the presence and reality of cognitive dissonance. That is, recognition of the gap – often substantial – between what is and what should (if not need) be. 

CASE STUDY:

START WITH COMPOSITION 

Recent exposure to a local government Business Development Advisory Committee presentation was revealing. Indeed invaluable. 

Public Notice placements had been published in the local media calling for submissions regarding participation on the committee. Really? Very selective. 

Some select invitations were extended to identified people. Included in the list were several “usual suspects”. 

Meetings were held. Ideas exchanged. Lists compiled. 

And then … tentative directions were issued to local government employees whose experience, training, expertise, authority levels and budgets were, well, limited, deficient and founded on inappropriate corporate culture values. There was little or no capacity to enforce, reward or penalise local property and business owners to undertake positive action. 

The ideas may well have been profound, creative, original, appropriate and potentially financially rewarding. 

Some committee members were identified as and nominated to be entrepreneurial. Most were senior employees and consultants known to local government executives. 

It was quickly apparent that structural deficiencies and inadequacies existed. There appeared to be no shortage of issues. In all likelihood, the questions WHAT, HOW and WHY were addressed. 

Posing a series of WHY NOT, questions was not well received. 

However, one can be persistent and resistant to reluctance and dismissal. 

Contemplate, if you will, the validity, veracity, and potential inherent in the “following” questions: 

WHY NOT … 

• Change the Advisory Committee to an Action Board

• Extend Board members list to include genuine local entrepreneurs who had the capacity to take on some of the ideas, accept the risks and invest outright or in collaboration with local property, business owners and residents.

• Provide an annual budget for investment, encouragement and facilitation.

• Issue specific briefs to specialist professionals to initiate, negotiate and facilitate nominated projects and proposals.

• Provide tolerance for possible, and probable failures, and in some instances financial write-offs.  

And finally, WHY NOT overcome the stifling belief and contentions that local governments are primarily responsible for rubbish, roads and rates, and take on the entrepreneurial mantle of being effective, efficient and supportive catalysts and facilitators for change, development, creativity, innovation and, above all, disruption.

The same principles and challenges apply to commerce at large. 

Barry Urquhart

Business Strategist

Marketing Focus

M:        041 983 5555

E:        Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:       www.marketingfocus.net.au

PATHWAYS TO MARKET

Options ... so many options.  

Many options in business are tempting, viable and potentially financially rewarding. 

Globalism and digital channels have opened up, with boundless opportunities to identify, utilise and advantageously exploit multiple supply chains. 

What a wonderful web we weave. The roles of the traditional “middle-man”, that is, wholesalers, distributors and consolidators have been under review and subjected to extreme scrutiny and cost pressures. Adding value to relationships is now an imperative, complementing bulk-buying and administration advantages. 

Rapidly increasing consumer and corporate acceptance of house and generic brands has intensified and broadened the supply, distribution, branding, retailing, marketing, advertising and promotions of companies’ products, services and applications. Competition, substitution and disruption are intense and increasing. 

Franchising, licensing and brand-centred strategic and collegiate alliances have also come under pressure. In recent times there has been conspicuous “push-back” from previously subservient and dependent “down-stream” operators in countless networks. Consumers are not alone in verbalising calls for exercise of their rights. 

The scenario has become more complex and the rate of change accelerated since and because of the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

Long-standing business models have been, or should have been, subjected to forensic review and refinement, or outright re-building. 

YES. NOW. NEW. 

Imagine ... previously unimaginable supply-source options. The discounting and marginalising in value of recognisable brand names, widening acceptance of, and in some instances, preference for housebrands. 

There is increased resistance by consumers and clients of paying premiums, a de-emphasis on warranties, service contracts and structured maintenance programs, because of the “purchase-utilise-dispose” philosophy. 

Greater measures of value are being assigned to easy and immediate access to products, services and applications. There is a conspicuous intolerance to supply disruptions and delays, leading to spiralling declines in repeat, loyal and referral business. 

Individually and collectively these market forces have created a new set of dynamics in commerce at large. It is those that business owners, leaders and managers need to address, marshal and control. 

Design and refine typically comes before decline. Inertia too leads to decline. 

WITH QUALIFICATIONS 

Each of the seeming positive and appealing characteristics and attributes of the new marketplace comes with differing measures of compromises, imposts and barriers. 

Over-reliance on single or limited numbers of suppliers exposes businesses to potential disruptions, delays, cost imposts and transportation impediments. Minimum order-sizes are being progressively introduced by global suppliers, nominated shipping times are being extended, credit is being curtailed and full pre-payments are being invoked.  

Awareness of the availability and choice of numerous alternatives of supply, brands, products, services and applications falls well short of ongoing, mutually dependent and rewarding relationships from physically diverse sources. 

In the background, the influential dark hands of national politics are being played out. 

Global trade, supply chains in particular, are subject to national government influence and control. Therefore, government-to-government relationships are important considerations. In these volatile times it is difficult to determine what is politically correct and probable. 

FAIR. EQUITABLE 

On reflection, there is little balance and stability in the economy at large. No one circumstance fits all. Best is a meaningless term and unreachable, let alone an unsustainable goal. 

Indeed, at best, we can only hope to strive for and attain optimal outcomes which contribute to competitiveness, viable financials, harmony and cohesion. 

What is deemed to be fair and equitable by one may not be universally accepted.

It will, however, be a great starting point for effective engagement. Getting products, services and apps to market is fundamental, if not pre-emptive to success. 

