Is Your Marketing Function Analytically Oriented For Impact?

Is Your Marketing Function Analytically Oriented For Impact?

I am delighted to announce that right after much hard work plus complex analyses, my other authors and I possess successfully proven through the quantitative research study (Journal of Applied Marketing Analytics) a new measure that will quantifies your organization’s advertising analytics orientation (MAO).

It recognizes the factors that assist your organization become a lot more analytically focused on enhancing marketing performance. Practitioners may use the survey in order to understand issues and for you to optimize how people, procedures, and technology are used. This study will aid you improve decision-making within your organization.

I congratulate my many other authors Mark Weber, a new marketing research leader economic services, and Ed Lucio, the lead data man of science from ASB Bank inside New Zealand.

Why is this particular important, anyone asks?

When posting research, it is important to match your study to a journal along with the right audience in addition to research agenda, which will be what we’ve done right here. We chose to publish throughout a more practitioner-focused diary that balances theory and even practice so the study might be more beneficial with regard to marketers.

[If you are a data analytics, AI, information security, data privacy, or digital expert, I highly recommend you check out Henry Stewart Publications’ journals. They offer the best blend of real-world research applications and emerging research topics I have yet found.]

For all those familiar with quantitative study, you may be fascinated in the following:

When studying any new construct or even phenomenon, it is not really enough to only distribute an exploratory study; you have to quantitatively prove through record analyses and modeling that this findings are valid. Including a measurement model along with a structural model, and many other statistical tests. The outcomes are then further authenticated by peers. See the particular links below to typically the qualitative and quantitative peer-reviewed journal articles.

  • Qualitative Study on Marketing Analytics (Published by Journal of promoting Stats: 2018)
  • Quantitative Study on Advertising Analytics (Published by Diary of Applied Marketing Statistics in Volume 8 to be able to be released shortly)

Let me personally know your ideas and exactly how MAO can be utilized to assess your marketing and advertising analytics organization.

Quick Tip: Use ‘Dear Hiring Team’ On Your Cover Letter

Quick Tip: Use ‘Dear Hiring Team’ On Your Cover Letter

You’ve always been told that you shouldn’t write, “To Whom It May Concern,” on your cover letter. But what should you do when you don’t have the name of the hiring manager?

First, Track Down The Name

Obviously, it’s ideal to use the hiring manager’s name in your cover letter. So, the first thing you should do is try to track down the hiring manager’s name online (i.e. the company website, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.).

You can also call up the company directly to ask for the name. Simply call up the company and say, “Hi, my name is ____ and I’m applying for a position at your company. Would it be possible for me to get the name of the hiring manager so I can address him or her in my cover letter?”

If All Fails, Use ‘Dear Hiring Team’

Man looks at his cover letter while on his laptop

If the hiring manager’s name is nowhere to be found and the company is unwilling to give you his or her name, you should use “Dear Hiring Team” in your cover letter salutation. By addressing your cover letter to the hiring team, you increase your chances of getting it in front of the right pair of eyes.

Why Can’t You Use Someone Else’s Name?

Woman reads her cover letter on her laptop

But what if you know the name of someone else (not involved with hiring) who works at the company? Can you just address it to them instead?

Absolutely not!

“That person may not be the person that’s hiring, and they could easily throw [your cover letter] in the trash,” says J.T. O’Donnell, founder and CEO of Work It Daily. “You don’t know if they’re going to forward it to the right person or not. You DO NOT want to risk that.”

Need more help?

Is every element of your career plan working together to help you get the results you want? Are you confident that the career plan you’ve developed will get you out of your career rut for good? If you’re not getting the results you want out of your career, we can help.

We’d love it if you joined our FREE community. It’s a private, online platform where workers, just like you, are coming together to learn and grow into powerful Workplace Renegades. More importantly, we have tons of resources inside our community that can help you write a cover letter—the right way.

It’s time to find work that makes you feel happy, satisfied, and fulfilled. Join our FREE community today to finally become an empowered business-of-one!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.

Pulling The Tiger’s Teeth: How To Deal With Angry Customers

Pulling The Tiger’s Teeth: How To Deal With Angry Customers

Millions of people work in customer service. Customer service roles vary from contact center agents handling enquiries about a 10-dollar bus service to account directors managing billion-dollar clients.

Sooner or later, they all have to deal with angry customers.

I am one of these customer service professionals. Here are a few tricks I’ve learned over the years.

Mindset

Woman at a coffee shop helps an angry customer

Customers can get angry, abusive, or even violent.

Even the angriest customer is unlikely to be angry at you, specifically, if you have the right mindset.

Firstly, check your own emotions and how they affect your behavior.

