I am returning to my blog series on The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Chief Marketing Officers. I have already covered the first eight habits, over the past few months. On to Habit #9: Think and Act Like a Winner — Your Customers Notice.
Several years ago, when I was serving as P&G’s Global Marketing Officer, I took note of an obscure small study on a brand in a European country. The study essentially revealed that the consumers of that brand sensed that the people behind the brand were not inspired, not happy, not engaged. And the brand was sick, boring, and declining in market share.
Wow. I had never explicitly thought of looking at the root cause of a brand’s malaise as the engagement of the team behind the brand. I would instead look at the product data — are we superior or not on the benefits that matter? Is our distribution a competitive advantage? Are we in stock at key times with key retailers? Is our brand equity stronger than our competitors? Is our awareness at target levels? Are our trial levels above competitors?
These are all fine and important questions. But they are merely getting at symptoms of a potentially larger issue, the motivation and inspiration of the team behind the brand, or business. Because when a team is not engaged, consumers sense this, and they do not want to part with their precious money to buy something that the “creators” of the brand do not believe in.
I had always believed that happy, motivated people drive better results. And there is a boatload of research on that. What I had not connected before this obscure study was that consumers can sense this through the packaging, advertising, in-store presence, partnerships, and distribution. And consumers want to buy into a winner, they want to part of a team that is trying to make a difference through their brand.
As I like to say — and those who know me have heard me say this a million times — a brand or business is nothing more than the collected intent and behavior of the people behind the brand. So be sure your team is thinking and acting like a winner — and put attention there first.
