General Marketing Thingys

Marketing Egypt – Four Sets of Objectives

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Egypt2.0

The next phase for Egypt will be a telling one.  And if the country and its people are to actually realize movement in a forward direction, now must be the time to set intelligent objectives.  Marketing Egypt will be a tall task, which is why defining clear objectives is so critical at an early stage.

Let’s be clear:  “regime change” is not an objective in and of itself.  It’s certainly a goal, and the sum of hundreds of thousands of protestors, rocks, hand-written signs and a zillion tweets and Facebook posts.  But a suite of objectives could help the process of democratic transformation take shape, and could provide a road map to the next chapter in Egypt’s storied history.

So what kind of goals should Egypt be setting at this point?

Operational Objectives
Obviously, there are innumerable logistical considerations.  Operational objectives must outline what the desired outcomes will be for electoral systems, governmental systems, infrastructure systems, military stability.  Chief among these, of course, are all the financial systems that must be monitored, maintained and scrubbed for security.  These include tax codes, regulatory systems for Egypt’s stock market, the maintenance and sustenance of Egypt’s chief revenue producers:  the Suez, agricultural exports and tourism.  The culmination of these objectives would likely be outlined in an amended Egyptian Republic constitution.

Political Objectives
Of course, political goals are nearly as important as the operational objectives.  Egypt currently maintains a high profile on the world stage, despite its warts.  The next government will have to lay out a specific agenda for its political objectives.  How it will represent itself at the United Nations.  Where it will stand on the myriad issues that face the Middle East.  How it will contribute to global efforts facing the environment.  Where it will draw a line in the Saharan sand on women’s rights.  And a host of others.

Product Objectives
Most marketing objectives I’ve helped formulate usually involve an element of productizing; helping my clients draw fact-based conclusions on what products will drive revenue, or drive new opportunities for engagement.  For Egypt, the product plan will likely involve two phases: expanding its current line, and developing new products the world desires.  Its current line of agrarian exports can be expanded.  Cotton, rice, wheat and others are a very good start.  But there are tens of millions of people who could be gainfully employed building equipment, or refining sugar, or planting new citrus crops near the Nile.  And for that matter, new contributors to GDP are just waiting to emerge:  there are equal numbers of engineers who could help build assembly plants; refineries, distribution centers, healthcare infrastructures and more.  This may be the most exciting of all the objective-setting plans ahead for Egypt.

Brand/Image Objectives
Naturally, any entity that has been the focus of so much media coverage will have to undertake great effort to repair its image.  The brand objectives will first be a combined effort of artfully bragging about the success of the aforementioned objectives coming to fruition: Yay – a new government!  Yay – new GDP sources!  Yay – equal representation under the law!  But beyond that, Egypt will have to go a long way to lull back tourists to its resorts and attractions.  Egypt will have to enact new programs to prove that it’s a safe and friendly place to visit.  That it’s a worthwhile (and legit) country for investment.  That it can stand up again and take the next step in the evolution of a great nation.

On the horizon:  strategies.
The combination and consideration of these objectives will begin to form the vague shape of an Egypt of the future.  But getting there will require sound strategies.  Those in an upcoming post.

Egypt could use some marketing right now.

Nader Ashway4 Comments

flag of Egypt

A dear colleague of mine just rang me up on the phone and said, “I’m interested in your take on Egypt.”  He was asking because I am 100% Egyptian, although born and raised in America.  We spoke for about 30 minutes, and I realized that there are many facets of what’s happening in Egypt that so many Americans (or others in the world) don’t know.

So this will not be an entry about politics, or about history, or about civil disobedience, or a journalistic report about unfolding events.  But it may espouse all of those disciplines and many others, since it will be about the marketing of what I believe is one of the greatest countries and one of the greatest peoples on earth.

What’s happening in Egypt is at once breathtakingly fabulous and terrifyingly tenuous.  A revolt is underfoot, fueled mostly by young citizens demanding change at the highest level – regime change. But what’s not seen is the potentiality of disaster in this, the most populous Middle Eastern country.  While Egypt needs a complete marketing makeover, let’s begin where all good marketing begins – with data.  Here now, a brief SWOT analysis for Egypt.

Strengths
Egypt has amazing strengths and strategic assets, both natural and man-made, including the Suez Canal, a thriving agricultural export, (ever pay a premium for Egyptian cotton?) globally appealing tourism and the mighty Nile, where most of the nearly 80 million residents gravitate to make their homes and their livings.  Perhaps one of the most underestimated and underreported assets of the country is the strength, the resolve and the character of Egyptian people.  A fun-loving, hospitable and intelligent bunch who bring high-level skills (like medicine, engineering, technology and arts,) to the free world.  There are countless other assets that may be less apparent:  Egypt’s contribution to the arts, medicine and mathematics in ancient times.  A stable and thriving population in modern times that has led to the Middle East’s leading free media infrastructure, some of the most advanced communications networks in the region and a growing stock market.

