Maintain absolute integrity
If you promise something, you must ensure that the promise is true. If you later realize that you made a mistake, then correct it as soon as possible. No matter what you promised, you must do it.
Today, Arby’s is a very successful fast food chain giant in the United States, with more than 3,600 restaurants around the world. However, when Leonard Roberts just took over as CEO, the restaurant’s performance was poor, with sales falling by about 10%-15% every year, but he eventually reversed the decline. A very important reason why he can do this is to promise to provide funds and additional help to franchise stores. His promises were fulfilled, and sales finally increased rapidly.
In order to maintain his integrity and unwilling to submit, Roberts resigned from the board of directors. As a retaliatory measure, the shareholders of Arby’s restaurant took Roberts’s CEO position. Roberts later encountered a situation that tested his integrity. He became the president and chief executive officer of a family-owned restaurant chain. The chain is called the “Shoney’s” restaurant and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, with 2,000 franchise restaurants. But as soon as he took office, he discovered that the restaurant is currently facing a lawsuit involving racial discrimination, and it can be called the largest racial discrimination lawsuit in American history.
Unfortunately, this problem does not originate from misunderstandings. The restaurant does have racial discrimination, because the restaurant’s president has always set a policy not to hire African Americans. As long as any subordinate manager violates this prohibition, Will be fired. Roberts immediately terminated this policy when he became president and chief executive officer of the restaurant. He later said: “Solving this litigation dispute according to my ideas is something I’ve been proud of in my life. The original CEO agreed to pay compensation and settle, which saved the company, but I must agree to Resign after fulfilling my promise. My dedication to integrity seems a bit cruel to my wife and children, but I know it must be done.”
Roberts resigned from the Shone’s restaurant chain and moved to the American Radio Equipment Company as CEO. A year later, he also served as CEO of Tandy. In the following 10 years, he has made extraordinary achievements in his career and won numerous honorary titles. With his extraordinary achievements, he was once named “Retail Marketer of the Year” by Brand Weekly. According to Roberts, “If you are inherently upright, you must defend what you think is right at all costs. You can’t pretend that. You can’t give up integrity for income or work. You can’t do a success with 90% integrity. The leader, because that requires 100% integrity.” Drucker obviously agrees with this view. As a marketer, the solid foundation of Roberts’ success is his integrity.
Know your subordinates
Bill Gates is the CEO of Microsoft Corporation. He founded Microsoft. His personal wealth is estimated to be as much as 58 billion U.S. dollars, possibly more. He has achieved remarkable results in his 20s and became a billionaire at the age of 31. Is it because he chose the right time and place? Is his success only because of luck? If you look at Gates’ career, you will find that he often spends a lot of time understanding his subordinates. He has been very successful in managing enterprises, but his secret is not to use office politics, but to focus on knowledge and technology.
Gates learned about computer programming when he was a teenager. By the time he was in high school, he had fully understood how to lead a computer programming team, and he had also worked with others to write programs for the corporate payroll management system. He knows marketing. He once started a company that developed software to calculate traffic flow in the city and sold it to the government. By the time he entered Harvard University, he had become a recognized computer expert. He knew sales, marketing, and management. He studied computer languages during his freshman year at Harvard University, preparing for the birth of the world’s first computer. During his sophomore year, he dropped out of Harvard University and eventually founded Microsoft. His success did not lie in that he was only in his 20s at the time, nor did he drop out of school halfway through, but that he knew how to create and how to sell his creations.
Express your expectations publicly
You can express your expectations publicly in many ways, one of which is to set goals. From tactical sales to strategic marketing, setting goals is very important. When I was a newsboy, I understood the importance of signing new clients to achieve my goals. Goals like this must be publicly expressed to people at all levels, from the lowest level to the highest level, let them know. We can call this goal a vision.
A compelling vision is often an essential element of success. All successful organizations, whether it is a small business, a Fortune 500 company, a sports team, a combat unit, or even a country, must have a clear and compelling vision. This vision points out the direction for everyone, guides all actions, and accurately tells everyone the direction of the organization they belong to. If the members of an organization can properly participate in the realization of this vision, then everyone will be happy to work for it.
Obama came to the fore in the presidential election and became the first African-American president in American history, which surprised the world. He is indeed an amazing character. But just a few years ago, he had little popularity. He has served in the US Senate for less than two years. His important opponent in the party is Senator Hillary Clinton. Not only has Hillary served in the Senate for eight years, she is also the wife of former President Clinton and enjoys a high reputation. She has made many extraordinary achievements and has a wide network of contacts in the political field.
If Obama is lucky enough to defeat Hillary Clinton and get the nomination in the party, then he will face John McCain. McCain is a heroic figure who has won the hearts of the people. He is also a senator. The Senate has served even longer than Hillary Clinton, and a series of achievements have been made. But in the end, the winner was Obama. How did he do it?
Of course, Obama won for many reasons. He has a high IQ, a very charismatic and an unpopular government that he opposes, and there are few flaws in his campaign. Chuck Todd was once a reporter and political analyst for the NBC News Channel. He was appointed as a White House reporter after Obama’s victory. He once wrote a book specifically to analyze Obama’s presidential election. The title of the book is “How Obama Wins”. In an issue of the “Today Show” program, he revealed an interesting fact that Obama is the only candidate who clearly expressed his expectations for the country, and among the three candidates, only Obama made a campaign speech. China clearly announced its candidate status and personal vision. You can only achieve the goal if you know what the goal is.
