A new website. Open a twitter account. Get on Facebook. Connect to everyone on LinkedIn…but keep putting up billboards to generate “buzz”. Disguises, nothing short of a facade. These do not define the execution of disruption marketing.

In 1995, a Harvard Management Professor named Clayton Christensen coined the term in an article about disruptive technologies. In the article the authors discussed the development of technologies that,

…offered less of what customers wanted in established markets…they offered a different package of attributes valued only in emerging markets remote from and, and unimportant to, the mainstream.

How is this applied to marketing? First, I don’t believe that disruptive marketing is radical marketing. I don’t believe that disruptive marketing can be defined as simply anything that is the opposite of a firm’s existing marketing strategy nor do I believe that disruptive marketing is defined as a new website, a twitter account, et al, labeled as disruptive.

Disruption marketing refers to a strategic shift that is disruptive to established marketing organizational structure and process based on a focus on new or emerging definitions of the market.

To be more specific, disruption marketing is based on a redefinition of markets and then refocusing both the marketing organizational structure and strategy to individually engage them. It begins by segmenting the firm’s market as a set of almost infinite niche markets instead of one homogenous market and once defined, applying strategies that includes tactics (attributes) precisely targeting each of those independent markets. The strategy is based upon aligning tactics closely to the emerging markets that are remote from or underserved by the competitive environment. Who wouldn’t want to be in a market with no competitors?

Complex?

Yes, but effective?

Examples are all around you: Amazon. iTunes. Your iPhone 4s. These brands redefined the markets from their competitive environments, segmented those markets almost on an individual level then built marketing strategies to convey the attributes that were relevant.

Status quo?

No. And the probability for failure when attempting a disruptive approach lies in the status quo. Christensen found that failure for disruptive technological innovation was a function of the organization and the process. If the organization attempted to employ a disruptive approach internally, using existing organization and process, the strategy would nearly always fail. What is required is not only a commitment to a disruptive approach but the creation of a semi-autonomous entity to do it. In other words, the team that is running your present marketing strategy cannot be called upon to design and execute a disruptive strategy concurrently with the existing strategy. It is also illogical to assume that a firm has the luxury of suspending current marketing while implementing a new approach. In fact such suicidal marketing would be a very bad choice. Perhaps now you see the basis for this point, it doesn’t work. Organizational structures, culture and processes are the status quo model sustaining current sales.  So firms must sustain current efforts while trying to implement a different approach. It will not work to simply task them with implementing a new model while managing the old and hence, the need for an autonomous or semi-autonomous model becomes not only obvious but presents the least risky decision path for the firm.

Is a disruptive marketing approach the right one? In most cases, I’d say the answer is no. Many firms lack the real courage to embrace the type of organizational and process change required. It goes against their conventional wisdom and in fact will be contrary to the marketing that has brought them to today. A very difficult change indeed. Yet for those visionary leaders that recognize that innovation and brand life cycles are highly correlated, it can be the catalyst for a new and sustainable growth phase.

excerpts from Bower, Joseph L. & Christensen, Clayton M. (1995). “Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave” Harvard Business Review, January–February 1995

I bought an apple IIc computer in 1984. I don’t remember what I paid for it but I remember that is was extraordinary. Even in those early years, I felt that it had more capacity to do things than I had the capacity to figure out how. It was a wonderful tool and now as I compose this on it’s great great great grandson Macbook Air, my feeling remains unchanged. RIP Mr. Jobs. ~ Robert

I was reading this week a report about media planners and buyers.  The biggest challenge they face is limited time.  I know of many media agencies that send rfps to media outlets requesting turnaround times of two days or less.  New media choices allow for quick turn around times and short lead times.  It’s reminiscent of the overnight delivery made available by FedEx and the like.  At first blush – what a wonderful service to provide!  But the result has been pushing deadlines.  Brand teams aren’t spending more time developing solutions; they’re waiting longer to get started.  In my days as head of a media agency working alongside creative teams, I can recall very few occasions where the creative team didn’t request an extension to the stated deadlines.  Time is scarce in the agency business.

How ironic that the largest percentage of dollars and the least amount of time is spent on media strategy.  Today’s media environment, with more options than ever before, requires more strategic thought and energy than ever but brands are giving it less time and attention.

To improve the ROI on your overall brand marketing commit to two action items:

1) Invest time, attention and resources in equal proportion to the dollars invested.  In the attached article you’ll find a few suggestions that highlight how one simple media choice (like making sure online ads appear “above the fold” )can dramatically improve effectiveness.  Discoveries like this are not made without digging in and knowing what helpful questions to ask of your media agency.

2) Insist that your media planning is performed by seasoned professionals. A revealing Adweek study showed that advertisers pay as much as 60% more (or less) than other advertisers for the exact same media space.  And the primary difference was not the amount of the overall investment or size of the buying agency, but rather the tenure of the people working on the account.  Knowing that time is often short, make sure that your media team has a deep understanding of your brand and its goals as well as a successful track record making smart media choices that drive sales.

http://www.bizreport.com/2011/07/want-better-roi-study-shows-its-in-ad-placement.html

Mark Tilghman, Partner

FORMO

Steve Jobs once said, “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” The capacity to change is driven by the people, those rebels, those misfits, the ones who see things differently. For over five years, FORMO has been driven by an unrelenting passion to challenge conventional wisdom and become the catalyst for that type of change.