Weaknesses
But there’s an underside, too.  And the country’s weaknesses are evident.  Egypt has grown rapidly, with a disproportionate distribution of wealth concentrated in Cairo and Alexandria.  There is woeful poverty and a quiet but obvious acceptance of class distinctions.  Take the Zabbaleen, a minority people in inner-city Cairo who basically pick up more than ¾ of the garbage in the capital city.  Despite their historical presence (they’ve been living this way since about the 1930’s,) as an urban asset, they have been overlooked in recent years when Mubarak’s administration awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to Italian contractors to pick up Cairo’s trash.  Guess what?  The Zabbaleen are better at it.  They have found ways to recycle and/or repurpose up to 80 percent of Egypt’s waste, when nine figures of government capital investment can only manage about 20-25%.

And what of Mr. Mubarak’s NDP (National Democratic Party?)  How is it that they’ve managed to stay in power for more than 30 years?  Another major weakness in Egypt:  the beloved dance of apathy and system-wide corruption.  Interestingly, Mr. Mubarak’s “term,” which has been won with either unanimous referendums or lame turnout is due up this September.

Opportunities
Egypt is now in a new dance.  A dance with opportunities.  A free media has led to the opening of minds throughout the country, and dissenting voices are (selectively, but mostly) being heard.  The rise of communications allows the flow of ideas and invites interaction through social media. And quietly, throughout all of this, a potential successor.  Mohammed El Baradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for work with the International Atomic Energy Agency, is something of a folk hero.  He has been summarily dismissed (and even harassed, some would say,) by the Egyptian government for openly criticizing the sitting administration.  And today, he is in Tahrir square, squatting with teenagers and propagating a message of possibility and potentiality.  Is El Baradei the answer to Egypt’s problems?  Probably not.  But it sure is nice to entertain the possibilities.  What Egypt really needs is a global intervention.  (Next post, I promise.)

Threats
And there are threats, to be sure.  Apathy is a lame foxhole companion, and with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood lurking and operating underground, it may be easy to quickly and perhaps completely overtake a country which has remained an ally for the West and an example (despite taunts, teases and threats,) to the rest of the Middle East. Don’t forget, this type of subversion was seen recently, when Hezbollah came to a position of near-irrefutable power in Lebanon’s parliament in 2008.  Economic factors also play a crucial role in the threats facing Egypt…those in poverty will do nearly anything to get out…including, in some cases, listening to anyone, or voting for anyone that promises change.  Gulp.

Change?
And for that matter, change itself may be the most threatening factor of all…despite Mr. Mubarak’s inefficiencies as the head of government, he has succeeded – wildly – as a head of state.  He shows up.  He calls back.  He’s on a first name basis with Barack, Nicolas, David and Angela as well as Abdallah, Michel, Momar and Bashar.  He has kept his word and held Egypt’s stance on some of the most important issues facing the world, not the least of which is the 1979 Peace Accord signed at Camp David between Egypt and Israel.  He averts risk.  He stays out of the “he said/he said” arguments that most of the Middle East entertains.  He has enjoyed decades of military and economic aid from the United States.  He has kept a strong and loyal military in top shape.  He has also presided over the longest stretch of peace in Egypt’s modern history.

Next Phase
So where does Egypt go from here?  Where all sound marketing plans go:  setting objectives.  Without goals, without a direction, Egypt will continue to wander aimlessly through the long night of stagnation.  If El Baradei can help set those goals, then perhaps he is a viable alternative.  If he can’t (if I were a betting man, I’d say it’s someone else – a more Obamaian type,) then someone must.  As with any marketing plan, without objectives you can succeed and still go nowhere.  Standing still is no longer a viable strategy. If this recent movement has proven anything, it’s that Egypt must now embrace movement.

I’ll take the airlines. But please hold the advertising.

Nader Ashway3 Comments

Face it, big airlines.  You suck.  You suck because you can’t keep your promises. You suck because you’re delivering the same or less service than you were a year ago, and charging way more for it. You suck because you can’t even throw in the lousy meals anymore. You suck because your advertising is a big fat lie.

Please American, Continental/United, Delta, and yes, even you JetBlue.  Please do us all a favor.  Stop spending tens of, no make that hundreds of millions of dollars on all that advertising only to fail us at the ticket counter, and at the gate, and in the sky and when we get our credit card statements.

Truth is, you don’t have exceptional service.  You don’t have the lowest fares.  You don’t have the best routes.  You don’t have the most flights.  You’re not really that convenient after all.

Come to think of it, it’s really funny how just about ALL your advertising focuses on those key benefits, when almost none of you can deliver on these basic promises.

Instead, let’s focus on the basic truths:  across the board, your service is on the scale somewhere between below-grade and adequate.  I don’t discount that there may be an exceptional and caring employee flying the skies on any given A320, but by and large, your staff is just going through the motions.

Your fares are out of whack, and on no discernible pattern. I recently researched a flight from New York/Newark to San Diego on Continental.  (I looked up to THREE months out.)  $1,064.  REALLY?  A thousand bucks?  I could practically get chauffered out there on that dime.  And, hey, JetBlue, those “discount” fares of yours are all but a distant memory now, huh?  When I compared, you were only about $200 cheaper.  Honestly?