If a customer starts acting aggressively, check your own pulse rate and heart rate. Is the blood rushing to your head? This is when you have to be still. Responding to anger with anger makes a bad situation worse.

This doesn’t mean you have no right to be angry. If someone behaves aggressively, millions of years of evolution have built the “fight or flight” program into our brains. In this situation, reacting aggressively or running away will not help.

Instead, try and put yourself in the customer’s shoes. The customer wants to go home at the end of the day. He finds out his bus has been cancelled. The next one is in three hours. Or your corporate client’s IT director has spent half a million dollars on a new computer. It doesn’t work. If it can’t be fixed, his job is on the line. How would you feel?

The Customer Is Always “Emotionally Right”

Angry customer calls a customer service representative

As Mr. Brian Shore, CEO of ZOOM International says: “The customer may not always be right, but the customer is always emotionally right.”

Emotion is the key. Emotion drives angry customers’ behavior. Logic will not prevail until the emotion has been handled.

Many try to ignore emotional behavior. It’s better to openly acknowledge and validate the customer’s emotion. Try this response: “I can see you’re feeling very frustrated/angry about this. If I were in your position, I’d feel the same way too.”

Show the customer that you have recognized and respect his feelings, and understand the urgency of the situation.

If the customer is still expressing anger, stay silent and let him continue. If you are in a public area, lead him politely somewhere out of public view so that he can “vent” there.

The customer is less likely to feel angry with you specifically. Once he sees you are “on his side,” he may be ready to have a rational conversation.

The worst thing is to tell an angry customer to “calm down.” This implies that the customer has no right to feel angry at all. Customers don’t usually react positively to that. It’s better to tell the customer that you can see that he is angry, and you want to help him. Then, ask him politely if you can ask these questions to fully understand the situation.

Take Control Of The Conversation

Customer service representative talks to a customer

Asking questions allows you to take more control of the situation. Once the customer is answering your questions, use the customer’s name and the “question/answer/comment” rapport-building techniques. (See “further reading” below.)

If you have a lot of questions, let him know to manage his expectations. (“This may take some time—may I ask you some questions?”) If the questions relate to technical details, such as website addresses, credentials, part numbers, etc., you might want to give him a list of questions and some time to find the answers.

Positive Language

Young woman talks to an angry customer

Angry customers do not respond well to being told something can’t be done. Negative language, offering no solutions, and implying that the customer is to blame does not help the situation, even if it is true.

If what they say they want is not possible, ask more questions to find out what they really want. (Your flight to Manchester is cancelled. When do you need to get there?) There might be an alternative that more or less gives them what they want.

Sometimes “no” really does mean “no.” In that case, try to soften the blow, but make sure he understands it really is not possible. Try saying this: “I appreciate that this situation is very frustrating for you. I’m afraid we can’t help you right now. I’m sorry.”

A couple of very important points.

Never use the word “but” after “I’m sorry” or “I appreciate you are feeling frustrated.” The word “but” sends the message “Disregard all the nice things I said before.”

When you use the word “sorry” or apologize, do not say specifically what you are apologizing for. That may be taken as an admission of liability and used in court. Likewise, if you cannot give a clear and company-authorized reason why something is not possible, it’s better not to explain.

Clear Outcomes & Managing Expectations

Customer service representative helps a customer

It’s very important to give the customer a clear outcome. If you can solve his problem, the outcome is clear. If not, the outcome is also clear.

If you need more information, or something else has to happen, then make it very clear to the customer what will happen next, who needs to take the next action, and tell him when this is going to happen.

You need to let the customer know what happens next as clearly and accurately as possible. If the news is bad, telling the customer everything will be fine won’t help him, your employer, or you.

To manage your expectations, everything I have written above won’t work every time! There are some problems that cannot be solved, and there are some customers that cannot be helped.

How was it for you?

I love hearing about other people’s experiences! Let me know your “hacks” for dealing with angry customers!

Further reading…

You can read more about rapport building here: Don’t Be A Wallflower! A Beginner’s Guide To Building Rapport

You can read more about positive language here: Positive Language For No-Nonsense Managers

Why This Type Of Job Search Never Works

Why This Type Of Job Search Never Works

I hear stories all the time about job seekers applying for almost every job they come across in their job search. My advice? Stop. Here’s why…

That type of job search doesn’t work.

The “Spray & Pray” Job Search Method Isn’t Effective

@j.t.odonnell why this type of job search never works… @j.t.odonnell @workitdaily #learnontiktok #careertiktok #edutok #jobsearch #jobtips #jobapplication #careerhacks #careeradvice ♬ original sound – J.T. O’Donnell

In order to actually find a job that’s a good match for you, you need to stop applying online to random, out-of-state jobs that you’re not exactly qualified for. If you do this in your job search, you’re basically not looking for work at all.

