Hi, I'm Dave Knox and this is my blog, Hard Knox Life. I'm a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble and this is my place to write about all things marketing related.
Contact Me:
dave.knox at gmail.com
+1.513.658.0868
When you are promoted to Brand Manager at P&G, one of the first things you do is head off to a week long Brand Manager College. At mine I received The Leader’s Compass, a book that talks about writing your Personal Leadership Philosophy (PLP). A PLP is a written statement of ”what you believe in”, or as the title says, the compass you use to guide your decisions. I never imagined how powerful of a tool this is for a manager until I actually sat down and wrote my own. We all have beliefs that guide us and impact how we treat people and situations. But I’d argue that many of us couldn’t repeat those beliefs on the spot. And even more important, I would bet that none of your team members could repeat your beliefs based solely on your actions.
That is where a Personal Leadership Philosophy comes into play. It forces you to sit down, put pen to paper and state what you believe in. It’s amazing how much thought you put into this. It’s almost as if once you write it down, it is permanent and you have to uphold those words. The impact is exponential once you share it with your team. Sharing your PLP builds trust with your team. And from trust, you start to build the foundation for a truly great team.
So with that in mind, I thought I would share my PLP here. Read more »
Everyone knows that marketers, especially Proctoids like myself, love a good acronym. Rohit at Influential Marketing created a new one today: OSG. OSG stands for One Sexy Graphic. As he writes, OSG means two simple things:
1. Metrics that are easy to analyze and act on
2. Metrics I can show to my boss to explain what I’m doing
I love this….now if only someone could deliver this for all the different areas of my work.
Is your brand sticky or slippery?: I have been meaning to point out this post for a while. Too many brands focus on being sticky for their digital strategy. The point here is that you should focus on being a little bit of everywhere….be slippery. Brilliant concept
David Armano of Logic+Emotion delivers yet another amazing presentation, this time on Micro Interactions + Direct Engagement in Web 2.0. He is consistently one of the best bloggers out there, thanks in large part to how he graphically showcases concepts. Check out the latest:
Just came across the latest Internet Trend report by Mary Meeker, courtesty of TechCrunch. The rise of Social Media as highlighted in the report is outstanding.
Lately there has been some good discussions about other companies acting like Venture Capitalists, especially ad agencies. Personally I have major concerns if an agency starts acting like a VC, especially if they are investing in New Media companies. The potential for conflicts of interest are huge. First, theses agencies need to be media-neutral. I need to trust my agency is making a recommendation that is best for my brand…not because their agency stands to profit through my support of a business they have invested in. Second, they are funding those investments based on fees I paid them and then potentially profiting off media buys I make. That makes me really uneasy.
However, I do think the future of the agency model could be in Shared IP and equity. I have no problem with an agency working with a new/small brand and taking an equity stake instead of normal fees. I think this is a great win/win since the brand saves money and the agency gets tremendous upside based on their work. But if this new brand is a media property that the agency can then pitch to other clients, I get concerned, My agency’s neutrality goes out the window and I end up feeling like my agency pimped me out. Not a good place to be.
Now the people I do think have the right be investing in new media companies are the brands themselves. A media buy from an established company like P&G can end up making a company. I think back to the small buy I did with Secret on MySpace.com back in 2004. My counterpart at MySpace said that because of that deal and the media coverage we generated from it, he ended up getting over 50 calls from major brands who before wouldnt even return his call. Think if instead of a media buy, P&G had made an equity investment in MySpace? We would have ended up with a major return on our money when MySpace sold out to News Corp. Plus, many start-ups could benefit tremendously from the brand building knowledge that a major CPG could bring to the table. Plus it has an employee benefit because marketers could take a “broadening assignment” to go work at the start-up for a year or two. They would get a chance to scratch their entreprenuerial itch without leaving the CPG company. That is a major HR win to keep top talent happy.
