Strategy Archives - The Rubicon Agency

The Rubicon Agency In Programme planning

Emotionless automation

Like a scene from James Cameron’s Terminator, the machines are slowly but surely taking over the world of marketing. Thankfully, unlike the movie, we’re not quite at the post-apocalyptic state.

Leaving things to the computers is now part and parcel of big business. Whether it’s harnessing the power of big data to gain additional customer insight, embracing IoT connectivity amongst smart devices, or moving marketing operations onto one of the many automation platforms available to streamline productivity.

There can be no doubt that if managed correctly, artificial intelligence (AI) can add huge value to businesses. But from a marketing perspective, automation can risk becoming an incubator for lacklustre content with a decline towards a quantity over quality.

Connect the equivalent of an automatic gearbox to the marketing engine; fuel it with structured, engaging and targeted content and you’ll not only make the buyer journey smoother but also accelerate the delivery of qualified, in-mode prospects to sales. Unfortunately, the reality doesn’t always match this vision. Ill-conceived strategies, lack of empathy with decision makers and thinly veiled sales pitches masquerading as thought leadership tend to put the brakes on too many nurture programmes.

Safety in numbers

For many marketing automation practitioners, success (and ultimately failure) is all in the numbers, ie. how many prospects can we move through the sales funnel. Typically, this is governed by interactions with certain pieces of content that are then assigned a value. This value is recorded upon click and not upon the actual engagement with the content quality itself. Automation, it could be argued, simply encourages ‘click bait’. After all, if it’s short-term gratification that marketers require, then snappy headlines and empty promises will certainly deliver the quick hit that line managers need to report.

The road is long

In the realm of technology marketing, the decision-making process can be a long and winding road. Influencers can hail from both IT and business sides of the house. Buying cycles can vary wildly depending on the nature and price ticket of the purchase. In some cases, closing the sale can take in excess of 18 months. This is where hit and run, lacklustre content falls by the wayside. Instant gratification may yield superficial marketing results but in terms of deepening engagement and enhancing brand position these may well be compromised in the long-term.

Computer says ‘yes’

Another drawback of leaving ‘intelligent’ content distribution to a set of rules is that you are removing a degree of empathy with the prospect. On a large scale, there can be no denying the benefits of introducing a series of workflows which determines the order, frequency and type of content. Doing this manually would simply be foolhardy. However, for complex, big ticket, B2B purchases there is a degree of treating each prospect in the same way as you would with an Account Based Marketing (ABM) programme. If left to lead scoring, automation platforms could raise a flag that the prospect is ready to buy when in reality, they are merely showing the first signs of curiosity.

Take a look at our quick guide to discover how content can be more ‘killer’ and less ‘filler’.

The Rubicon Agency In Programme planning, Proposition development, Strategic content

Avoiding the technology vision vacuum

Here’s an apocryphal story about ‘vision’. During the space race of the 1960s, a NASA employed road-sweeper was tending the rail path for the Apollo 11 rocket to reach its launch pad. He was asked what he was doing. ‘I’m putting men on the moon’, he replied.

Fast forward to 1984 and Steve Jobs is proclaiming that ‘the world will never be the same’ with the introduction of the iMac personal computer.

The importance of vision and thought leadership

Vision can be a powerful marketing asset when it’s developed and applied properly. On the other hand, an apparent lack of corporate vision and brand positioning can create a vacuum for competitors to fill with their own thought leadership. But vision is not necessarily about establishing a thought leadership position that few have seen before. It’s about painting a picture of an aspirational and positive future.

For a technology marketer, vision has to be more than a strapline or a cut and paste copy block from brand guidelines. With extended influencing and decision making groups amongst customers and prospects, the vision for a technology proposition has to pass through several lenses. It can’t be blurred or so distant it can’t be seen. And it has to be focussed on customer needs and aspirations. An effective vision or thought leading view of a tech marketing future has the power create a positive glow around a product or service.

Making thought leadership work harder

Once the vision or thought leadership notion is articulated it should permeate all content assets – from product sheets to high-level presentations – and everything else between. So instead of leaving the vision itself in a vacuum, it becomes credible, useable and attainable. In short, it becomes the glue that holds technology, service and brand propositions together.