Show extraordinary dedication
Dell Computer Corporation has become the largest computer retailer in the United States just six months after its establishment. Dell’s sales are growing at a rate of 20% per month. Within a year, Dell’s sales revenue increased by 47% to $7.8 billion, and its profit increased by 91% to $518 million. Behind these outstanding performance is the famous “fast” distribution service. Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell, said: “In this industry, speed is everything. We are the industry’s set of tone.”
It is Dell’s own dedication to the “fast” concept that inspired employees. The fighting spirit made it willing to work together for this goal, and finally won the respect of customers and competitors. By 2008, although Dell’s position had been shaken several times, it eventually maintained its position as the number one computer supplier in the United States, second only to Hewlett-Packard in the world. In your marketing team, if you are a leader, no one can be as dedicated as you, even suppliers and contractors. If you have dedication, it proves that what you want to accomplish is important and that you are not going to give up. Isn’t that what we expect of marketers?
Expect positive results
In any marketing activity, if you always expect positive results, miracles will work. However, if you have been expecting a negative result, it will bring a negative outcome.
The concept of the super barber shop was put forward in the 1970s, which is a revolutionary concept. It replaced the original barber shop and beauty shop, replaced by a low-cost hair and beauty salon that can cater to both sexes. Once this concept was realized, it was immediately successful and achieved rapid growth, and its franchise stores quickly spread across the country. However, from a certain moment, the company began to lose confidence in itself and began to doubt itself. As a result, this organization has problems.
Just as marketers react when they feel worried and fearful, the company has reduced the amount of advertising and reduced the help it provides to franchise stores. Franchise stores form an alliance to protect their own interests. The head office leaders tried to stop the franchise stores, and the result was that the franchise stores collectively sued the head office, which led to the company’s low turnover and low morale. All indicators showed that the company’s situation was getting worse. This situation continued until an investment company invested in the acquisition of the company, and brought a new CEO-Betsy Burton. Burton’s expectation is to win. She increased the amount of advertising, sacrificed the interests of the head office to help franchise stores, help them form their own alliance, and take other measures to confirm her positive expectations for the company’s future.
It took her 16 months to increase profits by 10%. Within three years, it successfully achieved a sales growth rate of more than 10%. The revenue of the head office increased from 126 million US dollars to 170 million US dollars, and the number of franchise stores increased by more than 100. Franchise stores, employees, and management all expect positive results, because Burton, a great leader and great marketer, took the lead in this expectation.
Take care of the people you come in contact with
The “people you contact” can be your employees, your customers, or both, and the two coexist. In other words, if you take care of your employees better, then your employees will take better care of your customers. I recently returned to a restaurant that had been away for more than a year, but this restaurant is no longer the one I was familiar with. The quality of food is not as good as before, the quality of service has also declined, and the waiters lack a sense of humor without exception.
And the owner of this restaurant is a very stupid person. Someone once heard him say: “Oh, if we have more customers, I will hire a better chef, provide better meals and better waiters. . It’s all caused by the economic recession.” He attributed the dismal business situation to the fact that customers did not come to eat here, so he had to lower the service standard, hire cheap waiters, and try to reduce the quality of the food. Soon after my visit, the restaurant closed.
Later, the new managers were very considerate of customers and employees. The reason why I went back to eat there again was because I noticed that this restaurant once again had customers overrun. I am curious about the reasons behind this change. The waiters are polite and friendly to customers. The service is great, the food is of good quality and the prices are reasonable. I think this should be especially true in an economic recession. Taking care of the people you meet is often an important marketing principle.
Go to work
There is a marketing idea that successful marketing is just having a good idea. I don’t know where this idea came from. The idea is that after you have a good idea, you will sell it, and then you will work happily. Yes, innovation and marketing are basic elements, but successful marketers know that the actual situation is not like this, and the actual situation involves more problems. If you want to be successful in a certain marketing campaign, you need to go to the front line of work. You have to take action and let others see that you are working on the front line. Good marketers can always do this.
Beth Pritchard is the CEO of Bath & Body Works in the United States. The brand is the most popular natural brand among female friends in the United States. Its product line includes body lotions, shower gels, body sprays and more. In addition to doing the company’s business well, she also spends two days a month to go to the first-line store to do sales work. Instead of sitting there looking at the clerk, and then giving advice to the clerk in one way or another, she teaches others through her own practice, and she also feels in the process of teaching others.
She is busy working most of the time. She arranged the booth, set up the shelves, made gift baskets and so on. She said: “Although I am not really good at using the cash register, I still want to do it.” Whether she is good at using the cash register is not important. The important thing is that she appears on the front line of work and has a great impact on others. Motivation, the power of this kind of motivation will definitely bring rewards. Therefore, the cash register in her store is always full. When she took over the company in 1991, it had only 95 stores and sales of $20 million. Five years later, the number of stores has surprisingly increased to 750, with sales reaching 753 million US dollars. Perhaps it is for this reason that she has the ability to serve as executives and top managers in many other top companies.
If we recognize Drucker’s “Leadership is Marketing” philosophy, then we will also recognize the “Marketing is Leadership” philosophy, which is not surprising. If you apply a principle of leadership to marketing, then you will spontaneously apply the principles of marketing to leadership. This way you will receive extraordinary results.
