Six Common Misperceptions about Teamwork

Six Common Misperceptions about Teamwork

by J. Richard Hackman

Teamwork and collaboration are critical to mission achievement in any organization that has to respond quickly to changing circumstances. My research in the U.S. intelligence community has not only affirmed that idea but also surfaced a number of mistaken beliefs about teamwork that can sidetrack productive collaboration. Here are six of them.

Misperception #1: Harmony helps. Smooth interaction among collaborators avoids time-wasting debates about how best to proceed.

Actually: Quite the opposite, research shows. Conflict, when well managed and focused on a team's objectives, can generate more creative solutions than one sees in conflict-free groups. So long as it is about the work itself, disagreements can be good for a team. Indeed, we found in our earlier research on symphony orchestras that slightly grumpy orchestras played a little better as ensembles than those whose members worked together especially harmoniously.

Misperception #2: It's good to mix it up. New members bring energy and fresh ideas to a team. Without them, members risk becoming complacent, inattentive to changes in the environment, and too forgiving of fellow members' misbehavior.

Actually: The longer members stay together as an intact group, the better they do. As unreasonable as this may seem, the research evidence is unambiguous. Whether it is a basketball team or a string quartet, teams that stay together longer play together better.

Misperception #3: Bigger is better. Larger groups have more resources to apply to the work. Moreover, including representatives of all relevant constituencies increases the chances that whatever is produced will be accepted and used.

Actually: Excessive size is one of the most common--and also one of the worst--impediments to effective collaboration. The larger the group, the higher the likelihood of social loafing (sometimes called free riding), and the more effort it takes to keep members' activities coordinated. Small teams are more efficient--and far less frustrating.

Misperception #4: Face-to-face interaction is passé. Now that we have powerful electronic technologies for communication and coordination, teams can do their work much more efficiently at a distance.

Actually: Teams working remotely are at a considerable disadvantage. There really are benefits to sizing up your teammates face-to-face. A number of organizations that rely heavily on distributed teams have found that it is well worth the time and expense to get members together when the team is launched, again around the midpoint of the team's work, and yet again when the work has been completed.

Misperception #5: It all depends on the leader. Think of a team you have led, or on which you have served, that performed superbly. Now think of another one that did quite poorly. What accounts for the difference between them? If you are like most people, your explanation will have something to do with the personality, behavior, or style of the leaders of those two teams.

Actually: The hands-on activities of group leaders do make a difference. But the most powerful thing a leader can do to foster effective collaboration is to create conditions that help members competently manage themselves. The second most powerful thing is to launch the team well. And then, third, is the hands-on teaching and coaching that leaders do after the work is underway. Our research suggests that condition-creating accounts for about 60% of the variation in how well a team eventually performs; that the quality of the team launch accounts for another 30%; and that real-time coaching accounts for only about 10%. Leaders are indeed important in collaborative work, but not in the ways we usually think.

Misperception #6: Teamwork is magical. To harvest its many benefits, all one has to do is gather up some really talented people and tell them in general terms what is needed--the team will work out the details.

Actually: It takes careful thought and no small about amount of preparation to stack the deck for success. The best leaders provide a clear statement of just what the team is to accomplish, and they make sure that the team has all the resources and supports it will need to succeed. Although you may have to do a bit of political maneuvering to get what is needed for effective collaboration from the broader organization, it is well worth the trouble.

                                                                      

J. Richard Hackman is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University and a leading expert on teams. The misperceptions that are summarized in this post are explored in greater depth in his new book Collaborative Intelligence: Using Teams to Solve Hard Problems (Berrett-Koehler, 2011). He is interviewed by HBR in "Why Teams Don't Work" (May 2009) and is the author of Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances (Harvard Business School Press, 2002).

The End of the 'Average American'

"Fifty years ago, the concept of John Doe, an average American in a relatively even society where vast numbers of people had similar consumer needs, was real," writes Karen Talavera at MarketingProfs. But results from the 2010 census—due to be released this summer—will show just how much that picture has changed. For marketers, the message is simple: There's no such thing as an "average American" anymore.

