Learning from LexisNexis

LexisNexis is fighting like an insurgent underdog in the hard-to-make-money environment of the Web. Marketing on the Web takes the same strategic focus, discipline and customer-comes-first skills as selling fruit from a fruit stand. The basics still apply. And you've got to adapt and even transform your business model to the information age's new realities and, always, as an underdog, fight to control the dialogue, define yourself and your brand and play offense. This is the new way to win.

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Who Says Innovation Belongs to the Small?

Steve Lohr's recent article, Who Says Innovation Belongs to the Small?, makes many great points: Especially that innovation is no longer the purview of only the small and "nimble." Lohr maintains correctly that innovation now means connecting to larger networks and finding scale. True as well. A few years ago, in my book, The Underdog Advantage, we argue the key is to "act small"...to act like an insurgent by playing offense, staying agile, focusing on your customers and their needs and constantly looking to change the status quo. Many of our clients today are big companies that do just this---that use their scale as an advantage with an underdog-insurgent attitude and strategy to innovate and change the status quo. Size matters....but the key is attitude. The key is for big companies to crash the stove-pipes, de-bureaucratize and act like an underdog-insurgent.

David E. Morey
Vice Chairman
Core Strategy Group
www.PlayOffense.com

In Times Like These...

Listen to a speech I recently gave to the Nebraska Ethanol Industry Forum.

David

Now What?!

In this challenging new reality there must be a fundamentally new approach to marketing.

That’s why we wrote the award-winning book, The Underdog Advantage, and developed insurgent marketing.

By this time you’ve undoubtedly made the obvious and even the painful cutbacks in costs. You’ve demanded more from your employees and suppliers. Now what?! You know you can’t cut your way to success. Now you must begin to create value. And you know you’ll have to do it in a different way. It’s not enough to be demanding a greater return from the same old strategies and tactics. And you know when things get back to normal, it won’t be normal at all.

It’s time for a change; for a new way.

An Approach Proved in Politics, Business and Warfare:

We have a developed a unique approach uniquely suited to these difficult times. It’s a strategic and tactical marketing and communications model based on lessons from the most successful revolutionaries and underdogs in politics, business and warfare. We call it insurgent marketing. Our goal is to use this new approach to revolutionize marketing and business.

Over the past few years far too much marketing has amounted to cautious incrementalism. And in this economic crunch, that’s gotten even worse. Imagination and invention have been missing – likewise missing have been aggressiveness and opportunism. Most of today’s marketing is based on a model made for the very different situation of past markets and mass marketing principles developed over five decades ago. As kids say, that is so over.

Start at Zero:

So we suggest beginning at the beginning – zero-base your marketing, from strategy to tactics, from top to bottom. We’ll help you redefine the job that marketing must do for your business and your brands in this new reality. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the way value is created; it’s only through developing relevant differentiation in your markets – benefits that are relevant to your target audiences, benefits that are clearly and compellingly differentiated from the competition.

If you accept the definition of marketing as a process to add value to transactions, then you must audit all operations and communications to see if they live up to that standard. If not, it’s time for a change.

Insurgent marketing strategy is based on the most results-oriented organizations – successful insurgent political campaigns, business campaigns and military doctrine. The stakes are clear; White House or out house. We bring this no-nonsense attitude to marketing and strategic communications. We’ll help you develop achievable goals that lead to real market momentum. We have created a radically different approach to market segmentation that drives profitable growth. And we will teach your organization to be more aggressive and opportunity-driven in today’s zero-sum markets with our Predator Marketing and Strategic Communications Programs.

It’s Time for a Change:

This crisis brings opportunity with it – the only organizations that will find that opportunity will have to be what the great Bear Bryant said he looked for in football recruits: “Mobile, agile and hostile.”

We preach and practice insurgent marketing strategy. We can create real change in your marketing and your marketing organization—in your own life plan, for that matter—and help generate more speed, focus and market impact. Now, more than ever before, is the time you need that; and now is the time to begin building it.

David