Grassroots Marketing for Leaders

Bearcat Leadership Training 2011

What Does Marketing Have to do With Leadership?

We mostly think of marketing as something companies do to build awareness of their products and services.

What we may not realize is that we are doing that about ourselves almost all of the time.

Leaders Know How to Market Themselves

Grassroots marketing is at the personal, local level which is where we market ourselves generally.

How you lead tells a lot about who you are to others. It may be based more on perception than reality but isn’t that also marketing?

In any case, be aware that you are always marketing yourself.

To Whom Are We Marketing Ourselves In marketing terms, we are talking about

the target market. Businesses use grassroots marketing to get as close and as personal as they can to their target market.

Our personal target market may include: Teachers, Parents, Children, Bosses, Coaches, Friends, Significant Others and anyone else who might be in the immediate area unless…

To Whom Are We Marketing Ourselves We market ourselves using social media. Facebook and other social networking sites

have became major players in marketing and most would consider it grass roots.

Just as companies use it, we are constantly sending messages out about ourselves on these sites.

85% of college students use social media (Facebook is #1) on a regular basis. (techcrunch.com)

Effective Leaders Know How to Market Themselves

Ask yourself these three questions:

1. Who Are You Now? How would your friends describe you?

2. What Do You Want Out of Life? Be specific.

3. How Will You Know When You’ve Reached Your Goals?

If you can’t answer these questions, you’re doomed to accidental marketing, spending your life reacting instead of responding. (Gmarketing.com)

Quick Discussion

List as many ways as you can of how we send messages about ourselves….

Quick Discussion

In Person via:

Appearance

Eye Contact

Body Language

Speech Patterns

Attitude

Ethics

In Print via:

Texts

Email

Social Networks

Letters

• In marketing, these would all be considered tactics or vehicles in which to reach the target market. Marketers choose tactics very carefully.

How Might Our Messages Be Interpreted

• Marketers invest money in marketing research in order to understand how their messages have been interpreted by their target market.

• The hope is that they’ve created a desirable image in the marketplace.

• As leaders, we should also be concerned with what image we have created about ourselves.

How Might Our Messages Be Interpreted

• Effective Leaders Are Seen As:

• Dependable

• Punctual

• Honest

• Sincere

• Gratuitous

• Proactive

• Respectful

• Good Listeners

• Passionate!

• Image vs. Identity

How Do We Market Ourselves Better?• Three Steps to Get Started:

1. Write a Positioning Statement About Yourself• A Positioning statement is how a

company is seen as it relates to its competitors. For example, Southwest Airlines positions itself as inexpensive compared to other airlines. Their tagline, “Bags Fly Free”, reinforce that image.

• Your positioning statement should identify just who you are and the positive things that stand out most about you (Gmarketing.com).

How Do We Market Ourselves Better?

• Three Steps to Get Started:2. Identify your goals.

• Put into writing the three things you'd most like to achieve during the next three months, three years and then ten years (Gmarketing.com).

How Do We Market Ourselves Better?

• Three Steps to Get Started:3. State your measuring stick. Write the details

of how you will know when you've achieved your goals. Be brief and specific. (Gmarketing.com)

• Marketers should always measure the effectiveness of their advertising. For example, coupon redemption lets marketers see how many consumers responded.

To guerrilla market yourself, simply be aware of and in control of the messages you send. Do that and your goals will be a lot easier to attain.

You As A Logo

• Most companies have a logo that represents some sort of image they have marketed.

• Assignment:

• What icon, or logo, would best represent who you are and/or who you want to be?

Influential Leaders Make Great Marketers… some of my favorites…

Philip Kotler◦ Popularized the “4 Ps of Marketing”

Theodore Levitt◦ Author of numerous thought-leading Harvard

Business School articles

Jay Levinson◦ Widely regarded as the “inventor” of Guerrilla

Marketing

David Ogilvy◦ Arguable the most famous copywriter in the world

and built the tenth biggest agency in the world

References: Levinson, Jay. Guerrilla Marketing Yourself.

Guerrilla Marketing, Article 163. Retrieved January 26th, 2011 from http://www.gmarketing.com/articles/163-guerrilla-marketing-yourself

Arrington, Michael. (2005, Sept. 7th). 85% of College Students Use Facebook. TechCrunch. Retrieved January 27th, 2011 from http://techcrunch.com/2005/09/07/85-of-college-students-use-facebook/