Ahead of its time

I'm always making connections with what I'm doing and what I've done. It's how I learn. It's how I adjust and adapt to new situations. I was recently reading an article in the December HBR that talked about Branding in the Digital Age (Edelman, 2010). As I read through the article its content sounded eerily familiar. As I reflected on why, I realized it was because I have done intuitively what the author suggests that businesses do now, but I did it four years ago with the marketing team at Laidlaw College.

At the heart of the article Edelman talks about research conducted by McKinsey in 2009 that showed the change in marketing metaphor for how we relate to consumer interaction. According to McKinsey's findings, the metaphor has shifted from a funnel to a journey, what they call the consumer decision journey, or CDJ (Court, et.al, 2009). This journey includes four stages - consider, evaluate, buy, and enjoy, advocate, and bond.

So, how did we do this four year ago? It all started with a problem, as all marketing challenges do. We had a new principal, concerned stakeholders, and dropping student numbers. We needed to figure out a way to engage with the public quickly so that we could win some people over. As the department discussed how this could be done, we decided that the best way to overcome stakeholder concerns about the new principal was to expose them to his ideas and teaching in a way that would not require them to commit to any long term programs or courses.

We decided to introduce a series of public lectures on relevant topics called Wineskins. This lecture series would allow people to consider the new direction of the College for themselves, not purely based on what others had said. Each lecture drew between 200-250 people. The consistent turnout seemed to indicated that the punters had evaluated what they heard and found it to be of value; worth returning to in the future to hear more. Because the lectures were presented free of charge, the marketing department decided to video the series and sell the DVD's later to help us recoup some of the expense for running the event. This gave the stakeholder the ability to buy the seminars, many of whom did even though they got to enjoy the lectures for free. Many of those who bought the lectures on DVD shared them with friends and family, or used them in their own home groups or churches, which led to fresh faces coming out to the future free lectures we hosted at the College. Many a skeptical stakeholder was able to enjoy, advocate, and bond with the College through DVD's and other lecture series long after the initial contact took place.

The impact and effectiveness of this initiative was not recognized widely at time, but that's probably because it was ahead of its time. 

Work Cited

Court, D., Elzinga, D., Mulder, S., & Vetvik, O. J. (2009). The consumer decision journey. McKinsey Quarterly (3).

Edelman, D. C. (2010). Branding in the digital age: You're spending your money in all the wrong places. Harvard Business Review (December), 62-69.