And I know that’s hard to hear.

We think we have all this experience—that employers will look at us and think, “Oh, this person would be a great fit for the job.” That’s not how it works.

First, if you’re not in state, they’re thinking, “When will I interview you?” Second, if you don’t have the exact experience, they’re thinking, “I don’t have time to train you. I’m already far behind.”

Employers want to hire the exact match for the job. That’s why you’re not getting any responses.

Now, all hope isn’t lost. You just have to learn something called a proactive job search, which is a more strategic job search than the “apply for every job” type of job search (I call it the “spray & pray” method). Think of yourself as a job shopper instead, which is actually a lot more fun and effective.

If you want to learn how to conduct a proactive job search, check out my FREE community. It’s a safe place where professionals like you are learning how to become empowered in their careers so they can finally find career happiness and satisfaction. More importantly, I have tons of resources inside this community that can help you find a job—fast!

Whatever you do, please stop the insanity of blindly applying for jobs. It’s not doing you any favors. All it’s doing is frustrating you. And you don’t deserve that.

Sign up for my FREE community and become a Workplace Renegade today! My team and I are looking forward to working with you soon.

27+ Final Interview Questions You Need To Be Ready For

27+ Final Interview Questions You Need To Be Ready For

There are a number of final round interview questions that come up regularly, and they tend to vary quite a bit. But don’t worry, preparing for them doesn’t have to be hard! This guide goes over the most common final interview questions you’ll hear and covers the best ways to answer them.  1. What keeps […]

The post 27+ Final Interview Questions You Need To Be Ready For appeared first on Career Sherpa.

6 Punctuation Tips For A Sexier Resume

6 Punctuation Tips For A Sexier Resume

You want a resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile that presents you in the best possible light. With all of the emphasis on loading your documents with keywords, accomplishments, and metrics that make the case for you being the perfect fit for the position you’re after, have you overlooked proper punctuation?

Some might wonder what the big deal is about punctuation. Surely if you start your sentences with a capital letter and end them with a period, that’s all you need to worry about, right?

Unfortunately not.

The text in resumes is often so packed with information that seemingly inconsequential punctuation missteps can distort your meaning, or worse: cause the hiring manager to pause in confusion.

That pause is bad news for you: it may make the recruiter see you as a less-than-attractive candidate, questioning your ability to communicate or pay attention to details, both highly valued skills in today’s workplace. Just as a modern spouse becomes more alluring to a partner by doing the dishes and laundry, using proper punctuation makes you downright sexy to a hiring manager.

Both efforts make lives easier for the people who are important to you, so go the extra mile by following these important rules (and do the dishes):

1. Capitalization

In addition to appearing at the beginning of sentences and in section headings, capital letters also signify important words. But using too many “important words” in your documents slows the reader down or seems pretentious.

For example, I sometimes see text like this in resumes: “Expertise in Human Resources, Training, and Recruiting”

Try: “Expertise in human resources, training, recruiting” instead.

Other than proper names like your own name or the names of products, you will rarely need to capitalize words that don’t appear at the beginning of a line or sentence. You’ll also want to capitalize your own job title above each position listed on your resume.

However, if you reference someone else’s job title in your career documents, the general rule is that it is only capitalized when the person’s name follows (Vice President Joe Smith)—not when merely referring to the position (as in “reporting to the vice president”).

Of course, every rule tends to have its exceptions, and there are a few for capitalization. However, these are good to start with.

2. Hyphens

Man holds a resume with good punctuation

Use hyphens for compound adjectives that precede a noun, such as “client-focused approach” or “full-time employees.” And if you have two adjectives that modify the same base word, use a hyphen after the first, as in “mid- and senior-level management.”

Do not use a hyphen in a compound adjective if the first word ends in -ly, as in “highly qualified candidate.”

3. Semicolons

Women reads a resume with good punctuation

Semicolons can either separate two independent clauses when the second clause is not directly related to the first, or they can be useful when you want to list items that already include a comma.

For example, “Proficient in software including Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint; CorelDRAW; and Adobe Photoshop.”

4. Colons

Hiring managers discuss a job candidate with a well-written resume

Colons are used to join two independent clauses when the second clause is directly related to the first.

The most common usage in resumes is for lists, as in “Proficient in the following software: MS Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.”

5. Commas

Job seeker smiles as two hiring managers read her well-written resume

There’s fierce debate between those who advocate using serial, or Oxford, commas (putting a comma before the final “and” in a series) and those who don’t.

The best practice for resumes is to use serial commas, as they can really make your career documents easier to understand.

