The legend of Doc Rounds

Doc Rounds made me believe in chiropractic. He was our football team doctor and the father of my close friend, Scott. Doc handled nearly every bump, bruise and bash by spraying it with a liquid that nearly froze whatever you complained about after which he would tell you to walk or shake it off. It always seemed to work though I never really appreciated Doc until one summer when I took a particularly nasty bash to the hip. Something must have disjointed and the pain shot down the leg and up the back which seemed odd. Every time I stepped on that leg I could feel the pain rise up my back and nearly over the top of my head. I finally complained to Doc.

My Dad really liked Doc and had no problem letting him treat me there on the wooden bench of practice field four at Shorty Howell Park. I lay on my back and Doc measured my leg then grumbled through a half chewed cigar that one leg was significantly shorter than the other. He lifted my knee and pushed it over while holding my shoulder down and crrrrrack. I was cured. Several years of wrestling, rock climbing and that one time I fell off a building while working as a photojournalist and that hip has yet to bother me since Doc fixed it.

Years later I was consulted by a chiropractic group concerning their marketing and I told that same story. One of the doctors gave me a book and I learned the history and philosophy behind chiropractic. Now I have to admit, besides my field-side treatment I have not gone back to a chiropractor but that does not dissuade me from giving credence to one of their core ideas: Alignment.

From what I understand, the philosophy behind chiropractic is that nerve signals are interrupted by misalignment and the result is a multitude of symptoms that seem unrelated. While the injury may lie at the hip you may feel it in your shoulder. Who knew?

Brands often behave the same way. They seem to ache in one place but the injury lies elsewhere. Their disjointed alignment has sidelined growth and no amount of spraying the “cold stuff” is going to make the ache go away. Brands have symptoms. Sometimes it’s due to old age. Sometimes it’s just growing pains. Sometimes once strong muscles are fatigued. Sometimes things are just out of alignment and need an adjustment. I believe these brands experience discomfort due to misalignment somewhere between the prospective customer and the brand where things have just gotten out of joint.

Here are a few symptoms that brands commonly display:

1) Gets tired easily

Sales rise but the cost of the sale is climbing even faster.
The brand that seems to continue to grow in sales but the costs associated with driving sales continues to go up each year so that the dollars that are currently in spent-to-drive sales (advertising dollars, trade promotion dollars or consumer promotion dollars) are getting increasingly inefficient. The result is profits growing at a partial percentage of what they actually should be. One of the reasons such a situation occurs is that brands have become commoditized in the mind of the trade and in the mind of the consumer. Marketers must consistently underwrite them from a financial point of view and give the consumer financial incentives or give the trade of a financial reason why they continue to support the brand.

2) Tapeworm

An inability to gain weight no matter what you eat.
A brand that is not increasing its sales no matter how many dollars invested in a downward spiral and that might be a decline in the category or it may be a function of new products that have come into the category that are deemed to be superior in either quality, value or performance. It just might be new products that touch the heartstrings of consumer in certain way that begins to gain a share of that consumer’s heart, consumers mind and ultimately share of business. Something new has to take place if the businesses are going to continue to expand and efficiently compete.

3) Thinning bones
The milk of long term planning makes for a healthier tomorrow.
The business is going fine but you want to make certain it's one of your strongest brands. You want to make certain that you are always thinking through every conceivable way of building a business because essential to the success of our company is this brand and its long-term success. You should never be caught short while thinking through potential positions and new ways to talk about our product to consumers and ways to continue to win hearts and minds. It's almost like it's an insurance policy that marketers continue to take out to make sure that this cash cow is a long term performer.

4) Anemia, brought on from giving too much blood.
Wall Street wants more blood whether you have it or not.
Wall Street continues to demand growth out of the company and single digit growth for each brand is not going to be sufficient to be able to continue toward the PE ratios that the company is currently trading on. Every brand manager is being tested and is under scrutiny to figure out new and innovative ways to make brands cost effective while profitably growing the business.

5) Blisters.
The pains of breaking in a new acquisition.
The new purchase of a brand along with the need for a new strategy to position a product to customers and trade under the idea that enhanced efficiency allows for a quicker return on investment and return to profitability.


Why does it hurt when I do this?

A brand suffers aches and pains that seem to come from all around but truly have only one source. The alignment between the consumer and the brand should two parallel lines. The first line is the reception of consumer’s thoughts, dreams, aspirations and desires inputted to the brand. The second is the reflection of the consumer’s input paired with the brand as a solution to achieve the consumer aspiration, desires and such. Brands give off symptoms when one or both of these pathways are out of alignment.


Finding and correcting misalignment.

Research, by virtue of its impact and purpose, should be unfettered. The reality is that research companies are sometimes scared to tell the truth. The reality is that sometimes a company’s own employees are afraid to tell the truth. Incorrect intake of information from the consumer results in incorrect strategies from the outset. Another common malady in marketing is the incorrect translation of the brand strategy into meaningful advertising. Production artists get enthralled with actors, techniques and style and the strategy gets lost. Alignment from consumer to brand comes through the correct conducting and interpretation of research in all its varied forms. Alignment from brand to consumer comes through the correct translation of the strategy into impactful creative which enlivens schema and connects to the brand.


