August 8, 2011
For years I have been amused when a nonprofit organization would label one of its key departments “Marketing AND Communications.” To me, that always seemed redundant. After all, you never hear a CFO claim responsibility for the Department of Finance, Accounting and Accounts Payable.
A university president once talked with me about leading his marketing and communications team. When I asked if he would consider shortening the title for simplicity, he emphatically declined. For that and other reasons, neither of us seriously considered forming a working partnership.
Later, when I taught marketing at another university, I spent considerable time talking about the relationship between marketing and communications. I never believed the two terms were synonymous or interchangeable, and I drilled into my students the concept that communications comes at the end of the marketing process.
Five years ago I left my position as Vice President of Marketing at United Way. Although communications was part of my portfolio, it always grated on me when my CEO referred to my department as “marketing and communications.” Although I appreciated his thorough description of my team’s role, I also thought he was being unnecessarily redundant.
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Posted by Duane Hallock
July 7, 2011
Three months ago I learned that my job at the American Red Cross would likely be eliminated.
Nationally, the Red Cross has been undergoing a massive, top-to-bottom reorganization that will affect every person affiliated with the organization. The restructuring will reduce expenses and increase revenues, all with a focus on keeping the mission relevant in a rapidly-changing environment. To their credit, our national leaders have openly shared the unfolding changes via e-mails, online videos and frequent conference calls.
Anticipating that my position would be among those eliminated by the end of the summer, I shared the discomforting news with my wife and family. Then, with the clock ticking towards the start of a new fiscal year, I launched an under-the-radar job search. I first revised my resume and LinkedIn profile. With the full understanding and support of my boss, I shifted my networking into a higher gear and sent e-mails to a couple dozen strategically-placed contacts. I was encouraged by their immediate offers to help.
Prior to launching the public phase of my job search, I developed personal business cards, a career-highlights brochure and an assortment of collateral materials to use when the appropriate time came. Read the rest of this entry »
9 Comments | Life in General, Life Observations, Life's Transitions, Marketing & Strategy, Marketing for Job Seekers, Marketing in a Nonprofit | Tagged: blogging, communications, Gail McGovern, Job Search, LinkedIn, marketing, networking, Red Cross, reorganization, resume | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
May 13, 2011
Any success I might claim as a marketing and communications professional would necessarily include a lengthy and sincere list of acknowledgements. The English poet John Donne observed, “No man is an island.” In other words, we are all interdependent. Other people always contribute to our success.
In my work, I am most productive when I am surrounded by people who are:
- Grateful. They are glad to be alive and they find things to be thankful for. With an abundance mindset, they focus on what they have rather than obsessing on their deficits.
- Strategic. They think before they act. Before succumbing to the gravitational pull of tactics, they think things through in a purposeful way. They wrestle with questions that begin with the word why?
- Competent. Once they see the big picture and understand why something is important, they know what to do and how to do it.
- Curious. Curiosity never killed anyone. I love interacting with those who think with a beginner’s mind. They are the antithesis of so-called experts who already know the right (and only) way to do something.
- Creative. With a curious mind, creative people look at things differently. They see patterns that others miss. They are able to juxtapose existing ideas in a way that creates something new.
- Innovative. The Harvard professor Theodore Levitt put it this way: ”Creativity thinks up new things. Innovation does new things. There is really no shortage of creativity or of creative people in business. The shortage is of innovators. The major problem is that so called “creative” people often pass on to others the responsibility for getting down to brass tacks. They have plenty of ideas but little business-like follow-through. They themselves are the bottleneck. They make none of the right kind of effort to help their ideas get a hearing and a try.”
On the other hand…
Occasionally I encounter individuals who drain my energy and erode my effectiveness. They are:
- Victims. When something goes wrong, it’s never their fault. Someone else is to blame. They’ve had bad luck and were the unfortunate victims of circumstances. They feel powerless, living their lives in a reactive rather than a proactive mode.
- Dinosaurs. They remember the good old days when things were much better. (I really think they just have very selective memories.) The world changes too fast to accommodate those who cling to the status quo, refusing to adapt to the climate changes.