Now obviously there are drawbacks here. First, CPG companies aren’t experts in the world of VC investing but that could be solved by partnering with a leading VC. Second, a company like P&G investing in a company could potentially keep competitors from buying media on that site. Third, almost all major CPG’s are publicly traded companies and VC is a hit or miss industry. But then again, technology companies like Dell are publicly traded but they have been investing in start-ups for years now (though Dell Ventures did close after a few years).
The way I see it, there is tremendous upside for a major CPG company to partner with VC’s in the start-up game….but tons of downside if our agencies are acting as the VC’s instead.
Second Life - Don’t Call It A Comeback: Second Life was all the buzz last year and it looks like # of hours spent on the site have been surging the past couple of months.
Does Your Advertising Agency Get It?: Great discussion and one I am torn on. Traditional agencies are doing their best to learn Social Media but many dont get it. What scares me is so many brands have such absolute trust in their agencies, that they let them try social media even when they shouldn’t. This results in failures and bad social media marketing that turns off consumers. Lets all promise not to do this!
When I started writing this blog, one of the things I wanted it to do was give a peek inside the day to day life of a Brand Manager. The thinking is that it would be helpful for aspiring marketers, students, agencies and anyone else that would like to get inside the head of a BM. I’m hoping to do this type of post every once in awhile so you can see the variety but here is Day 1: Read more »
Ever since I started up Hard Knox Life, I’ve been trying to write a post every day, or at least every work day. I haven’t quite reached that goal, having posted 38 out of 61 days so far. But ironically I have done 61 total posts in those 61 days so at least I have that going for me. I was feeling pretty good about that until I came across an interesting post on the Pandemic Blog about the “negative effects of daily blog posting.” These negatives were:Daily posts mean hasty readers.
Daily posts mean low quality.
Daily posts mean fewer subscribers.
Daily posts mean fewer comments.
Daily posts mean pressure.
Daily posts don’t guarantee success.
So what do you think? Are daily posts a good thing? Or do they cause you to read this blog less frequently and comment less often?
Over at Next Great Thing, they pointed to a new social networking report from Hitwise that says that in 2008, we will see the emergence of a “super brand advocate”. As the report states:
Whether via a personal blog or as a key member within a community, super-advocates are well informed, opinionated and have the ability to make or break a product launch or ruin a hard-earned reputation.
However, NGT hits the nail on the head when they point out that “Super Brand Advocates” are nothing new. In 2007, Yahoo & Mediavest put together a report on Passionistas that talked about Super Brand Advocates as people who “have both knowledge and a need to share it.” It’s pretty common sense that some consumers are going to talk more than others…I’m sure you know a few o fthis people yourself.
But while Super Brand Advocates aren’t new, they are powerful and it is getting easier to connect and identify them. Blogs, social networks, Flickr, Twitter, Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Tweetscan…all of these allow you to listen to your consumers. And if you can listen, you have a better chance of hearing who is talking the most and/or talking the loudest. These are your super brand advocates. These are people like Jeff Jarvis who caused Dell a serious case of heartburn a few years back. These are people like Harriet Klausner who has written so many book reviews on Amazon.com that her comments are now highlighted in new book releases.
Every brand out there should be thinking about identifying these super brand advocates for your industry. At the very least, you need to be aware of them so problems don’t pop up. But if you use them the right way, they can be invaluable sources of consumer research. The key is starting a conversation with them so you can really learn what they want from your brand. This isnt about a simple focus group where you talk for 2 hours, give them a check and then leave. It is about an honest conversation where you enroll these consumers into your brand.
For most of us, taking the first step isn’t easy but it will be worth it. We’re not use to open conversations with consumers. We are use to hiding behind the focus group glass and the safety of being anonymous. But now is the time to break that glass. Take the first step and do a blog search to see who is talking about your brand. Plug your brand name into Tweetscan to see who is saying something. Even think about engaging your PR agency or a company like Nielsen BuzzMetrics to monitor the conversation. A good conversation is worth the time.
