Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Digital marketing lesson from Sir Alex
(Photo courtesy Austino Suide)Anyone who knows me is aware that I am a soccer fanatic. I still play after 30 years, albeit a bit slower in the over 30 league on Friday nights.
The team I follow is Manchester United. Okay, so it is not too hard to be a fan as, after all, they are one of the most successful teams in the world lead by the most successful coach, Sir Alex Ferguson. I recently read a book about him called, Sir Alex: The Story of 21 Remarkable Years at United. I couldn’t help but relate some of his experience managing one of the world’s biggest sports brands with digital marketing.
I walked away with one key message from the book — focus. An unrelenting focus, specifically on winning, is what has made Sir Alex a success. The David Beckhams and the Christiano Ronaldos will come and go but his tight focus on winning is constant. This has meant ignoring or eliminating the distractions, like star players, that even slightly get in the way of focusing on the ultimate goal.
With an overwhelming amount of digital technologies available to marketers, I can’t help but wonder if companies are allowing blogs, communities and wikis to distract their focus away from the two most important things — customers and products.
The General Motors’ new chief executive, Fritz Henderson said recently that the new GM will focus on products and customers. Here’s a company that is refocusing — keeping an eye on those two important things. That struck me as a beautifully simple mantra we can all use when evaluating the next best new media offering. How will putting a focus on an online customer community help my brand? The numerous new digital options available can make for a very time-consuming evaluation process to understand if the new digital options are right for a brand’s marketing plan. Nearly all media have a place — most customers are consuming all the available media at some point. The biggest question is how much and in what priority?
The answers can be revealed by studying the first most important thing — the customer. The reality is that until you gain the customer insights on new media use and the points in the purchase journey that matter most, you risk spending valuable time and resources on what could amount to be just another distraction. Sure we all love having the equivalent of the Beckham’s and Ronaldo’s in our marketing plan — they are fresh, innovative and exciting. But keeping the focus on first understanding how to provide a valuable online experience for the customer will make determining which digital marketing tools are worth the effort much more obvious.
Reader Comments (2)
Speaking of overwhelming digital distractions I think if it wasn't for Twitter, which I had to sign up for, distracting me daily on my new iPhone, which I had to buy, I would be a master brewmaster brewing the worlds finest malted beverages. And there would be peace on earth. Yeap, I blame it all on Twitter.
Seriously though, you are 100% right Grant. The amount of information out there and our access to it is overwhelming and definitely can be distracting. I agree that even those in the know, so to speak are often overwhelmed and unfocused.
As the saying goes less is more and the key to focus is understanding that in my opinion.
Your comment about home brew is making me thirsty! Put down the twitter-phone and pick up the malt and hops!
That is a perfrect example of technology becoming a large drain on your most valuable resource - your time.
Engaging in social media takes a big commitment even though it is "free" to get started. Before jumping in, it is good to understand what will not be getting done as you participate in the endless online social outlets. Getting closer to your customers just might be worth the effort.