Why your marketing strategy needs simplicity

A consistent theme I’m meeting currently is improving strategy – in particular marketing strategy – to drive more sales. In that context I’ve listened recently to a fascinating Harvard Business Review podcast, “Good strategy is non-negotiable”. You ought to listen to it too (link below).

Adaptability, simplicity and consistency

In the podcast Chris Zook, a partner at Bain & Company makes the case that adaptability is the key to future growth, combined with simplicity and consistency of purpose. Chris suggests that despite ever increasing complexity, it is in fact the killer of growth. He builds his argument on three principles.

Clear, simple, differentiation

Businesses must differentiate with a clear, simple message.
Differentiation is in the mind of the customer, not the supplier. That forces simplicity. If your message has any chance of getting through the noise in the market, it forces you to be very clear about why you’re different, and then communicating that message in clear, simple, consistent ways.

Principles consistently implemented

Businesses must then translate that differentiation into clear principles that are understood, internalised and implemented by everybody in the business.
It shouldn’t matter who a customer talks to in your business, or how they interact with your business. The message should always be the same, regardless of if the customer is talking to the CEO, visiting the website or calling to check delivery.

Implementation needs to be measured and lessons learned

Businesses need on-going feedback and measurement systems that are highly visible to everybody in the business and that test adherence to the core principles and inform internal learning processes to improve.
Whatever the differentiation story, you need clear, frequent and visible indicators of how well your business is meeting up to its promise. These then need rapid action to transform new knowledge about customers into action the customers will recognise.

Resources

Harvard Business Review podcast, “Good strategy is non-negotiable”

By Mike McCormac
http://www.salessuccessandmore.com