Archive Page 3 of 3

Newer Entries »

The speed of the gang

Published by Laurie on March 28, 2007 in Leadership. Closed

Are you guilty of reckless leadership? Personal leadership peaks when there is a balance of core disciplines—in my life, that adds up to a good diet, exercise, proper sleep, right relationships with family, fellowship with friends, personal white space and worship. The fulcrum is sensitive. Too much of this or that or looking around at how someone else is living or succeeding destroys zone or centered leadership.

If business success was as simple as getting our personal leadership act together, we’d all be running powerhouses. But the truth is, our businesses get reckless too. Why? Because you and I don’t always lead from our organizational core. We take our eyes off what our business uniquely is, where we’re uniquely going and the best, right tactics for getting there. We read too much, talk too much, gather too much intelligence on some other company’s DNA and lose our strategic center.

Successful companies find and leverage their core. They understand that the building blocks of strategic, directed, effective leadership are core essentials:

  • Core vision
  • Core values
  • Core politics
  • Core decisionmaking body
  • Core competencies
  • Core strengths → core opportunities
  • Core identity platform
  • Core constituencies (primary/secondary/tertiary targets)
  • Core messages
  • Core (unique) selling points
  • Core team
  • Core partners
  • Core collateral
  • Core-directed planning and execution

There are lots of reasons we quit leading from our core. We grow tired. Economic pressure, the principal assassin of core energy, increases. Competitive pressures rail. The team we count on changes or becomes ineffective, moving us from gatekeeper role to the trenches. A new genre of industry thinking causes us to rethink how we do business.

The truth is, if we lead companies we will remain in constant flux. People and processes and trajectories change. A lot about our company’s core, however, is fixed. And when we lead from that core and make decisions from that core, we create core differentiation in the marketplace we serve. Core differentiation—or core separation—wins the attention of our publics. Core differentiation is the principle ingredient for success.

When I was young and in a new leadership position that was likely over my head at the time, another agency principal said this to me: the speed of the gang is the speed of the lead. Those sharp words were an admonition to get my act together and lead from a controlled core.

How are you leading?

The Elasticity of Successful Design.

Published by Scott on January 12, 2007 in Uncategorized. Closed

Versatility is vital to success. The more a person can do, or know, the greater the potential for success in any discipline. It is no different in the advertising world with graphic design.

A common stumbling block in many advertising endeavors is the desire to focus too heavily on the design of one particular project without consideration for other projects that will directly correlate to the campaign or promotion. While it is common for one project to work as a springboard for others in a campaign this can create havoc down the road. A clear understanding at the outset of the vehicles or mediums the campaign will use to accomplish desired marketing goals is critical.

For instance, it would be one dimensional to focus time and energy on the creation of a visual concept for direct mail only to find out after it has been printed that a TV spot, full-page magazine ad and outdoor board need to follow that visual style. This type of scenario makes it difficult to preserve the design integrity of the campaign.

From a layout point of view there is now a kind of handcuffing that occurs, restricting all of the new projects to a design format that may not translate well to a different medium. Let’s say that the visual selected for use on the direct mail piece is an extremely horizontal photograph that uses the far left and far right areas of the image as necessary focal points for the visual concept. While this image may transform splendidly to the horizontal physical attributes of the outdoor board and a simple pan will accommodate the photo in the production of the TV spot, the vertical magazine ad suffers tremendously. The image has to be scaled down so small to fit the narrow page width. Consequently, it no longer has the visual power to intrigue the viewer. A decision must be made to either take the ad to a two-page spread or reduce the ad to a half-page or smaller ad. Either way results in costs to the client—from production design or lost impact and, therefore, lost revenue.

To avoid potentially aggravating and costly issues like the previous example it is important to always look toward the future, considering how a visual idea will translate to any medium. An effective way to accomplish this is to build a key image.