Starting today, that ability has taken an exponential leap. FORMO is expanding it’s fleet of rebellious thinkers.

FORMO has a new partner. Mark Tilghman.

I have known Mark for almost seven years. We first met at the recommendation of a mutual friend as I was a client struggling to find an expert media company. One that cared more about my brand than their agency/media relationships. I found that in Mark. I not only found a man of incredible talent and skill but also an extraordinary passion about his work. Mark had built a successful mid-sized but fairly typical ad agency with some extraordinary media thinking embedded within Mark. He possessed a singular focus on understanding, embracing and adding value to my strategy that proved to be astounding. Mark was a strategic partner long before that term became a meaningless buzzword.

Mark is an extraordinary professional and I am astounded that we now have him as a part of our team.

In a practical sense, Mark is a force multiplier for FORMO. And while our capabilities will always be based on a rebellious spirit, Mark brings FORMO capabilities in media, planning, strategy and account direction. A perfect synergism.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. – Sir Winston Churchill

You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.

Steve Jobs
CEO, Apple

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger began many news conferences with the question, “What questions do you have for my answers?”  His honesty in how he was approaching the interviews was refreshing.  But the schtick has gotten old.  If Amazon can profit from selling one book to one person millions of times over or if iTunes can profit from selling artists with a tiny almost insignificant audience, what does this imply for the communications consultants to political campaigns?

It’s pretty clear that the marketers who advise political campaigns stick to the Henry Kissinger method, carefully scripting answers to broad questions to try and influence the voters. They believe in the broad-brush stroke slogans and traditional marketing that have helped candidates win elections in the past. All but ignoring one simple fact: In a digital age, markets are highly fragmented. And that includes the market for voters.

In the marketing business, deadlines are common. Tight deadlines are somewhat common. Extremely tight deadlines are usually avoided at all costs, but in the case of FORMO’s client Stokes Industries there was simply no option. The company had developed an extraordinary business opportunity – in Russia.

But rewind the story a bit, FORMO just recently started doing work for Stokes and had yet to really develop the materials necessary for a project of this magnitude. As a matter of fact we had yet to develop anything, we just started! Nonetheless, they needed help so we got together and considered the options for delivering materials to support their sales effort. Out of the FORMO archive we pulled the “blogazine”, an original FORMO developed magazine-style collateral piece that aggregates blog content & imagery to create a highly customized print piece. Secondly we hit on the idea of creating a companion Keynote (Powerpoint) to create a multi-slide presentation that would support and enhance the content in the blogazine. Oops, the clock has been ticking already, time lost, need to hustle. Oh, did I forget to say that we determined it would be very beneficial to Stokes if we could deliver the pieces either partially or fully translated into Russian?

Total timeline:  20 days from concept to delivery in Russia.

The team: Me, Aeron Myers, Alfred Hall, Wentworth Printing in Columbia, TranZlations in NJ and of course Stokes Industries.

The results:

1. A completely customized 12 page, color brochure (blogazine) with content written and specifically targeted for their potential client.
2. A 31 slide presentation complete with integrated imagery again with content that is both complimentary and an enhancement to the blogazine.
3. A fully complete article by article translation of the blogazine into Russian.
4. A fully complete version of the presentation entirely in English and a second version entirely in Russian.

20 days from concept to delivery

Even creating the illustrations

31 slides all in Russian

Dell Trade Secrets eBook

I’m excited that my input was solicited and published in the Dell Trade Secrets campaign. The campaign is designed to help small businesses on a variety of topics by collecting and sharing wisdom from experts. I’m delighted and honored not only to be included in the book but to be the very first item. (page 5)

Based on the recommendation of a good friend, I’ve taken to reading this extraordinary book.

Undoubtedly you are probably like me in that you never considered this seemingly unrelated point in history. But did you realize that the Apache Indian Nation held the Spanish Army at bay for nearly 200 years in spite of the fact that the Spanish Army was the modern day equivalent of a superpower. With the lack of resources and sheer disadvantage in size, they manged to do what would appear to be the impossible.

So how is this relevant in any way to what I do? Simple, the authors are presenting a profound argument about the hidden power in leaderless, decentralized or distributed organizational structures in contrast to the typical hierarchal structure. Think of the leaderless organization, how would that be different from the status quo of markting teams today? Are today’s marketing head shots, “leaders” or “catalysts”?

Fast forward their discussion to modern times and the case studies are compelling: Wikipedia, Craigslist, SKYPE, Toyota.

The leaderless organization focuses on the team and not the leader. I cannot count the number of job descriptions I’ve read for a senior marketer that required them being a “team player” yet they hire highly centralized thinkers. The type A personality. Or the implementers who will do the bidding of the senior executives “ideas” rather than be the catalyst for the creation of successful marketing strategy, design and execution at the ground level by the team. I think this discussion is critically important, not just in the context of this fine book but in the context of each business asking itself what to do with its marketing for the future. There are countless board, executive committee and marketing meetings where the topic of marketing change or transition is an agenda item. So what to do about it? Maybe the answer is not in the job description.

The book is extraordinary and on the FORMO recommended reading list, the FORMO recommended implementation list and the FORMO “how we view what we do” list. In retrospect, its clear that I’ve always positioned myself as the catalyst in lieu of the authoritarian leader. I don’t view myself as the “expert” in all subjects but rather as the catalyst that can craft a network, a structure, an organization of highly talented individual cells that in turn imagine, design, create and implement.