Strategy coherence

Very interesting post at HBR. http://bit.ly/idPmjJ

It is about creating a coherent strategy and deals with a lot of things you'd expect.

Focus on capabilities? Check.

Differentiate? Check.

Lead with your strengths? Integration? Find the right target audience? Check, check and check.

What caught my eye was this: focus on capabilities as the start point for planning. That is, start with what you do well.

Contrast this to lessons young account planners are taught. We regularly teach them to focus on a keen understanding of consumers' needs -- the consumer is at the center! And in these days of web-centric planning, companies need to work even harder to provide experiences, even if the companies sort of suck at creating them. No wonder so many ads seem overly aspirational.

To be fair, we don't exactly ignore company capabilities. And it's a fine line between "focus on capabilities" and being way too internally focused.

Still, reading this posting was a nice reminder. Perhaps the center is actually where consumers meet capabilities.

Just slightly off brand

We usually write about brand and marketing issues, but an HBR blog seems applicable to everyone: the best way to use the last five minutes of your work day.

Every day, before leaving the office, save a few minutes to think about what just happened. Look at your calendar and compare what actually happened — the meetings you attended, the work you got done, the conversations you had, the people with whom you interacted, even the breaks you took — with your plan for what you wanted to have happen. Then ask yourself three sets of questions:

• How did the day go? What success did I experience? What challenges did I endure?
• What did I learn today? About myself? About others? What do I plan to do — differently or the same — tomorrow?
• Who did I interact with? Anyone I need to update? Thank? Ask a question? Share feedback?

This last set of questions is invaluable in terms of maintaining and growing relationships. It takes just a few short minutes to shoot off an email — or three — to share your appreciation for a kindness someone extended, to ask someone a question, or to keep someone in the loop on a project.

I've tried it: yes, it's very helpful.

http://bit.ly/dHnfT7
 

Paying for content

According to Pew Research, about two thirds of all internet users have paid for some sort of content -- software downloads, music, books, articles, apps. Here's the breakdown:

• 33% of internet users have paid for digital music online
• 33% have paid for software
• 21% have paid for apps for their cell phones or tablet computers
• 19% have paid for digital games
• 18% have paid for digital newspaper, magazine, or journal articles or reports
• 16% have paid for videos, movies, or TV shows
• 15% have paid for ringtones
• 12% have paid for digital photos
• 11% have paid for members-only premium content from a website that has other free material on it
• 10% have paid for e-books
• 7% have paid for podcasts
• 5% have paid for tools or materials to use in video or computer games
• 5% have paid for “cheats or codes” to help them in video games
• 5% have paid to access particular websites such as online dating sites or services
• 2% have paid for adult content

A few things leap out.

• Apple is leading the revolution: apps, music, podcasts. 
• Entertainment leads the way: take away music/games/videos/ringtones, and the amount of serious content seems quite small. 
• Traditional media is still screwed, though less than one might think.

Most of all, the fact that 65% of all internet users have purchased content is just staggering. Putting this into context, about 8% of online adults use Twitter, and 46% use social networking like Facebook or MySpace.

Looking forward to digging into the frequency of these.... http://bit.ly/gPX3Kx