No racial or ethnic segment is a majority in our two most populous states—California and Texas—or in our ten largest cities.

Households headed by married couples are now a minority, down from a two-thirds majority 25 years ago.

Life expectancy is up, and elders often live with children and grandchildren.

"One-size-fits-all messaging isn't going to cut it," argues Talavera. "It will seem wildly off-base and irrelevant, especially if you attempt it in your email and social media marketing—avenues in which instantaneous feedback and listening is expected."

She has advice like this for your online, mobile and social media strategies:

Segment, segment, segment. The more you know about individual customers, the more relevant your messaging can be. Age, gender, location, household composition, marital/family status and ethnicity all matter. But don't forget about life stages like new parents, families with children and empty nesters.

Trust, but verify. As the population diversifies, customers might find themselves in multiple segments, making hard-to-predict decisions. Solicit their preferences with frequent surveys, but compare their responses to demonstrated behavior.

The Point: "Until you dig deep into your customer data—demographics, offer responses, media preferences, survey answers, and more—you may have assumptions about your customers that are entirely untrue," concludes Talavera.

Source:
Do You Really Know Your Customers? Marketing to a Rapidly Diversifying Population
by Karen Talavera

Lakers, NBA are reaching out to fast-growing Latino market

The Lakers just scored a slam dunk in the Latino market.On Monday the team announced a 20-year agreement with Time Warner Cable to create the nation's first Spanish-language regional sports network, with the Lakers as its centerpiece, starting with the 2012-13 season.The groundbreaking partnership is just the latest in a series of efforts by the Lakers and the NBA as they reach out to the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population.

"If you're not able to connect with [Latinos], then where's your sport going to be in 30 years?" says Adam Jacobson, a Miami-based marketing strategist focusing on Latinos.The NBA, which has seen attendance drop for 14 of the league's 30 teams this season, has reached out to Latinos since 1995. But it began targeting the market with new focus 16 months ago when it launched éne•bé•a — Spanish for NBA — an initiative of Spanish-language websites and ad campaigns, specially branded merchandise and an expanded schedule of national Spanish-language TV broadcasts.The campaign will ramp up again this week during the NBA All-Star Weekend at Staples Center."We want to build lifelong fans. And you do that by building an emotional connection with your consumers," says Saskia Sorrosa, the NBA's director of Hispanic marketing. "We have a significant portion of our fan base that are Hispanic but we do want to grow that."Consider longtime hoops fan Billy Sanchez, a third-generation Mexican-American. When he got his first driver's license, he knew exactly where to celebrate: at a Lakers game."All I wanted to do was just go down to the Forum, find a scalper and buy tickets," he recalls. "And I did that quite often."Two decades and five NBA titles later, the team has left the Forum for Staples Center and Sanchez, 35, has no need for scalpers because he works in sales for his father's beer distributorship in the City of Industry and they have a luxury suite.

But his passion for the Lakers hasn't faded. "I've been a fan ever since I can remember," he says. "I watch every single game."Early returns suggest the NBA's campaign is working. The league says about one out of six NBA fans is Latino and this season the NBA's Latino TV audience has grown nearly 20%, drawing more than 9.7 million unique viewers on the six national networks that carry NBA games.Viewership is particularly strong when the Lakers play, a fact that was instrumental in bringing the Time Warner deal together. During last spring's NBA Finals between the Lakers and the Boston Celtics, the middle three games were seen in nearly one of every five Latino households watching television, according to Nielsen Media Research, and the audience for the seventh game was nearly twice as large.

"They're a popular team," says Sorrosa, who grew up in Ecuador watching Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls on TV. "The [Lakers] have a legacy. They have Spanish-language radio. They have a Spanish-language website."In fact, a 2009 survey conducted for ESPN found the Lakers to be the most popular sports team among U.S. Latinos, beating out baseball's New York Yankees and football's Dallas Cowboys. And in Los Angeles a Scarborough Sports Marketing poll showed 44% of Latino adults identified themselves as Lakers fans."The big change is that it's moved from the L.A.-born, acculturated Latino to the recent immigrant that's come from Mexico. [He] is wearing the Lakers jersey," says Jim Kalmenson, president of KWKW-AM (1330), the flagship of the Lakers' Spanish-language radio network for 15 seasons. "They've surpassed the Dodgers as the most important local franchise in the Hispanic market.

