Making Marketing Lemonade From Business Lemons
I spent 11 years of my adult life living down the street from various Waffle House restaurants. Granted, if you’re living in certain parts of the south, it’s practically impossible not to live down the street from a Waffle House. Most especially if you’re a college student, which I was for four of those eleven years. The restaurants are a neighborhood staple, and they are especially good late at night after too many beers from a fraternity keg.
Given my fond memories of Waffle Houses, and my current marketing orientation, I was especially tickled to see a fascinating Waffle House article by Valerie Bauerlein in the Wall Street Journal today.
In a nutshell: Given the business challenge presented by being a neighborhood restaurant chain in disaster-prone geographies, the management team at Waffle House has figured out how to respond quickly and efficiently to disasters. They do this with advance planning, limited, tailored menus that vary depending on whether there is limited electricity, water or gas, and even a mobile command center named after the assault vehicle in the movie Stripes.
Apparently the head of FEMA has even created a “Waffle House” index that measures storm severity by how many Waffle Houses in an area are closed for business after a natural disaster. Read the article by clicking here.
How Marketing and Sales Evolve at Companies
I often mention Phil Kotler’s Harvard Business Review article Ending The War Between Sales and Marketing when talking to clients and potential clients. It’s a great piece about the evolution and co-existence of sales and marketing in an organization. Most importantly to me, it lays out the key responsibilities of each function and how they change over time as an organization matures.
Using the article, I developed this tree diagram to explain how marketing evolves and Argentum’s role in it:
In the beginning (the tree’s roots) it’s all about sales, and sales = marketing.
As the organization grows, the sales team typically adds a marketing support function (the little branch to the right of the trunk). The person is typically junior, responsible for execution, and reports in to sales.
In the third and final stage of the evolution, marketing splits off from sales and acquires a separate budget (the two big branches at the top). It’s at this point that marketing typically takes on a more strategic role in the organization. Read More -›
I Want My Brand To Be Like Intel Inside
If I only had $5 for every time I heard a client say “I want [insert brand/company name here] to be like Intel Inside.” While I wouldn’t be rich, it would certainly buy me a nice dinner or two.
In fact, I was hearing this so much, and from one client in particular, that I finally decided to do some research into how much my client would need to spend to make their brand like Intel Inside.
How does TWO BILLION DOLLARS in marketing and dealer incentives sound to you? That’s right, for the low, low cost of only $2B, your brand can be the next Intel Inside! Read More -›
I spent 11 years of my adult life living down the street from various Waffle House restaurants. Granted, if you’re living in certain parts of the south, it’s practically impossible not to live down the street from a Waffle House. Most especially if you’re a college student, which I was for four of those eleven years. The restaurants are a neighborhood staple, and they are especially good late at night after too many beers from a fraternity keg.