What is
the definition of Thought Leadership?
We see
Thought Leadership as the new paradigm for how businesses market themselves and
build brand. Thought leadership evolves through the efforts of both individuals
and businesses making the commitment to develop a deeper understanding of the
specific forces shaping their industry.
Why is
Thought Leadership important? Gautam Ghosh of Accenture claims that… “Simple,
great thought leadership means never having to ‘pitch’ or ‘sell’ for business.”
You become a trusted advisor, counselor and partner, not just a vendor.
Today,
Thought Leadership is becoming the new standard for how people and companies
communicate their value to the world and their customers. This includes
B2B strategy, marketing, product development, customer support and sales.
Companies can no longer avoid the impact of Thought Leadership and what it means
to their market and to their customers.
Thought
Leadership enables companies to build strategic value in their industry that
transcends ad campaigns, PR efforts, or marketing initiatives. These types of
contributions can directly affect a company’s success and brand.
Q: Why
should businesses care about Thought Leadership?
Many
companies are now taking on thought leadership branding initiatives as a part
of their own intellectual branding campaigns. The main reason a business should
care about Thought Leadership ties back to how their company is viewed by the
marketplace.
Thought
Leadership, as defined by RainToday.com… “centers on earning trust and
credibility.”
Thought
Leaders get noticed by offering something different—information, insights, and
ideas, for instance. Thought Leadership positions you and your company as an
industry authority and resource and trusted advisor by establishing your
reputation as a generous contributor to your industry.”
A growing
number of companies have started to realize that thought leadership is a core
component of becoming a successful market leader. Most companies aspire
to having their brand seen as one of the more knowledgeable and innovative in
their field or industry. And, many may want to be seen as the market leader,
but haven’t put together a strategy or resources needed to make this happen.
Thought
Leadership has the ability to help you and your company:
- Raise Company visibility and
credibility to the world
- Educate and reach customers
- Enlighten the media on your
contributions to the market
- Inspire customers and partners
to connect with you in new and meaningful ways
As the
business world changes, thought leadership is playing a greater role in how
many of these changes are taking place. People are becoming a part of the new
era of brand development. Many product-focused brands are also now
transitioning to people focused brands through social media, communities and
increasingly through thought leadership.
People
represent how a product and company are perceived by their customers and the
market at large. A company’s credibility, market reach, standards of conduct
and recognition are affected by the value and brand of their people. Thought
leadership is the new marketing platform for people and the companies they
represent.
A key
finding from the survey: Engaging Global Executives: Ten Megatrends in B2B
Marketing, shows that 56% of companies consider Thought Leadership as their
second biggest objective for B2B marketing. That’s number two behind
building new business as the top priority in the next 3-5 year (Economist
Intelligence Unit, 2008).
Q: What
is “Thought Leadership Marketing?”
Thought
Leadership marketing is focused on helping a company position itself as a
“thought Leader” in a specific marketplace. The strategy supports the
company’s core initiatives while at the same time promoting its intellectual
corporate branding.
Thought
Leadership marketing programs are a part of a larger thought leadership
strategy and help raise a company’s visibility with their key customer base and
market.
Thought
Leadership seems a little nebulous until you understand the value it brings
companies. According to Dana VanDen Heuvel of the Marketing Savant Group, the
value of Thought Leadership marketing includes:
- Prospects put themselves
further into the sales cycle – shorter sales cycles,
- Changes the pattern and terms
from how customer buy from you,
- Diminishes Price Resistance and
- Prospects experience your value
before buying.
Another way
to define Thought Leadership is “the recognition from the outside world that
the company deeply understands its business, the needs of its customers and the
broader marketplace in which it operates.” Elise Bauer.
A great way
to put Thought Leadership into context is to think of it as the economic impact
of ideas and content. Thought Leadership is both macro and micro.
It helps define and influence the macro forces of markets while shaping micro
forces of product innovation, marketing, and resource management of companies.
By
understanding the full impact of Thought Leadership companies can align the
macro forces shaping their markets with the micro strategies of their company
for smarter product and marketing decisions.
As a result
Thought Leadership marketing has now emerged as a new and growing standard for
how companies leverage this important medium to develop market awareness, reach
prospective customers, and evolve into smarter, more effective organizations.
Thought
leadership marketing programs include the following:
Research
and Publications: Thought leadership content through market research, executive surveys
and interviews. Client sponsored white papers, executive summaries and
advertorials. These are not company product or service white papers, but
rather research regarding specific industry pain points and future trends.