- Devil’s Advocates. They don’t move conversations forward, though they try to appear intelligent with their searing questions. They hinder progress. They are usually part of the problem, not the solution.
So, that’s my list. What’s on yours?
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Posted by Duane Hallock
March 29, 2011
Sometimes marketing is viewed as a magical elixir that will somehow cure whatever ails you.
In my 20-plus years of marketing experience, I’ve come to realize that good marketing is based more upon common sense than upon creativity. Though marketing can work wonders, it is not a panacea that will transform failure into success.
As much as I value good marketing, I believe there are times not to launch a marketing campaign. My advice is to delay any marketing activities when:
- We are unclear what success will actually look like. Without clearly defined goals, we are merely groping in the dark, hoping to grasp something—anything—of value.
- We feel compelled to act before we think. In our fast-paced world, we will always experience the strong gravitational pull of urgency. Focusing on what is urgent, though, will often entice us to overlook strategy and jump prematurely into tactics.
- We want to begin with communications. A good marketing process ends with communications but that’s never a good place to begin.
- We focus on obstacles rather than opportunities. Though we must always understand reality, we will never leave the starting blocks if we focus on the hurdles between us and the finish line.
- We have no champion for the product or service. We may all agree that a particular program is important, but unless someone with passion assumes ownership of the program’s success, it will flounder. Of course, marketers will be the easy targets of those who need to blame someone for a product’s failure.
- We believe everything will be okay if only we can “get the word out.” I cannot be more emphatic in stating this: raising awareness is not a marketing goal.
- We talk more than we listen. Marketing success on a 2.0 world is all about having conversations, not trying to speak louder.
- We are unable to profile a target audience. Only the naive believe there really is such a thing as the “general public.” We are headed towards marketing failure if we neglect to define a primary audience. After all, to target everyone is to hit no one.
- We ignore the concept of marketing exchanges. Marketing is based upon the premise that we must build win-win relationships where we exchange value for value. Marketing is never a one-way transaction.
- We cannot differentiate our product or service. If we don’t know who our competitors are, and if we cannot articulate how we are different and better, then my advice is simple: Turn off the lights, lock the door and go home. The party is over.
2 Comments | Marketing & Strategy, Marketing in a Nonprofit, Marketing Success | Tagged: audience, communications, competition, differentiation, goals, marketing, strategy, success | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
October 27, 2010
Engage in interactive conversations with my national leaders.
Our national headquarters in Washington D.C. is staffed by a solid team of marketing and communications leaders who “know their stuff.”
Though I’ve only exchanged e-mails with our national president and CEO, Gail McGovern, I have great confidence in her leadership. I’m also proud of the fact that she left her position as a marketing professor at Harvard University to become our national leader. How cool is that!
Gail is surrounded by professionals who have a lot to share. I mostly interact with those who work in marketing, communications, public affairs and financial development.
Nationally, the Red Cross is becoming one seamless organization, much more so than any other major nonprofit I’m familiar with. I am pleased that our process of becoming “one Red Cross” does not feel like a top-down, dictatorial directive. Rather, it’s a highly-interactive process led by our national leaders. We connect using frequent conference calls, webinars and training sessions. Project leaders solicit considerable input from the field.
As we move forward, I’m eager to continue interacting with people I like and respect.
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Posted by Duane Hallock
February 24, 2010
Perhaps I was wrong. In this new 2.0 era, I thought communications was all about having conversations.
Conversations require interaction where people talk and listen. Maybe I’m missing something, but I observe a lot more talking than listening. It seems everyone has something to say and everyone is clamoring to be heard. To me, it looks like the talkers far outnumber the listeners.
Was I mistaken to assume that things would be different with the arrival of the social media revolution? Am I naive in thinking that people would connect with each other because 1) they were genuinely interested in what others had to say and 2) they actually had something of value to share?