The most successful examples of thought leadership promotion not only stimulate brand enthusiasm but can also create expectation and anticipation in the customer’s mind. Think of the zeal of early-adopters queueing overnight outside Apple stores.

If it’s a disruptive vision or thought leading position it needs careful articulation. People don’t buy disruption, they buy what’s best or better.

A message elevator can help to establish a vision or thought leadership that’s credible and supported by a portfolio of technology propositions capable of helping customers to achieve that vision. The vision itself can be elevated or grounded. It can be universal, or tailored to a vertical market. And if the idea of communicating a vision sounds awkward or even pretentious, you only have to remember that successful technology either begins with a vision, or aligns with a vision as market success grows.

Take a look at our quick guide to discover how content can be more ‘killer’ and less ‘filler’.

The Rubicon Agency In Corporate comms, Programme planning, Thought leadership

Killer content for technology marketing

Somewhere between quality and quantity there’s a point at which content can be more ‘killer’ than filler’.

A point at which content can fulfil its proper role as a bridge between broadcast marketing propositions and customer acquisition.

Finding that point requires objectivity bordering on ruthlessness.

When marketing began embracing the power of content in the new digital age, the initial challenge seemed to be creation and curation. Now, it seems there’s no shortage of content flowing from a multitude of channels towards a market that appears to be drowning rather than waving.

As the enabler of the digital marketing age, the technology sector not only has ‘paternal’ rights to its content distribution capabilities but should also be one of its biggest beneficiaries. Let’s face it, technology marketing is different. It needs all the help it can get in order to penetrate extended decision making groups; align with buying cycles; provide clarity on complex technical arguments, and translate innovations into ‘must-have’ market benefits.

Content objectivity begins with an audit of everything you have that falls into the content spectrum – from a white paper to a vision manifesto and everything else between. If you’ve read the best-selling book ‘The life-changing magic of tidying’ by Marie Kondo you’ll realise that with the right method and mindset, any mountain of accumulation (in this case, content) can be conquered.

There is a method and a mindset that can be applied to creating killer content. It includes a recognition of ten typical reasons to conduct an audit; a checklist of sixteen essentials; four alternative assessment enablers and four key criteria for creation and curation. And if that sounds complicated, the good news is you don’t have to do it yourself. In fact, you’re more likely to get the best result if you leave it to a specialist.

Find out more by downloading The Rubicon Agency free guide: ‘Killer or Filler – assessing content success for technology marketers’.

The Rubicon Agency In Disruptive technology, Market development, Our industry, Thought leadership

Technology markets don’t buy disruption

In the world of technology, new or better doesn’t necessarily mean disruptive.

Unless ‘new’ means revolutionary and ‘better’ means businesses and markets have to think or behave differently, then it’s not true disruption.

Do an online search for ‘disruptive technology’ or ‘disruptive innovation’ and you’ll see they stir up discussion and debate. Talking of Google, here’s a good example: the Google search engine algorithm was not in itself disruptive. It was AdWords, its advertising service. By offering a self-service ad product for as little as $1, it disrupted the previous model sustained by Yahoo who in turn had sustained the traditional advertising model of premium rates for display advertising.

Combine disruptive technology with business models, sales, market and economic dynamics and it becomes part of a bigger displacement which is disruptive innovation. Computers are a prime example of disruptive innovation. Whilst the original mainframe computers were a technology innovation, they only began to create significant, global disruption when the concept of ‘one computer, many users’ was overturned with the introduction of personal computers which enabled ‘one user, many computers’.

People don’t buy disruption, they buy ‘better’. Understanding what’s better can often be a challenge with disruptive technology. Sometimes, it doesn’t fall neatly into the categories of bigger, better, faster or even cheaper.

The first mobile phones were certainly bigger than we’re used to today and they could in no way claim to be cheaper than landline phones. Whilst they were seen as ‘desirable’ they were also open to derision, accusations of elitism and viewed by horrified company accountants as unnecessary and very expensive. And of course, early mobile phones also had limited, unreliable network coverage for the small minority of early adopters who used them.

