I seem to have done a lot of talking in the last few years. Talking, writing books, talking about the writing and then talking some more. I’ve talked about Waterloo Bridge and pastries a fair amount in that time, but mainly I’ve been advocating the new social imperative for B2B brands in a rapidly changing digital economy. I’m not the first of course and hopefully won’t be the last. Only recently the very delightful Jo Porritt at Crowd Media drew my attention to The Cluetrain Manifesto which said pretty much everything I believe in – 12 years ago.

Yet while the written word holds meaning, the spoken word appears to hold value. It’s a reflection of our increasing video consumption in the digital age that I’m being asked to wave my arms, shout and stamp my feet in front of a live audience. My ‘performance’ is recorded and distributed to a wider audience internally and/or externally. Some people, including my clients, recoil from video, “Ooooh, no, I’d never do that. I’d be terrified… you never know who might see it… does my bum look big in this…?” etc.

I see it as an opportunity. I can reach many instead of the few. I can communicate the passion and personality of the brand and maybe, just maybe, if the message is ‘real’ it won’t feel like I’m banging my head against a brick B2B wall quite so much. Oh, and I get paid, which is nice. I admit that wearing makeup is still a bit of a challenge…

The free shit is nice too. Because of my growing ‘social influence’, I’m apparently the right kind of guy to talk about stuff. I deliberately avoided the word ‘promote’ there, because I don’t get paid for it. If someone sends me crap, I put it in the trash and tell the world it’s crap. If it’s something relevant to me or my audience and it’s good – I want to tell the world. Some digital ‘gurus’ are constructing a whole career around that very model. In my mind however, it’s just human nature. We talk about stuff – good and bad – and people listen, or don’t.

Someone sent me an email the other day. It might have been relevant, I don’t know because I trashed it. I simply don’t read cold emails anymore. By contrast, someone at Trend Micro visited me to deliver, explain and install a product called SafeSync that he wanted my opinion on. I’m glad he did, because it’s bloody brilliant. SafeSync copies all your computer files to the cloud, automatically distributes them to all your mobile devices, secures them as back-up and keeps them all in Sync. It’s ridiculously easy to use, quicker than Dropbox and cheap as chips. Yes, there’s still iCloud, but maybe Apple shouldn’t rule the world completely. SafeSync is a very good product. There is an SMB offering that suits me just fine so I’ll be rolling it out across the business. The ‘free trial’ model is as old as the hills, but the guy at Trend specifically selected me as an ‘influencer’. He wanted me to write about the product, not simply buy it. Double whammy then – I’m writing about it and buying it.

And that is how business will proliferate in the social economy. People connected to networks and networks connected to other networks. The people make the decisions and their communities hold influence. Businesses can serve up their offerings, but they are no longer the sole authority. Business brands would do well to remember their audience – how to connect to it and how it operates in a connected world. Oh, and carry an eyeliner. Always carry your eyeliner.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 20 7323 6666
Twitter: @ScotMcKee
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/scotmckee
Book: http://amzn.to/mOUKOH

I called the presentation, ‘Turdy Brown Trousers’. It was perhaps a little unconventional. But then again, the whole point was to demonstrate that conservative and traditional communications in B2B are failing, while the opportunities for digital and social development are huge. Doing nothing will surely be the death of many business brands. Hopefully, I gave the audience several reasons to consider the state of their trousers.

This audience has been warned before that it needs to change policies and practices. It’s the speed of change (or lack of it) that is the current cause for concern. I wanted to demonstrate that the social opportunity was… ‘real’. Other presentations on the day focussed on what has happened in the past. Or they asked the audience to participate in the present. My interest was the future potential for the audience. It was a high risk strategy – not something that B2B is exactly famous for, but hey, someone’s got to do it…

So I announced on stage that although I had a captive audience, my real interest was the extended B2B audience outside of the room – i.e. The rest of the B2B world. For my business message to carry any real weight I had to reach more interested people – and I was going to do it, live, as I gave my presentation. I unsheathed my iPhone and told the crowd I was going to take its picture and tweet it.

