Printed
with permission from TCI
Management Consultants. A group of senior-level management
consultants, offering strategic planning and marketing services
to a wide range of public and private sector clients.
Radical
Marketing From Harvard to Harley, Lessons from Ten
that Broke the Rules and Made it Big
by Sam Hill and Glenn
Rifkin
HarperBusiness, New York, 1999
ISBN 0-88730-905-4
This book is a study of a phenomenon that the authors call
'radical marketing'. They have examined certain companies
whose approach to product development and developing a customer
base is very different from the traditional. These companies
have tended to be smaller in size, and either start-up situations
or the rescue of an existing operation on the brink of insolvency.
The
authors' approach was to identify 10 companies that seemed
to be taking very different marketing approaches to their
customer base, and then to analyze them in some detail.
These 10 organizations are:
1. The Grateful Dead
2. Providian Financial
3. Harley-Davidson
4. The
Iams Company
5. The
National Basketball Association
6. Snap-On
Tools
7. Virgin
Atlantic Airways
8. EMC
Corporation
9. Harvard
Business School
10. Boston Beer Company
These analyses are presented in the form of case studies
each of the aforementioned companies in the book has
a chapter devoted to its unique approach to radical marketing.
The authors identified three fundamental characteristics
of companies that are radical marketers, and 10 rules that
radical marketers appear to follow. The three fundamental
characteristics are:
1. Radical
marketers have very strong visceral ties with a specific
target audience.
2. Radical
marketers tend to focus on growth and expansion rather than
profit-taking.
3. Radical
marketers tend to be very resource-constrained and are forced
to make do with marketing budgets that are far smaller than
average.
The
10 rules of radical marketing that they identify are:
1. The CEO must own the marketing function Radical
marketing requires that the top individual in the organization
be intimately involved in the marketing function, and in
fact, drive the marketing approach of the organization.
This ensures that everyone in the organization has a strong
focus on the interaction with the market, because the CEO
demands and expects it.
2. Make sure the marketing department starts small and flat
and stays small and flat The key point here is that
the marketing function must not get so large that it starts
to become bloated with bureaucracy and protocol, but rather
is small and flexible enough to respond to new trends to
stay in touch with the market, and to try out 'outrageous'
new approaches (see rules #8 and #9).
3. Get
out of the office and face-to-face with the people that
matter most the customers Hardly a radical idea
(Marketing 101, more like), but surely a sensible one.
4. Use
market research cautiously Related to rule #2, this
point relates to the propensity for CEOs to 'go with their
gut' on key marketing decisions, rather then rely upon focus
groups or in-depth market surveys. Because of their close
connection to their customers (see rule#3), such marketing
decisions often turn out to be right.
5. Hire
only passionate missionaries Radical companies hire
what the authors call 'passionate missionaries' for senior
positions. These are individuals who believe in the product
and the customer base (see rule #6) as strongly as does
the CEO.
6. Love
and respect your customers Unlike 'mainstream' companies,
senior people in radical marketing companies do not see
their customers only as target market segments, defined
by demographic or psychographic characteristics. Rather,
they think of their customers as being like themselves,
passionate and proud to be associated with the product.
In this sense, the authors describe the senior managements
of 'radical' companies as 'loving and respecting' their
customers.
7. Create
a community of customers One very striking aspect
of certain of the radical marketing companies discussed
in the book is their ability to create an extremely dedicated
and loyal community of customers, who will even go to the
extent of having their bodies tattooed with the brand they
identify with (e.g. Harley-Davidson, the Grateful Dead).
8. Rethink
the marketing mix "Radical marketers market continuously
and devote huge amounts of money, effort and time to communicating
with their customers. However, they seldom have huge advertising
budgets. In fact, some, like Providian, don't even have
marketing budgets, reasoning that such budgets act as "entitlements"
and encourage spending when none is needed or, conversely,
as ceilings, discouraging marketers from spending more when
they see an opportunity... When radical marketers use advertising,
they tend to do so in short, sharp bursts, what we have
called "surgical strike advertising".... Radical
marketers tend to use more one-to-one or targeted communications
tools, ranging from direct mail to Web pages to local advertising
to sponsoring neighborhood basketball tournaments."
(p. 26)
9. Celebrate
uncommon sense Radical marketers break the rules.
For example, rather than try to maximize distribution of
product to place as much as possible in the market, they
may tend to limit availability to create pent-up demand,
and thus foster loyalty and commitment among their distributors.
10.
Be true to the brand "Radical marketers are obsessive
about brand integrity, and they are fixated on quality."
(p. 30)
The case studies on each of the ten companies profiled are
quite fascinating, and in fact do illustrate the operation
of the ten rules previously articulated. Specifically, the
particular principles most strongly exemplified by the case
studies are summarized below.
|
|
Grateful Dead
|
Providian
| Harley-
Davidson
|
Iams
|
NBA
|
Snap-On Tools
| Virgin
Atlantic
|
EMC Corp.
|
Harvard B.S.
|
Boston Beer Co.
|
|
1) CEO owns marketing
|
-
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
-
|
-
|
X
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
2) Small marketing dept.
|
X
|
X
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
X
|
|
3) Face-to-face with customers
|
X
|
-
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
-
|
-
|
X
|
-
|
X
|
|
4) Caution in market research
|
-
|
X
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
X
|
|
5) Hire passionate missionaries
|
-
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
X
|
|
6) Love/respect customers
|
X
|
-
|
-
|
X
|
-
|
X
|
-
|
X
|
-
|
-
|
|
7) Create customer community
|
X
|
-
|
X
|
X
|
-
|
X
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
8) Rethink marketing mix
|
-
|
X
|
-
|
X
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
X
|
|
9) Celebrate uncommon sense
|
X
|
-
|
X
|
X
|
-
|
X
|
X
|
-
|
X
|
X
|
|
10 ) Be true to the brand
|
X
|
-
|
X
|
X
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
X
|
X
|
-
|
One
might argue at the end that these rules apply only to highly
unique and smaller firms that are dominated by the force
and personality of the founder, or the current CEO, and
have somehow hit upon a good concept. While there may be
some truth in that, the authors do in the final chapter
discuss the application of these rules to more traditional
companies. In this regard, they discuss Saturn and Snapple,
and how these companies are applying some of the principles
of radical marketing.
On the
whole, while the concept of 'radical marketing' seems a
bit forced, the book does contain some useful insights on
building a dedicated customer base, and the extreme importance
of the CEO and senior management not getting too removed
from the day-to-day realities of marketing. Also, some of
the stories recounted in the case studies (the antics of
Richard Branson of Virgin, for example) make for highly
entertaining reading.
The
above summary has been provided to you compliments of TCI
Management Consultants