This is especially true when you list series of items where two things may be grouped together (think: sales and marketing). But even sentence construction like “Facilitate mock interviews, identify position and tailor interview questions” may cause the reader to stumble.

At first read, it may sound like the candidate is responsible for identifying a position and identifying someone who tailors clothes! So, my advice is to avoid ambiguity by always using serial commas in career documents, especially in resumes.

6. Spaces After A Period

Recruiter holds a resume with good punctuation

The current convention is to use one space after a period, not two. The same goes for colons.

I know, I know.

If you grew up learning to type on an IBM Selectric, back in the Stone Age like I did, this is a hard habit to break. But, if you keep using two spaces, you’ll look as antiquated as the typewriter.

Trust me, knowing these six punctuation tips will make you a real turn-on to an employer.

Now that you’ve reviewed some of the resume punctuation rules that you’ll want to be aware of, I’ll share the most important rule of all: however you choose to use punctuation throughout your career documents, do it consistently!

Even more jarring than not following proper punctuation rules is following them only some of the time.

Need more help writing your resume?

We’d love it if you joined our FREE community. It’s a private, online platform where workers, just like you, are coming together to learn and grow into powerful Workplace Renegades. More importantly, we have tons of resources inside our community that can help you write your resume—the right way.

It’s time to find work that makes you feel happy, satisfied, and fulfilled. Join our FREE community today to finally become an empowered business-of-one!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.

Should You Upload Your Resume To LinkedIn Or Other Social Media

Should You Upload Your Resume To LinkedIn Or Other Social Media

LinkedIn has made it very easy to upload your resume as a PDF to make it part of your LinkedIn profile. While it’s tempting to do this rather than build a full profile from scratch, you should avoid it.

Your resume and LinkedIn profile should be treated as two separate resources for your job search. Sure they are very similar, and you should use your resume as a guide for your LinkedIn profile, but a slight separation of the two is important!

Here’s why…

There Are Major Privacy Concerns

Your LinkedIn profile is fully (or at least semi-) public. Your contact information (address, phone number, email, etc.) are not necessarily public on your LinkedIn profile, but will become public if you upload your resume.

Even if you remove this private information from your resume before you upload it, by uploading your resume, you have made the resume itself public. You no longer have control. That means that anyone is free to view, copy, download, use, pirate, and distribute your resume—all without your knowledge or consent.

Whatever information you’re given by LinkedIn about views of your profile and downloads of your resume is after the fact—after your resume has been downloaded and is in the possession of someone else.

It Makes Your Job Search Public

Man waits for his job interview

Posting your resume on LinkedIn changes your job search from a private one to a public one. It practically screams, “I’m looking for a job!” While it helps your job search for the trusted people of your professional network to be quietly notified that you’re looking for new opportunities, it does not help to announce it to the world.

Why? Because recruiters, employers, potential clients, and quality networkers are looking for top candidates. Top candidates are, by definition, people who are in demand. A top candidate, therefore, rarely “needs” a job, although he or she is open to opportunities. By publicly screaming, “I’m looking for a job!” you are simultaneously announcing that you are not a top candidate.

Your LinkedIn profile needs to showcase your value and appeal, not your (real or perceived) desperation.

It’s Not The Best Way To Display Your Professional Skills

A businessman makes edits to his resume

Resumes work best when they are tailored to specific job openings or employers. Posting your resume online means you have given up the chance to best present your resume to any legitimate recruiters or employers who view it. And the substance of the resume should be worked into your LinkedIn profile anyway.

Remember: if your LinkedIn profile is compelling, then a legitimate recruiter or employer surfing through LinkedIn will contact you. And then you can decide whether to provide your (targeted) resume.

So, in conclusion, posting your resume online gives you additional risk, but no reward.

Struggling to write your resume or optimize your LinkedIn profile?

We’d love it if you joined our FREE community. It’s a private, online platform where workers, just like you, are coming together to learn and grow into powerful Workplace Renegades. More importantly, we have tons of resources inside our community that can help you write your resume and optimize your LinkedIn profile—the right way.

It’s time to find work that makes you feel happy, satisfied, and fulfilled. Join our FREE community today to finally become an empowered business-of-one!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.

It’s Time To Claim Your Employer Story For FREE!

It’s Time To Claim Your Employer Story For FREE!

We get that.

Sites just like Glassdoor and Indeed include hijacked your company’s plot online.

Just enter “working at_____” or “working for ____” while inserting your company’s name and there’s a lot more than a good opportunity that Glassdoor/Indeed (who, BY THE WAY, are owned by this same company) rank increased in the search engine results compared to your own company’s career page.