"Credit much of that to timing. KWKW's first season with the Lakers, when the team essentially bought broadcast time, was Kobe Bryant's rookie season. "Superstars just seem to draw people in from all cultures," Kalmenson says.Yet the Lakers, bucking the NBA's approach, insist they have built that huge fan base by ignoring ethnicity in a city that is nearly half Hispanic. "There's no discriminatory policies against or for any group," says John Black, the team's vice president for public relations.Black calls it a "commonsense approach," where marketing is not focused on any particular community but on the basketball court and through social media sites. A recent survey ranked the Lakers as the fifth most-popular sports social-media entity in the world. (The NBA, with nearly 10 million combined Facebook fans and Twitter followers, is No. 1, Fast Company magazine says.)Still, the Lakers do aggressively pursue the Hispanic market. Even before the landmark TV deal this week, the Lakers were one of 12 NBA teams whose games were heard on Spanish-language radio, and last March the Lakers participated in the league's Noche Latina program by wearing jerseys that read "Los Lakers" during selected games.

Sixteen years ago, the Miami Heat was the only NBA team that had an active outreach in Spanish.Now other teams are following that path.The Orlando Magic set up a Spanish-language phone line, staffed its offices with bilingual employees and is broadcasting 19 games on Spanish-language TV. The Minnesota Timberwolves, in a state with a Latino population of under 5%, extended their contract to offer selected radio broadcasts in Spanish. And in Phoenix, where nearly one in three persons is Latino, the Suns have reached out through Spanish-language ad campaigns, community events and cultural programs on game nights.

These grassroots Latino campaigns have a local impact, but it's hard to gauge their impact in growing the NBA's brand nationally. The league declined to give revenue figures for the Latino market. And ESPN Deportes doesn't even sell ad time exclusively for its NBA broadcasts, instead offering packages to sponsors whose spots will run during a variety of programming, including basketball games.In contrast, the Lakers were the focal point of a lucrative bidding war for TV rights — in both English and Spanish — before settling on Time Warner, a deal that will make the vast majority of Lakers games available on Spanish-language television.The Lakers are clearly an exception, because it is a rare team whose following spills beyond the immediate borders of its local market.And that is paying off in other ways, as well. The NBA's growing roster of Spanish-speaking stars — which includes Lakers All-Star Pau Gasol — helped lure overseas partners such as Spanish banking giant BBVA, which signed a four-year, $100-million sponsorship deal with the NBA in September.

Jose "Pepe" Mantilla, the color commentator on the Lakers' Spanish-language radio broadcasts, also tells about visiting his family in Oaxaca, Mexico, where, in the dusty town plaza, was a weathered basketball backboard with a Lakers logo painted on it. "That's amazing. Whenever you mention the word 'Lakers' people know what you're talking about. Anywhere in the world, anyplace where they speak Spanish.

"Closer to home, Rick Murillo, a 45-year-old Lakers fan from Alhambra, has been a fan from the team's Forum days.For him it's not a question of marketing or ethnicity. Or even winning. It's about loyalty. "My dog's named Laker," he says with a smile. "So I'm not going anywhere."

By Kevin Baxter
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Instead of Avoiding Risk, Prepare for It

Risk management departments are springing up in companies across the globe. They categorize and analyze risk to the company before it happens and in most cases, they create systems and processes to prevent risks from occurring. But the reality is that all hazards can't be predicted or avoided. Instead of simply staving off risk, focus on building resilience so that when the unthinkable happens, you're better prepared to face it. Look at all the risks you face and play out what you would do if any of them were to come to bear. Having systems in place to respond could save you valuable time, money, and resources.

By Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath

Watch for opportunities to engage staff in strategic planning

by Mimi Bacilek • June 8, 2010

Resource-based conversations usually focus on what is spent, by whom and where. They are filled with comparison-speak: who has more, how they got it and how to get more. They focus on the budget, reviewing variance reports and juggling cost-center allocations.

It all keeps the leader focused on the past. Savvy leaders take a future focus by seeing resources as investment commodities: time, information, relationships, talents and passions. Growth of staff capabilities and perspectives is a natural result.

Consider meetings that are the bane of your existence, perhaps where last week's numbers are rehashed and day-to-day problems are solved. Imagine the value staff members gain by attending in your place. They learn meeting processes and etiquette from different types of conversations. With advance coaching, they learn to speak out and up, provoke new thinking and constructively challenge other business units.

Watch for opportunities to engage staff in strategic planning. Send them to meetings where they learn from outsiders and participate in cross-functional teams accountable to different business units. These activities broaden employees' exposure, perspective and experience while the leader exercises coaching skills in the process.

Relationships are investment opportunities, too. Create active partnerships with peers, building robust and dynamic relationships. Connect people to enable improved information sharing and problem solving. Create conversations about how resources are spent or invested. Use meeting time to identify and report on outcomes.

Resources are often wasted when conversation focuses on action plans and task lists rather than results. Require proactive conversations on predictable problems versus applying energy, time and materials to fix them later. Limit "rearview mirror" conversations and focus on future outcomes. Be sure every meeting has clear purpose and that leaders skillfully facilitate to promote valuable use of time and agenda space.

Choose to be a resource investor and enable an amazing future.

If this is how you conduct strategic planning, you may want to think again.

Short, simple but full of lessons.

Mr Smith, feeling it was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO.The new boss was determined to rid the company of all slackers.On a tour of the facilities, the CEO noticed a guy leaning against a wall. The room was full of workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business. He asked the guy, "How much money do you make a week?"A little surprised, the young man looked at him and said, "I make $400 a week. Why?"The CEO said, "Wait right here." He walked back to his office, came back in two minutes, and handed the guy $1,600 in cash and said, "Here's four weeks' pay. Now GET OUT and don't come back."Feeling pretty good about himself, the CEO looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone want to tell me what that goof-ball did here?"From across the room a voice said, "Pizza delivery guy from Domino's."

Strategic planners do your research and follow proven decision making processes no matter how simple, inexpensive and "obvious" the answer may be. The results from not doing the research and proper planning could be more costly than you realize.

How to develop a strategic plan, then make it work

by Jim Kendall

Small business owners know there's only one thing tougher than developing a sensible strategic plan: Making the plan work.

Yet Rich Horwath says building a strategic plan and keeping it relevant doesn't have to be so imposing. The process, he says, starts with a good diagnosis, produces a two-page strategy print and includes "a monthly tuneup, maybe a two-hour lunch where just one question is asked: What has changed (that might impact our plan and our business)?"

As you should expect from someone who is president of the Strategic Thinking Institute in Barrington Hills, Horwath is into this strategy thing. What's helpful is that he seems to have a good feel for the planning and implementation issues small and mid-size businesses face.
The process begins with goals and objectives, then moves to strategy. "Strategy is the path that will get us there," Horwath says. First, however, comes a diagnosis, part of the goals-and-objectives progression.

In fact, Horwath puts significant emphasis on the diagnostic process. In the medical world, he explains, a prescription (or strategy) without a diagnosis (for us, the introspection that analyzes the business, its marketplace and its competition) leads to malpractice.

It's not much of a stretch to extend that example to the business world.
"We don't take enough time to diagnose our businesses today," Horwath says. "We need to take the pulse of the business. Use our competitive intelligence. Do some research. We have to think about the business differently.

"How can we approach things differently? What can we add that will add value to our customers' experience? What is our differentiated value?"

Differentiated value could be customer service. One of Horwath's favorite examples is Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which differentiates itself from Hertz, Avis and everyone else in a crowded sector by picking up its customers.

Differentiation for customers "isn't doing the same thing everyone else does a little faster. It is different activities than the competition," Horwath says. "We must find and focus on that differentiation."

