My inbox this morning had my “LinkedIn Today” weekly update of a few trending articles from the past week. One of the articles was published in Bloomberg Business Week’s small business section. The article, entitled “Integrated Marketing: If You Knew It, You’d Do It”, was written by Steve McKee, an advertising executive out of Cleveland. In the article, Mr. McKee identifies marketing’s two greatest enemies in today’s noisy world; fragmentation and entropy. He provides some interesting examples from major corporations and his message aligns seamlessly with the theme from my last blog.
The main takeaway I got from McKee’s article was patience, which I emphasize in my blog as well. It takes time to draw all the threads together into a single tapestry of clarity, which is why I referenced a very similar blog I wrote about a year ago in order to provide a comparative baseline. I wanted to demonstrate how integrative (or integrated, as Steve calls it) marketing evolves over time. In just under a year, we’ve gone from self-publishing articles on the internet to being interviewed in the Investor’s Business Daily. We went from self-publishing my book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur”, to having it cited in the peer-reviewed, academic Journal of Economic Literature. We journeyed from local radio interviews to multiple appearances on Jim Blasingame’s nationally syndicated Small Business Advocate® show that also posts as podcasts on the Forbes website. More importantly, however, is how each element of our marketing feeds the next to create a flywheel effect of momentum.
Our message is consistent from one touchpoint to the next; it is about transforming one’s self first, in order to transform one’s value-creating, business relationships. Of migrating from the transactional leadership model of the Industrial Age to a transformational leadership approach that is conducive to today’s multi-generational, multi-cultural, global workplace. We focus on a professional development path that enables leaders to connect, engage and motivate those around them through their congruency, clarity and authenticity. This is the key to creating and sustaining competitive advantage in the 21st century. It is the single most important determining factor in the coming Talent Wars. These attributes resonate powerfully, on a neurological, biochemical, and psychological level, with everyone we touch.
Mr. McKee also spoke about expense and how major companies invest heavily in the process. Did our efforts have an associated cost? Yes, but you’d be surprised at how relatively small our investment has been in order to begin branding our business. How were we able to keep a lid on costs? By leveraging the Core Competencies and Strengths of our team (which we identified during our Strategic Planning process) we were able to accelerate our progress through the focus and application of our in-house talent first, and then outsource the specialization we realized we didn’t have at hand (i.e. our wonderful PR firm, E.M.S.I.). Running a weekly advertisement in the local newspaper would have been several times more expensive than what we’ve invested to bring us to where we are today.
Branding does have a cost associated with it. So too, does not branding.
© 2012, Terry Murray.
1. The Book ~ Published 14 months ago, The Transformational Entrepreneur has proven to have legs. It was cited by the academic 
3. Articles ~ I was more engaged in writing for internet article sites during the early days of the blogs. While the sites do drive traffic, and were very important in the early days, we’ve migrated more into mainstream media activities. Just so much time in a day!
~ The book is resonating with its intended audience. The feedback has been outstanding and it is beginning to spiderweb out in multiple directions! It is communicating credibility.