Well, here’s some very good news…

Young woman (Gen Z) is found in a job

Job searchers today (especially millennials plus Gen Z) are today “job shoppers. ” Elevated on social media, these people skip the review websites, and even your very own website, to be able to consume tales about what it’s similar to to work for your own personal company from credible, thirdparty sites—like Work It Every day.

Work That Daily? Hey, that’s all of us!

Work The device Daily

Work The idea Daily is really a trusted, highly regarded advisor to millions involving job shoppers. Since 08, we’ve been an recommend for the worker, providing timely advice and sources designed to help all of them get ahead within their professions. And now, with more than 1. 5M visitors in order to our site monthly, in addition to an incredible number of followers on internet sites like TikTok and LinkedIn, we want to expose them to YOUR ORGANIZATION}.

CLAIM YOUR OWN COMPANY’S STORY & GET BACK THE NARRATIVE!

Group within happy professionals

Let us explain to you the power of getting your employer story upon our site. Fill away the shape below and we all will be in contact having a draft of your personal story. You’ll be capable to adjust it and even we’ll only make the idea public when you point out so.

And then, watch the wonder happen!

Here’s what you can assume from the free employer account on Work It Everyday:

  1. Google ranking inside 48 hours of publishing.
  2. Distribution about our social networking channels regarding added exposure.
  3. Multiple bits of content a person can use to advertise your story.
  4. Chance to leverage your active recruiting technologies to improve the ROI on your individual existing investments. (i. electronic. link to your OBTAIN THE, etc. )

Check out often the Incredible Companies that currently have already claimed their boss story!

Prepared to get started?

Total this Google form together with we’ll be in feel with next steps:

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Got queries?

Information us at support@workitdaily. possuindo and somebody will be in effect within 2 business times.

Why You Need A Data Strategy Before Data Governance (Part 2)

Why You Need A Data Strategy Before Data Governance (Part 2)

Part Two: The Steps Toward Achieving Data Governance

  1. Data Strategy
  2. Stand up the Data Governance Committee (Choose the Sponsors Early on)
  3. Data Management Framework (What, How, Who)
  4. Business Case for Data Governance
  5. Stand up Data Management/Governance Teams

I have seen organizations stand up tactical teams before a data strategy was defined, with the identified pain points and opportunities. The results were mixed at best. Data strategy should drive all subsequent steps.

Standing Up The Data Governance Committee

Data governance

To get organizational buy-in to treat data as a strategic organizational asset and value driver, a committee should be formed to guide the data governance tactical program(s), including the day-to-day management of data. It is vital to obtain C-level top management support to ensure that the program achieves the proper funding and enterprise support levels.

The C-level executives sitting on this data governance committee should include functional and user base leaders: the chief data officer (or the chief data analytics officer), chief risk officer, chief financial officer, and depending on the size of the firm, the chief operating officer, and the CEO. Leaders from heavy data user groups, such as marketing, digital, and operations, should also be part of this group. While this group will tackle enterprise issues, sub-committees can be formed to address specific business line needs. Committee participants should be engaged, data literate, contribute best practices, and challenge the team to uplift and mature capabilities.

Designing The Data Management Framework

Data management on laptop

Once the committee is set, we can progress governance by setting up a data management framework. This playbook defines the people, processes, and technologies related to governing data.

So far, so good—most organizations get to this point…but ignore the overall business case. A business case spells out the success metrics and ROI of investing in and governing data.

Ok, now to set up the framework and the function:

  1. Data management is a living, breathing framework, not a one-off project focusing only on one aspect, such as regulatory compliance. I’ve seen organizations get so focused on one part of data management that they lose the forest for the trees and never get to the vision laid out in their data strategy. This often keeps data management and data governance in the organization’s basement only to meet specific near-term needs. If we don’t think about data holistically and the broader use cases, leadership will eventually ask about unfunded data that can be monetized. This conundrum boomerangs on the CDO, who is then faulted for not taking a broader view of data when they were only funded for a limited scope.
  2. Formulating the data management framework: The first step after completing the data strategy, which requires business input, is to lay out a policy document that spells out how and who will govern data. You can then lay out the elements of the data management framework. Right now, many firms have an enterprise data management framework, but it may have been drawn up quickly with only one or two data domains, such as risk or finance.