With the diagnostics in place, goal setting becomes easier - though Horwath suggests "one, two or three goals at the most."

Then comes strategy development, the building of the path from Point A to Point B.
"It's best to go off-site for a day or two and challenge (the company) thinking," Horwath says. "Dive into new ideas and new insights."
The result should be the strategic plan and what Horwath calls "a strategy print, a two-page blueprint, or summary, that helps keep everyone focused so we're not distracted by each day's e-mails."

An everyday resource that connects the research, diagnostics and thinking that went into the company's strategic plan with resulting actionable activities, Horwath's strategy print is intended to keep the plan alive rather than gathering dust on the shelf.

Questions, comments to Jim Kendall, JKendall@121MarketingResources.com.

© 2010 121 Marketing Resources, Inc.

Some Resolutions on Planning

Some Resolutions on Planning

By KEVIN VANN

As the calendar turns to 2010, business owners and managers should be thinking about resolutions, especially those involving effective planning.

Here are several types of planning that decision makers should consider critical for the year ahead.

Strategic Planning: Take time to research how to go about doing strategic planning and with whom. Perhaps the company can do it on its own, or perhaps it should hire a facilitator. In any case, set aside one or two days for strategic planning. This is one of the most critical blueprints every business should have, and it should be done at least once a year. This process should include owners and key staff members and perhaps outside consultants and independent parties as well.

Technology Planning: Each business should minimally have an internal staff member or an outsourced consultant to guide every company through the rigors of changing and updating technology. Time should be set aside for owners and key staff to be educated on a continuous basis. Technology will drive efficiencies, productivity, and revenue for most companies.

Employee / Staff / HR Planning: Each business today minimally needs either a staff person or an outsourced consultant to keep them up-to-date with the constantly changing compliance issues involved with having employees. Additionally, this planning model should include internal company issues, benefit packages, recruiting, retaining, and staying competitive. Any company that has employees should have a handbook minimally. The handbook should be reviewed annually.

Succession and Long-term Planning: Depending on the size of the company and the owner’s philosophy about life and business, succession and long-term planning for a company, the owners, and key staff should be a priority. If the owner of a company has done a good job addressing his or her own retirement and succession issues, then the company will continue to thrive. Fear of the unknown is the greatest fear, so the more effort the company puts into proper planning for the owners and key personnel, the better chance it has to continue. Even if an owner indicates an unwillingness to do succession planning, then certainly having a plan that indicates when and how to sell or liquidate the company is important.

Tax Planning: This has been pretty much accepted as an annual task by most business owners and key personnel; however, it’s still surprising just how many businesses make decisions, take on risk, and do business without properly understanding the tax consequences of their decisions.

Budgeting and Financial Planning: I just can’t imagine a business — or an individual, for that matter — not making budgeting and financial planning a priority on an annual basis. Unfortunately, many, many businesses fail to do annual budgeting and financial planning. The budgeting process should include solid projections relative to revenue, expense planning, and profit expectations. This planning should also include cash-flow projections that take into account what capital expenditures need to be made, how much debt will be paid down, or how much debt or equity will be required to run or capitalize the business. The budget or financial plan should include the company’s ‘wish list’ for the coming year, and typically that list includes the items or initiatives from the strategic plan and all of the other planning during the year. The budget should be the by-product of all of the annual planning that has been done.

America can't advance without small businesses

by Ed Riffle

Small businesses lead any economic recovery. My business puts me in close contact with dozens of small businesses all across the country and most of them are not even thinking of expanding ... so don't be looking for an end to the recession any time soon. Any temporary upturns in the stock market or any media reports of signs of recovery notwithstanding, most small businesses are showing no signs of wanting to expand and prosper.

The small business environment is harsh. Working capital is hard to come by. Government policies have made it impossible for the smaller independent banks that are preferred by small businesses to loan money. Two very healthy small businesses whose owners I have talked with have told me that in spite of their current sound fiscal standings (significant assets, little or no debt and long and cordial relationships with their banks), they are unable to renew their relatively small lines of credit. Without an adequate line of credit for working capital, they cannot expand their businesses.

