Brenda Bence

In his 1985 book, Ogilvy on Advertising, David Ogilvy famously said, “The consumer is not a moron; she is your wife.” Of course, he’d have a hard time getting away with that kind of comment today, but his point is still a valid one.

The truth is: Too many businesses think of their target market as one large, pulsing mass. But your target market is actually made up of individuals just like you, your wife, your husband, your mother, your father, or your children. Your customers are people with hopes, dreams, frustrations, families to feed, bills to pay, and vacations to plan. The most successful brands recognize this and look at their target market as a “Target of One.” So, how well do you know your target market … your Target of One?

Can You Describe Your Customer in Detail?

Since a solid brand positioning begins first and foremost with understanding your target, the more intimately you know the core elements that make up a great target market statement, the better job you’ll do at building your brand and making it successful. How well do you know each of these elements of your target market?

Demographics. Former CBS president Howard Stringer once said, “We’re chasing our tails for 18- to 49-year-old idiots when 10,000 people are turning 50 every day.” The point is that your demographic changes periodically, and you should stay on top of those changes.

Psychographics. Pepsi targets an audience of “young thinkers.” That psychograph – that overarching mindset that leads to a target market’s perceptions and behaviors – is what has helped Pepsi differentiate itself and battle rival Coke in key markets.

Attitudes. What is your target market’s ‘attitude’ toward the category or industry you are in? Is their purchase decision a highly involved one or are your products the type customers don’t think about twice? Understanding this will make all the difference when it comes to changing that customer’s behavior.

Telling Behaviors. Let’s say your target market wants to help the environment. Does that mean they are careful to turn off light switches when they leave a room, or do they go all the way and install solar panels on their home? Do they use recyclable eco-bags when shopping at stores, or do they go the extra step and stop the car on a highway to pick up trash? The extent of these ‘telling behaviors’ will shed a lot more light on the psychograph of your audience.

Current Usage. If you don’t know which substitutes for your product your target market is using now – and how often – you don’t know what you’re up against. How often does your target switch between brands? Is their brand usage light or heavy? What brands are getting their attention, and which ones are keeping it?

Functional Needs. Who knew that we needed to carry around a contraption with 8,000 songs on it? Apple did, and it filled that functional need of its target market when it created the iPod.

Emotional Needs. Starbucks provides more than just a good cup of coffee. What makes Starbucks different is how it fills an emotional need for its target market by offering a place to relax and spend quality time with friends, check e-mail, and not be rushed out to make room for the next customer.

So, how well do you know your customer? Knowing your target market as well as you know yourself is fundamental to branding success. You’ve heard over and over the importance of building a relationship with your customers, and the best way you can do that is to think of them as individuals just like yourself. That’s how you develop a loyal customer for life.

It’s just the sheer nature of the beast. At your level, everyone you turn to for advice has a hidden agenda. No matter how hard they may try, their perspectives cannot help but be “biased.” This includes your spouse, your children, your boss, your Board of Directors, your subordinates, and your peers. So, where can you go for an impartial viewpoint? Who can you turn to for a truly objective discussion?

Executive Coaching may be the answer. There is an unfortunate myth about Executive Coaching that it’s only about “fixing problems,” but nothing could be further from the truth! Coaching isn’t consulting, counseling, or therapy. It isn’t about regretting a past that can’t be changed. It’s about focusing on a future that can be changed. Executive Coaching helps leaders who are already successful achieve even more in the future.

The original definition of the word “coach” was a vehicle – usually horse-drawn – that took someone from one place to another. More and more executives are recognizing that this is what they can gain from an Executive Coach – a means of getting from where they are now to where they want to be. They understand that the skills which got them their current positions may not be enough to advance their careers or even keep them competitive at their present level.

