Justin Foster’s BrandMilitia

I’ve haven’t blogged in awhile.  Partially because I have been busy, but mostly because of Twitter.  Sharing ideas and thoughts in a 140-character limit has largely replaced daily blog posts.  However, I did want to put up a re-cap of the last 30 days of the best thoughts.  Mostly to archive them as future blog posts - or epitaphs - or book concepts.

Interesting to watch how people respond to those that are threat to status quo. Esp those that “made it” by following different rules.

If you have to tell your customers to be evangelists, then you don’t have evangelists.

Bold observation of the day: The US education system is designed to create worker droners not entrepreneurs.

If you try to define your brand with advertising then it is too late.

Even after almost 20 years of sales I’m being reminded that you have to create a picture of what you are selling in the mind of your audience.

Thought of the morning. Inspired by horse trainer Bill Dorrance. Ideas are just words until they are understood.

If your competition is responding to you with irrational anger, then your message is hitting home -and your idea is probably better.

People that arrive at their beliefs from ideology rather than curiosity worry me.

Ignorance makes you stupid. Curiosity makes you at least interesting.

Too many people become what others want them to be. Conversely, too many people make others what they want them to be.

Do the right thing for the customer and work backward from there.

Hating your competitors is NOT a branding strategy - in business or politics.

Would love it if everyone just stopped using the marketing stuff they learned in school.

This post was inspired by this thought …

Too many companies spend too much time/money becoming what they WANT to be instead of focusing on becoming better at what they REALLY are.

It would be easy to chalk this up to a lack of focus.  But these companies are focused; just on the wrong thing.  

Here are some signs that your company might be thinking this way:

• Your CEO’s pitch literally starts with "here is what we want to be".
• You spend enormous amounts of money on "branding" to build the perception of what you want to become.
• Your company is selling products/services to match the branding promises, not the business model.
• You are constantly re-visiting your mission, vision, etc.
• Quality people (executive team, employees, customers) are constantly leaving.
• You are having issues with product fulfillment and/or customer satisfaction.
• Social media is deemed as unnecessary (or has already failed) in your company.

Instead of worrying about what you want to become, start with a hard look at what you are.  Look at your strengths, skills, and passions - then at market opportunities.  Focus on building on your strengths; and communicating them to your  audience.  Simple, yes - but let me explain with the world’s longest football analogy …

The new coach comes in and loudly states that he is going to put in his "system".  Over a 3 or so year period, he recruits the talent to match his system.  After a string of disappointing seasons (with pleas from the coach for more time), the coach is fired.  In short, the coach tried build what he wanted to be, not assess what he had and build from there.  Examples of coaches that are successful this way (Urban Meyer comes to mind) are far out-numbered by those that have failed.  It is not just because their system failed (Mike Leach’s system at Texas Tech works well); it is usually because they ran out of time and/or political capitol.

In contrast, take Bill Parcells, currently the personnel guru for the Miami Dolphins.   He doesn’t have an offensive or defensive system.  Of course, he has some core fundamentals (run the ball, stop the run, good special teams), but he focuses on building his teams based on a "right people on the bus" mentality.   He then builds offensive/defensive systems around the right people.  Case in point is the Dolphin’s use of the Wildcat formation to get their best players on the field, their multi-front defense - and their huge jump from their last few regimes (all "system" guys).  With each coaching gig, he has dramatically shown improvement - including some Super Bowl wins.

A sexy product line, deep investor pockets, and a "rock star" executive team can mask the approach a company is taking.  If you aren’t sure, just ask the CEO "what are we selling?".  If his/her answer is simple, powerful, and easy to understand then you are on the right path.  If they start talking about implementing the spread option and singing the school fight song, then it might be time to move on.