The prospects for significantly increased costs are looming. The so-called "Cap and Trade" bill currently working its way through the U.S. Senate will dramatically increase the cost of virtually every product and service that small businesses use and those businesses that use significant amounts of electricity will see a huge increase in their production costs. In the current economic downturn, increasing prices to reflect increased costs of production is not always possible, thus businesses will face the prospect of shrinking profit margins.

Adding employees is out of the question for most small businesses right now. The high minimum wage often precludes them from hiring unskilled and untrained young workers and the prospects of government mandated and regulated benefits with unknown costs and potential liabilities makes it too risky to hire anyone new.

In recent months, government alphabet agencies ranging from the IRS to the FDA to the FTB have been on the warpath. Any small business that doubted that a single bureaucrat had the power to shut down any business at any time with an audit, a report or a leaked piece of information has had that doubt removed by virtue of stories in the media or their own personal experience and observations.

Add to all of that the current trend by political leaders to demonize all private businesses and you have the perfect storm that all but assures years of economic malaise.
What most people don't seem to understand is that small businesses are run by ordinary people who react just as any human being would under the same circumstances. When attacked, they assume a defensive position and don't move forward. If America wants to continue to move forward economically, it must first stop attacking small businesses.

* * *
Ed Riffle is a small business owner and writer and co-publisher of OurLittleCornfield.com, an Internet based comic strip.

Leagues Make Pitch to Hispanics

By ANA CAMPOY

Thousands of Hispanic fans wearing bright yellow T-shirts and waving Colombian flags crowded Homestead Miami Speedway Nov. 22 to root for Juan Pablo Montoya in Nascar's final race of the season.
The Colombian driver finished 38th after a wreck, but helped pull in the largest proportion of first-time fans ever recorded at the racetrack: 55% compared with the usual 20%, according to Curtis Gray, president of the speedway, which keeps a database of attendees. "We've never seen anything like that before," Mr. Gray said.

Major U.S. sports, from car racing to football, are stepping up their efforts to draw Hispanic fans, in the belief that the rapidly growing group will drive sports businesses -- and fill enormous new stadiums -- in the years to come.

Hispanics make up 15% of the U.S. population and by 2050 are expected to make up almost 30%, at 128 million people, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Their purchasing power, which doubled over the past decade, will expand a further 36% by 2014 to $1.3 trillion, or 10% of the country's total, predicts the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.

According to a poll by Scarborough Research earlier this year, 51% of Latinos watched, listened to or attended a football game over the past 12 months, compared with 68% of the total population. For baseball, 50% of Hispanics follow the sport compared with 57% of the general population. Meanwhile, 36% of Latinos tuned in or attended a soccer match, compared with 14% of the general population.

Sports promoters uniformly refuse to say how much they are spending to attract Hispanic fans. But the Homestead Miami Speedway bumped up its spending on marketing to Latinos by 30% from last year, and teamed up with Spanish radio stations to sell tickets.
The National Basketball Association recently recast itself as "éne-bé-a," its Spanish pronunciation of its initials, for a marketing campaign that includes advertising in Spanish-language TV networks, a first for the league.

Eduardo Nájera, a forward with the New Jersey Nets who was born in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, expects the campaign to multiply the number of Hispanic basketball fans. "If we can somehow get to them and relate to them, they're going to respond," he said in an interview.

Similar efforts are under way by Major League Baseball and the National Football League, where salsa star Marc Anthony has bought a stake in the Miami Dolphins, or "los Delfines."
Many Hispanics hail from countries where soccer -- known there as fútbol -- is a national passion, which Major League Soccer is trying to tap. The U.S. league is sponsoring games featuring Latin American teams in the hope that fans will stick around for U.S. matches the same day.

"For us, the Hispanic market is incredibly important," said MLS commissioner Don Garber.
But catering to "the Hispanic market" is a big challenge for U.S. sports promoters, in part because Latinos here have ties to more than a dozen countries.