Taking disruptive technology and innovation to market means communicating effectively with early adopters right through to laggards. It means harnessing enthusiasm and managing scepticism with neither being confined exclusively to users and buyers – internal sales forces and external channels can be evangelists and sceptics too. With clarity, context, joined up thinking and realistic timescales, it can be done. And when it does succeed, the prize is much bigger and longer lasting for those technology companies that aren’t afraid to cross the rubicon.

Find out how TRA takes disruption to market at the point where technologies and business models are being displaced – when opportunity and threat co-exist.

Find out more

The Rubicon Agency In Brand strategy, Disruptive technology, Market development, Programme planning, Thought leadership

Map, message and migrate – the path to disruption

It’s true that each of the ‘3 Degrees of Disruption’ will cause waves of discontent with traditional users, value chains and routes to market.

But ultimately, their ‘value creation’ needs to outweigh the ‘value erosion’. There’s a multiple of indices to this value – with wealth/prosperity, employment, competitiveness, innovation, sustainability and wellbeing at the more esoteric and philosophical level. For the more everyday marketer there’s market-share, customer sentiment, revenue streams and lifetime customer spend. The list across the two levels is extensive.

However, these two levels are not quite as disparate as they seem. For the disruption to fully succeed, the marketing function has to combine the attributes and qualities of both levels to vision, lobby, evangelise and trade their way to success. This is crucial as the key influencer group often includes commentators, media opinion formers, industry leaders and practitioners of the ‘current normal’ – as well as the ‘next normal’.

Take automated vehicles and transport as an interesting example. Whist there’s definitely a provocative user story there, it’s easy to ignore the impact on other stakeholders – town planners, insurance companies, driving schools, safety bodies, regulators/policy makers. For this disruption to be realised, it’s crucial that these stakeholders get on-board for the journey (excuse the pun!). If not, they will dissent, distract and deflect the evolution to death.

Marketing leaders need to articulate and quantify the two levels of value using an exciting and ever-expanding range of digital, social, experience and content tools. But, many marketers go into execution mode too quickly, without establishing robust stories and stakeholder visions at the outset. It’s essential that they’re developed in the early days – even though they can be recalibrated over time.

Let’s explore the pathway to Map, Message and Migrate to Disruption:

Map, Message and Migrate to Disruption infographic

It takes tech experience, marketing dexterity and a Jackanory-mindset to tackle the two levels. The pioneers of Disruptive Technology will typically demonstrate rapid change in terms of price/performance/choice relative to alternative approaches. Or they experience breakthroughs and improvements in capability that were previously unachievable. Dramatising this for the whole influencing and decision making group is arguably marketing’s most important task.

The Rubicon Agency In Brand strategy, Disruptive technology, Market development, Programme planning, Thought leadership

Disruptive tech – navigating the ‘3 Degrees of Disruption’

‘Disruptive Technology’ is a mere two words – but with the power to change all of our lives (business and consumer).

A daydream involving cloud computing, automated transportation, Internet of Things and mobile internet leaves you thinking wistfully about the innovation possibilities. This is just a snapshot of Disruptive Tech – but you still have outcomes and probabilities that will change how we live, work and play for decades to come.

However, not all Disruptors are created equal. There’s a relativity to their ‘trouble-making’ that can be captured broadly by the ‘3 Degrees of Disruption’. Each degree has a consequential effect on markets, technology and the broader society – with the most dramatic and impactful of innovations having a seismic effect on all three.

Let’s explore the ‘3 Degrees of Disruption’ in more detail.

Each of the 3 Degrees of Disruption fuels rapid innovation in products, services, business processes and go-to-market strategies. Consequently, each degree needs a different approach to addressing marketing challenges – with a unique mix of activities and programmes to meet the idiosyncrasies’, embedded agendas and opportunity creation of the marketplace and value chain.

It can be a complex exercise understanding how much disruption and innovation to let loose on a workforce, distributor/reseller network and partner community. It needs a client/agency relationship that understands the new dawn of disruption – but understands the value and legacy of ‘that’s how it’s always been done’. It’s a relationship that requires a number of marketing skillsets and success blueprints to instigate and deliver the transformation, including thought leadership, channel development, social community development, market development and proposition development/message mapping.

In later blogs we’ll explore each of the degrees and characteristics in more detail, together with exercises around some of the successful technology and digital brands that have navigated the 3 Degrees of Disruption.