Everybody can see and appreciate a company that seems to conquer markets with ease. What very few can see is the scientific framework on which the sales and marketing campaign was executed.

The purpose of the remaining part of this series is to identify the steps to design and build a scientific marketing framework.

MISSION AND VISION
The fundamental step in building a scientific marketing function is to define the company’s mission statement—one sentence simply stating what the company does, for whom and why.

Contrast the two mission statements …

“Company X is a results-oriented training and consulting firm promoting sustainable economic growth globally by developing entrepreneurship programs focusing on capacity-building techniques, empowering women through entrepreneurship, technical assistance and business advisory services.”

“We network networks.” [CISCO]



There is no reward for guessing which one is sharp and simple with a concise identity, understood by hopefully all readers.
If the mission defines what the company is or does today—a vision statement explains what the company expects to do or be in five or fifty years. A vision has to energize the company and must inspire the rank and file while striking an emotional cord with the employees. Some of the most successful vision statements have been supported by a worthy cause—the reason for the company’s existence that employees understand, empathize with and feel for, a reason that makes the rank and file put their body, mind and soul into the company’s success.

Vision statements that speak blandly about being a “world leader”, “#1 player” or “$100 billion company” may energize executive management but they do little to inspire the rank and file.
Ford’s early twentieth century goal of “democratizing the automobile” was both a vision and a very worthy cause. It’s no wonder Ford was a runaway success and an icon during that time.

Sony’s vision of “Become the company most known for changing the world-wide poor quality image of Japanese products” is another company that had a cause-driven vision and that became a worldwide icon.
This definition of a mission— where you are and what you do, and vision—where you want to go, form the first and final chapters of a company’s marketing plan. Marketing’s goal is to design and build the staircase to success by helping the company navigate from where it is to where it needs to be, both from a market and an operations perspective.



MESSAGE WITH A PURPOSE
One of the many challenges that most B2B companies face is that their marketing message is highly diffused. The message’s framework is either absent or poorly designed. The reasons for this are not hard to locate. Often, marketing in most B2B companies is highly tactical – “What collateral did sales ask for?” – “Did we get featured in Gartner’s latest report?” This results in limited short-term success but is highly ineffective in building a real brand with strong perceived long-term value.
For B2B marketing to be effective, it must be scientific. Scientific B2B marketing is logical, methodical and objective. It can be defined, measured and observed. It requires patience, discipline and planning. Some of it is abstract as well as subjective and handles emotions and feelings, like the design of the corporate brochure). But even here, the task has to have a well-defined purpose. The creative task, like brochure creation, needs to correspond with the entire clearly defined message framework.

What is a message framework? It is a set of mutually reinforcing themes. The framework is designed by studying the following:

• Company’s Mission and Vision


• Company’s Short-term Goals/
  Sales and Revenue Plan


• Product and Market Maturity


• Company’s Strength and Weaknesses


• Competition’s Strength and Weaknesses


• Core Assets and Skills Resource Availability (not just for marketing but
  also for operational execution)

What is a theme? It is a concept that can be summarized in one or two statements. A theme may be a tangible benefit. For example: “Facilitating easy and rapid user adoption” could be a possible theme for a software company whose software has been designed from the ground up for quick installation, easy use and rapid adoption. Alternatively, a theme could use an idea so that the market perceives the company in a particular way, known as brand building. An example of this is “Providing global deployment of enterprise wide SCM solutions.”

An effective theme will have the following characteristics:
Simplicity: The theme should be straightforward and easy to understand
Stickable: It must strike a chord and should be easy to remember.
Validity: The theme has to be true and easily verifiable. (As your company’s CMO, you can’t use “world-class service” as your theme unless your organization has the people, culture and will to actually make “world-class service” possible.)
Resonance: It should strike a chord with the prospect. (Your competitor can imitate your positioning theme of high quality. What they find harder to imitate is the actual delivery of high quality.)

Fitting: The theme should “inter-lock” and integrate with the overall message framework, reinforcing other themes in the framework.

One of the most successful B2B marketing message frameworks in recent hsitory was from salesforce.com, “Say no to software”, “Software as service” and “Subscription Fee Model”. It was successful not only because it was simple and had market resonance, but also due to a tangible benefit associated with the message framework. Importantly, the company delivered on its promise, giving the message framework validity, resonance and sustainability.

Chairman and CEO, salesforce.com, Marc Benioff, did a fantastic job of building his company’s personality on these themes.
The message framework should be designed with the willing input and participation of all constituencies, viz. sales, engineering, product management and executive management. Once completed, the message framework should be visible to the entire organization.

How permanent is this message framework? A theme could change under certain circumstances. A unique differentiator could no longer be unique or an improvement in market maturity could make an educating the market theme superfluous. A company will continuously outgrow themes as its success continues.

The next part of the series will examine the marketing department’s role in maintaining organizational synchronicity and the methodology for message as well as collateral development.

Navin Nagiah is a senior business executive in the Silicon Valley with extensive experience taking technology products to market in the U.S, the U.K, India, China and SE Asia. Nagiah can be reached at navin35@yahoo.com.