The Labor Shortage Is a Perception Problem

Manufacturers, Trade Groups, Schools Must Work Together
A staff editorial in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel calls attention to a pressing issue for manufacturers and other B2B companies: the skilled labor shortage.

It’s a topic we’ve discussed here before—and one that, right now, several of our clients are taking a leadership role in addressing. They’re collaborating with technical schools and colleges, offering scholarships and internships, sponsoring recruitment fairs and more. In the interest of your company’s future, you may want to follow suit.

The baby boomers’ retirement is often cited as one of the leading causes of the intensifying skilled labor shortage. And rightfully so. But the real problem isn’t necessarily that there aren’t enough workers out there to replace them; no, for manufacturers in particular, the challenge is that potential workers are avoiding manufacturing careers.

Why? Because hey don’t think it’s a sophisticated path. Their parents have told them the jobs don’t pay well. And they’ve heard that all the manufacturing jobs are moving overseas.

These are all misperceptions. The truth is that manufacturing positions today often are at the forefront of innovation.

Clearly, manufacturers face a significant public relations challenge that must be solved promptly. Fortunately, two upcoming events in Milwaukee may help dispel some of the myths. ANTEC and the Plastics Encounter, set for May 4-6, will showcase the latest developments in high-tech manufacturing, helping advance current workers skills and improve recruitment of new workers.

We agree with the JS editorial: Manufacturers, educational institutions and trade organizations must work together more to help attract and retain workers. ANTEC and Plastics Encounter are two fine examples of such initiatives. Now it’s time for your company to join the cause.

For Marketers, the Earth Day Bandwagon May Be Full

In the thick of Earth Day media coverage, it may be time to ask: Is “green” on its way to being as undifferentiating a term as, say, “solutions provider”?

An interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal takes a look at that question. And clearly, in some sectors—particularly in the consumer space—the answer is yes.

Quick take in B2B: Environmental claims may not yet be devalued. But there’s certainly no shortage of green pretenders out there. Trade media are being flooded with green product stories … some have merit; many don’t. As a result, many audiences are becoming desensitized to claims about corporate environmentalism and social responsibility.

So it’s more critical than ever that substantive, defensible claims be the backbone of any green messaging. That’s most likely a good thing, because it may encourage more companies to pursue environmental initiatives the right way—with actual green impact.

Who Cares What the Competition’s Doing?

You shouldn’t—or not much, anyway.

Last week, we touched on business strategies and hedgehogs and such. To follow up, here’s a column from BtoB magazine that’s a window on the strategies of leading companies.

Author Wes Ball gives us a snapshot of what his firm’s research uncovered about “alpha companies,” as he calls them.

Here’s the big idea:

Nonalpha thinking: Focus on staying ahead of competition.

Alpha thinking: Focus on what your b-to-b customers want to buy.

Of course, it’s important to keep an eye on what other companies in your market are doing and saying—but maybe only to make sure you aren’t doing and saying the same things.

After all, what’s good for another company isn’t necessarily good for yours. Instead, what’s best for your company is whatever you do best—and that customers value.

In the B2B game, your customers’ success drives your success. So we counsel our clients to pursue a customer-centered strategy, and make that the foundation of everything they communicate.

In other words, move the way alpha companies do. They don’t get mired in keeping up with the competition; they’re too busy focusing on their customers’ needs. So take a page from their playbook: Stay out of the “me, too” fray, and you’ll stay ahead of the competition.

Your Strategy (or Lack Thereof) Makes a Statement: Employees Need a Clear Strategy Statement to Follow

The other day, a colleague and I were discussing a formerly family-owned manufacturing company that was recently sold to a private equity firm. With such a big change, there was a real challenge for the new leadership to come in and smooth out the transition with employees. The key? First, articulate a strategy for success in 35 words or less.

That’s one of the top jobs of a company leader. And yet, many CEOs can’t readily identify their strategy, according to an excellent piece in the latest issue of the Harvard Business Review, “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” (you’ll need to agree to the terms and conditions to read it).

If the chief can’t say what the strategy is, then how likely is it that anyone else down the line will understand it, either? And how will they be able to work in ways that support it?

This represents a major missed opportunity in internal communications. But the HBR article details a few strong examples of companies with unique strategies that are well defined and well followed. Consider, for example, Edward Jones, and its successful against-the-grain approach of one very hands-on financial advisor per office—often in a rural location overlooked by other firms.

So how can you embark on a similarly successful path? The HBR piece also offers a good primer on the basic tool of marketing communications that starts it all: a powerful, succinct strategy statement.

