If normal is dead and the values have changed, what are the new skills you will need in this new digital, wired, connected, reinvented world?
1. Collaboration instead of Competition. Look for partnerships. Think abundance rather than scarcity. Instead of working against other media, find ways to partner with them. It is all about getting the best possible results for your clients.
Several years ago when I owned a distributorship, we created a promotion in which we created a partnership with a Top 40 radio station. The radio station had a good local market presence. Here’s the Win-Win-Win promotion. The station’s “Boss of the Week” promotion encouraged workers to enter their boss to win the “Boss of the Week” honor, which would be recognized with on-air mentions and would win a “5:01” party at a downtown restaurant on Friday afternoon. The radio station got participation from employees and more permission to be played at businesses during the workday. They also built their relationship with their advertiser and had a solid relationship started with the companies whose bosses won the honor. The restaurant got extra mentions throughout the week with on-air mentions. They also received a weekly bonus of 20 to 30 extra customers every Friday afternoon at 5:01 p.m. Customers who stayed to drink and eat and kick off their weekend. My distributorship got to supply promotional products to the radio station and the restaurant to support the promotion, along with continuous business from them and we also were able to use the contest as a conversation starter for relationships with some of the other winning bosses!
2. Resilience. There are no clearly defined roads. Expect trial and error and trail and success. Resilience is a skill you will need in the new economy. Stay in the game and just keep getting back up. You have a team of people who care for you to help you up and you have solid values beneath you to stand upon.
When PHARMA happened and the drug industry association banned promotional products to doctors by their members, many in our industry wrung their hands and moaned. Others blamed our association leaders for not seeing and preventing it. One industry colleague took to heart my proposition that opportunity is the other side of the coin—that every challenge can reveal an opportunity. He told me that he spent one day driving to doctor’s offices and health clinics and observing whom besides patients were going there. Who has something to sell to doctors and clinics besides pharmaceutical reps? He now calls up those who want to sell to doctors—financial planners, landscaping companies, office equipment suppliers, IT providers, payroll companies, janitorial services—and explains to them that these are offices that have never bought a pen, a Post-it note, a calendar and a host of other supplies and how much they value promotional products. This is RESILIENCE in action!
Along those same lines, the Pharma ban is on business-to-business promotional products. Couldn’t promotional products distributed to consumers with QR codes deliver videos and other “ask your doctor” advice to help achieve drug company objectives?
In today’s economy, “Play the Bounce!”
(This is the twelfth part in a series on the New Rules of Marketing. Read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10 or part 11.)