Eduardo Carvacho has been navigating the Hispanic market for U.S. soccer teams since 2007. He started out building a fan base for the Columbus Crew in Ohio, where most Hispanics were recent arrivals. To start a "porra," a group of diehard fans who set the tone at the stadium, he relied mostly on personal interactions, like eating tacos with community leaders.

Mr. Carvacho now works for the soccer team in Dallas, a much bigger market with established Hispanic institutions where he can proselytize through businesses such as Fiesta, a Hispanic-food grocery chain that sells FC Dallas tickets.
"You have to customize every single thing," he said of appealing to Hispanic fans, depending on the local community.

Back in Miami, Mr. Montoya, the race-car driver, is using his popularity to attract donations to a foundation he created to help children in his native Colombia. But he says winning races remains his main focus. "I'm not racing Nascar to create Hispanic awareness," Mr. Montoya said at a recent news conference. "I race Nascar because I want to kick everybody's butt."

Source: The Wall Street Journal (World) Nov 30, 2009

Could this be WHY Hispanics and Blacks have Highest Unemployment Rates

A recent USA Today story highlighted that Asian Americans were the least affected by the current economic situation. They went on to say that it was due partly because of Asians taking care of their own.

We took a quick unscientific survey and found that the Hispanic and Black communities tended to not take care of their own and were more likely to scrutinize their own. Their scrutiny was worst amongst their own and quite less towards other ethnic groups.

So it appears that the economic struggles found in the Hispanic and Black communities are increasing partially due to the lack of confidence in their own people.

Best Practices in Strategic Planning

As a business' fiscal year comes to a close many businesses are finalizing their strategic plans. Implementing some best practices can improve the plan's effectiveness and provide a business advantage.

1. Be sure to conduct extensive research to understand the opportunities and threats in your market or industry, the competitive pressures and customer demands. View research as an investment not as an expense. Internal experience is just not enough.


2. Give your strategic planning team enough time and resources to complete a through well thought out plan. Time must be managed because a business can not be in continuous planning mode and never produce a strategic plan. Be cautious of the opposite; insufficient time usually results in an "insufficient" plan.


3. Execution is where great plans always fail. Create supporting activities and tactics to ensure that execution is focused on achieving the business objectives set forth in the strategic plan.


4. The strategic plan must be continually reviewed and updated during the plan implementation phase. The business environment (markets, industries, competitive pressures, and customer demands) shifts over time. Implementing a plan over a longer period of time requires more reviews and updates to the strategic plan.


5. As part of your plan create measures to monitor progress. The only way to know that your plan is working is to monitor how well the business is growing or improving. As part part of your plan create metrics and baselines to be able to use as a measure success.

Media Decoder: Marketers Call for Multicultural Focus

By By Stuart Elliott
Published: November 6, 2009

Increasing the attention paid to multicultural or ethnic consumers is a smart strategy, according to speakers at the opening general session of the 99th annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers.

If one way to outfox the economy is to stimulate growth, increasing the attention paid to multicultural or ethnic consumers is a smart strategy, according to speakers at the opening general session of the 99th annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers.
Neil Golden, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at the McDonald’s U.S.A. division of McDonald’s, devoted his presentation to what he called “leading with ethnic insights” – in other words, initiatives in multicultural markets can generate significant gains in sales and market share.

“The multicultural, ethnic segments are leading lifestyle trends,” Mr. Golden said.
Mr. Golden offered examples of how McDonald’s U.S.A. sells new products like the Angus Third Pounder and coffee drinks with campaigns tailored to groups like African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans.

For instance, a TV commercial for the Angus burgers shows a Hispanic man riding a bus enjoying his meal so much that he does not notice he has reached the end of the line and is sitting in an empty bus.

If McDonald’s U.S.A. conducts nine focus groups, Mr. Golden said, two will be composed of Hispanics and be conducted in Spanish, two will be for African-Americans, two will be for Asian-Americans and three will be composed of a cross-section of consumers.

Andy England, chief marketing officer at MillerCoors, the joint venture of the brewers SAB Miller and Molson Coors, said that advertisers not reaching out to young Hispanic consumers “are not going to win in the market,” whatever the category. Among the commercials he presented was one in Spanish for Coors Light.