And can I ever get on a flight that isn’t “oversold?”

What’s astonishing to me is that the basic laws of marketing, branding and social media all state that airlines should essentially wither on the vine and die, and lose share to the competitor that meets customer needs, and to a market that demands choice.  And yet, these behemoths survive.  Promises are being broken, word of mouth is almost entirely negative, (when was the last time you heard about an “exceptional” flying experience from a co-worker?) prices are going up, and now you’re getting charged for checked baggage and crazy needs like “legroom,” and big airlines seem to almost universally be having banner years.  Where is the competitor who “gets it?” Where is the market demanding choice?

So again, I state my initial request.  Please re-allocate your budgets.  Hold the advertising.  Take the 8- and 9-figure advertising budgets, and instead, just lower rates.  Just STOP with the checked bag fees.  And please stop making me sit in the middle of row 26 when I book a flight a month in advance.

The Law of Negative Identification

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One of the cornerstones of brand identification is choosing a strategy for your company.  This can be an incredibly difficult task for many small to midsize companies, because their leaders (or boards, or branding agencies) may have varying views about what gives them the strongest advantages in the marketplace. So “choosing” the strategic path always creates a fear of leaving something out, overlooking something really valuable.  You might hear “if we decide we’re a service-oriented company, how can we communicate our ability to develop great products?”  Or “if we go to market on our great distribution abilities, how can we also get the message across about our great prices?”

When making the difficult decisions about how to communicate who and what you are, it can sometimes be easier to assert & identify who and what you’re NOT.  I call this the Law of Negative Identification.  This law is a perfect place to start when having the “who are we?” or “what should we be doing next?” conversations.  It also helps you position yourself against and among your competitors.  If you happen to be a company that has a great distribution strategy and also has great prices, it may also be true that you are NOT an excellent manufacturer.  Now that you have that important nugget in hand, you can go club your nearest competitor (who may happen to dabble in manufacturing) over the head with it.

Remember Porter’s postulate:  “A company go outperform its rivals only if it can establish a difference that it can preserve.”  In an endless sea of business categories, flush with same-ness, the differences are what enable you to get noticed.  If every one of your competitors is wearing a shade of red, you could really stand out by NOT wearing red…imagine how visible you’d be if you wore the FIRST green in the category, the first yellow, the first blue.

So how to decide what you’re not?  We usually start with the important stuff, like “where do you make most of your money?”  Or “where do you make the best margins?”  That usually wins most debates, but not always.  Sometimes, companies put brand first, or stick with their core strengths, even if the grass looks greener on the other side of the ROI fence.  That’s okay, as long as you’re not considering – not even remotely – becoming something you’re just not equipped or designed or engineered to be.  Look long and hard at your balance sheet.  Look long and hard at your people. Find the strengths and exploit them.  Find the weaknesses (or pure absences in some cases) and use those as the first pieces of your strategy puzzle.

So, who are you?  Or more appropriately, who are you not?

Relax. With marketing, price is NOT the issue.

Nader Ashway1 Comment

If you’re looking for an advertising agency or a marketing communications firm or a web developer or a direct marketing partner, there’s good news.  You won’t be shopping on price.

This is kind of weird for most market consumers – virtually everything we buy has a price attached to it, and generally, the choice we make on any given purchase tends to include price as a determining factor.

But with marketing, it’s different.  With marketing services, YOU set the price.  You say “I want this and this and that and that, and I’m willing to spend $X.”  Pretty cool position to be in, eh?  Imagine if you could walk into your favorite restaurant, and say “I want the Sea Scallops appetizer and the John Dory Entrée and I think I’ll have the Green Tea Ice Cream dessert… and I want to only pay $42 for everything.  Oh, and throw in a glass of Riesling with the entrée!”

That’s pretty much how it goes with marketing.  Let’s say you’re about to embark on an advertising campaign.  You would never solicit five proposals and then select the most inexpensive agency.  [For one thing, you couldn’t really solicit a proposal without stipulating a budget.]  And secondly, these kinds of services aren’t shopped on price.  You’re searching for ingenuity.  Or practicality.  Or intense creativity.  Or humor.  Or whatever you think might move the needle.

Buying marketing services is NOT like buying tires, where you go from shop to shop, looking for the best deal.

Unfortunately, many would-be marketers like to play the “I’m not telling you my budget” game.  They think that by withholding that parameter, they’ll get more affordable services.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.  Every ad agency, every web development company, every marketing consultant thinks they have a feasible answer to your quandary.  But we all think you should be spending a minimum of $10 million.

Here’s another rub.  The supplier (agency, developer, or restaurant owner) can simply say “no.”  [Sadly, not many of them do.  But it’s really necessary sometimes.]  Some suppliers can’t do what you’re asking for $42.  Or WON’T do what you’re asking for $42.  And those answers will help you make important decisions later on.

So, next time you’re shopping for marketing/advertising/web services, do yourself and the professional on the other side of the table a favor:  set a budget.  It’s the best way to get a straight answer, the only way to compare apples to apples when you’re reviewing your proposals, and probably one of the very few times in your professional life when YOU get to determine what something will cost.