How to develop a marketing perspective.

'Marketing is everything," Regis McKenna wrote in Harvard Business Review three years ago. As a world-renowned leader in the field, he should know. I've found that marketing also is everywhere. Seattle, Wash., grunge rockers Nirvana even have a song titled "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" - marketing jargon for any hot tune that burns up the airwaves and makes CDs fly off the record store shelves.

Many communicators are learning how the tools they create fit into their companies' marketing processes. They're learning to play a direct role in actually helping their companies to compete. The marketplace is being redesigned, and functioning as a practitioner just isn't good enough any more.

You don't have to usurp a marketer's job. You do have to think like a marketer. Where to start? Myriad books, seminars and trade associations point the way. Here's a condensed version: seven ways to develop a marketing perspective about your communication.

1. Reposition your thinking

Marketing strategists Jack Trout and Al Reis, whose concept of positioning transformed advertising, recently told Advertising Age, "Today's marketplace is no longer responsive to strategies that worked in the past. There are just too many products, too many companies, too much marketing 'noise.' To succeed in this environment, you must create a position in the prospect's mind."

This positioning, or branding, was powerfully illustrated in September's Management Review in a pie chart titled "What Do Customer's Value Most?" The factors of image, customer dedication, account management, product performance and quality, service excellence, and capabilities were ranked as percentages of customer satisfaction. Which factor ranked as least valued? "Confirmation of capabilities?" What ranked the most? For 29 percent of those surveyed, it was "business expertise and image."

While some businesses, such as health-care providers, are newer competitors for market position, others, like Xerox, are already repositioning their brand image. Formerly The Information Company, Xerox is now The Document Company, master of both paper and electronic information environments. To prove that, it's creating a clear image of itself in the most demanding environment: its customer's mind.

2. Think strategically

Creating an image in your customer's mind begins with strategic thinking.

Starbucks Coffee did this. Noticing dwindling alcohol consumption, it decided coffee bars might appeal, and used clever print advertising to educate its target audience about the culture of coffee. Starbuck's phenomenal growth proved the consumer liked the change and the way it was communicated.

Learn what relationship your customer already has with the marketplace, before you try to change it. He or she controls it for the first time, thanks to technology. "Technology is transforming choice, and choice is transforming the marketplace," McKenna pointed out in his article. Communicators are expert at clarifying choices by providing information that initiates action. Don't forget that in the absence of information, one assumes.

3. Start asking questions

And don't assume you already know what your customer wants. A pizza store owner spent a lot of time upgrading his image, then lowering prices, but still didn't attract many new customers. Finally, he asked his patrons. Their answer surprised him. "We don't have a problem with your pricing. What we really want is a bigger slice of pie for the money."

Asking your customers is a simple way to gain their attention and begin the process of marketing your service or product. Chicken McNuggets was one answer when McDonald's asked customers what new items they'd like on the menu. Sometimes it's too simple! A contractor in my area captured a lucrative market with a Canadian vendor by just picking up the phone and asking for the business. Its competitors certainly hadn't considered a direct approach.

4. Get outside the box

Like communication, marketing is basically a problem-solving process. A typical consumer is bombarded daily by 60,000 competing messages. You can help your company's message get through by thinking "outside the box" of traditional solutions.

This isn't just the purview of the Fortune 500, as one Seattle hair salon recently proved. It switched stylists from commission to salary, put them through quality management training, and empowered them to personalize the business. Now 4,000 repeat customers come to its two locations. The salon sends its' customers a well-designed newsletter to stay in touch - and stay ahead of the competition.

Compare yourself to the competition, then differentiate yourself. After all, you want to surpass, not just compete. Look for strategies you can adapt from others, whether or not they're in your industry. After watching an Indy 500 pit crew do its thing, Southwest Airlines saw how they could speed up plane service turnarounds - a major theme in their aggressive advertising.

Don't neglect focus groups and surveys, a marketer's favorite tools. They're an efficient, measurable way to test new communication tools and approaches, such as putting your annual report on CD-ROM.

You'll also gain insight about how to integrate your communication for internal and external markets. Banks, for instance, are now combining multi-branch presence with a standardized product line. The sales team promotes a consistent message, and customers come to expect reliable services from any branch, anywhere. It's a simple marketing communication approach, what Ian Diery of Apple Computer calls "one message, delivered by many voices."

5. Show customers the possibilities

In the days of mass marketing, the type of industry you were in dictated what communication tools worked to your advantage. With the advent of niche markets, that's no longer true. Business monologues have given way to customer dialogues. Now, the customer's desire for credible, actionable information is the only common denominator. Desiring an efficient way to deliver this information, business demands more results and multiple uses from marketing communication tools.

For example, a retail chain specializing in paper products wanted to replace several ineffective direct mailers with one flexible tool. I recommended they give paper to local design school students in exchange for a funky poster that cleverly illustrated the product lines.

Jerry Bryan, ABC, the chief communication officer at Sverdrup Corporation spoke about strategic marketing at last June's IABC international conference. He issued a sensible warning that bears repeating: Don't get so caught up in the communication format that you miss the point of the communication itself.

6. 'Scale' for success

Bryan added that strategic marketing will only reap results if communication strategies are tied to business goals. It's important to know that your success in doing this isn't really a factor of your business type or size. It's more a matter of scale.

Don't overlook opportunities to build a customer relationship by tagging onto the marketing strategies of a business ally. For instance, a construction contractor knew its commercial banker wanted more small business customers. It approached the bank with a competitive proposal; now they're co-sponsoring seminars to inform business owners how to hire a contractor to upgrade their facilities, and how to pay for it. An interesting spin on adding value!

7. Link marketing communication with values

By linking your communication to customer values, your marketing efforts will attract customers. Qantas Airlines' koala bear ad campaign tapped into people's whimsy and humor. Chevron's "People Do" campaign ties the company image to environmental sensitivity. Both are good examples of value-based marketing communication.

Mind you, values are curious things. Growing up on Canada's Prince Edward Island, I helped my grandfather sort the potato harvest. Undeveloped tubers were classed as peewees and tossed aside for pig feed. Now food stores market them for $1.00 a pound as "new baby potatoes"!

Well, even U.S. junk bond king Michael Milken has decided that wealth is a byproduct of creating something of value, as he told the New York Times. Therein lies the challenge for marketing communicators. We're heading into an exciting era where wealth and value will be redefined to fit a reshaped business arena. Communicators need to help erect a new marketing framework in this arena.

Karin M. Doucette is a Seattle, Wash.,-based business consultant and principal of Marketing Communications Solutions.