Since graduating from college, I voraciously read a new marketing book every 10 days and in my library you’ll find several books by the father of modern day marketing Philip Kotler.

What I love about the guy is that even though his book Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, 13th ed., is the most widely used marketing book in graduate business schools worldwide he never rests on his success and still innovates and tinkers with his marketing theories and models of how marketing works.

I’m a big Philp Kotler fan.

Now, here comes Kotler again with his latest creation (co-written with Hermawan Kartajaya), Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit.

The central theme of the book is based on the simple values-based (not value) matrix above which demonstrates how marketing today has shifted from Product-Centric (Rational Marketing – 1.0 era – e.g., Volvo = safety), to Customer-Centric (Emotional Marketing – 2.0 era) to today’s Human-Centric (Spiritual Marketing – 3.0 era ).

Marketing 1.0 and 2.0 were about how a brands products and services would serve its customers.  Marketing 3.0 is about how a Brand connect with the human spirit of its customers who desire that they assume their fair share of social responsibility for issues that concern everyone (e.g., environment, hunger, poverty, human rights, health and well being etc.).

Brands that behave and conduct themselves properly with regard to the environment, general community at large and create real meaningful demonstrable value that aligns with the social good will be welcome and respected.  The media will promote caring companies which will influence buying behaviors.

Kotler posits that most marketers are stuck in the past. His new model for marketing treats customers not just as consumers, but as complex, multi-dimensional human beings – customers with complex human spirits who are active, engaged, anxious, informed, creative and have the ability to easily connect with others.

Marketing 3.0 addresses the complexity of the human spirit and S.C. Johnson is just one of the many brands Kotler cites as those who are creating products, services, and company cultures that lead, inspire, and reflect the values of their customers.

This recently released book is on my shopping list because I read Kotler’s Marketing 3.0 whitepaper here – kotler_marketing_3.0_values_driven_marketing – sure wish brands like BP could have read it and embraced its philosophy – make sure you do!

In 20 days at noon, on July 2, 182½ days of the year will have elapsed and 182½ will remain before Jan 1, 2011.

Now is a great time to take a hard look at your marketing systems to see what’s working, what’s not working, what needs to be improved and what needs to scrapped.

That’s exactly what my team and I are doing.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve picked up a few significant pieces of business (believe me, I’m not complaining – we’re blessed) that have required us to more carefully analyze our systems and processes, clients, staffing, quality of work and more.

One of the “more” things we’re reviewing is what has led to our success and how we can refine our systems to not only do a better job for our brand, but also a better job for our clients.

It’s so easy to get caught up in busy work and daily tasks thinking you’re accomplishing things, but at the end of the day you find yourself majoring in minor things without focusing on game changing work along with better planning and performance based processes. Bottom line – you need to block out your time with high value activities!

Our fixed costs, staff and management hierarchy are low, small and flat by design, but with this sudden influx of new business we’re still working hard to clean up our act before considering adding new staff, equipment and even more business.

Here’s a list of our 20 questions to improve our business focus. The list is not necessarily in order and/or exhaustive, but all apply to People, Resources, Innovation, Marketing, Operations and Finance:

1. How can we improve upon keeping our promises
2. How do we make our company a more fun and enjoyable place to work
3. How can we attract high quality people who are proud to work with us
4. Does everyone have the tools and experience they need to be successful
5. How do we make our unique selling proposition more unique, meaningful and easier to demonstrate and communicate
6. How can we reduce costs without impacting our performance
7. What kinds of clients/industries should we target
8. What clients should we keep
9. What clients should we fire
10. What should be on our “to don’t” list
11. What are the three key things we can do to improve our client’s business
12. How can we speed up our efforts to quickly build our client’s business
13. How can we more effectively surprise and delight our clients
14. How do we create happier clients willing to provide glowing testimonials
15. What products and services should we stop offering and/or improve upon
16. What new products and services (or enhancements) should we be offering
17. How can we improve cash flow, collections and profitablity
18. What processes can we automate and systematize to improve performance
19. How can we better measure every sales action, marketing channel and map every touch point to determine our cost per lead, sales potential and length to close
20. What are we missing or failing to do with regard to people, resources, innovation, marketing, operations or finance to more profitably build a better business for ourselves and for our clients – what’s holding us back

So there you go – 20 questions to ask yourself over 20 days – one a day!