In short, all commercial entities are affected, utilise and depend on efficient, effectual and productive supply-chains. Whose supply-chain is another issue. 

TAKING CONTROL 

Having the ability and discretion to exercise control over the full supply-chain and operations is appealing, alluring and can be both fulfilling and profitable. Achieving optimal outcomes is both challenging and complex. All options should be identified, isolated, analysed, prioritised and then subjected to structured, disciplined and measured selection criteria. 

The permutations and computations possible with numerous variables (read: sources, products, services, applications) can be almost limitless, can and do create confusion, anxiety, frustration, inertia and inefficiencies – among other things. 

Suffice to say, the future is not and will not be a lineal extension of the past and the present. In all probability the status quo will be irrelevant and could be a major impediment. 

Marketplace realities, when overlaid with structure, discipline, objectivity, malleability, openness and understanding tend to be resilient and sustaining. 

Certain long-standing business principles appear immutable. Many such beliefs, policies and practices have an air of being eternal. Others are mortal and have finite life cycles – in which decline and termination are inevitable. Numbered among the latter are outdated and outmoded supply-chains. 

MAKE A COMMITMENT 

The present, as challenging and changing as it is, is a great starting point to determining the fundamentals of: 

·         SUPPLY CHAIN

·         BRAND MANAGEMENT

·         PRICING/PROFIT POLICIES

·         PAYMENT SYSTEMS

·         DELIVERY NETWORKS

·         SERVICE STANDARDS   

Optimal, multi-channels in each element will be prudent to address any current, pending, probable and possible evolving contingencies. 

Start early in the designing and building of your unique pathway to market. 

Barry Urquhart

Business Strategist

Marketing Focus

M:        041 983 5555

E:        Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:       www.marketingfocus.net.au

VALUE BUSINESSES

Worth. 

More than ever it is a very subjective measure. Indeed, price, worth and value appear to be out of alignment at present. 

Real estate auction transactions are indicative of irrational pricing. So too, low-kilometre used motor vehicles, which are attracting sums which exceed the list price of new models. A new take on the phrase “pre-loved”. 

Supply chain issues are contributing to inflated prices for used mining equipment. Businesses are attracted to ready access and immediacy, stimulating a willingness to outlay significant premiums to satisfy, fulfil the needs and expectations of NOW clients. The return of irrational exuberance. 

IRRATIONAL RATIONALISATION  

It is not all upside for business owners, particularly in the small to medium-sized enterprise sector, where considerable amounts of wealth, retirement and superannuation plans are tied to the value of family businesses. 

Indeed, some personal service, hospitality and “bricks ‘n’ mortar” based operations are “priceless”. That is, they have little, no or negative value. 

Countless exit strategies and succession plans have been discarded, reluctantly and by necessity. Working and career-futures have been extended or suspended. 

Goodwill, always subjective, is hard to visualise, let alone quantify. Business-multiples have floundered, in absolute and relative terms. To some it is largely a concept whose time has come and gone. Negotiations have been vexed. A meeting of minds is a difficult goal or benchmark. Consensus and concurrence seem to be esoteric, oblique concepts and principles. 

A CHANGE OF GEARS 

A touch and measure of reality is riveted home to doubting Thomases when they seek additional funding from major established banking and finance sources. Notwithstanding the absence, or declining worth of bricks ‘n’ mortar businesses, the underlying value of the real estate is a non-negotiable imperative for risk-averse and risk-tolerant financiers. Shades of the omnipotent presence of “building society” mentality among bankers. Physical assets still appear to be solid guarantees. 

Financial leveraging and gearing have been subjected to review. “Recession” and “depression” may have been, or will be avoided in the immediate future because of creeping socialism, throughout the public and regulatory, corridors of power. The consequences will see a lowering of gears as we individually and collectively, encounter and seek to overcome and conquer substantial inclines, on the way to brighter, more profitable and satisfying futures (nirvana). 

GENERATIONAL GENERATORS 

Inter-generation transitions are becoming increasingly prevalent and attractive. 

Transaction costs are, seemingly nominal. Exit strategies often facilitate an ongoing presence, albeit occasional and informal, of the leader (often the founder of the business). 

Working hard, being innovative, prepared to take considered risks and focused on the immediate and pressing needs of existing, prospective and past clients is, figuratively, and literally, profitable and worthwhile. 

The true worth of a business is inextricably tied to its purpose, and the commitment of team-members to that ideal. 

Sadly, very few business owners, leaders, managers and contributing team-members comprehend the concept of purpose. 

A lack of fulfilment and motivation inevitably follow. 

Be assured, purpose is seldom, if ever tied to or qualified by revenue, volume, market share, assets or wealth. They are simply score-lines which rapidly come and go. 

From a young age I’ve always considered myself a multi-millionaire. If offered, I would readily decline offers of a million dollars for either of my arms, and for each of our family dogs. Worth has no bounds. Value is often measured in modules of fun, fulfilment, choice, independence and yes, unconditional love. 

STAY FOCUSED 

The underlying message is to stay focused on the needs, wants and aspirations of existing and prospective clients. Fulfilling such is a fundamental driving force and purpose. Scores are simply distractions. Moreover, they are influenced, determined and quantified by achieving, sustaining and enhancing purpose. 

Barry Urquhart

Managing Director

Marketing Focus

M:        041 983 5555

E:        Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au

W:       www.marketingfocus.net.au