At the end of my 15 or 20 minute presentation, we’d have a look at how many people I’d been able to virtually draw into the room and we’d track progress thereafter. They shuffled nervously in their seats. Nevertheless, on the count of three I made them all wave their arms in the air and duly tweeted the photo.

15 minutes later, when I’d quite finished reigning brimstone down upon the audience, I asked the Editor of B2B Marketing to reveal how many people had viewed the photo. “Um… it’s 25,” he said. I was a little disappointed – I was hoping for 100. Then, a voice from the back of the auditorium shouted, “Hit the refresh button!” Joel duly refreshed his screen and said, “Oh yes, sorry, it’s 289.”

In 15 minutes, one photo put more engaged people in the room than the entire marketing activity to promote the conference. By the end of the day, the number of views had reached over 600. Less than a week later the views were over 1,000. The figures are still climbing if you’d like to check.

The market has changed. Your B2B social audience is real, engaged, fast, responsive and growing. I needn’t have worried about the risk of tweeting that photo. What was there to lose? Nothing – I believe in the crowd. By contrast, the brands that continue to ‘wait and see’ risk losing everything.

Below, you’ll find the slide deck and accompanying live audio recording from my presentation. Enjoy.

Turdy Brown Trousers | Scot Mckee | B2B Marketing Conference by Birddogb2b

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 20 7323 6666
Twitter: @ScotMcKee
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/scotmckee
Book: http://amzn.to/mOUKOH

We were comparing notes on the B2B brand and digital developments in our respective geographic markets and there was a comforting degree of similarity in attitudes and beliefs considering they’re, well, you know, American for a start.

There has undoubtedly been a huge level of interest in digital development within the B2B space in the last couple of years on both sides of the Atlantic, but we seemed to experience the interest in different ways.

In Chicago and across the US according to my friend, the B2B market has been slow to change and reluctant to adopt new channels or platforms of communication. Nevertheless, the market was steadily growing, coming to terms with a digital future and becoming more focussed on digital strategies. He wondered whether his positioning of offering Integrated Branding services carried sufficient digital emphasis.

I explained how the B2B market in the UK was a little different in its intransigence. There had been a veritable frenzy of early interest before reverting to type and doing very little to adopt digital and social marketing practices. ‘Mmmm… interesting…’, is about as close to the digital revolution as the majority of the B2B market is prepared to venture in the short-term. Having said that, the outcome over here has broadly been the same as in the US – a steady growth but limited adoption of innovative digital strategies. I made the point that ‘Integrated Branding’ is actually a very strong position in a market sector that is notoriously slow to change. The ability to develop and interpret brand strategy and apply it across traditional and digital channels is certainly closer to the expectation and comfort zone of the market than, say for example, ‘Willy-Trembling Digital Revolutionary’.

There is still an abundance of indecision and inertia as B2B marketers weigh the risks of following their experience in traditional communications against the potential rewards of following their audience into digital and social spaces. The market will change. It’s inevitable, because the audience has already shifted. But by the time B2B is fully committed, the brand building opportunity may be lost. Have you noticed how, already, we’re no longer calling digital developments ‘new media’?

New technology holds no competitive advantage if it’s no longer ‘new’ by the time you get around to incorporating it into your marketing plan. It’s just ‘technology’. Everyone has technology. The opportunity to be ‘first’ or ‘better’ or ‘innovative’ or ‘different’ is lost every time you say, “Let’s wait and see. Maybe next time…” The result of a conservative digital adoption policy is undoubtedly low risk. It’s safer not to experiment than to hang your ass too far out of the window, but it’s also a tragic waste of opportunity. The science of the practical triumphs over the art of the possible. Again. You may not have noticed the gap widening between the traditional and social B2B brands yet. But you will. Mind the gap.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666
Twitter: @ScotMcKee
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/scotmckee
Book: http://amzn.to/mOUKOH

Businesses that recognize the need, “to do something”, but have yet to commit to an integrated social media strategy need pointers. The world has changed. Audiences are no longer as accessible through traditional communications channels as they once were – they’re ‘social’. The CEO may not be as familiar with the social community as the audience itself, so it’s the executive audience that needs to understand and appreciate the new, social, marketing goals. Everyone talks about ‘why’ businesses need to engage audiences with social media, but the investment only happens when The Board understands ‘how’ a social media strategy will be systematically and methodically implemented to the benefit of the shareholders. Social media is not a radical new ‘panacea’ – it’s just another way to do business.

