Morningstar Communications Luminary Blog

“Hi, you have reached Erin Gregory at Morningstar Communications. Today is Wednesday, June 30 and I am in and out of the office today. Please leave me a message and I’ll get back with you as soon as possible. Or, if you would like immediate assistance, please dial ‘0’ and someone else on our team will be happy to help. Thanks so much and have a great day.”

For more than two years now these have regularly been some of the first words I speak every day. When I started at Morningstar Communications in January 2008 I had no idea what was in store for me, and through the ups and downs I wouldn’t change a moment of it all.

As family, friends, colleagues and clients know, I am leaving Kansas City and my job to head for Boston University to pursue my MBA in Public and Nonprofit Management. This next phase of my life is exciting and promises a new host of challenges and opportunities. But there’s no doubt in my mind I’m ready to make this next move thanks to the many things I learned in my professional life.

I’ve worked with clients in a variety of industries – nonprofit, healthcare, telecom, retail, construction, professional services, education – and performed an even wider variety of tactical and strategic roles. I have written press releases, web copy, collateral materials, byline articles, TV commercials, full-on Integrated Marketing Communications programs and much more. Alongside my amazing colleagues we’ve hosted events, conducted proprietary research, executed social media campaigns and experienced great success.

It’s bittersweet to try and recall all the wonderful opportunities I had while at Morningstar Communications. From working in-house for a client, to presenting at industry conferences alongside our CEO, Eric Morgenstern, I’m convinced I had the broadest, deepest expanse of first job experiences anyone could dream of. So, while I want to do a quick shout out to a few people I will forever thank wholeheartedly, my ‘goodbye’ post is getting long for that. To those I have worked with during the past two years, you’ve made this a fantastic journey.

Thank you!

During our Future Visioning process, we conduct Audience Research Interviews to get inside the heads of those audiences that matter most to our clients. Generally these are 20-30 minute phone calls with a series of questions to learn about how people interact with our client, what they think about the product/service/organization and how they think the client should evolve in the next few years.

Naturally when you’re looking for these kind of answers, clients want to provide interviewees who think the same way they do, so we hear what the client wants, but from someone else’s mouth. We can all see the fault in that pretty quickly.

It sounds basic, but I think it’s important to remind people that hearing the negative things, or talking with naysayers is just as necessary, if not more valuable, than talking with those who are already on the bandwagon. Whether you open up Pandora’s box of issues, hear some hurtful things, or simply get some pointers on what could be done better, it is this information that changes the playing field. Thankfully, our clients we’ve done this with most recently do see the value in having some “negative” feedback and didn’t fall into the “positivist” trap.

The purpose of conducting Audience Research Interviews is to get into the mindset of people familiar with the client. Whether we confirm what we already know, or learn something that completely changes the path of the organization, it is good information to have. If you haven’t asked your most important audiences what they think of you lately, I’d encourage you to do so - you might like what they have to say, or you might hate it and realize you need to make a change.

In the marketing world, you often hear about the importance of a great elevator speech and knowing the “what’s in it for me” factor about your product or service. In the business world, this concept is often referred to as a Value Proposition - both phrases generally mean the same thing and can both be approached in the same manner.

In fact, knowing when to use the term “elevator speech” versus the term “value proposition” can be considered one of the steps to effectively sharing your message. Knowing who is going to receive your message is the first thing to consider because value is in the eye of the beholder.

Sure, there’s a formula for writing a basic value proposition - but following convention doesn’t make it an effective statement. Here are a few quick tips I would recommend anyone writing value propositions keeps in mind:

1.    Identify your different audiences and consider having different value propositions for each of them, depending on how they would define value.

2.    Focus on the benefits of what you’re offering, not the features. Don’t worry about what your product has or does, but instead about what problem it can solve.

3.    Remember to include intangible value as part of your proposition - people still want to feel an emotional or personal connection with whatever they buy, so don’t bypass that important fact.

If you’re looking for more information about how to write a strong value proposition, I would recommend starting with this blog from Christina Pomoni and going from there.

As the devastation in Haiti has caused us all to examine what’s important in our personal lives, it has also caused us to look for ways we can use our core business skills and practices to help those in need. Commonly referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), evolving a business focus so it simultaneously supports public interest is a booming trend across the business community.

Some will disagree, but I believe it is up to all of us to leave our community and the world better than we found it. And more times than not, it is our business savvy and resources that allow us all to do so.

