How to Solve a Marketing Problem?

There is the problem right there.

Employees today don’t want to be told what to do; they want to be involved in the solutions and they want to express their ideas.   This is good.  This is healthy. 

But you may not think so.  You may just want then to follow your lead.   They will, under duress, but you’ll get a mediocre effort.

Here’s how to get buy in and get it done, whatever the marketing task may be.
Gather them all together.Take their cell phones and computers, laptops and I pads.   Put them in a box on the side of the room.   

Yes, you will turn them off and promise to give them back at the end of the meeting.

Get a big white pad and an easel.   Write these questions down 

1. What is the problem to be solved?   Example: I want to get more people to visit my center on Sunday nights after 6pm
   
2. How are we going to solve it ?  Example: decide who would be the most available at this time (i.e. families from 5p to 8p) (i.e. millennials after 8pm)
   
3. How can we test that the thing we built matches what we set out to build?   (Build a special family Sunday night family cosmic bowl including different foods, pizza, burgers, and chicken wings, etc.)  (Build a Caribbean night featuring special “sunshine drinks, reggae music, dance marathons, etc.)
   
4. How will we know if it’s working?   Test it against a small target audience (100 people – 200 people) that you can Facebook, instagram and email and see if they respond.  (The social media process is a whole subject unto itself so be prepared to delve into that because it’s not one email or one Facebook post.  It’s a campaign.  And that’s a whole other subject too.  Can you replicate the test?  That is important?