Here are Birddog’s 10 steps to systematically planning and delivering a social media strategy that Senior Executives understand and support:

Step 1. – Objectives/Approach
Agree objectives from the outset. Unless price discounting or using an alternative promotional model, social media will not ‘generate leads’ directly. Conversation, community and engagement will support the audience. In return, the audience will support the brand with referrals, recommendations and ultimately, customers. Awareness and advocacy, not ‘hard sell’.

Step 2. – Review B2B Social Channels
Review and discuss available types and channels for engagement. Less experienced socialites may be unaware of the tools and the possibilities. Identify the channels most likely to suit the business, the brand and the audience early in the planning process.

Step 3. – Social Research
Visibility of the existing social landscape is key to social understanding. Where (if anywhere) is the brand already active? Where are competitors active? Where is the audience active? Undertaking initial research and providing insight from the results identifies opportunities and creates benchmarks for future activities.

Step 4. – Creative Platform®
Social media does not exist in isolation. Creative development is required to effectively integrate social activities with existing brand and communications assets. Personality, tone and character, rarely exploited in traditional communications are crucial to developing content for social media. Workshop(s) and consultancy delivers the ‘right story’.

Step 5. – Channel Selection & Engagement Planning
By understanding the social landscape, the correct channel opportunities for the brand can be identified. Engagement planning starts with the internal audience. Social media is the responsibility of the organisation not the individual. Assessment of internal capabilities allows external planning, but not before a Social Media Policy (however simple/complex) is in place. Channels, engagement and policy need structuring before launch.

Step 6. – Social Media Implementation
Once the necessary channel assets have been created, work begins on Content Planning. Content doesn’t produce itself. Blogs, pictures, video, audio, online PR all have to come from somewhere – initially, the content plan is where structure and responsibilities will be scheduled and agreed to enable the Community Manager to activate the various channels.

Step 7. – Social Media Monitoring
It’s all measurable. Every click, every view, every new follower, every ‘re-tweet’. Measures of success will be benchmarked and tracked over time to assess performance. Analysis and reporting allows ongoing optimisation of channel activities and budgets in real time. Birddog currently has 25+ social measurement tools in use and/or on trial.

Step 8. – Social Media Skills Transfer
The business commitment to social media should not be static. Resources, budgets, channels and campaigns change continually and the Social Media Strategy needs to accommodate those changes. Internal Staff Training on each of the channels being used improves internal engagement and reduces external/outsourced costs over time.

Step 9. – Agency Engagement
The choice of a social media partner and terms of engagement (project and/or retainer) will be subject to competencies within each step of the social media strategy above. Many agencies talk about B2B social media, few have the clients, case studies and statistics to demonstrate proven experience. Learn from the mistakes of others.

Step 10. – Beyond Social
Social media is one component of a broader marketing strategy that incorporates digital and brand planning as well as offline communications. It’s important not to isolate social media as ‘separate’. Look for the commonality and overlap in order to integrate (thereby reducing costs and maximizing ROI for the business).

Funding is always easier to secure once there is understanding, engagement and a business case. Birddog’s ‘How to Produce a B2B Social Media Strategy’ delivers all three in methodical, manageable steps. The alternative is to say, “I clearly knew I had to do something and I failed to do it. I screwed up.” No one in the boardroom knows where the social revolution started, but they all remember the screw-ups…

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666
Scot on Twitter

You know who they are. They know who they are. You may even be one of them. I certainly know who they are. They are the people who simply aren’t moving at the speed of digital yet. They’re the people who stand up at conferences (still) and proclaim that it’s now OK to use Twitter for B2B communications. We know that. We knew that a few years ago. Digital has passed these people by. When the God of Digital was handing out megablessings and terabytes, these people were sleeping on their etchings. So, in their minds, ‘digital’ means ‘website’.

