What is Pull? In Lean Manufacturing the pull concept means that you are responding to the demands of the customer. You only produce per customer demands which will create a much more stable environment based on flow verses the traditional batch and queue type environment. In the service sector, the Lean Concept of pull has a similar meaning. However, it is pulling capacity or work versus material.
Dell is an example of this as they build computers to exact customer specifications. The advantage is that you meet customer’s demands quickly even though you minimize your work in process and your inventory levels. Some will argue the validity of this concept as it may just move those components to vendors’ further downstream form the customer. In the truest sense, pull should happen throughout the entire value chain.
When I discuss pull in the marketing concept people immediately relate it to the Lean concepts that I just briefly described above. As I worked through the Value Stream Marketing Concept over the past year, I started with the above diagram. I was calling the Blue Space, the Indirect Marketing concept and the Red Space, Direct Marketing. I went on to explain the concept of Indirect Marketing as a way of describing the value(achieve) that a prospect /customer would recognize by your involvement(access) within their communities(attract). These 3 levels of engagement evolved to a much simpler term of “Pull Marketing.”
These three levels of Pull have been wonderfully described in the recent book, The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion
Access: The ability to fluidly find and get to the people and resources when and where we need them. It is not about “Stocks of knowledge” versus “flow of knowledge.”
Attract: Often we’re at a loss for what questions to ask, much less what to look for. Our success in finding new information and sources of inspiration increasingly depends upon serendipity – the chance encounter with someone or something that we did not even know existed, much less had value, but that proves to be extraordinarily relevant and helpful once we find out about it.
Achieve: To get better faster at whatever it is you do, you’ve got to be supported by a broad array of complementary people and resources from which you can pull what you need to raise your rate of performance improvement.
These concepts are well explained and detailed in the book with the second part of the book discussing the elements of a successful journey towards pull, they discuss; trajectory (where you are going), leverage (the ability to mobilize the passions and efforts of other people), and the best pace (the speed at which you progress). Reviewing these concepts and if you are not new to my blog, you will definitely see the similarities that I discuss of Agility, Relevance Speed and Lean. If you are trying to get a handle on marketing trends today and in the future, I believe this book is a must read: The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion
Over the past decade and more, the Internet has played an ever increasing part of everyone’s marketing. The recent rapid increase is due in large part due to the popularity of Social Media, even though the Internet has been around for close to three decades. With the advent of smaller devices, texting and twittering, bite size information is even becoming the norm versus the rarity. Just think, small bite size chunks of relevant information delivered to a massive but permission based audience is not only normal communication but the future of marketing.
There are generally two different types of marketing, inbound and outbound. The first is the traditional type, inbound. Traditional marketing for years has followed three principles, Advertising, Public Relation and Referrals. You juggle this trio trying to fill you funnel and then you follow-up, follow-up and follow-up. There is a lot of structure, planning, design and scheduling. Everything had to be delivered at the utmost quality, on budget and with deadlines. You plan what you expect to happen, and then regardless of the results, you forge ahead because you have invested so much time, effort and money that you have little choice.
I wonder if Marketing, Ad firms are trying to make this transition but are struggling with the results? For example, many resisted the entry into Social Media and now they are participating but are they trying to use their old principles in adapting to it? The managers may lack the experience of participation in the new media. As an example, many were trained and are very good at networking, developing PR relationships and creating ads. Though, still important they are just some of the many attributes needed.
How many of these managers could or would even recommend using the same content 30 different ways in 30 days? That may be a bit of exaggeration but the new marketer understands that he must reach his prospects and customers in many, many ways and cannot afford new content for all. In fact, in most cases the marketer has to be already participating in the community he is trying to reach.
The fundamental shift to understand is that budgets are no longer the driver. It is also important to note that the web is predominately free from a budget perspective, it is not a free ride. Relevant Content determines your success and that is measured by how well you engage your prospects within your scope of influence. Relevant Content is not FREE.
