When "less" is more...

First things first, I have a bias toward these guys. In the spirit of full disclosure, I know them pretty well. A couple of them are the kids of one of my good friends so, they’re pretty much family.

That being said, they are great guys and make fantastic music. They’re in full rotation in my car along side MB 20, Gin Blossoms, Collective Soul and Harry Connick. (Yeah, Harry Connick)

Here’s the “more” part.

Simple question, “What’s the deal with the name?”

About 15 seconds into Zac’s answer, he stopped being “Todd’s kid who plays music” and became my link to something way bigger than I thought. I know the values he’s been raised on so, his understanding of where he fits in the grand scheme of things didn’t surprise me.

What got my attention was his humility and resolve to make a difference. These guys “get it”. No ego. No bravado. Believe me folks, if anyone could have a big head it’s these guys. Good looking, talented and just old enough to be dangerous. Usually a toxic blend but not this time.

Kids and dogs. I’ve always thought that kids and dogs were the true test of character. They don’t have the filters and the biases that adults build into “character judging”. So far they have passed my two toughest tests; my son Jordan and my dog Bailey. Jordan and his friends love them! (Try being cool or relevant to a group of 14 year olds). Bailey likes them too. (I think someone was feeding her BBQ at the cookout.)

I say all that, to say this...charismatic leaders are hard to find. Charismatic people, a dime a dozen. These guys have the potential to lead young and old in a truly positive direction. Just in time if you ask me. A new weapon in the fight against an increasingly toxic society.

The less is not a band, it’s a movement. Keep an eye on these guys, they’ll be big.

http://www.myspace.com/theless

The Unthinkable...

Here's a thought that hit me this morning.

You may need to consider the "unthinkable" and create alliances with your competitors to make it through the current economic downturn. 

Let this one soak for a minute.

I'm the last person to lecture anyone about competitive "cease-fires" or "working relationships".  Slant is in the competitive disruption business so the concept of playing nice does not sit well with me. Competitors are to be analyzed, benchmarked, targeted and defeated. Simple plan. No hidden agendas. Put them on notice, rattle their cage and take their clients.

Here is the reality, every industry will see some sort of contraction.  Some of it will be internal and will include; restructuring, lay-offs and budget cuts.  Some will be external, driven by contraction in their client's world.  Most businesses are not set up to cash flow extended periods of declining revenue.  Dare I say, no company is set up to run with a declining revenue model. (See: GM, Chrysler and Ford)

So here's the thought.  Think about creating alliances of convenience and survival.  The higher priority is to protect the integrity of your industry or vertical.  This means you have to band together to serve the needs of your clients so that they don't shift their paradigm and cut you out totally.  Today's temporary cost cutting initiative can easily become tomorrow's best practice.  The service industry is extremely susceptible to these seismic changes in buying and usage patterns.

Some of you have already fostered some sort of competitive alliance.  Congrats on being ahead of the curve. 

For the rest, think through this one.  Your survival may depend on it.

Best quote ever...

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. 

Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

~ Sun Tzu

The Value of a Buyer Persona

Many of you have heard me say that step #1 is to work on your Positioning. Well there is a step #.5, "profiling" or creating Buyer Personas that help identify the ideal prospect for your product or services. 

Before we can figure out what problems we solve with our goods and services, we need to think through the key attributes of the person(s) who would be the buyer/user. The "Whom do we serve?" question gets answered here. The trick is that we need to consider demographic and psychographic information. I was not the one who came up with this philosophy, many good marketing thinkers and a ton of books reference "The Ideal Client" in some way. I like Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch. He's smart and makes it sound simple. Read that book.

Consider the following areas when you are building your Buyer Personas:

Demographic:

• Age
  
• Gender
  
• Marital status
  
• Profession
  
• Income
  
• Location
  

Psychographic:

• Category (Entrepreneur, Manager or Technician)
  
• Needs
  
• Frustrations
  
• Desires
  
• Communication methods
  
• Decision making process (How do they search for info? Where do they search for info? Do they consult others?)

Something Rogue...

Looking for something a little "rogue"? 

Check out Slant Marketing's sister company, Rogue Industries. (www.thinkrogue.com)

It's actually my alter-ego and the parent company of Slant. 

Think of it this way, where Slant is polished and engages clients as an "embedded" resource, Rogue is gritty and provides situational strategy for business partners and non-retained engagements.

Translation:

Slant Marketing = "I need help positioning my brand and setting my Go to Market Strategy. Can you help us define it, create campaigns and execute them?"

Rogue = "I need help positioning my brand and setting my Go to Market Strategy. Can you help us draft a program that we can execute?"

Rogue = "We are a Marketing firm too but don't have the resources to engage in the strategy side. Can you join our team and help out our clients?"

What am I missing?

I'm a firm believer in performance based compensation. 

Been a Sales Rep with a "do it or leave" quota. Now I'm a Strategist with a "what have you done for me lately" monthly retainer model. If I don't deliver, I don't get paid. This "qualifies" me to take the following shot.

Here's my boggle... how can executives of failing companies justify huge bonuses?

Every weekend my wife (Kitty) reads me the headlines from the paper. Ok, she actually giggles or groans as she reads and I hassle her until she tells me what she just read. The articles that earn the most groans are the ones where executives get gigantic bonuses as they layoff employees and destroy the 401k portfolios of hard working potential retirees. The reality is that they have been getting huge bonuses for years. The difference is that we never paid attention because we were content with our own position or couldn't comprehend six figure numbers.

Instead of ranting about this practice, I'm going to help out and make a few recommendations on how the bonus money should be spent.

• Donate to homeless shelters
• Rehire the folks you just laid off
• Adopt a dog from the pound
• Hand out $100 bills 
• Buy $500K worth of stuff at the Dollar Store
• Sponsor an "up and coming" band (The Less)
• Apology cards to all share holders
• Adopt a small business and pay their bills
• Buy mosquito nets for children in third world countries
• Over tip everybody, all the time

Here's Kitty's thought... decline the bonus.

Come on folks, do the right thing.

Hello World!

Welcome to the new Slant Marketing Blog!

I was content to have my Marketing cohorts carry the torch but I got a ton of emails asking me when I was going to update the old one.

Well, I'm back. A bit older and wiser.