I was recently reminded of the five great questions management guru Peter Drucker created for his foundation’s work with non-profit organizations:
- What is our mission?
- Who is our customer?
- What does the customer value?
- What are our results?
- What is our plan?
With minor tweaks, they are equally as valuable for for-profit companies to answer for themselves. Here is how we recommend revising the questions for success in for-profit businesses.
What is our mission?
Don’t let this question get you contemplating having a mission statement. A mission statement does not a marketing strategy make. With a for-profit company, ask instead, what are the core principles by which the business operates? At the end of the day, what is most important to the company owners and/or management? What is the company culture? In order to be successful, a company’s brand — and therefore its marketing message — needs to be build on these fundamentals. …Read More
When I first saw the new JC Penney logo on TV, my immediate reaction was, “Are they doing some kind of joint marketing thing with National Geographic?”
As you may know, National Geographic uses an open gold rectangle as their logo. For them the empty frame makes sense because it echoes their iconic magazine covers everyone recognizes.
On the other hand, for JC Penney to start using a “frame” as a logo with their initials stuck in a box in the corner makes no apparent sense at all. Introduced in January of this year, the logo is supposed to represent their new “square deal” policy. But the visual symbology is too much of a stretch. And as we know, if customers have to “stretch” to get what you mean, you lose.
A Flop in the Making
As soon as I saw the logo and heard about the new pricing strategy, I knew it would flop. …Read More