Maybe the whole body needs adjustment.

The sudden resolution of discomfort in marketing might tempt one to consider adjusting the alignment of marketing within the entire organization. While marketing may be in perfect alignment when concerning itself, it may disjointed with sales, finance, production, etc. Correctly aligning marketing within the organization can resolve bigger organizational problems and allow a marketing campaign to truly succeed.


Snowden Tatarski is a marketing consultancy based in Athens, Georgia that focuses on the development and implementation strategic marketing plans. The company offers marketing research, marketing strategies, advertising development, media strategy and planning, sales consultation, trade communication strategies and the production of advertising, sales collateral, broadcast and interactive systems and materials. Information online at www.sn-ta.com

Couples Skate Only

Hannah was my grade school girlfriend but she only loved me because I could roller skate backwards. She gave me a necklace that had a little key shaped charm on it and she wore the matching heart with a small section in the shape of the missing key. I lost the key while water skiing in Lake Lanier, but even such a young romance faux pas could overcome the fact that I could roller skate backwards. Having grown up in Virginia Beach, the self proclaimed east coast headquarters for roller skating and skate boarding, I could roller skate with a prowess hitherto unseen in rural Georgia. All the girls were jealous because Hannah and I could face each other while we skated to the slow songs while the other couples had to hold hand side by side much like one did with a parent when they were younger.
Hannah went to another school the following year and we weren’t reunited until years later when we were in high school. While our memories of skating rekindled a brief romance, Hannah had turned into quite a beautiful woman and soon left me on the rink. I heard later that she was caught by her stepfather doing the high school equivalent of skating backwards with a senior football player and was abruptly uprooted and moved to another high school. I learned early that there is no perfect relationship no matter how good you skate.
Sometimes I want to kick myself for not remembering Hannah when it comes to client relations. There I am, out there doing 360s, skating backwards and shooting the duck while the object of my attention is at the snack bar. I’ve had the clients that first really like the idea of skating backwards but then they notice everyone else skating side by side so they chicken out and blend in. I’ve had some clients that think they’re ready to skate backwards, but then decide the skate rental cost too much. I have had a few clients that I’ve had to teach how to skate altogether.
My mentor Bob is a great man. He has never seen me skate, but I know he would be impressed if he did. I have tried out my skating skills in this now older body and despite knocking down the fat kid in the sweat suit who was wearing a helmet, I've still got it. Regardless, I don’t know if Bob skates or if he likes to skate, but I do know that Bob knows about relationships. Bobs knows what I wish I’ve always known and that is the correct management of relationships where all participants win.
The client and marketing/advertising consultant relationship has always been a tenuous one. Unlike the cost-cutting, outsourcing and efficiency management that accounting firms are peddling, marketing consultation is typically about investing in a less-than-sure thing. Sure, the biggest gains a company will ever make are far more likely to be related to marketing than cost savings; however, the sheer idea of betting a dump truck full of money that a product and message are going to connect with the consumer scares a lot of executives right out of their skates.
The need for progress does not care if you’re scared. The option to go hide from the consumer is not really an option at all, and if you don’t take the hills of customers’ affinity, someone will be more than happy to take them from you. Marketing also tends to be more art than hard science. Anytime people and their opinions are involved, the level of uncertainty rises. This rising uncertainty coupled with the often artistic and ethereal discussion put forth by a marketing consultant can create a situation of strain on the client and the relationship. Many in the industry have tried to soothe this discomfort with more open communications and understanding. When that failed, the two would engage in all out combat with marketers demanding to know costing and procedures for all agency processes and the agency/consultants reengineering company process, dissolving in-house efforts, acting as a surrogate marketing department and occasionally demanding a share of the pie when profits come to fruition.
It takes losing a few loves to the seniors before one really knows how to manage relationships. When I asked Bob to write the foreword to Gin, Incense and Deacon Blues, the request came at a time when a particular multi-year relationship needed some refreshing. Bob’s advice made its way into the foreword, but his words so impressed me that I wrote down the concepts and put them in a document we often send to potential and new clients entitled “A Word on Relationships.” The document serves as a manifesto of sorts and helps the client understand our orientation concerning relationships and the correct execution of such for the betterment of business and all involved. And now, for your reading enjoyment, “A Word on Relationships.”
A Word on Relationships.
Business is about relationships. It’s the relationships between companies and consumers. It’s the relationships across the web of interconnectedness between suppliers and vendors and end users. It’s the interpersonal relationships within an organization.
We believe relationships are at their best when they are respectful, caring and beneficial while containing a mutual sense of responsibility and benefit. Many call such a relationship “win-win.” We will simply say it is these types of relationships that we seek to create and maintain with our clients. Relationships which by attention, compensation, respect or any other means dictate that one side of the relationship wins and the other loses are not positioned for long term success. We do our best to avoid them.
We have three points that, when followed by both parties in a relationship, will help make that relationship successful and fruitful.
1) Know each other’s intentions upfront.
People do things in business for a lot of reasons, and these reasons often get cloaked behind pleasantries, protocols and professional images. Eventually, however, these motivations will surface, and the result can be that everyone is not working towards the same goal for the same reason.
Our motivation in the relationships we form is simple. We want to do the best and most effective work at the highest level of our capabilities while being compensated for it fairly. In return we offer our best thinking, best effort and enthusiastic energy in making our shared efforts successful.
2) Make commitments with the intention of fulfilling them.
Be it by potential, compensation or expectation, all companies have been guilty at one time or another of promising more than they can deliver. It is these situations that erode confidence and hinder progress. We have found it is better to discuss and agree upon expectations and deliverables from the outset of the relationship. As new projects are added, those projects should also be fully vetted for expectations for all parties involved.
3) Consistently show value for the relationship.
When a relationship matures, it is common for companies to dismiss the affirmation of the relationship as a formality needed only at inception. We believe that relationships require maintenance. This can mean hearing new perspectives, discussing past efforts, plotting new strategies, adjusting expectations, appreciating evolving roles and insight and the myriad of other activities aimed at keeping relationships strong and productive.
We understand that not all businesses will agree with our views concerning relationships. We do not feel that businesses which do not treat relationships the way we recommend are wrong. We simply have found that our particular business thrives when relationships are respectful through and through.
Making your own word on relationships.
The client/consultant relationship as it pertains to marketing will probably never be smooth sailing all the time, if only for the reason that if both parties had the exact same viewpoint, capabilities and insight, the need for consultation in the first place would diminish. Companies looking to make marketing stardom should seek out consul and partners that they intend to treat like partners instead of vendors.