Here are just a few of the top reasons that executives turn to coaching:

• Develop stronger leadership skills / core competencies.
• Transition successfully into a new position.
• Help high potential employees succeed.
• Reduce / better manage stress.
• Improve time management and work/life balance.
• Foster better self-coaching behaviors.
• Implement a new strategy, vision, or direction.
• Develop conflict management skills.
• Create a more positive workplace environment.
• Achieve greater overall business success.
• Find a truly objective sounding board for ideas and issues.

So, how do you find the best Executive Coach for you? First and foremost, do your research. Look for certified coaches at the website of the International Coach Federation (www.CoachFederation.org), and interview a few coaches until you find one who feels right. Ask to see training certificates and testimonials. Talk to past clients, if possible, and request a free trial session. A coach may be very talented, but the chemistry between you needs to be spot-on in order for you to achieve your goals.

Here are some questions you might ask an Executive Coach before you hire them:

• What types of people and situations have you worked with?
• What kind of results did you achieve?
• What is your coaching model and process?
• Where did you get your training?
• Is there anyone you would turn down as a client?
• How would you define the difference between therapy and coaching?
• What is your greatest strength as a coach?

Cost and Payout?

What does executive coaching cost? The range varies widely across the world, and depends upon the coach’s level of experience and track record. Harvard Business Review has reported that rates range from $300-$3,500 USD per hour. One thing you can do to keep costs down is ask for a volume discount if your company has multiple managers who need coaching.

Make sure you get a good return on your investment (ROI) when it comes to executive coaching. Two recent large-scale independent studies amongst thousands of executive coaching clients across the world said the return on their investment was anywhere from 600-700% of the cost of the initial investment. Nonetheless, take the time to quantify the results of hiring an executive coach. The costs of weak leaders in today’s marketplace are great, but the benefit of having strong leaders is priceless.

The excitement of so-called “new media” is keeping marketers and branders up at night. As they explore this new, uncharted territory, marketers all across the globe are asking themselves questions they never would have conceived of just ten years ago. “What’s our Facebook strategy for driving consumer loyalty?” “Who should be managing our brand’s Twitter account?” “How do we leverage YouTube to create the next big ‘talk-of-the-globe’ video?”

Social media has become Goliath to every marketer’s David. In case you’ve been sleeping at the wheel, here are a few facts for perspective:

• The number of people on Facebook is now larger than the population of the United States; indeed, if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world.
• Twitter doubles its population every 90 days and reportedly has more than 55 million monthly visits.
• 25% of all web searches end up at YouTube making it the second largest search engine in the world.

Rupert Murdoch, the publishing magnate, is quoted as saying that these changes represent the biggest shift in communications since the invention of the printing press 500 years ago. So, clearly, social media is not a fad. It’s here to stay, and it is fundamentally changing not only the way we communicate with consumers, but the way consumers communicate with each other.

The Fundamentals Haven’t Changed

But in the midst of all this flurry of excitement, it’s important for marketers to sit back, take a deep breath, and remember: “How” we communicate with consumers may be changing dramatically, but “what” we communicate should not change.

In truth, the means we use to communicate with our consumers has changed many times over the years (remember how excited advertisers originally were about TV?), but the essence of brand building hasn’t changed in decades: Know your target audience intimately, dig deep to understand the target’s functional and emotional needs, and make sure your brand responds to those needs better than the competition. By doing this, you gain loyal brand users. Then, never ever give those loyal consumers a reason to switch to another brand.

It’s really that simple.

Relationships – A Constant

The buzz word I hear more and more these days when it comes to social media is “relationship.” “We must build a relationship with our consumers using social media!” cry the marketers. But building a relationship between your brand and your consumers has always been at the core of good brand building. That hasn’t changed. How you choose to build that relationship is what is evolving. Building relationships is something marketers should be doing day in and day out.

If anything, the onslaught of new social media outlets has made building a relationship with your target market not only easier but, frankly, less expensive, too. After all, we don’t need to lay down a million dollars to send out regular tweets! But the fundamental nature of your brand’s relationship with the customers hasn’t changed at all. It’s still about delighting your consumers every single time they come in touch with your brand.