Take for instance the way the wireless industry has banded together to allow customers to text “Haiti” to 90999  in order to donate directly to the American Red Cross. The adoption of mobile giving has raised nearly $30 million in relief funds for Haiti. Many wireless carriers have provided this service free of charge, because it’s a simple way they can use business infrastructure to serve a common goal.

And beyond providing services that enhance a greater cause, CSR is also about taking responsibility for a business’ impact on society. We all leave a mark somehow, so it’s important to find a way to repair the damage we cause, often through sustainability practices.

But don’t assume CSR comes at the cost of successful business – at its core a good CSR policy should bolster your bottom line and the community at once. Yes, there are critics of this type of business practice, but at the end of the day if any person or company is striving to better our community then I’m all about it.

Business schools are teaching it, global enterprises are adopting it. To learn more about CSR I recommend visiting the CSRwire and reading the 2009 Year in Review.

I’ve been fortunate lately to work with several clients who are going through the full-fledged branding process. One of the most important and exciting aspects of defining a brand is creating personas so you can envision exactly who you are talking to. But as time goes on, it becomes more difficult to pinpoint an exact person, with one mindset, you can always count on reaching.

A relatively new client of ours, Ryan Bennett, founder and CEO of Liv, sent me an article today called “Personifying the People Who Will Buy From You,” by Brian Massey, who has 15 years of online marketing experience. The main point of his post is that you have to constantly be testing your touch-points for effectiveness.

If you meant to reach one person, and instead reached someone else, as a marketer you have to not only recognize that fact, but ask yourself, “Why did I get that outcome?” Even beyond than that, you now need to evaluate if your unintended outcome might be a better target in the first place.

It sounds nearly impossible to catch the right person, using the right touch-point, in the right mind-set in order to give them exactly what they want – but in fact it is very do-able. That’s why we invest in research, constantly assess and revise our approaches, and develop personas in the first place.

Overall, here is my favorite insight from Brian’s blog:

“Touch-point personas help you target your messages and offers, changing the way you present information. They keep you from being the victim of the shifting image in your mind, and get your entire team on the same page.”
 

I thoroughly enjoy meeting with people that are enthusiastic about what they do. It makes it even more exciting when we can teach those people about marketing - I love to see the lightbulb click.

This morning Eric and I met with a young, aspiring entrepreneur. He was bright, hard-working and had a great idea. But what he was lacking, which he readily admitted, was a solid marketing strategy that would bring his business to life. He called on Eric to help him better understand the ins and outs of marketing, and to figure out what his next move should be. Luckily for me - Eric asked me to join the meeting.

We talked about a lot of things - using in-house talent vs. an agency, our Future Visioning product and how it can shape an overarching strategy, and the four media channels; earned, paid, shared and controlled (expect to see a blog from Eric about this soon). But what really struck a cord for this entrepreneur, was the need to take his thoughts about marketing from being inside-out, to outside-in.

Recipient-oriented messaging is the core of effectively reaching your audience. It isn’t about how you want to give them information, it is about how they want to receive it. And it’s about using their language to explain it. And knowing how to do both those things. Research the audience - talk to them, ask them questions, find out what triggers their decision-making. Most importantly - listen to their answers and make strategic marketing plans based around audience need.

It’s normal to think about things from your own point of view, and it isn’t simple to step into someone else’s shoes. But, what separates a great marketing strategy from so many others, is the ability to think and plan from the outside in.

Yesterday, Gannett announced they had to lay off 20 employees at the Arizona Republic. It is hard to read this kind of news and not think about the fate of the newspaper industry in America. Throughout the last five years, and particularly in 2009, we have seen extensive changes in newspaper staffs and many industry experts have waxed poetic about how social media, online news and our 24-hour need for information overload have altered our industry.

As marketers we have to be aware of all the ways people are getting their news. Whether it is print newspapers, magazines, television, radio, social media or online news bureaus, our clients need to be a part of the conversation. So as the landscape changes, what do we recommend moving forward? Does a print placement carry the same weight it did 10, 20 or 30 years ago? Will online outlets gain the respect newspapers once held? Are we still reaching the people we care most about with our media plans?

These kinds of questions do not have static, once true, always true answers. Having an ever changing media mix and constant evaluation of news outlets and publications is essential to stay relevant. It is sad to say farewell to more newspaper reporters, but maybe they'll pop up again writing for a new medium - I'm confident reporters will continue to adapt throughout these changing times.