Listening: A Strategy and Marketing Blog | Hosfeld & Associates

At some point in the lives of many of America’s newspapers, their purpose shifted. Many went from seeking to “empower a democratic society with a free press” to “delivering an audience to advertisers.”

We in the Seattle area watched this month as nearly three decades of changes in the newspaper industry brought down the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. It would be simplistic to say that loss of the original purpose was the turning point in the newspaper industry’s demise. Many complex factors including the rise of the Internet have contributed to their current dire circumstances.

While many reporters and editors remained motivated by the ideal of a free press, their management was focused on a specific form of revenue creation (selling advertising) which did not allow newspapers to adapt as the market has changed.

Ted Levitt made this point years ago in his famous “Marketing Myopia” article: adapting over time means focusing on the evolving needs of customers, not selling a particular business model. Holding fast to the importance of a free press as an agent of enlightened democracy might have helped newspapers cling less tightly to the advertising paradigm and evolve their revenue models in service of the greater purpose.

A focus on how we seek to make the world a better place helps companies stay clear and resilient in troubled times.  When economic conditions are volatile, business models focused on purpose provide clarity about what needs to change and what should never change in the business. This focus on purpose does four things for an organization:

• Provides a strategic focal point for aligning all aspects of the organization
• Creates the basis for powerful, trust-based marketing
• Establishes a foundation for positive corporate culture, and
• Taps the motivation and passion of employees and other stakeholders.

According to an article in the February 12 Gallup Management Journal, it’s more critical than ever that businesses and customers know what companies stand for.

The article describes the work of GSD&M Idea City in Austin Texas, a branding agency, as it helped Southwest Airlines describe their purpose. While many see Southwest as simply the low-cost provider, for founder Herb Kelleher, the point is making air travel accessible. The agency gave him the language to describe his purpose: “democratizing the skies.”

A friend of Hosfeld & Associates, Kip Gregory, author of Winning Clients in a Wired World, also runs a purpose-driven business. He works with clients to help them tap the enormous potential of the Internet and everyday technology to make their businesses more profitable. For Kip, the Internet is a banquet and many businesses can’t find the door in.

In talking with Kip about his purpose, I paraphrased: “You’re not in the technology business, Kip, you’re in the abundance business. Hundreds of the resources you share with clients are free, and yet they offer the opportunity for breakthroughs in productivity and profits.”

Kip is successful because people recognize he’s not a geek who loves technology (not that there’s anything wrong with being a technology-loving geek); but a client champion who uses technology to make them more successful.

Studies suggest that purpose-driven businesses outperform companies without a purpose. Southwest Airlines is one of several firms cited in the book Firms of Endearment, which describes the characteristics and performance of companies committed to a purpose. Firms of Endearment (or FoEs) that they studied returned a 1,026 percent for investors over the 10 years ending June 30, 2006, compared to a 122 percent return for the S&P 500.

Companies with purpose are not immune to economic downturns. Some of the firms described in the book, including Harley Davidson, have taken significant hits in the last several months. Yes, further studies suggest that companies committed to purpose recover more quickly after economic challenges.

Companies with purpose, those that take a stand and build their business on making the world a better place, stand out with consumers. They foster trust and loyalty. Companies with loyal customers succeed in good markets, and have more going for them in difficult times.

If you’d like to find out how to align your organization’s operations and brand around a compelling purpose, please contact us.

As blogs have evolved beyond a form of vanity publishing to become established vehicles for business communication, clients and colleagues have asked us to tell them why they should develop a blog. The benefits of blogging vary by industry and size of business. Here are just some examples:

Experts and Speakers – Blogs are places where media find guests and interview subjects on unique topics. Elisabeth Squires, known for her expertise on women’ breasts, says that she was booked on Good Morning America and the Tyra Banks show after producers found her blog.  The media coverage in turn results in speaking engagements: “Most of my speaking engagements have been referrals and through media coverage,” she says.  Speakers or experts who are interested in writing a book, may develop their material on their blog, shaping the content as they get feedback from their audience.

Consultants and Members of the “Creative Class” — For those that make their living through ideas, creativity and innovation, blogs are places to demonstrate your credibility and brilliance. Blogs are places to share knowledge and your most recent work. Kim Screen, founder of Good Stock, a press and bindery firm that makes custom books, uses her blog to share recent projects and to connect with customers.  “Blogging (both writing my own and reading other blogs) is like my office water cooler – the way I connect with people,” she says.

Manufacturers – Blogs are the lifeblood of the high tech industry, whether you are a software or hard ware manufacturer. Corporate and developer blogs are where reputations for quality rise and fall, and where providing fast-response technical advisories can be a matter of survival.

Professionals and Advisors – Attorneys, financial advisors, accountants and other professionals who deal in environments where laws, standards and rules are frequently changed or re-interpreted  can use blogs to keep readers apprised of changes. Making this expertise available helps position the professionals as experts, which may bring in more clients.

For many of these types of businesses and more, the well-designed blog becomes a search engine magnet that can be used to point organic (unpaid) traffic to the company’s main web. The ultimate success of a blog is to provide content so valuable that other bloggers link to you.  With the effective use of keywords, proper submission of the blog to directories, and effective linking strategies, blogs can make a valuable contribution to the overall visibility of the web site, and, as a result, your company.

If you’d like additional information about how to use blogs to achieve your business objectives, please contact us.

In the world of information technology, many companies offer services directed towards “infrastructure optimization.”  They establish a strong understanding of how the client’s business works. Then they examine how well the technology assets serve the business model. This assessment typically covers people, processes and technology and their interrelationships.  The optimization assessment yields suggestions for how to make the client more profitable through adjustments and additions to people, processes and physical technology assets. In some cases, when the business has evolved beyond its current infrastructure, the outcome means significant strategic change.

Optimizing organizational strategy follows the same general outline.  It starts with understanding of how a business works, and what is working well.  It must look at marketing practice (similar to processes), the people/human elements that make strategy successful (individual and cultural), and technology (systems, IT and otherwise) that support the strategy.  A strategy optimization process leverages the best assets, the best of what’s working, and identifies the potential for growth.

Strategy optimization starts from the perspective that the management of strategy is equally important to the creation of strategy. Many companies craft wonderful strategies that are poorly implemented.  Successful strategy optimization looks at both the structural integrity of the strategy as well as the management environment in which it thrives.