With so much new media terrain to explore, there’s never been a more exciting time to be a marketer. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media sites are all great tools to further your brand’s positioning in the marketplace. Just don’t let the excitement of that steer you away from the true essence of brand building. Stick with the basics, and you can’t go wrong.

In this article, I want to address the issue of executives and their planned holidays that simply turn into “working somewhere other than the office.”

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar to you?

• You choose your hotel or resort because it has a wireless connection that will allow you to check e-mails on a regular basis.
• The plane lands at your holiday destination and, immediately upon turning on your cell phone, you see 14 missed calls from various members of your team.
• You miss breakfast because you’re busy putting out fires via e-mail at the start of your day.
• Your spouse becomes upset because you’re taking calls while you’re on the beach, at dinner, at the museum – you name it.
• You have to leave your family and return to your hotel room for a Skype conference with your boss.
• You find yourself more stressed after your holiday than you were before you left because you spent your time away trying to juggle work and leisure.

These are common scenarios in these days of inexpensive and easy connections via e-mail, mobile phone, and video conferencing. But, this often means your holiday becomes more of a temporary office set up in a faraway location rather than real time off.

The Vacation Solution

The first step to solving this problem is to sit back and think about what it is that is really holding you back from completely disconnecting with the office while you’re away. Is it that you don’t trust your team to do a good job? Is it that you secretly don’t want them to survive – let alone thrive – while you are gone so that you can prove you’re irreplaceable? These are tough questions to ask yourself, but taking the time to think about your answers is critical and will have a big impact on whether you end up taking a holiday that truly serve its intended purpose: to recharge your batteries and remind you that you are far more than just what you do for a living.

Take some time to examine your thoughts around being gone from the office. Remember: Smart leaders know that when their company, division, or department runs smoothly during their absence, it’s a sign of excellent management on their part. If things go well while you’re on holiday, it doesn’t make you unimportant. It simply means that your team is well enough trained and able to handle situations so that you can afford to be gone for a few weeks. If you want to, you can still hold off making the most important decisions for when you return.

For a lot of executives, being interrupted repeatedly on holidays is simply a result of not having laid out clear enough boundaries up front so that they can be left alone to enjoy their breaks in peace. Here are some tips:

1. Notify people. Tell everyone many weeks in advance what the dates of your holiday will be, and let them know that your intention is to truly “divorce” yourself from the business for that period of time.

2. Enlist others’ help. Get everyone involved in helping you to have some real downtime. Ask them for help to prepare for a true break. That way, they become part of the solution, not the problem. (Bring back some gifts to the office as a way to say ‘thank you’ for their help!)

3. Anticipate. Think about what activities and projects will take place while you’re away, then prepare your team and everyone else who needs to know about them. Ask them to proactively think about any questions or issues that they will need to address during that time so that you can handle them before you leave.

4. Set clear expectations up front. One week before you depart for your holiday, send a notice to all people who regularly send you e-mails, SMS messages, or who call you on your cell. In this note, set clear boundaries and guidelines about how you will manage communications while you are gone. For example, you might say:

• You will only check e-mails once every three or four days – whatever frequency you choose. You may decide that you won’t check e-mails at all. If so, great! Make that clear, and let everyone know.
• Ask people to refrain from sending you “nice to know” e-mails. If they absolutely must, ask them to put “Nice to Know” in the subject line so that you can ignore these e-mails until you return to the office.

• You will only accept phone calls regarding urgent matters such as: (a) a strategic issues that have long-term business ramifications, or (b) something that could dramatically impact the business like potentially losing a big client account, or (c) an emergency that impacts safety (a fire or an injured employee, etc.).

5. Don’t just manage down – manage up as well. Alert your boss or your Board of Directors that you will be leaving matters to your team in your absence. You need to set boundaries with everyone in order to claim your well-deserved downtime.

If you have taken the time to train your team well, trust them. It may take some work the first time you go away using these new guidelines but, after sticking to regular guidelines, you should be able to take holidays with greater ease.