That’s a bit of a problem. It means that they will never actually reach the end of any digital proposal. They only ever get as far as the word ‘online’ and then instinctively say, “Oh, it’s just another website then. We don’t want another website. We’ve already got one.”

Well, actually, no you haven’t. What you have is a lumbering repository of turd that no one wants to visit. You have the online equivalent of the Glastonbury Festival Portable Toilets. A thing so full of crap that only as the very last resort will people reach for your URL to polish their posterior. You can call it a website, but it’s just a big, steaming sewer of turd. And more importantly, I wasn’t even talking about a website. I was talking about delivering something sweet smelling and wonderful, but you’re NOT listening.

There is a self-evident truth that digital communications delivery will manifest itself on a screen. It might be your computer monitor or your laptop. Increasingly, it’s your mobile device. Alternatively, it may be a TV screen or even a standalone projection. Yes, it requires a screen. That’s how we read, view and listen to content. That doesn’t make it ‘just a website’. If you’re really clever, building a website doesn’t even result in a website any more. Digital does not equal website.

Now that that’s clear, maybe we can actually discuss what’s in the proposal? Digital delivery encompasses peer group influence, audience engagement, brand advocacy, sentiment analysis, predictive modelling, augmented reality… weird shit. We can actually deliver weird shit that was unheard of less than a year ago – conceive it, build it, deliver it. Phone apps, games, interactive e-commerce, blogging platforms, hashtag campaigning, social engagement, video based corporate awareness, hell, I’ve even seen a WordPress blog take 20,000 unique hits in 10 days and turn into a political pressure group with letters being written to MPs and everything. You could argue it was ‘just a website’, but you’d lose. It was a customer uprising that was channelled through the internet – because digital can do that.

Digital campaigns can be launched within hours. Not days, or weeks, or months. I recently shook hands at the end of a prospective client meeting and had the project live and broadcasting to the world four hours later. That was ‘just a website’ too. But it was fast. It was really fast. It left the client’s competitors in the dust – wondering what to do, how to respond. Competitive advantage is a rare commodity in a business world – it’s hard to find a good reason to pick one brand instead of another. Digital helps to provide several good reasons.

Digital delivery provides a welcome opportunity to improve the customer experience and serve up all kinds of brand differentiation across all kinds of channels, all at once. The integration between your brand strategy, its digital delivery, and your customer experience is no longer just talk, or just an idea, or just a website. If you are to engage with customers where and when they want to hear from you, it’s mandatory. Your website doesn’t do that. Your website never will. Your customers are looking for a compelling brand experience online and there’s more you can offer them than ‘just another website’. It’s time to read to the end of the proposal and start thinking beyond it.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666
twitter: @ScotMcKee

Some progress has undoubtedly been made in the last six months or so within the B2B digital marketing space. The frenzy for dataficating everything and monitorization of funnels and tubes and pipelines and all things relating to grids and templates has mercifully eased off a bit. The dawning realisation that demand gen tools are exactly that, tools (like all the other tools that went before…), not a total panacea for digital marketing, is a blessed relief.

There’s more interest being expressed in brand strategy again, “How do we say this differently? What can we do to stand out from our competitors?” And there’s a growing recognition that between the brand strategy and the demand gen tools, there’s still a gap in the middle that needs to be filled. “Here’s our brand, check. Here’s our machine for processing stuff that will tell us what to do next, check. Umm… how do we join the two together?”

In the ‘olden days’, the gap would have been filled by design work. A graphic designer would have been expected to colour-in the gap, maybe with a Getty image or two. Tah-dah! A beautifully coloured picture with your message at the top and your badge at the bottom. Brilliant. Let’s go to the pub.

In the newfangled digital and social world however, colouring-in doesn’t fill the gap. The graphic design requirement for engaging in (for example) social monitoring, conversation and response is, let me think, oh I know – zero. There is still a need for design, but the real requirement (the gap) is for creativity. Not just Getty images creativity, but digital creativity – creative thinking based on digital understanding. The difference of course is that the very last person on earth that you should ask for digital creativity is the same person you ask for graphic design. That’s a tough one for clients and agencies to come to terms with. B2B clients barely recognised good traditional creativity when it bit them on the ass, so the transition to digital is like taking them on a trip to Mordor. Graphic designers craft breathtakingly beautiful work, which is next to useless in the context of most digital platforms.