However, throughout your 20 day journey, here’s the thing to keep in mind.

Net – the big question we’re working on if you boil all 20 questions down into one is simply, “HOW DO WE WOW!”

We’re working on it and know it’s a marathon, not a sprint, but how do you wow?

I’m interested in knowing.

For anyone looking for a new job (pay attention college grads) or trying to get that next big sale and running into a roadblock because you can’t get the attention of a key decision maker, check out this brilliant job search strategy by copywriter Alec Brownstein.

1. Brownstein used Google AdWords to target Ad Agency Creative Directors on Madison Avenue in New York
2. He bet 15 cents per click that these Creatives were no different than the rest of  us self absorbed people who Google ourselves
3. What the CD’s saw when they Googled themselves was a personal ad from Brownstein – BRILLIANT!
4. Young & Rubicam offered him a job!

Note: Brownstein’s Google Job Experiment YouTube video has been viewed over 500,000 times!  Rock on Alec!

I suppose with all the beautiful newness and growth that Spring brings, I find myself more inspired and looking for ways to help my clients breakthrough  with innovative new ways of doing things.

Spring never fails me.

I truly work on being innovative and constantly look for inspiration inside and outside of my industry.

And, it’s always awe inspiring to me to see common things done in an uncommon way.

How about square watermelons?

As you know, a round watermelon can take up a lot of space in your refrigerator and the usually round fruit often sits awkwardly on refrigerator shelves.

Innovative Japanese farmers have forced their watermelons to grow into a square shape.

They do it by inserting the melons into square, tempered glass cases while the fruit is still growing on the vine.

Here’s a picture of the packaging.

And, here’s one way Mr. Clean uses Crosswalk lines for advertising/product placement:

And, here’s another use by a local office supply store:

If you’re inspired to become more innovative – anyone can learn to be more innovative – try using Ideo’s method cards and/or reading: The Ten Faces of Innovation: Ideo’s Strategies for Beating the Devil’s Advocate & Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization. And, read a few of Roger Von Oech’s books too. Roger and I go back a long way – he’s been giving me whacks on the side of my head for many years..

Growing up I was fortunate to be a decent athlete and play a lot of sports. Fortunate to be healthy, having fun and connecting with so many different people from all walks of life, races, creeds etc., that I never would have been influenced by or had the pleasure to meet.

While watching these crazy NCAA basketball games throughout March Madness you see the positive impact of team diversity – pay close attention and you’ll see and feel it. There were 11 different conferences represented in the Sweet 16, but the magic and excitement of seeing diversity goes so much deeper. Big schools, small schools, freshmen stars, senior role players, blacks, whites, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and so much more.

Really, do you remember a more exciting tournament? Diversity rocks!

The success of diversity leaves clues people.

Take for example, my McAlma Mater and good friends at McDonald’s who’ve been rocking these days. Check out McDonald’s Board of Directors and of the 15 representatives listed, you’ll note 4 women (yes – 4 women), 2 Hispanics, 1 African American (who happens to be President and COO), a European and I’m sure there are more diversity examples that are not visible on the surface such as work experience, cultural experiences and more.

I’m lovin’ McDonald’s Diversity lessons and you should too.

Diversity wins games and market share.

P.S.: One of my mentors Tom Peters agrees that diversity wins.  And, I’m happy to say one of McDonald’s Directors Jan Fields in a former boss of mine – you go Jan!

In the past 20 years, business process outsourcing such as accounting, distribution and more became (still is) increasingly popular.  Advertising has been a widely accepted outsourced service, but what about outsourcing marketing?