A note on that strategy: It should be based not on what your competitors are doing (that tired “me, too” philosophy), but on what’s best for your company to do. The HBR calls it your “sweet spot,” the intersection of your company’s capabilities with your customers’ needs. At Scheibel Halaska, we usually refer to this approach as being a “hedgehog”—as in the ancient Greek parable: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” For the uninitiated, this term was popularized by Jim Collins in his best-selling book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t.”

If you’re a CEO or in any other leadership position, the HBR article (and Collins’ book, while you’re at it) should be required reading. Hope the leader of that manufacturing company we were talking about gets a chance to read it, too.

Advertising and the Internet: Time to Rethink the Relationship?

As a follow-up to our two recent posts on the obsession with ROI and the way information moves on the Internet, a new Advertising Age column dovetails nicely: Matthew Creamer’s “Think Different: Maybe the Web's Not a Place to Stick Your Ads” (subscription needed).

For marketers and agencies, says Creamer, big changes are happening in the way we do business—or at least they should be happening. He quotes Trevor Kaufman, CEO of Schematic, the interactive agency recently purchased by WPP Group:

"It's easy for clients and agencies to think about banners and email because buying banners is like buying outdoor and email is like direct. That is very different than nurturing the community of your customers, providing great content or executing transactions."

Lessons to mull over:

• We can’t simply jump into the digital game with a traditional-media approach that isn’t suited for the social dynamics of the digital environment. Banners can work well on niche websites, but don’t overlook the countless other opportunities to connect with customers in new ways.
• We shouldn’t obsess over tactical metrics like click-through rates that track how many people we’re reaching instead of how well we’re getting through to them.

The biggest lesson, however, is that we have many lessons to learn. The digital media landscape is rapidly maturing, and there’s a real need for serious reflection on what we’re doing there.

Meanwhile, many marketers and advertisers haven’t even gotten past the “brochureware” stage of Internet content—literature conceived for print, converted to digital. So it seems that we’ve got a lot of thinking to do …

Why ROI isn’t everything (but it still matters a lot)

In an interesting take on the current obsession with ROI in marketing, blogger Justin Cooper laments that the phrase “ROI” was the top marketing buzz phrase of 2007:

For a marketing executive to say "This sounds great, but what's the ROI?" demonstrates that they are missing the point. The person that asks this question is caught up in the evaluation of their tactics and not thinking about the content of their customer's experience. It's like focusing on the buttons of the phone, rather than the conversation.

Now, for us marketers, this is a hairy argument—especially in B2B, and especially especially in uncertain economic times. Clients pay for our services, so we need ways we can demonstrate the impact of what we do. We even recommended using ROI-measurable tactics in a recent post.

But true marketing ROI can’t be determined by the handy numbers you can claim from an assortment of tactics. It’s got to be part of a larger strategy aimed at meeting big-picture goals like entering new markets, gaining market share, etc.

As Cooper points out, customers must be involved in shaping that strategy. They’re the ones whose interests will make or break your company’s success. So ask yourself: Are your customers full collaborators in your marketing conversation? If not, you’re just talking at them, not with them. And they probably aren’t listening much.

That’s why, absent a marketing strategy based on what customers actually want, reader impressions or basic response levels don’t count for much. But integrated with a comprehensive strategy to advance business goals, ROI-measurable tactics can still help you understand how well you’re supporting the cause.

Favre retirement frenzy highlights the new-media era

Hey, did you know Brett Favre retired?

Of course you did. I’d link to a story, but I wouldn’t know which of the hundreds of thousands of articles and blogs to choose. Besides, the news is so three days ago.

Few events could have better demonstrated how the media cycle has accelerated, and the landscape changed, than Tuesday’s leak of the “Favre-gone conclusion,” if you will. And B2B marketers need to adapt.

Some of us in this office first learned of the Favre bombshell via a Blackberry news alert from the Small Business Times, just minutes after the story broke (on FOXSports.com). The SBT isn’t the source you’d think of first for breaking sports stories; rather, it’s a relatively new, niche publication that covers—you guessed it—small business.

But this is Wisconsin; most news outlets would have bumped the moon landing for No. 4’s farewell. That’s partly why it made sense that the SBT was out in front on this story.

It also made sense because of how news spreads today. The cycle is dramatically different from the way stories moved in the heyday of big-city papers and other MSM. Today’s media landscape is populated more by the likes of smaller, nimbler organizations built from scratch to communicate through electronic means—email, Internet, text.

Of course, in B2B, we don’t often have a story with the earth-shattering magnitude of the Favre announcement. But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the changes in the media dynamic. There’s now an online community for every niche interest imaginable, including whatever widget business you’re in. These communities seize upon relevant stories with great zeal, albeit on a much smaller scale.

That’s why, as B2B marketers, we also must embrace new media. It’s a great challenge and, as the Favre saga showed, also a great opportunity to spread messages to more people more quickly than ever before.