The gap then, between B2B brand development and digital marketing delivery is creativity. Actually, creativity has always been the missing link in B2B marketing, but the opportunity is to provide creative solutions with and for digital challenges. So if the traditional Creative Director’s role has changed, where’s this elusive new digital creativity going to come from? The Planners, the Strategists, the Community Managers, the Info Architects, the UX testing…? ‘Yes’ – probably all of the above. But not many of the clients or the agencies are prepared to truly take the risk and make the change. If B2B is famous for anything, it’s for not changing. But the talking’s just about over now I think. We’ve talked a lot about B2B Social Media and B2B Digital Marketing. We’ve been sitting on our thumbs watching and referring to endless B2C examples. Now we have to deliver it in B2B, or not.

The focus for digital delivery in B2B needs to shift fundamentally, and it has done – certainly in my mind, and my business. But does that mean ‘ready for liftoff’ or ‘bullet in the head’? I don’t actually know. I guess that’s the next stage.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666
twitter: @ScotMcKee

So, now that that’s clear, what have we got left? Well on the basis that the prospective client has equally staunch views on ‘sampling the merchandise’ and requires more than a lifetime of credentials, case studies, awards and testimonials because, you know, what if overnight you suddenly start delivering shit…? Well, that’s where the agency can proposalate – write a proposal, show an ankle, but whatever happens, keep the drawers firmly in place.

And so I have proposalated for the last few months – with mixed results. On the plus side, almost every client proposal has been approved and progressed towards something wonderful. On the down side, almost every prospect proposal has met with anxiety, procrastination and a nervous twitch.

I’ve learnt a few things in the last few months. The first, and probably the most important, is that in a difficult economic climate and in a rapidly evolving digital space, the trust of an existing client is far more valuable than the potential riches of an uncertain prospect. There are brands that are willing to embrace digital change and those that would prefer to produce the same old, same old in the vain hope that it might work this time (even if it didn’t work last time). No matter how compelling the proposal, nothing changes the basic fear of the unknown.

The digital space for B2B brands is currently one of chance – the chance to change, to do things differently, to evolve. The vast majority of the work that I am currently proposing simply hasn’t been done before. There are no case studies, there are no measures or benchmarks. That’s quite a hard sell for the traditional B2B prospect. Actually, it’s pretty difficult for an existing client, but the at least client has trust. The measures are therefore not what has been achieved for other clients, but ‘how much do you trust me?’ We’ve never done it, you’ve never done it, no one’s ever done it… but it’s cool isn’t it? Trust me. Spend some money on it and let’s see what happens… Like I said, a hard sell.

So I’ve learnt that I’m wasting my time speculating on prospect proposals. Digital brand strategy and delivery is too risky for the majority. Those closest to accepting and embracing change are already our clients so it makes sense to focus on them. They will become the case studies that the other laggards eventually follow.

It makes no sense to continue to educate the market in the art of the possible when the market makes little tangible investment in that process of evolution. They’re interested in it alright – it’s the interest that simulates the proposal in the first place. They’re even excited by the potential – “incredible… that’s amazing… can we really do that…?” Well, actually, no, you can’t, because you’re not prepared to pay for it and I’m getting tired of telling you while you jack-off in the corner.

