But there are exceptions.

For example, Tesco CEO Philip Clarke claims that ‘retail is detail’ and walks the shop floors talking to employees and customers to understand first hand what needs to be done.

The moral of the story is that, if you really want to know the brand – the reality that resides in the heart and soul of an organisation – then the further up the hierarchy you go, the less likely you are to hear something resembling the current, complete truth.

How do we cut through the clutter?

Another great cartoon from Tom Fishburne.

“There has never been a greater level of marketing clutter,” he says. Yankelovich Consumer Research charts that “we’ve gone from being exposed to about 500 marketing messages a day back in the 1970s to as many as 5,000 a day today.”

At the same time, marketing communication is often little more than a string of adjectives: bigger, better, faster, cheaper, etc.

So how do we break through the clutter?

For me, we do this by being who we really are. By definition, we are unique. And it’s true: we are unique, and we should be genuine as well. Consumers are short of authenticity. Amidst all the hype, a touch of authenticity goes a long way. 

And having the courage and curiosity to want to know who we truly are becomes the new challenge.

None of our clients ever behave like this, of course

It’s all too easy to mistake a medium for an idea.

And this cartoon by Tom Fishburne,  the ‘marketoonist’, says it all.

For more great marketing cartoons, check out www.tomfishburne.com

Smart move: Nestle is using internal social networks for employee engagement

Interesting to hear that Nestle is developing an internal social network to encourage innovation ideas from employees around the world. They believe that ‘listening systems’ will help companies to reach insights much faster and at lower cost.

The interesting thing for me is that they are acknowledging that insight comes from listening to employees.

Similarly, Coca-Cola has plans to introduce social media elements to its online staff engagement programme, My KO. And Sainsbury’s is trialling social networks to help store staff share best practice.

But it’s not just large enterprises that need these innovations. As soon as it becomes impossible for everyone in a company to go to the pub together, alternatives are needed to enable networking. And social media is one of them.

“We need to focus on customer service” says the melon vendor in this ad. But focusing on customer service often means that the customer comes second.  “I just want to buy a melon” says the guy at the back of the queue.

When I’m a customer, I don’t want to deal with a person who is focused on customer service. I simply want them to be fully engaged, to be themselves, to be focused on what I need and to want to help me - in the way that any human naturally wants to help another. Not because they have done training course on it.

It’s about hiring the right people, empowering them and listening to what they need to do their job well. And, of course, giving them what they ask for.

“But the moment we glimpse the inside-out nature of reality, we see that happiness leads to success, security leads to wealth, and our thoughts create our experience.” So says Michael Neill, an executive coach to CEOs.

Check out www.supercoach.com, which he calls ‘a space where miracles happen’. Addressing his three points in relation to Inside Out Marketing, I certainly agree that…

• Happy employees lead to happy clients (which leads to business success)
• When businesses feel secure, they behave confidently (which tends to generate wealth)
• The collective thoughts in the business create the reality of the organisation (and the brand)

Reminds me of what a client said recently: Inside Out should be a philosophy for life, not just for Christmas/Marketing. I agree.

Check out their website here.

I think that the split between internal comms and marketing is part of the current problem. The two inhabit different worlds. And even when the Head of Group Comms is in charge of both, companies still seem to behave as if external marketing messages should be different from internal ones.

What's the word on the street, Johnny?

When Frank Drebin, the top cop in Police Squad, needed to know what was really going on, he’d ask Johnny, the shoeshine boy. For a small price, Johnny would  give him inexplicably exact, fully detailed accounts of everything Frank needed to know. From how to do brain surgery to exact locations of the baddies, their complete family trees and philosophies.

Always makes me laugh. But partly because it contains a truth.

If you want to know what is really going on, it is sometimes better to ask someone who is apparently at the bottom of the ladder. They have a clear view ‘up’, and often with less attachment to outcome or desire for self-enhancement than those above them. So they can tell it the way it is. And because management seldom listens to what they have to say, let alone act on it, they are usually very forthcoming.

As MD of an electronics company in the 90s, if I needed to know what was going on in the company I used to have chat with Ben in ‘Goods Out’. He had his finger on the pulse of the company. Some of my best decisions were taken after talking with him.

So the morale of the story is: Make friends with the shoeshine boy. And listen and act on what he says.

Verging on new age-ism, but good nonetheless

I like this and it applies to organisations as well as individuals.

But this is what it is not:

With thanks to David Macleod, who spoke at the Agenda Consulting Employee Engagement Conference. David is the author of the report to Government on employee engagement: Engaging for Success.