How many guitarists does it take to change a lightbulb? Two: One to do it, and another to tell everyone how they would have done it better. Marketers are like guitarists in this way. We just love to amp up our outrage anytime there's a high visibility rebrand (even if they work out just fine most of the time). It's a passtime of ours, really. In my first column for Inc.com (here's all three I've written for them) I use this as a vector for discussing one dimension of leadership's relationship with marketing: Branding and rebranding is mostly about leadership because leading an organization's identity change is actually a complex and sophisticated exercise in leadership, challenging for the most seasoned leaders let alone marketers without any leadership training. So without…
We'll get to these awesome pieces of art in a second. First, though, some thoughts on positive marketing agency thinking: What a year. We (gratefully) continue to be busy at 3o4, working with some wonderfully fulfilling clients and projects. We were also able to filter out a few clients that weren’t working for us these past months, clients we just weren’t able to add value to. This is something that every business deals with—letting go of paying customers or clients—but isn’t much talked about. It isn’t easy. This was on our minds when I came across a blog post from Trinity Management Consultants which explores why ad agencies seem so embarrassed about what they do. Not exactly positive marketing agency thinking, rather a sharp piece with veracious insights on how…
I was fortunate to be published again in Marketing Profs. This time, I co-authored with the brilliant Nicole Gravagna, a neuroscientist and behavioral design sage. What a thrill to reconnect with Nicole. I always learn so much from her mind. The piece excerpts some concepts from my book, Leading in a Social World. Social media marketers are in (literally) a different head space when engaging in social media, and this biases them to how social constructs actually generate value. It also contributes to strong biases when evaluating the data related to social media marketing's effectiveness, which when you really dig into it (which I have, in my book, the relevant chapter of which is also excerpted in this blog post), isn't much. It sometimes can even damaged brand value. Thanks to…
MarketingProfs was kind enough to publish a piece of mine, “Why Social Media Should Leave Your Marketing Department—And Where It Should Go Instead".” It's a distillation of a few chapters in my book, Leading in a Social World. In the piece I basically deconstruct social media marketing, and reconstructs it in a customer care space. TL;DR: Social constructs generate value by way of social capital. Leaders interested in generating this kind of value need to think about social groups very differently than marketing segments. It's about reciprocity and democratized relationships, very different than funnel-conversion thinking. Check it out! Aaron
Had the pleasure of having a dialog with the Innovative Agency podcast last week. We talked about leadership, marketing, and the Three Over Four approach to building trust with clients and within the marketing industry in general. Check it out here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/32-why-trust-is-important-in-marketing-how-leadership/id1419747902?i=1000439001014
It was a privilege to deliver a Professional Services Marketing course at the Chicago headquarters of the American Marketing Association recently, and I’m really stoked to boil it down for a presentation at a Michiana American Marketing Association event next week. Professional services continues to be an important market segment for Three Over Four, and as we all know: if you truly want to solidify a concept or area of expertise, understanding it well enough to convey it to others is great way to get there. These engagements are great opportunities to share value and also return it to our clients. A funny thing happened along the way. I’ve come to realize that what drives effective professional services marketing isn’t marketing at all. It’s leadership. That’s a weird claim. There…
Thought leadership of Leading through Challenging Times focuses on emotional intelligence. Want to influence through tough times? Learn to manage emotions. Three Over Four does lead gen and content marketing for the Executive Education unit at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business. One of the great things about this client, beside their concise name, is that we get to learn. It’s a 24-7-365 class proxy of some incredible content tailored specifically for working professionals. And their orientation around leadership aligns perfectly with our strengths. So it’s a good fit for both of us. This month we’re creating content around a leadership topic relevant to just about all of us: Empower to Perform: Leadership strategies for empowering people to rise up to business challenges. We interviewed Mark Gasta, former…
I’m interested in the business-minded pursuit of understanding creativity. I’m not sure what to do with it, but I’m interested. One thought that keeps coming to mind: The creative processes that I’m most familiar with don’t start with outcome. I can’t help but wonder if this is why businesses are tripping over the concept and have such a hard time integrating it into their working environments. Business, by its nature, solves a problem for someone. If there’s no problem to be solved, there’s no market. No market, no money. The creative processes that business minds are trying to learn from start in a very different place. A place of expression, not fixing. Exploring the problem, not solving it. If you have a minute contrast a few articles: This nice snippet…