That leaves a few, a happy few, a band of brothers. Whichever way I look at it, it’s still a hard sell. And so I’m going to stop proposalating. I have better things to do. For a start, I have some needles in a haystack to find. They’re out there, but I’m no longer going to try to write a proposal to find and convince them. Once they’ve narrowed their options, they’ll find me. We should all draw a line in the sand. Not in the Mohave Desert though.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666

Follow Scot on Twitter

31/01/2011
Additional/Related information: Fast Company – The Future of Advertising

Honda TV ads however, are a long way from the ‘Swiss Tony’ stereotypical style of car selling I recall from walking in to a car dealership many years ago to buy a car. Thankfully most car brand dealerships have evolved somewhat. Although now that it’s mentioned, I was slightly taken aback recently when I went into a BMW dealership only to find that I couldn’t actually look at the cars until I had ‘reported to reception’ and been ‘announced’ to my very own personal Swiss Tony. But that’s another story for another day. For Honda at least, there seems to be the recognition that even if the ad works, it can only take prospective customers as far as the doors of the showroom. There’s still plenty of work to do to ensure a vehicle is sold. Honda doesn’t seem to be leaving anything to chance.

The car brand has been undertaking extensive testing of both sales people and prospective customers within dealerships to monitor the physiological changes they go through during the process of buying a car. The research shows that our immediate ‘gut instinct’ is the primary response mechanism that people use when going through the car buying process. The ‘facts’ (car performance statistics for example) are outweighed by how we ‘feel’ about the purchase.

Honda has discovered that customers are most relaxed when dealing with a sales person who delivers exactly the customer experience they say they’re going to – not one that over promises then under delivers, and not even one that under promises then over delivers. The sales people and customers are most relaxed when they’re telling and being told the ‘truth’.

There’s an excitement attached to buying a new car too. The smell of the leather, the clunk of the door, the rev of the engine. The sales person and the customer both feel exhilaration when a car is being bought.

Unfortunately, not at the same time.

Honda’s research shows that the customer is most excited about their potential purchase about 10 minutes before the sales person. That’s when they’ve made the decision that they’re going to buy the car and want to complete the deal and part with the cash. The sales person, however, doesn’t recognise the physiological changes in the customer (because they’re pretty hard things to see…) and continues selling for another 10 minutes longer than the customer wants. The sales person only gets excited when the contract is on the table and the customer is about to sign it. The danger of course is that during the 10 minute period of unnecessary selling, the customer becomes disappointed, annoyed and leaves without buying the car. The impossible dream just becomes the impossible.

In a B2B context, the analogy needs almost no further development. Whatever business market we’re in, the potential to oversell, undersell, or worst of all, not sell at all, is pretty clear. Brand guardians of every B2B market sector would do well to ensure their brand promise is properly aligned to the customer expectation and that the message is delivered to the customer in the way and in the time it is required. Not too much, not too little, just right. We should all make some changes…

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666

From 1931 to 1964 the artist Haddon Sundblom shaped the image of Santa that we know and love by illustrating him in various festive scenes, clasping a bottle of Coke for his troubles. The red suit, the belt and buckle, the shiny black boots, the rosy cheeks, the white beard – it’s all the result of Coke advertising and its widespread circulation within the magazines of the day. Bummer huh? Well, maybe.

Prior to Coca Cola’s adoption and re-creation of the jolly, fat gift-giver, there were numerous, fragmented views of Santa Clause around the world. Some depicted him as a wild Norseman a bit like the ‘Thor God of Thunder’ Marvel comic character. Other characterisations would have us believe that he was more of a wood-cutter/native/pagan-type. If you look really hard, you’ll find Santa as an elf dressed in green robes (not red) with Mr Spock pointy ears and everything.

Whilst there are still many variations on the Santa theme today – for example, we still can’t seem to even agree on his name (Santa… Santa Claus… Saint Nicolas… Father Christmas…) – the jolly red cherub is predominantly the unified perception. That unification was achieved with a brand. The Coke brand. It’s taken almost 80 years, but hey, who’s counting?

This is not a criticism of Coke or commercialism by the way – the very opposite in fact. It’s really quite an achievement. Taking an already established brand – Santa – and reinventing him to become the widely accepted norm around the world is no small feat and is worthy of congratulations.

When you consider the outcome as a ‘brand strategy’ – it is almost exclusively positive. The Santa brand is an icon throughout the western world. It is recognised by all audience segments across all socio-economic demographics, rich and poor, old and young, black and white. It is instantly associated with giving (not taking). It creates an emotive response and engenders warmth, happiness, and goodwill to all men. By association, it triggers fond memories of the past and offers hope for the future through your kids. There is no competition. The Easter Bunny doesn’t come close.