The Elements Of An Exemplary Data Management Framework (In No Particular Order)

Woman on laptop looking at data

  1. Restate the data strategy to codify it into the DNA of the organization.
  2. The guiding principles, policies, and standards for managing data in your organization. Every organization will have a different slant depending on the business model.
  3. Identify to whom and to what the framework applies.
  4. Ensure compliance with risk governance and set the policy for compliance and controls.
  5. Monitoring data (including its quality) throughout its lifecycle.
  6. Ensures consistent data definitions, standards, and policies.
  7. Secured and classified data by its risk level and the type of information—typically aligned to an information security policy.
  8. Data governance must align with privacy policies and regulations.
  9. Specifies the roles needed to govern data within a data management organization and businesspeople’s function through stewardship and ownership.
  10. Identify the need for data controls and enforcement policies.
  11. Provides for a data governance literacy program: includes standard definitions.
  12. Creates master data: the relationships between data elements and entities in the firm.
  13. Creates a metadata repository: data about data, the definition of a data element, and where it comes from.
  14. Creates reference data: detailed data about each data element. Values and attributes.
  15. Creates a data catalog: all data is documented in terms of what sources it comes from.

Once again, it is time for a sanity check: Are all of these elements tied back to an enterprise data strategy? What are your thoughts about data governance and management? What has been your experience? Let me know!

Next Post: Standing Up For Data Management And Data Governance Teams

5 Brand Pillars That Are The Foundation Of Your Brand

5 Brand Pillars That Are The Foundation Of Your Brand

Brand pillars are the foundation of your brand and contribute to your overall brand DNA. There are five pillars: purpose, positioning, perception, personality, and promotion. Brand pillars help you define your unique characteristics and experiences, driving every consumer touchpoint to differentiate you from your competitors.

Let’s review the five brand pillars and how to implement them within your organization.

Purpose

Brand purpose is “why” you exist. It’s the reason for being beyond making a profit. A great brand purpose will always put the consumers first and manifest itself in everything it does.

Knowing the deeper “why” your company or brand exists provides the foundation on which to build everything else.

Simon Sinek, author of the book Start with Why, introduced the idea of defining brand purpose to a global audience in his 2009 TED talk.

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.”—Simon Sinek, How Great Leaders Inspire Action.

Here are some key questions to ask yourself to get at the “why” when developing your brand purpose:

  • Why does our company exist?
  • What drives our brand?
  • What is unique about our business? What is our secret sauce that no one else has?
  • What problem are we trying to solve?
  • Why would our ideal customer choose our product/service?
  • What are we exceptional at?
  • What inspires us day in, day out?
  • What do we want our legacy to be?
  • What are we most proud of as an organization?
  • Where do we want to be a year from now? Five years? Ten years?

Brand purpose is critical in today’s market as it shows your customers, employees, and competitors that you’re bigger than just turning a profit.

Positioning

Brand positioning is the process of positioning your brand in the mind of your customers based on your brand purpose and values that gives you a competitive advantage.

What do you think of when you hear “search engine”? Did Google come to mind? This product is positioned to dominate its category. What about a company that provides “overnight shipping”? FedEx owns the transportation category even though other companies provide overnight shipping.

A well-developed and implemented brand position provides a sustainable competitive advantage, communicates value to customers, is a vehicle to help manage brand consistency, and impacts the bottom line.

Here are five steps to consider when creating your brand positioning.

  • Evaluate Current Standing: Evaluate your current brand positioning. Is it working? Does it reach your target audience? Is it helping to achieve your business goals? If not, you may need to look at repositioning your brand.
  • Research Your Competitors: You can’t stand out from the crowd if you don’t know what the crowd is doing. Conduct a competitive analysis to evaluate your competitor’s brand position by looking at their social media feeds, company websites, marketing & advertising materials, and customer service. Look at who they’re targeting, what their messaging is, their unique selling proposition, and their positioning strategies. For more information on how to gather competitive research, check out my article.
  • Identify Your Target Audience: Understanding your target audience is critical as this information will define every strategy you execute. Your goal is to define your target audience into a simple statement: Our target market is (gender) aged (age range), who live in (place or type of place) and like to (activity). For more information on how to develop your target audience, check out my article.
  • Identify Your Differentiators: Just like everyone is unique and different, so is your brand. It’s your job to find those characteristics and differentiators that will make your brand stand out from the competitive crowd. List all the things that your competitors do well. List all of the things you do well. List what your customers want. Now start comparing your most unique angles against your audience’s needs. Are there any needs that haven’t been filled? Is there anything that you provide that your competitors can’t easily copy or reproduce? Check out my article on how to develop your unique differentiators
  • Craft Brand Positioning Statement: Here is a template to follow when crafting your brand positioning statement.

Personality

A brand personality can be defined as the set of human characteristics associated with your brand. It’s communicated through tone of voice, visuals, and even policies. They’re expressed as adjectives that convey how you want people to perceive your brand. For example, is your brand cheerful, funny, friendly, youthful, innovative, spirited, dependable, responsible, credible, sophisticated, rebellious, cunning, powerful, honest, and so on? Here is a list of 200+ adjectives to get you started.