In my experience, most brands have super marketing teams that excel in execution and creativity.  However, these crack teams are pulled in so many directions that they lack the time and skill or expertise  to think more strategically or analytically.

Over the last few months, our firm has participated in a lot of new business meetings and one of the key questions that eventually bubbles up is, “Why should I outsource my marketing?”

With the speed and sheer amount of radical changes in marketing (social media, mobile etc.), media fragmentation, economic challenges and more, marketing outsourcing is an attractive strategy to employ to cost effectively stay ahead of the marketing curve and your competition.

Here are 10 reasons why you should outsource your marketing.

1. You’ll increase a laser like focus on your brand’s core competencies
2. Corporate personnel can redirect their efforts in other business building areas
3. You can immediately take advantage of world-class talent and specialized services
4. You will gain an objective point of view and reduce bias
5. Your overhead and payroll will decrease which will free up capital
6. The amount of political corporate control will be reduced
7. Your pace of positive change will accelerate and you’ll be more flexible to meet market changes
8. Profits and overall business unit value and performance will increase
9. You will improve productivity, product quality and service levels
10. And, you’ll gain an immediate significant competitive edge

Certainly, your success is dependent upon choosing the right marketing partner and welcoming them as a true integrated partner. Start small with easy to manage projects and watch your business profitably grow.  Selecting a capable, trustworthy, enthusiastic outsourced marketing partner could be the final piece of your sales building puzzle.

Over the next two days, we’re participating in two separate presentations to the Pittsburgh American Marketing Association at the Duquesne Club downtown and to students at Chatham University.

My client John Graf – co-owner of the Priory Hospitality Group – and I are co-presenting and will review the success of our Winter White Wedding program which has driven first quarter wedding bookings by 400% and continues to rock – it helped us win the Pittsburgh American Marketing Association’s Grand Marketer of the Year Award!

The Priory’s Winter White Weddings are a true testament to the success of  “Blue Ocean Strategies” that profitably transform brands by pursuing low cost brand differentiation that makes your competition irrelevant.

To help you sail in Blue Oceans, click this link to review the Priory’s PowerPoint deck:
AMA Pittsburgh Marketer of the Year Priory Hotel 3.16.10

As a brand marketing consultancy, people pay us to, “call their baby ugly” and discover profitable ways to make it more attractive. It’s not an easy thing to do, especially when the business owners or leaders you’re consulting with happen to be the ones who gave birth to the baby you’re critiquing.

A few months ago, I caught the news and television commercials about how Dominos Pizza executives blatantly called their baby – a pizza pie – ugly. They announced that they had listened to their customers (inside the company and outside the company) and had taken strong, bold steps to clean up their act and improve their product.

I applauded their authentic, open approach and knew if they were true to their words with actions and walked their talk, their honesty would be rewarded in spades.

Here are the steps Dominos took:

1. They first listened to their customers (internal and external) and agreed to take action because they believed what they were hearing – that is, their product was not good. They started to revamp their recipes more than 1.5 years ago following a ton of focus group and social media site criticism. Remember, the first step to transforming (see rehab) a brand or yourself is admitting you have a problem and need help.

2. They “started over” (total transformation) from scratch by revamping their pizza recipe (new sauce and cheese combination and herb-and garlic-flavored crust)

3. They launched an honest documentary style ad campaign (in short, “we’re sorry…we agree with you that our baby tastes like cardboard…we did something remarkable about it…we think you’ll love it…please try us again”)

The result? A ton of curious customers rushed to try the new Dominos pizza and rocked their sales. In fact, Dominos Pizza Q4 2009 profits more than doubled!

Here’s a great Dominos turnaround video explaining how it all went down.

And, here is a link to a current Dominos commercial challenging Papa John’s claims and a link to the story about their amazing results.

So what are some of the steps you should take when your company or client is performing poorly and you recognize radical change is needed?

Here are 2 suggestions.

1. Be careful and smart with your language. You need to be careful to not to just slam the poor quality of your brand’s systems, products, people, processes etc., because the people you’re trying to influence may be defensive. Have concrete facts.