Now hold your own business brand up to the mirror and compare and contrast it to the Santa brand. If it doesn’t appear quite as sparkly and festive by comparison, you wouldn’t be alone. So how good are you feeling about your brand strategy now? Mmmm. Well, it’s understandable that perhaps you don’t have such a high achieving brand considering the length of time that Coca Cola has had to develop the Santa brand – an awful lot can be achieved in 80 years after all and it’s perhaps unfair to draw the comparison. Ehh, or is it?

Here’s the thing. Take your existing brand strategy, take the path your brand has followed for the last few years, take the path it’s on now and project that path forward a few years. What the hell, live a little and project it forward 80 years. Now ask yourself the question, ‘Will the brand strategy for our business achieve even a fraction of the success and positive brand attributes associated to the Santa brand?’ If the answer is, ‘Oh…’, or, ‘Oops…’, or, ‘Mmmm…’, or, ‘Fek…’ you need to change the plan, change the brand strategy. You could always try hanging up your stocking and making a wish on Christmas Eve. Alternatively, you know where to find me. Christmas wishes to you all…

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.

I was visibly upset. At the time of the effrontery, I was accused of not responding quickly enough to the client request to kick-start the inaugural project. That ‘first project’ is always an important one. Its success or failure is likely to shape the ongoing client relationship, so to hear that I’d been inflexible at this early stage was a concern. Getting that initial project started was my responsibility. I was ‘inflexible’. And devastated.

So I delved a bit deeper. How had I been inflexible? “Well…” the client began, “…you refused to start the project before we had issued you with a Purchase Order.” Right. But where was I inflexible?, I pressed. That, it transpired, was the full extent of my inflexibility.

“All of our other agencies just get on with it”, the client continued, “We don’t have time for Purchase Orders – if we had to wait for Purchasing for every requirement, we’d never get anything done.”

Gosh I was angry. But I didn’t let it show. Well, apart from using the ‘With the greatest respect’ line which everyone knows really means, ‘You twat.’

“With the greatest respect,” I said, calling into play everything I had gleaned from my government subsidised distance learning NVQ in Anger Management, “I submitted a Proposal that I would have been happy to action with a handshake until you insisted that I would have to ‘go through Purchasing’. This I duly did – the consequences of which were protracted negotiations and the terms of which required me specifically, in writing, NOT to undertake any work without a signed Purchase Order. Those were your terms. Not mine. It then took you three weeks to sign the Purchase Order causing a project delay of, unsurprisingly, three weeks. So I did exactly and precisely what you asked me to do… and that makes me ‘inflexible’?”

“Yeah, but you know what I mean”, he replied. Erm, nope, I’m afraid I skipped the Telepathy class at Hogwarts. “We just needed to get on with it,” he said. “Well, you should have thought of that before invoking the Purchasing Protocol,” I replied. “These other agencies that ‘just get on with it’,” I continued, “do they ever actually get paid?” “Now that you mention it, that’s a bit of a problem actually – it’s those people in Purchasing – they’re a nightmare”, he said. “Or maybe they just need everyone to quote a Purchase Order Number?” I offered, helpfully. “Just like I did. Just as you asked me to. Just as I should.” “Mmmmm…”

At that point, I felt the flexibility returning to my inexplicably tense shoulders and I particularly noticed the dexterity of my index finger as I poked the client firmly in the eye.

But even as he sat there, wiping the tears from his streaming eye, I had the impression that he still didn’t get it. I’m no big fan of the Purchasing or Procurement Department, but I also recognise that, particularly in larger companies, they facilitate the business of business. Long before the initial engagement and long after the excitement of the creative presentation or the final client approval, the Purchasing Team in all its many guises keeps the wheels turning. And that means if they exist and they need a Purchase Order Number – I’m happy to build that into the project requirement and I’m happy to wait three weeks for a number to be provided because however important my direct client contact is, he’s not cutting the cheques.

We all want to ‘just get on with it’, and keeping the client happy is clearly a priority, but, ‘with the greatest respect’, so is the mortgage.

Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.