What is branding?

It is interesting how many non-marketing professionals use the term branding incorrectly. Branding is a powerful strategy and marketing objective. When implemented and created effectively, the brand can become a real competitive advantage.

Branding involves the analysis of four areas:

1. your capabilities relative to your competition for your target market and customers,


2. your marketing message that communicates your capabilities that are different and more desirable for your target market and customers,


3. the decoded marketing message understood by your target market and customers,


4. and, your target market's and customers' perception of your product and or service quality.

Branding is the mental and emotional connection that the consumer, customer, prospect or user of your product and or service has associated with your name. This connection could be good or bad.

A strong branding strategy is more than just creating an attention-getting advertising campaign or slogan. The communication campaign should infer a promise of a certain quality level. That quality level now becomes the expected quality for the consumer. So the company must at least deliver, but preferably exceed, that expected level of quality. The communications campaign should also position your company, product or service to differentiate it from your competition. The final component is delivering quality. That quality is the perceived quality of the customer. You must deliver better value, image, or solutions than what your competition can deliver. The use or your product or service will also convey a message and will help stimulate perceived quality.

If you miss the mark on any of these, you certainly do not have a strong brand and some might even argue that you have no brand.

Understanding Pricing Considerations Part 1 of 2

Pricing is one of the least understood and researched of the marketing mix. It is but one of the perception builders of a product (aka goods and services); yet at times it is seen as the primary and even worse the only perception builder.

So how do you set prices for products (goods or services)? The complex answer is it depends.

Some companies let their finance and accounting department set price by using the cost-based or cost plus pricing model. This model simply takes the cost to manufacture and deliver the product to the retailer or customer and adds on a set profit margin to come up with the price. No real consideration to the competition, local economy or customer is taken into account.

Lets take a look at what should be considered when setting the price of a product or service.

Demand: The more customers that are seeking to purchase your product or service the higher the price you can command.

Competition: Customers are always comparing your products' prices to that of the competition. In today's information age where customers can find pricing information from the comfort of their laptop, competitor's pricing should be thoroughly researched. If there is a big price gap between your product's price and your competitions' product there better be a quick and perceptible reason ie quality, size, or some other benefit.

Legal: Some countries have anti-trust and fair competition laws. If you are cutting your price to push competition out there is some risk. If you have other products and you are leveraging their profits to offset the losses of the "under-priced" product that is illegal in many developed and developing countries.

So how can you command the highest price possible. Visit us soon to learn more.

Ethnographic Research

Ethnographic research has become an indisputable way to understand your customers. This type of research requires that the user/consumer (not customer) of your product be observed while using your product. Many times a company thinks they fully understand how the customer uses their product. Unfortunately customer usage is usually not understood by companies.

Ethnographic research is very enlightening to product managers, engineers and developers of products. The research involves interviewing the user to understand why they used the product the way they did. Interview questions should attempt to understand why features and alternative methods of your product were not considered or used.

Ethnographic research is a real "outside-in" approach to researching users' opinions and demands. No one can argue with it. The information is coming directly from the user while using your product, not while imaging or recalling how they once used it. Marketing Excellence has been using this type of research for many years. We have been very successful conducting ethnographic research with software and computer-based products as well as products that are complex to operate (electronics), personal (garments/clothing), or seldom used (home improvement tools for the do-it-yourselfers).

Maybe marketing research is in order?

It is interesting that businesses can sit idly by and watch opportunities go by because of lack of initiative or being too risk averse. I find it extremely ironic that a company can see that their competitors are doing things to grow aggressively and they just sit and continue to conduct business as usual. Even if they don't know what to do they should be doing something; maybe research. Research what is going on in the market that is causing others to act. What are the market changes or technological advances or new customer segments that are springing up? This interesting corporate behavior can be attributed to poor leadership, weak marketing programs or both. How do we change that mentality? Only one way is possible. Change the mindset of the organization.

Learn about ethnographic research visit http://marketing4excellence.blogspot.com/2008/09/ethnographic-research.html