2. Concentrate all positive energies on transformational business building ideas. Focus on specific business building ideas to help them achieve their KPIs (key performance indicators).achieve their business objectives. Discuss how you’ve experienced similar challenges and relay to them potential outcomes and blue sky possibilities.

Be a marketing ambassador of hope and handle those ugly babies with kid glove because when you do, their brand parents will adopt your way of thinking!

P.S.: I love all babies.

It seems to me that over the past few years, many of us have veered far away from sound thinking.  Not just strategic thinking – simple common sense thinking too – and just about all other kinds of thinking in between.

I’ve always been one to strive for better ways to use my noodle and to put it to good use. Certainly, I’ve had my share of blunders, but when I carefully analyze them, I realize that I didn’t take time to think to make a sound decision, gather enough intelligence, come up with enough good ideas etc., and ACT!

I owe a great deal of my street smarts to my brothers and parents – especially my father. And, I owe a lot of my business savvy to several generous mentors over the years. Plus, I’ve gained a great deal of inspiration and insight into better thinking by reading a mini library of books.

I’ve spent my entire professional life in Marketing, and a few authors and books that have helped me in the marketing thinking field include David Ogilvy’s, Confessions of an Advertising Man; and, A Whack on the Side of the Head, by Roger Von Oech.

However, these books don’t even come close to scratching the surface for me. I read a new marketing related book just about every two weeks and several magazines, e-zines etc.,  Plus, I continuously drink the cool-aid and read and re-read the works of great thinkers like Edison, Godin, Jobs, Kawasaki, Peters, Reis and Trout and more.

A great tool I use is a gift (I paid for the tool, but it’s so valuable to me that I consider it a gift) I received from the innovation masters at IDEO (absolutely love these people).  IDEO’s Method Cards have helped me to discover better design ideas.

Today, with so much information at your fingertips and the pace of new information coming at you fast and furious from so many sources, it is increasingly difficult to process it all and make sound decisions and act upon them.

So what can you do?

For me, I’ve found that John Maxwell’s book, Thinking For A Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work to be very beneficial.

I enjoyed and got some use out of Malcolm Gladwell’s, Blink, whose POV is based more on the merits of intuitive, quick thinking rather than Maxwell’s critical thinking hypothesis – which I prefer – and when I take time to do it magical things happen.

Thinking For A Change’s case is based upon the hypothesis that successful people think differently than unsuccessful people and says that if you change your thinking, you will change your life. Yeah, I’d bet on that.

Here are the 11 thinking skills the book teaches:

1. Big-picture thinking – does your thinking extend beyond you and your world
2. Focused thinking - concentrate to find clarity on your actual problems
3. Creative thinking – think outside the box and find break through thinking
4. Realistic thinking – does your thinking have a solid foundation based in reality
5. Strategic thinking – is your thinking leading to ways for you to reach your potential
6. Possibility thinking – helps you find solutions to difficult problems
7. Reflective thinking – revisit history to gain understanding and learn from it
8. Popular thinking – question popular thinking and see if you’re simply rejecting the limitations of common thinking
9. Shared thinking – connect with others to expand and sharpen your thinking
10. Unselfish thinking – consider others and their needs
11. Bottom-line thinking – be focused on results

Maxwell also provides a lot of good examples of these thinking styles at work and I’m sure the book will help you become a better thinker. This is a great book for breaking down the critical thinking process and encouraging people to start thinking again. Especially during these fast times we live in where we all get a ton of new messages every day and information overload is overwhelming.

Maxwell’s book about critical thinking, whereas Gladwell’s Blink is a book about intuitive thinking. To think better you need to practice both methods.

P.S.: Check out some of Thomas Edison’s thoughts on creativity and hard work too.  Lots of good books on old Tom. I loved At Work with Thomas Edison, by Blaine McCormick. Also, consider adding Edison’s Idea Quota into your daily routine!