Many companies feel they are participating in Social Media simply because they have a Face Book Fan Page or a few followers on LinkedIn or that they Tweet their specials. The traditional marketing messages seldom work in Social Media. It may actually become an impediment. Social Media is not a static venue. It is a place for conversation.
Value Stream Marketing also follows three principles; Agility, Speed and Relevance. In this process very similar to what has happened in agile software development, we are learning as we proceed. We embrace Change. We embrace Transparency. We embrace Communication.
Value Stream Marketing is a whole new way of thinking; a whole new philosophy. To become truly proficient, you must go through a paradigm shift. I mean really, are you developing strategies to focus on the right customer conversation? If you’re not, download my eBook and test the waters. Don’t keep looking at your marketing with an old set of Tools!
The Indirect Marketing depicted in the light blue section of the Value Stream Marketing layout incorporates a wide array of marketing tools. This can be similar to the top of someone’s marketing funnel but it also to the concept of flipping the funnel(see book below) and re-using your existing customer stream that you have in place.(Book on the subject: Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones)
There are numerous marketing systems and methodologies in the marketplace but what makes all of them work is your involvement with your customer or prospect. I believe to a certain extent all systems will work or won’t work based on the level of involvement. What most systems will do is help you develop certain touch points that will identify and link your product or services to your customer base. How well you can make this authentic and even transparent can be very important. Point in case is social media. It is OK to schedule tweets and blog post to become more efficient but without some actual real-time conversation it is soon recognized by your followers that this is indeed just a platform for you to blast out your message.
I have included a description of the first two stages of the Value Stream Marketing process:
The Define(Involvement) Stage: The Define stage typically asks us to start with a problem statement. In the marketing sense, can you define the problem that you solve for your customers clearly? Where the problem statement describes the pain, the next statement should describe the relief that is to be expected. After that, we go into a process that is typically defined as Voice of the Customer. There are typically two major categories that are required; Output requirements and Service Requirements. The output requirements relate to the final product or service that is delivered to the customer. The service requirements relate to how the customer would like to be treated and served during the process. The final step in the Define stage is to document the process. Typically, this is done with a high level process map. Don’t worry about it being completely correct as we will use it and develop it further in the remaining processes. More on this Subject: The Marketing Funnel using Six Sigma DMAIC – Define stage
The Measure(Influence) Stage: In the DMAIC methodology we use tools such as Critical to Quality and other tools to determine what is important to a prospect. Instead of thinking about this step from an internal point of view step back and consider what the prospect would use to measure your product or service and make the decision to move through the funnel. Developing measures with customer input will certainly help a prospect move though the funnel. At this stage, do you know how a prospect is measuring you? What is the most Critical to quality standard that influences your product or service? What is more critical than others? The old saying is that people perform by how they are measured? If your company is based on how they are being measured, do you have measurements in places that influence your performance? More on this Subject: The Marketing Funnel using the Six Sigma DMAIC Methodology – Measure stage
These are a couple of the DMAIC principles that you can use to guide someone through your marketing stages. But what are the marketing concepts that you are using in these stages? These concepts are many of the building blocks in the Lean Marketing House Foundation and are the basic marketing tools that you are familiar with when evaluating your marketing. From the general terms such as; Advertising, PR, Social Media and Referrals to the more specific tools that you use such as; Public Speaking, E-zines, Blogging and White Papers.
A Value Stream Marketing Concept: The one concept that many fail to consider is the In direct marketing of “Staying in Touch” with your customer base. Many times your customers are just folded back into the above mentioned terms or with your regular prospects. I would like to challenge your thinking on how you can become involved in your customer’s communities. Becoming active in these areas will not only increase your involvement with your customers and other prospects but there is nothing more effective in making your marketing more efficient. Understanding their needs, what they are looking for, where they are being undeserved is the single greatest marketing concept that I know of. So, if I ask this question: Where are your customers being undeserved? Can you answer it? And/Or, is that a market you have the ability to take care of or build a future alliance from? (Related Book Seeing What’s Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change)
