Marketing with a capital S: strategic planning for knowledge based services

Information Outlook, Feb, 1998 by Ulla de Stricker

In the context of price, it is essential that we understand the difference between total out of pocket cost and per-seat investment. Organizations have already invested heavily in LAN infrastructure and desktop tools for employees; if (as Gartner Group has explained for the last decade) the total cost of keeping a PC on one desktop amounts to anywhere between 20 and 50 thousand dollars per year, then the incremental investment for useful information knowledge access tools to appear on its screen may be trivial. Our communications should speak in the language of infrastructure investment and incremental per-seat investment rather than in the naked terms of the total cost of e.g. the newsfeed service we are advocating. And our communications should echo the corporate philosophy with respect to employee technology empowerment (assuming that there is one). At all costs, we should avoid libraryese and instead speak in the business terms our stakeholders use and understand ("daily news" is different in impact from "ensuring you won't be caught off guard").

4. Communicating to Stakeholders: Press, Promotion, and Pushing

Having undertaken the current situation assessment, the preliminary product design and pricing, and the beta test to ensure it flies and works, we now face the job of communicating to a broader community what we have to offer.

Human beings tend to react to new information with indifference or mild awareness, followed - if the information touches key pain points or priorities - by intrigue, then interest, and finally action. Our communications to our stakeholders should be geared to generate just those reactions. How can we catch someone's attention long enough to, and phrase our message so as to, have a shot at intrigue? How can we reward the intrigue with enough substance that interest follows? (Of course, this is where our knowledge of what keeps the key people awake at night comes in...)

After we ensure a general "buzz" (awareness among a critical mass that the information center is up to something fairly cool), we then need to dispatch targeted messages to key stakeholders that will motivate to action (replying to an e-mail, coming to a lunch event or private information session, or whatever we decided was appropriate). Crafting a message sequence that generates action is not an easy task, and we should not hesitate to call in the experts. Yes, we are excellent communicators when it comes to facts and analysis; but do we know how to get a person to do the hardest thing of all, change to a new behavior from old habits or nothing at all? In this context, it's worth remembering that focusing on early adopters always pays off (no point in communicating to laggards...yet) and hence it's yet again handy to have a detailed understanding of our constituents.

In the context of behavior change, remember that peer pressure is strong and ensure that the opinion leaders are in your corner. If it means "servicing the h*** out of them...," then let's do that. Personal memories of having had one's bacon saved last almost forever, and in corporate interactions "you came through for me so I'll come through for you" is a powerful dynamic. Managing a positive favor bank balance and calling in favors is an important skill.