Christian Fictoor weblog

There we go again… The stock exchange is showing red numbers, which – in case you don’t know – means trouble.

Is there a second financial crisis coming? For as yet this is too early to tell, but the signs are not good…
Time for companies to act! Overspending marketing communication campaigns that bring unmeasurable or low ROI is not a good idea. Marketing communication departments need to break out of their traditional thought patterns and new ways of doing business have to be implemented.

So this (maybe) second crisis is reason for looking at the internal organisation and external marketing communication strategies.

The focus should shift from ‘quick cash thinking’ to sustaining a healthy and durable relation with clients, shifting focus to emerging markets and sales-methods that have grown, even during the crisis of 2008-2010. So what does this mean :

• Get into the dialog; relate with your clients via crosschannel communication (like social media), set up webcare (and don’t mess about!). See what they are talking about and connect with them on that level. By taking them seriously though two-way communication they can become your brand(s) advocates!
• Re-organise your marketing communication department; no tunnel vision allowed. Your marketing communication should be innovative and focused on measurable results in stead of following the paved roads of the past (no more time for vague blahblah they have to prove their worth by producing measurable results). Make sure your also take new channels like social media seriously, it’s now a commodity. DON’T think that a student can cover the lack of experience in your marcom department… (we’ve seen too many bad cases to say this out loud).
  If you have no out-of-the box thinkers, a good crossmedia marketing strategist (with social media strategy skills) in your team … no worries! You can hire them externally (like our company Fictoor Wagelaar crossmedia marketing communication ). There are many ways to tell ‘wannabe specialists’ (and there are many of them out there calling themselves social media guru’s that don’t even know what a Klout score is …) from the real quality consultants that can help your organisation further. If you need tips to filter the experts from the “wannabee” specialists then please contact me!
• Follow trends and act on them; the world around us – and therefore also the consumers / businesses – are changing faster then ever before. This means keeping up with these changes or ‘missing the ride’. Companies that fail to pick up on these trends (opportunities!) will get in serious trouble… You can monitor trends and your clients thoughts very accuratly using social media monitoring tools (amongst other methods).
• Constantly re-evaluate your organisation; are we reaching our clients via the sales-channels they prefer? Are we implementing the ‘golden circles’ model? Is our organisation still ‘lean’ enough? How do we monitor and react to customer satisfaction? Can we optimize workflows? Where do we stand in comparrison to our competitors Etc. Etc.
• Dare to be different and focus on doing business internationally; be REALLY different from your competitors. What does your organisatiom offer customers that makes your company ‘stand out of the crowd’? Are you sure that your Unique Selling Points are really that unique?! Also tunnel-vision usually is a big problem. Hire external specialist that challenge you!
  Realize that the world is your playground! Take a serious look abroad. Often your new business lies there and (often) not in the region(s) you have been active in for a couple of years.

I could sum up more then 50 point more, but that would be too extensive for this weblog post. Most important conclusion for this post should be that it’s time to change … fast !

If you want to talk to me about how to change your company to be ready for what’s to come, feel free to contact me!

Christian Fictoor