Managing Chaos

What does it take to manage a brand in a digital world? Kevin Roberts, worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi and World Business Forum 2009 speaker, says it takes vision, guts, and the ability to thrive amidst chaos.

Here are four ways to keep your footing.

1. Find people who can not only manage change and complexity, but who actually enjoy chaos. You can only thrive in chaos if you bloody love it. Consumers love this chaotic world because in it they win.

2. Learn to fail fast, learn fast, and fix fast. Because CEOs today are ROI-driven and obsessed, the great CMOs have to be smart street fighters so they can fail fast without their bosses kicking them in the slats.

3. Then, you need to do all these things on the cheap. Fail cheap, learn cheap, fix cheap -- because they"re not going to give you money to fail. Do fast, frequent, little tests of promising concepts, then as soon as you"ve got 80% results, boom! You"re gone.
 
4. Embrace the concept of random. The idea that you have control over your brand, control over the outcome of your marketing test, control over retail: forget it! One person, out of nowhere, can turn your marketing plan upside down. Sure, you didn"t deserve it, it"s not your fault -- who cares? Most management is not random. There are monthly meetings, budgets, goals. Some 98% of budgets are committed at the beginning of the year, deployed the same way they were spent last year. Good luck! My view is to go into the year with 40% of your budget uncommitted. Because consumers are in charge now, not you. And then be really close to your consumers, and really responsive. Move from being a director to being a connector.

Beyond Brands

I started with Trustmarks. Alan Weber, Editor of Fast Company, told me it wasn’t going far enough. At 3:00am over a second bottle of Bordeaux I gave in……..and leapt from Trust to Love (as you do!).

Great brands have passed their destiny over to the consumers. They’re dripping with Mystery, Sensuality, and Intimacy. They’ve added Love to Respect.

Creativity

Creativity is just connecting stuff. Emotionally. And daring to dream and be different.

Learnings

1) Start with the answer and work back.
2) Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
3) Make the big decisions with your heart; the small ones with your head.

Marketing

The consumer is boss and she lives in the Screen Age. We need to attract and embrace her whenever she’s interested. Key elements:

1. It’s attraction, not interruption
2. Think with your heart
3. Infuse Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy
4. Stream Sight, Sound and Motion
5. Make the World a better Place

Philosophy

The Gods First Make Bored Those Whom They Wish To Destroy.

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For more on Kevin’s latest ideas, insights and inspirations visit http://krconnect.blogspot.com

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