Let’s look at an example: Coca-Cola is considered real and authentic while Pepsi tends to be young, spirited, and exciting, and Dr. Pepper is seen as nonconforming, unique, and fun. Source.

A brand can also be described by demographics (age, gender, social class, and race), lifestyle (activities, interests, and opinions), or human personality traits (extroversion, agreeableness, and dependability). Source.

There are three approaches on how to find your brand personality.

  • Jennifer Aaker’s Dimensions of Brand Personality framework contains 15 traits organized into five factors (Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness).
  • Carl Jung’s Brand Archetypes Framework believes that archetypes are models of people, behaviors, or personalities, thus making them more recognizable and relatable to target audiences. Jung identified 12 archetypes. The idea is that any brand can relate to one of the 12 archetypes that help define the brand.
  • There is the Combo Brand Archetypes & Brand Personality Framework. This model combines the Brand Archetypes and the Dimensions of Brand Personality frameworks mentioned above.

Perception

The first three brand pillars, purpose, positioning, and personality, are driven by the brand through targeting, messaging, and execution. The fourth brand pillar, perception, is owned by your customers. It’s how they view and experience your brand. Jeff Bezos famously said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

When you’re starting your business, list out the traits and characteristics that you want your customers to associate your brand with. If you have an established brand and want information on how your brand is perceived, gather customer, employee, and/or vendor feedback:

  • Online reviews/ratings
  • Testimonials
  • Social media listening
  • Live chats
  • Emails
  • Customer service calls
  • Research (polls, surveys, focus groups)

You can also gain further insights into your brand perceptions by asking customers, employees, and/or vendors questions through various research tools (i.e. polls, surveys, focus groups, etc.):

  • How do you perceive our brand? How would you describe it?
  • What do you perceive our value to be?
  • What terms or adjectives would you use to describe our brand?
  • What do you consider to be our brand strength?
  • What problems or challenges does our brand solve?
  • What do you think of our competitor’s products (list them)? Have you used them?

Your goal is to evaluate customers’ perceptions to see if you need to make changes to your brand strategy. It’s important to create a positive perception of your brand that aligns with your mission, vision, and purpose.

Promotion

Brand promotion is a way to inform, persuade, convince, and influence consumers by driving their decision-making process towards purchasing your brand.

A strong brand promotion strategy places your brand in the right place, at the right time, and in the right context for your customers and prospects.

The goal of brand promotion is to increase brand awareness in order to drive revenue and convert consumers to loyal customers, building long-term, lasting relationships.

To start identifying how to promote your brand, consider asking the following questions:

  • What is your current brand awareness?
  • How are you currently promoting your brand?
  • Where do your customers expect to find you or your competitors?
  • How are customers interacting with you online and offline?
  • When do your customers need you?
  • What kind of experience do you want your customers to have with your brand?
  • How do you handle bad experiences?
  • Who are your greatest brand ambassadors?

Final Thoughts

Brand pillars are the foundation of your brand. They help you define your brand for your internal and external customers, ensuring you capture your audience and convert them to brand loyalists. Start building your brand leadership today. You’ve got this!

6 Ways To Show Your Value (Without Being A Jerk)

6 Ways To Show Your Value (Without Being A Jerk)

Team dynamics can often be difficult to negotiate. At work, generally speaking, you are on a team and you contribute. The problem is that you also want to elevate your career and stand out to your boss. So, how can you do that without the rest of the team feeling like you are a jerk (or worse)?

I’ve had the gift of working in amazing environments on rock star teams. I have also had the (ahem) opposite experience. I’ve managed teams, been part of teams, as well as been an individual contributor, and through these years, I’ve found there are a few surefire ways to show you’re an asset without being a show-off.

Here’s how you can effectively show your value at work (without being a jerk):

1. Do What You Say

My favorite direct reports were good for their word. They were trustworthy. You could truly count on them to deliver, and not just for me. I would see these team members and teammates always doing what they said they would. People notice. It might not seem like it, but when you do what you say always, you will get the important assignments. Being the one that does the important stuff is viewed as valuable, and you’re valuable without being a jerk—you’re the good guy that people can count on to get stuff done.

2. Solve Problems

Woman talks to her coworkers

The people who come to me with solutions stand out. Problem solvers who are actively working on solutions to organizational challenges stand out for obvious reasons. They care about the problems of the company and are taking the time to solve them. There is a BIG difference between people who solve problems and people who try not to create them. The problem solvers stand out. And when they include others in the solution, all the better, because they are showing me that they are leaders who can activate others to join the cause of solving the big problems we’re facing.

