100 Marketing Tips: #8

SMaC Your....Oh, I don't have a good title for this that isn't offensive.

Every marketing plan should have a SMaC recipe.

SMaC stands for 'Specific, Methodical & Consistent'. It's like the new SMART which, quite frankly, we all found incredibly tiresome. It was created by Jim Collins in his book 'Great By Choice' - which is well worth a read.

The words are self-explanatory and a good SMaC recipe can help turn what would normally be just strategic plans into actionable items. An exert from the book below:

"[Howard] Putnam [CEO of Southwest Airlines in its early years] didn’t issue some bland, generic “Southwest Airlines will be a leading low-cost airline” vacuous statement. He specified two-hour segments. He specified 737s. He specified 10-minute turns. He specified no air freight or mail. He specified no food service. He specified no interlining. He specified no seat selection. He specified cash-register receipts. Putnam’s 10 points are easy to grasp, articulate, follow and understand what to do and what not to do. Putnam laid out a clear, simple, and concrete framework for decisions and action. Putnam’s 10 points reflect insight, based upon empirical validation about what works."

So you can create a SMaC recipe for pretty much every strategic marketing idea. Here are three SMaC recipe elements I've used in the past (and still use to a degree) within our own business.

1. Never ever quote without meeting a client first. (We don't quote anymore but that's another story)
2. Focus on our three product categories. Do not get pulled into delivering other things outside of
3. Build results for clients that fit their business and their budget.

These aren't great SMaC elements, I will admit that. I'm learning about them myself and trying to improve. But this is where we are moving the client strategic activation to in the next few months and we believe it will deliver better results for everyone involved.