Integrated Marketing Solutions: The Gourmet Pharaoh -- What's the Most Effective Marketing...

Ancient Egypt flourished for more than 3,000 years. The Egyptian kings who came to be called pharaohs played a central role in religion, as well as in government. The pharaoh led the country through economic and social turmoil.

Running a business today is a little bit like being a pharaoh in ancient Egypt who had to deal with a high degree of adversity. Perhaps now is the time to analyze your marketing strategies and review the numerous techniques and means used to determine motivational triggers for selling a product in today's economy. Do you start your thinking process from scratch every time you begin a new marketing project? If so, think of the time and energy lost. I recommend you reexamine your successful campaigns and unique strategies and review what the causes were that brought you to these breakthroughs.

In most cases, you'll discover that it was the strategic questions you asked yourself during different challenges and situations that forced you to be inventive in your marketing. The old saying "Necessity is the mother of invention" still rings true today. Usually, when we encounter normal obstacles, we tend to revert to typical approaches and leave the unique strategies and ideas behind.
The most difficult thing for most individuals and companies to deal with is change. Dr. Spencer Johnson in his classic business book Who Moved My Cheese described an amazing way to deal with change in your work and in your life.

He said: "It would all be so easy if you had a map to the maze. If the same old routines worked. If they'd just stop moving the cheese. But things keep changing."

"Cheese," of course, is a metaphor for what you desire in life - whether it is a good job, a loving relationship, money, possessions, health, or spiritual peace of mind. And "the maze" is where you seek what you want - the organization you work in, or the family or community you live in.
The following exercises will help you see the handwriting on the wall so you can deal more effectively with the inevitable changes in the business climate. You can be the pharaoh of your business and lead your company to the promised land. You can discover for yourself how to deal with change, so that you can enjoy less stress and more success in your work and in your life.
Answering the following questions will get you started.

What would happen to your sales . . . if?

1. You were provoked to think "outside of the box" and approach your marketing challenges as if you were facing the fiercest competition under the worst competitive disadvantages?

2. You thought objectively about what you were marketing?

3. You discovered a unique strategy, and then another and then another . . . and then found that the synergy between the three unique ideas propelled you to a new, absolutely incredible idea that worked like magic?

4. You could produce exceptionally powerful marketing materials that had an absolutely compelling, emotional impact?

Planning For Performance and Managing Change

The following is an exercise to help you discover how prepared you are to handle change in your business.
For this exercise, use the following scale:
1. Terrible
2. Poor
3. OK
4. Good
5. Excellent

-- Manner in which your business has handled similar changes in the recent past.
-- Alignment around a guiding vision and values throughout the business.
-- Level of trust and cooperation within the business.
-- Ability of the business' culture to accommodate change.
-- The business' ability to implement anticipated changes.
-- Communication within the business of the need for change.
-- Mobilization for change at all levels in the business.
-- Composition of a change team (if one exists).
-- Skill sets of the change leaders to generate and sustain motivation for change.
-- Energy and enthusiasm for planned changes.

-- TOTAL

Energizing Change

For this section, use the following scale:
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neutral
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree

-- Everyone in our company understands the industry trends and challenges in comparison to our business strengths and weaknesses.
-- Sufficient resources have been created and allocated to enable the transformation and to signal new directions.
-- Performance expectations have been sufficiently raised to encourage everyone to prepare to stretch goals along the new critical path.
-- Leaders at all levels in the business are personally role modeling and leading the new behaviors.

Your Change Audit: The Big Eight Questions
1. How have you (and your business) changed in the past?
2. How do you (and your business) become ambassadors and leaders of change?
3. How do you communicate effectively to begin and sustain changes?
4. How will this make things better for your business?
5. How will this make things better for your customers?
6. What are the specific outcomes of the changes and how will you measure them?
7. How do you celebrate your successes?
8. How will you keep the change effort energized?

And finally, I suggest you take a few moments to put your business to the test by completing the following S.W.O.T. analysis exercise, which is designed to identify the critical Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to your business.
Strengths = internal positives, weaknesses = internal negatives, opportunities = external positives, and threats = external negatives.
You'll find it helpful to transcribe the top four strengths or weaknesses, and the top four opportunities or threats.

Once you've completed your S.W.O.T. analysis, generate strategies based on one of the four following combinations: SO (strengths, opportunities), ST (strengths, threats), WO (weaknesses, opportunities), or WT (weaknesses, threats).
The strategies for your business that have been generated are:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Here are some sample totals and what they indicate about the businesses' readiness for change:

TOTAL of 10 = FAIL - Hurry and find yourself a buyer for your business.

TOTAL of 30 = PASSABLE - You'll be limping along without much growth.

TOTAL of 40 = GOOD - You'll be able to grow your business at an acceptable rate.

TOTAL of 50 = SENSATIONAL - Name your price, you have built a well-tuned machine.

Here are some inspirational quotations that will help you deal with change:
"Nothing great in the world is accomplished without passion." ? Hegel

"Live every moment as if it's your last dance on earth." - Carlos Castenada

"If not now, when?" - Zen saying

"The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not." - Mark Twain

"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them work, family, health, friends, and spirit and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life." - Brian Dyson, CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises from 1959-1994

"The size of the human spirit is not measured by the size of the act, but by the size of the heart." - Statement on the side of a 20-story building facing the site of the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City

Marshall Marcovitz is the founder and former CEO of the Chef's Catalog. He is an adjunct professor of marketing in the MBA program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is an independent consultant and journalist. He can be reached at mmmellow9@aol.com.