3. Share In Victory

Excited employees celebrate at work

Further, managers know that a team builds a victory and solves a problem together. Good managers also can see who’s doing the lion’s share of the work and really contributing to the victory. If it’s you, be sure you are gracious in sharing that victory with the team—that stands out to good managers and to the team.

4. Focus On The Mission

Coworkers work together on a project

Be monomaniacal about achieving the goals of the company and the team. When you see the team headed down a rabbit hole, gently guide them back to land. Be the one who is focused on achieving the goals and you will stand out. You might be considered a jerk for being the one who asks for focus by the ones who are unfocused, but they will forgive you when you achieve the goals, solve the problems, and share the victory (see above).

5. Be A Trusted Resource

Woman talks during a work meeting

I frequently advocate being a student of your industry. This is applicable to standing out without being perceived as a jerk when you are sharing information with your teammates about the industry and the business. When you are the go-to for information and insights, you are going to stand out. However, if you do this in a smarty-pants spirit, you are on a slippery slope to Jerktown, population: 1.

Being a trusted resource means you are sharing information in the spirit of continuous learning and development. Share that you saw something interesting in the media about the company, competitor, or industry. And when you share this information, offer an insight and an initiation to hear what the recipient of this information thinks.

6. No Brag, Just Fact

Man talks to his coworker

If you do awesome work, it’s ok to privately share what you’re proud of with your manager—key word, privately. Schedule time to share your excitement with your manager. You should try to have monthly check-ins with your manager so that you can gather feedback and continue to advance your career. Keep in mind when you are privately sharing your work with your manager, do it from a place of excitement and pride, not from a place of ego and bragger-y. Excitement is contagious. Your manager may also be able to help you take the work even further.

Need more help showing your value at work?

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This article was originally published at an earlier date.

Who Should Own the ERP System? Hint: It’s Not IT.

Who Should Own the ERP System? Hint: It’s Not IT.

Besides payroll, one of your organization’s largest spends is probably on technology. You spent thousands of dollars to implement your new ERP system. Years later you’re still using the same version with manual compliance-related workarounds. The ERP system needs to be kept current. What do you do?

As the business continued to grow, you struggled to make the ERP system work for you. There was no written documentation for the end-users, and you created manual workarounds. Training was done verbally so end-users weren’t trained consistently, and they ended up having a lot of dirty data. In the end, the business was expending extraordinary time and effort muscling to use the ERP system, and only getting a small fraction of value.

How did this situation happen? Individuals thought the small IT group should be responsible for all technology including the ERP system. So, the business wasn’t involved as much as it should have been.

ERP stands for enterprise resource planning—the entire enterprise should be involved including finance, information security, internal audit, regulatory compliance, and legal.

ERP System Responsibilities For Each Department

Although the ERP is a system (with a significant investment), the sole responsibility cannot be put on IT. Instead, the business needs to take the lead and own the system. The ERP consists of multiple modules and those “owner” departments have a vested interest to keep the system current and to maximize using the features and functionality.

IT is responsible for understanding how the system is intended to be used.

The business is responsible for deciding what to use.

One way to break out the responsibilities is as follows:

Dept

Sample Responsibilities

IT
  1. Obtains release notes for bug fixes, patches, and upgrades; explains features/functionality to the business
  2. Configures settings and security based on business decisions
  3. Recreates any issues reported and works with vendor on issues, bugs, custom code
  4. Creates and maintains testing documents (test plans and scripts) and performs unit, integration, and system testing
  5. Loads tested code into production environment – change management

Business

Departments “own” their respective modules (e.g. finance, human resources, operations), which includes the internal control system

  1. Decides which features/functionality to use
  2. Creates and maintains master data records
  3. Creates end-user documentation (workflows and procedures), and updates documentation when code is updated
    • If you’re using the system out-of-the-box and following the vendor’s best practices, the vendor should be able to give you standard end-user documentation for the basic workflows, procedures, and training materials. Then the business just needs to customize the standard documentation, and then create any outstanding end-user documentation.
  4. Creates and maintains user acceptance testing (UAT) documents, and performs user acceptance testing
  5. Reports issues to IT

Training
  1. Maintains training documents, videos, and cheat sheets per business, and updates documentation when code is updated
  2. Offers ongoing training classes (for new employees, refreshers)

If there isn’t a separate training department, then this responsibility reverts to the business.

Summary

In the end, the business has the most to gain (or lose) by utilizing the ERP to align with the business needs and growth. Similar to the idiom it takes a village, the entire enterprise should be involved to keep the ERP and other major systems current and maximize their use.

For more information on system ownership, follow me on LinkedIn!