I had a client who praised us and talked of decades-long relationships only to find that during a photoshoot he was in the next room romancing a competitor. My advice: talk your talk and walk your walk. If you are seedy in the way you deal with your marketing consultants, an individual or group who knows all your secrets, vulnerabilities and whose successful allegiance will by far exceed the performance of any other consultant, if you just must be a snake when it come to working with them, then you have a really big problem looming over your head. Better nip it in the bud now.

Some people’s perspective on successful business relationships is where they win and you lose. Avoid these people. You can bet they have a long list of enemies and disenchanted individual laying in their wake. Some of the best marketing I have other seen was done by somebody who was burned in someway by the rival. Strong strategy and creative fueled by venom in the mouth is not only dangerous for the initial bite, the stamina of a marketer scorned is truly something to behold. They are not content with winning market share. They want total war and full destruction of the adversary. They will not rest in pursuing the adversary until they are at the bankruptcy liquidation sale.

A funny thing I have noticed about the consultant/consulted relationship is that when it works, it really works. Consultants begin to understand the essence of a company so much that they involve themselves in the company’s whole strategy planning and begin to find a place in product development and distribution. The meshing and integration of the two entities erodes outdated and hampering boundaries that impede the seamless communication of enthusiasm for the offering. For one client, we wrote the marketing chapter of their businesses plan to help them get funding for a new endeavor. It was partnership at its best. When things are working, you need to keep them working well.

So, in OJ Simpson trial style, I’ll give you a line to ponder. If it’s a fit, you must commit. If you find that the idea and energy you are receiving from the consultant is the exact recipe to turn around slumping progress, the last thing you want to do is to attempt control by fear. Creative thinkers work best when they are not hampered by the looming doom and threat of severing the relationship. Also, a long term commitment lessens the chance that a correction to an internal problem the consultant may spot will be absconded simply to keep smiles up in the next contract negotiation. So of the worst work I’ve done was because of fear. The client started toying with the contract and we responded by doing whatever they wanted. The creative should have gone right off the desk into the toilet. We help make the client a faux celebrity, a situation he had wanted all along, and the result made even the spot’s editor want to change the channel. Fear makes you do stupid things. If you are in search of stupid things, by all means, motivate your people with fear.

It’s been years, but I don’t feel so far from the skating rink these days. Clients wheeling around in circles and everybody trying to impress them with all sorts of tricks. People will flash by with twists and turns sure to dazzle Brian Boitano and if you’re the client, you may be tempted to skate with the kid who can do a double axle. Just remember the kid who does the double axle does it because of the way it makes him feel when people ooh and ahh. And the kid who skates backwards with you during the slow song? He does it for the way it makes you feel.

Snowden Tatarski is a marketing consultancy based in Athens, Georgia that focuses on the development and implementation strategic marketing plans. The company offers marketing research, marketing strategies, advertising development, media strategy and planning, sales consultation, trade communication strategies and the production of advertising, sales collateral, broadcast and interactive systems and materials. Information online at www.sn-ta.com