A key image consists of all of the driving visual elements (photographs, illustrations, typefaces, color palette, etc.) necessary to fulfill the visual concept in any given medium and also sets the overall design style for the campaign. No particular size or format is given to the key image to restrict it. This forces the designer and client to envision how the visual concept could be applied to other vehicles. It stages the most important question: Does this visual concept have legs? If the answer is yes, then there should be no problem in the translation of the visual concept to any medium. You end up with a versatile, “elastic” design platform capable of achieving success.

Great creative follows solid strategy

Published by Laurie on December 7, 2006 in Strategy. Closed

We struggled recently over the creative for a client. We had a “tail wagging the dog” scenario. The creative needed to push sales. That little tail needed to overcome what was missing in the way of consumer experience. It caused us to think about the ideal creative environment. Great creative happens on the fulcrum of strategic genius. Great brands emerge or are built on the knife edge of solid strategy.

We are immeasurably blessed to work with people who are geniuses within their industries. We serve clients who are stand-aparts in the world of banking, real estate development, the medical spa industry and hotel development. In the retail furniture segment, Jay is a significant threat to the national stores who play in our market because he has created a bleeding edge retail distribution model. On the platform of his industry knowledge, strategic thinking and commitment to excellence in infrastructure, creative gets to do what it’s supposed to do: create a tipping point. In the medical spa industry, Healing Waters has emerged once again as the #1 medical day spa in the industry. Why? Because the owner is powering her spas with a commitment to world-class talent—people who score “at talent” per the Talent Plus employee-scoring methodology (visit TalentPlus.com for the genius thinking that’s taken companies like Ritz Carlton to the highest level of performance). Truly superb talent has become Healing Waters’ unique brand story.

Sometimes genius within an industry is really just the cannon of confidence. You have to be different enough to get credit for it. When companies are gutsy enough to think strategically and employ resources to be well differentiated, they unleash brand power. And in today’s economy, brand power is the stuff that moves the sales needle—whether you’re a medical spa or builder or boutique hotel.

Sadly, there are companies—we’ve worked with some—who can’t quit playing it safe. They’re a lot more comfortable being all things to all people vs. something astonishingly great to a few target markets. Can you remember the last time you astonished a client or customer? Do you do it on a daily basis or occasionally by accident or never?

Creative is not a silver bullet. It’s not a magic elixir. It’s the next thing when you’ve done the right strategic things right, when you’ve edited your business to a fine point, when you’ve got a great brand and a compelling story to tell. No more tail wagging the dog. When you have a solid, strategic working platform creative becomes the lifeblood that pulses through your business and delivers your passion to the marketplace. And that dog will hunt.

Welcome to the new Strategy Group blog.

Published by Jeff on November 9, 2006 in Welcome!. Closed

Okay. We admit it has taken us far too long to get this site launched. We were detained in discussion, dissection, disputation and deliberation of what exactly an advertising agency’s website should communicate and why.

Should it be a company brochure? A simple business card? A portfolio? Should we include personal bios, show pictures of our welcoming office space and provide killer comps of our client work? What about a flash movie with thumping bass and smooth jazz licks? Been there. Done that.

Our decision. Communicate PASSION. Why? Because without it we’re nothing but a bunch of doorknobs—and we surely are not.

You won’t see our portfolio or clever bios delineating Jo’s favorite food (sushi) and happiest holiday (Halloween). Nor will you see artsy shots of our half-walled, smartly designed workspace.

We’re determined to communicate one thing and one thing only—passion. Passion for the finishing detail—the last 10 percent that truly differentiates. Passion for serving even the least among us with the same intentionality as the greatest. Passion for finding order amidst the chaos that allows us to pinpoint the strategic center of every client and project. Passion for building relationships with people who make us better than we can possibly be on our own.

Whether you’re a long-time friend or you’re completely unfamiliar with who we are and what we’re about, we hope you’ll find a few nuggets of wisdom, slices of humor and a different twist on the world of marketing and advertising.

So set your bookmarks, fire up your RSS readers and get ready for a webvolution. The Strategy Group blog is officially launched.

Newer Entries »