Brigadoon Weekly
December 29, 2019
Curation and commentary from Marc A. Ross
Reporting from Alexandria, Virginia
Brigadoon Weekly will be on hiatus until Sunday, January 12, 2020.
365, Maps, Overtourism, London Calling, American Dream
ROSS RANT
Brigadoon 365
Dropping January 1, 2020.
A year-long celebration of entrepreneurs and thought leaders from around the world that inspire and motivate the Brigadoon network.
Got candidates that should be included?
Send me three reasons why (one word per reason is fine) and their Twitter handle by email - marc@thebrigadoon.com.
Audiences + Business Models
Like most entrepreneurial endeavors, we rarely know what the market wants or needs - and we often launch a product or service based on guesswork and hope. This leads to revenue mismatch, creating too many offers, and going after too many customers / too many marketspaces.
Bill Aulet has written and lectured extensively on the concept of Disciplined Entrepreneurship.
Aulet is a multi-time entrepreneur and the Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and Professor of the Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
You can find his materials here - http://bit.ly/2Q7wObS and a lecture here: http://bit.ly/2F47I7g.
Amazing resources.
From my entrepreneurial endeavors (and numerous failures) being disciplined, being able to say no, staying focused is essential. You need to say this is not for you and be able to walk away - you can’t be all things to all people.
No doubt this is a challenge, but at the end of the day, it is critical.
Many times entrepreneurs are going after two audiences, two customers, and two types of revenue.
One B2C and one B2B.
Both demand different types of strategy, tactics, and business organization - not impossible - but a big challenge to be successful in both.
Consider there is a reason there are so few KFC-Taco Bell joint restaurants - it is a massive challenge even for a well-funded, long-established, massive corporation to produce food for two different audiences.
Idea as strategy
What is the big idea?
What makes your business special?
Can you answer these questions?
Many businesses are focused on tactics.
Strategy is hard.
Tactics are easy.
I like to start with the idea and always go back to that idea to clarify the business model, tactics, how the business will be organized, etc.
It is good to have a north star and be clear where you want to go - your customers define your future so chose your customers with great care and attention.
Email
Email is a powerful tool and creates a way to engage your audience like no other mass communications tool.
Also, it can be a powerful tool to organize your thinking, produce and share content, plus email provides a means to engage your audience on a consistent and ongoing schedule.
Email also takes deliberate and focused commitment - what words to craft, what content to highlight and share, the format - all that.
Email is work and for the long-game - but you will be rewarded if you are committed.
David Hieatt, the founder of Hiut Denim Co. and the Do Lectures, has crafted a wonderful book on the subject:
Do Open - How a simple email newsletter can transform your business (and it can)
You can find it here: http://bit.ly/2QpDlxm
It is packed with wonderful tactics and I visit it from time to time for inspiration and ideas.
Marc Ross’ STOCK model
Communications is the spreading of an idea.
STOCK is the process for the spreading of an idea.
STOCK = Strategy, Tactics, Organization, Consistency, and Know-how.
This is a model I use for clients and my projects.
I hope this framework gives you the structure to drop a new idea into the marketspace in 2020.
Strategy
"Strategy is an idea that describes a journey to a position of advantage." -- Blair Enns
"Strategy is the answer to the question, ‘How are we going to become and remain unique?" -- Michael Porter
Your strategy should be easily summable into an idea.
From the idea, you should be able to infer some key steps which will propel the business.
The ultimate aim of strategy is a position of advantage in the marketspace.
Also, there is a difference between a business strategy and a brand strategy.
A business strategy is about making the organization unique.
A brand strategy is the same idea applied to a brand. There's a distinction between the two only when one business owns multiple brands.
Plus, a one-brand business does not need a "brand strategy.” It needs communication and/or marketing plan.
P&G and GM need brand strategies. You are probably not P&G or GM.
Tactics
What are the tools, tactics, platforms, events, and methods, etc. which we going to use to execute our strategy?
Tactics are tools - things you do to win customers, win in the marketspace.
Repeat, tactics are tools.
If you start using tools/tactics without a clear strategy who knows where you will end up.
Organization
What are the systems, what is the process, who is on the team?
Who is responsible for what?
Who is doing what when?
Answering these questions is all about employing solid organization.
Consistency
Can you form a habit with your customers?
Can you create an environment where they expect, demand, need your service?
Developing and executing a predictable editorial calendar that takes advantage of the calendar happenings, cultural activities/engagements, and natural inflection points are wonderful for communications and marketing.
Know-how
What expertise, knowledge, insights, humanity, behind the scenes, are you sharing and providing to your network, customers, and marketspace?
Adam Grant posted this on Twitter recently:
Creating knowledge without sharing it is elitism.
Sharing knowledge without creating it is marketing.
Creating knowledge to share it is thought leadership.
That is a pretty good explanation of thought leadership and know-how.
-Marc
FIVE TO READ
Who maps the world? Too often, men. And money. But a team of OpenStreetMap users is working to draw new cartographic lines, making maps that more accurately—and equitably—reflect our space. http://bit.ly/367mupR
Loving the world to death: The good, bad, and ugly of overtourism: Seriously. We’re killing it. Loving it to death—parts of it, anyway. Spin the globe and drop a finger; you’re probably pointing at someplace that’s coping with too much of a good thing: tourists, which everybody wants, turning up in numbers so great they’re obscuring the very thing they’ve come to see. Santorini. Thailand. Italy’s Cinque Terre. Barcelona. Dubrovnik. Everyone wants to travel like a local. But what happens when the locals can’t get a seat for all the out-of-towners crowding their neighborhood joint? http://bit.ly/2MCCUif
How donuts fuelled the American Dream: In Los Angeles, donuts have brought wealth (if not health) to new arrivals. David Samuels hits the road in search of the lord of the rings. http://bit.ly/2Zz6aLN
Five rough guidelines for creating a successful business: After five decades in business, Richard Branson is often asked if there is a shortcut to success. Unfortunately, there isn’t — or if there is, he hasn’t found it yet. Creating a successful and profitable business takes time since you build your reputation as customers learn to trust and rely on you, one by one. http://bit.ly/2MDfNUI
6 things you might not know about The Clash's London Calling cover https://bbc.in/350dqla
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Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
