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By Jim Carey, Core Strategies
Years go, I read an essay by Jay Chiat,
the great adman, about Cary Grant. Jay
wrote that Cary Grant actually started
life as Archie Leach, a poor cockney actor.
But through the years, through consistent
effort, he actually became indistinguishable
from his incredibly debonair alter ego.
He became Cary Grant. Chiat concluded
that, "You become what you say you
will become." There's lot to that.
One of the benefits of being involved
in the CADM, as well as my consulting
and teaching gigs, is that I get to think
about the future of our business, about
what we will become. And I think about
where direct marketing is going. Where
is the CADM going? What future do we want?
The World's Best Tacticians
It's funny, because those questions aren't
the sort of thing that we direct marketers
typically address. We're much more comfortable
with, "How do we do it?" than
"What do we do?"
It's both a blessing and a curse. "How
do we do it?" is a tactical question.
And we're the world's best tacticians.
That's great because tactical execution
transforms an idea into money. We're better
than anyone in marketing at getting from
point A to point B.
But now, we face getting to point Z.
"What do we do? Where do we want
to go?" Those are strategic questions.
And I hate to say it, but the ad guys
are much better at it than we are. I take
heart knowing that we've all mastered
so many difficult challenges, that we
can certainly handle this. So let's choose
the shape of our future.
Choosing Sure Things
There's a Chinese curse, "May you
live in interesting times." That's
certainly true for us. There is huge uncertainty,
and huge opportunity. Very interesting.
What can we be sure of in "interesting
times?" There are a few sure things
that will help us in any possible future.
Let's build on these three:
- Winning the Strategy Game - It's kind
of embarrassing now, but when I read
Jay Chiat's column, I decided to be
a "strategist." Except that
I had no idea what it meant. Over time,
I came to realize that it had to do
with the problems I chose to address,
the questions I asked myself, and how
I focussed my thinking. What investments
will have the greatest impact? How can
we grow by an order of magnitude? What
can we leverage to get from where we
are into a position of dominance? The
process isn't harder than our typical
issues, but it is different.
- Winning the Finance Game - In most
big organizations, it's the finance
guys who make the real policy calls.
Most marketing has been positioned as
a cost center. If that's the case, we
lose. To win, we need to learn the language
of the board room as well as the mail
room. Think of it as positioning benefits
to a niche audience. In addition to
"cost per sale," we need to
know "incremental earning per share."
We need to know how to "decrease
the SG&A %," as well as we
know how to "increase response
rates." (The good news is that
they're essentially the same thing,
just stated different ways.)
- Winning the Positioning Game - The
issue for direct marketers isn't competence
Ñ we're good at what we do. It's
relevance Ñ we haven't positioned
ourselves properly. DM'ers know how
to build profitable relationships, and
how to work with niche audiences. We're
comfortable with new technology, we
understand knowledge management and
data warehousing. We have a natural
affinity for interactive communications
and e-commerce. The toughest issues
organizations face are home games for
us. Let's make sure the world knows
that.
How The CADM Can Help You Face The
Future
All these are the issues that the CADM
is trying to help you address. Our goal
remains to make you more valuable to your
company and to yourself. That's why our
programming focuses on user case studies
about what's working now in e-commerce,
database marketing, and effective message
strategies.
So what will the future be like when
we get there? If our direction is right,
we'll be in a better place. We can move
ourselves, our companies and our association
to being recognized as the key to profitable
relationships with customers.
Remember, there was no Cary Grant when
Archie Leach started. But he got there.
Amazingly, if we focus, we can be Cary
Grant, too.
It's a challenge worthy of our collective
talents. Let's do it.
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