Posted to Ron Miller Marketing blog on 9/20/2011
Is it Your Vision or
Your Mission?
Just what is the difference between a vision statement and a mission statement? Did you know that you've been writing these things your whole life? It should be child's play!
Some time ago, I worked with a manufacturing company who was working on their vision statement. The General Manager had just read Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. What seemed to resonate with her was Covey's idea that companies need to have a useful vision statement. She pulled all of the supervisors and managers into a room with the intention of writing their vision statement. After a couple of meetings, it was clear that they were hung up on the mission and missing the point of the vision.
What I like to tell people is that a vision statement is what you want to be when you grow up. Your mission statement is how you're going to get there.
I want to be a baseball player. I'm going to work out, take batting practice and learn to spit sunflower seeds.
That's an example of a vision statement and a mission statement. The vision: I want to be a baseball player. The mission is the steps that you are going to take to achieve that vision.
I want to be an astronaut. I'm going to study math and science, get good grades and drink Tang.
I want to be a dancer. I'm going to study music, get on my school dance team and buy a tutu.
See? It's simple.
So what does your company want to be when it grows up? Maybe you want to be the best place to work in your town. Maybe you want to have the happiest customers. That manufacturing company I was working with chose "to make more money" as their vision…which when you think about it, is a mission statement item and not a vision.
Here are 3 tips for an effective vision statement.
1.) Keep your vision short and sweet.
2.) Pick just one thing. The vision you come up with doesn't have to be forever. When you feel you've achieved it, write another.
3.) Make it something possible to achieve. Saying you're going to take your food cart business and overtake McDonald's is probably a bit too lofty of a goal.
There's a garbage hauling company in McMinnville, Oregon. I know, real glamourous. The company name is Western Oregon Waste but everyone knows them by their initials, "WOW". Do you know what their vision statement is? It's "Wow every customer." Isn't that great? They found a way not only to communicate their vision in a short and sweet way, but they included their name in the statement. Not bad for the trash guys.
Posted to Ron Miller Marketing blog on 9/21/2011
Another Day at the
Mission
(This is the second part of yesterday’s post on the difference between vision and mission statements)
Once you have your vision statement, it’s time to get down to your mission. Imagine you’ve stated the vision that you want to be a great employer. What are the steps to achieving that?
As an exercise, think about this for a second. Imagine you chose the vision to be a better employer? How would you do that? Perks, pay and benefits come to mind. What about safety? Employee parties, maybe subsidize the soda machine. We’ve just come up with a handful of things that would take us toward our vision. That is exactly what a mission statement is. It’s a list of steps.
Picking what you want to be when you grow up is probably a decision you want to make with just your key people. It’s important and you want buy-in, but as the key stakeholder or owner, you REALLY have to buy in. I wouldn’t want Doug Hilligoss (my boyhood neighbor) to pick what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I might ask my parents and get them to approve of the idea.
When it comes time to discuss the mission statement though, I think you need to have everyone in the company weigh in. For most missions, it’s the guy on the shop floor who is going to make it happen. Let everyone brainstorm and pick the top five. When you have achieved those, pick another five.
Posted to Ron Miller Marketing blog on 9/20/2011
Marketing Communications is a Conversation
The most common misperception of marketing communications is that it's a one-way street. You design an ad - you're done. Design a brochure - that's it. Now this article isn't about analytics. Any marketer worth anything measures the effectiveness of their programs. No, I'm talking about the communication itself.
If I go up to someone and say hi, I expect some visual or audible acknowledgement in return. In communications, we call that a "minimal encourage". I've opened up a conversation and even if it's just a smile or nod, the two of us have communicated. We are no longer strangers. Why then don't we think the same thing about our marketing communications? Obviously when you put an ad in a magazine it's hard to see that nod or smile, but as communicators, we should know that it's happening. It was after all, the goal of the communication.
It gets easier when we talk about online marketing. What's surprising though is how many companies don't get marcom right in this media either. Facebook is a powerful communication tool that is too often used as a one-way street. Posting is great but it's just the start of the conversation. It's like the guy who asks you how you are but doesn't stick around for the answer. If you are going to post on Facebook or send out Tweets or use any of the other social media channels, you have to participate in the resulting conversation.