As we interact, as we share information, we connect with each other. Social media give us the tools to connect and converse. Sometimes during our conversations we’ll encounter negative or inaccurate information. Does that mean we should immediately end the conversation? Should we refuse to talk because the conversation may be a little awkward or uncomfortable? Absolutely not! Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Marketing & Strategy | Tagged: 2.0, communications, conversations, donors, listening, marketing, nonptofits, social media, volunteers | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
February 17, 2010
We hear a lot of people talking about the 2.0 world we live in. Marketers refer to social media tools as Web 2.0. The titles of business books increasingly contain that magical number—2.0.
But what does “2.0” mean? How are things different now than they were before? What has changed?
For starters, let’s agree that the social media revolution has created an entirely new landscape—a 2.0 world. The changes are so profound that those who do not understand it will soon find themselves on the sidelines, confused and perhaps even angry that the world has passed them by.
The social media revolution is really not that confusing. The more we understand and embrace the changes, the more powerful social media will become. Here is my brief comparison of the differences I see between a 1.0 and a 2.0 world:
Let’s look at the nuances between the two. Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | Marketing Oneself | Tagged: 2.0, communications, community, Facebook, marketing, social media, Twitter, YouTube | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
February 10, 2010
I believe the social media revolution may be the greatest advance in communications since Gutenberg invented movable type.
A critical mass of people has joined the revolution. Their enthusiasm has prompted them to talk about their “social media strategy.”
There is nothing strategic, though, about either movable type or social media. Both are tools—means to an end. They are inventions that help people communicate quicker and better.
At first, I loved the phrase “social media strategy” because my mantra has always been strategy before tactics.
I’ve often criticized people who act before they think. I have little patience for people who try to communicate without first asking themselves some very basic questions.
Non-strategic communicators don’t really communicate. They just make noise. They write news releases without knowing why. They produce brochures without having a target audience in mind. They bore us with PowerPoint presentations because they have not given thought to what they want us to do with the heap of meaningless, irrelevant information they’ve just dumped on us.
Just because we’ve moved into a 2.0 world doesn’t mean things have changed much. The proliferation of noise continues. People tweet without having a clue who they’re talking to. Too many bloggers ramble on without thinking things through. Nonprofits create Facebook fan pages with no real understanding of why. We live in a world where too many tactics are not tied to a strategy, so the clutter and confusion accumulates. Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Marketing & Strategy | Tagged: 2.0, communications, Facebook, nonprofits, questions, social media, strategy | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
February 3, 2010
A friend of mine, Mark Whitaker, is an experienced market research professional. His official title is Strategic Research Consultant at The Kansas City Star.
That’s an impressive title, but what does it mean? What does he really do? What impact does he actually make?
In seven words on LinkedIn, Mark summarizes his job as “helping you find the information you need.”
I really like that “job description” for three reasons:
- It’s simple. I can understand it without having to translate industry jargon.
- It’s differentiating. It really describes what he does, not what his company or co-workers do.
- It’s outwardly focused. He describes what he does for others. He focuses on the benefits he provides, not the process involved. Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | Marketing Oneself | Tagged: communications, differentiation, fundraising, LinkedIn, marketing, nonprofit, personal branding | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
January 27, 2010
Here at the American Red Cross, our role changes through different phases of disaster relief. We’re already seeing those changes unfold in Haiti.
All relief efforts—regardless of the disaster size—transition through four distinct phases. Anticipating how a relief effort will unfold helps us better serve those affected by the disaster.
Each stage of recovery demands a specific type of public affairs response. (In case you’re unfamiliar with that term, “public affairs” is used by the military, government agencies and the American Red Cross to describe public relations, communications and media relations.)
The American Red Cross recognizes that our disaster relief unfolds in the following stages:
- Heroic Phase.
- Honeymoon Phase.
- Disillusionment Phase.
- Reconstruction Phase.
What happens in each phase? What should we anticipate as each unfolds? How do public expectations change? How should our communications strategy shift in each phase? Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Marketing & Strategy | Tagged: communications, disaster public affairs, marketing, planning, Red Cross, social media | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
Duane Hallock is a corporate communicator and marketing strategist who really believes that 1) every-thing happens for a reason, 2) strategy comes before tactics and 3) the future can be brighter than the past.