Online
Marketing, PR and Lead Generation: Integrated thought leadership marketing campaigns that
tie into corporate branding and advertising campaigns with specific thought
leadership messaging. Developing recognition and influence through the public
dissemination of important industry research and information, incorporating
podcasts, webcasts, online polls, social networking and online lead generation
tools.
Custom
Events: Multi-sponsored
or smaller single sponsored thought leadership events that focus on specific topics,
bring together various related industry thought leaders to debate, and discuss
current issues. These types of events help sponsors to gain visibility with
senior-level target audiences and can offer invaluable networking
opportunities. Event programs are often tied into larger thought leadership
marketing programs and provide additional content for marketing campaigns via
multi-channels that include online branding, distributed video and research.
These type of events range in size from 50 to 300 plus attendees.
Thought
Leadership marketing help companies be seen as more knowledgeable and
innovative in their industry. These types of marketing programs enable
companies to share knowledge with their clients and public, along with
delivering programs that speak to the corporate social responsibility needs of
their company’s branding initiatives.
Q: What
are some examples of Thought Leadership in the business world (including the
Internet) and the impact it had on each business?
Companies
such as Cisco are focused on educating prospects through thought leadership. At
Cisco every executive must establish and develop themselves as a Thought Leader
through public speaking, blogs, whitepapers, etc.
“Once
thought leadership is established, the rest of the industry, the media,
academia, government policymakers and the broader business community turn to
that company for ideas and for insights into where things are going.” Mark
Peshoff, Senior Director of Cisco’s Executive Thought Leadership.
Both Cisco and HP have
several divisions with resources and programs dedicated to ongoing thought
leadership research, marketing and events; many of which tie into their
corporate citizenship and thought leadership branding initiatives. One example
is Cisco’s large-scale thought leadership program for Cisco’s
Global Education Group (http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/education/global_education/index.html)
Over the
past several years, Cisco’s Global
Education Group has partnered with a number of leading corporate,
government, educational and endowment groups to help improve education on a
global basis. They put together a 21st Century School
Initiative to help improve education, technology infrastructure and the skills
needed for employment in the 21st century.
(http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2007/prod_062507c.html) which has classes set up in
160 countries to help teach people IT/networking skills. In January of 2008,
Cisco, Microsoft and Intel sponsored a “project to research and develop new
approaches, methods and technologies for measuring the success of 21st-century
teaching and learning in classrooms around the world.
The
Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) project is focused on
defining those skills and developing ways to measure them.” As a part of this they also created an
http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/education/global_education/index.html
what they call,
“systematic approach towards education transformation.”
Another
example of Cisco’s Thought Leadership research on education is a white paper
they sponsored entitled, “Global education 20/20:What role for the private
sector?”
This white
paper was developed for a thought leadership event, held byThe
Economist in 2009 in New
York , called Education 20/20: Creating
partnerships to educate the global workforce of the future and
used specifically for Cisco’s thought leadership education marketing and
partner outreach programs.
A 21st
century education system is governed and managed with the ultimate goal of
maximizing learning outcomes for all students. There are transparent processes
in place to communicate and implement decisions, develop and monitor
curriculum, sustain the budget, and procure resources.
Additionally,
policies and procedures are implemented to enable these education institutions
to use data to drive school standards and accountability while stimulating and
managing innovation.
Finally,
school learning is recognized as embedded within and dependent on an ecosystem
of partners that support learning and/or provide other essential children’s
services (e.g., health, social services).
The entire
system is a learning organization with a supportive culture that promotes
ambitious and innovative approaches to teaching and learning. Leaders
throughout the system champion and model the 21st century educational vision
and work with well-trained and -supported teachers.
Emphasis is
placed on the recruitment and retention of both principals and teachers through
carefully designed outreach efforts and training programs. A 21st century
system explicitly promotes a culture of high expectations, respect,
collaboration, and shared accountability.
These
efforts have helped Cisco become a market leader in the area of education
through their thought leadership programs which include research, marketing, events,
and partnership programs. All of which tie back directly into their corporate
citizenship and thought leadership branding initiatives, and which incorporate
their company’s main services and product offerings.
Other
companies such as Crest Toothpaste, HP, Qualcomm, Coke and other Fortune 500s
view Thought Leadership as imperative to their success. What are some of
the ways companies become Thought Leaders? There are many, but to name a
few… whitepapers, blogs, public speaking, cause marketing (Pepsi’s “refresh”
program is a great example), PR, events, case studies, and social media. The
list goes on. But what is most important is a company’s vision and the thoughts
and ideas of its people.
The ability
of a company to harness the collective thoughts, ideas and vision of its people
is very powerful and often inspiring. But without a proper Thought
Leadership program these visions and ideas are trapped inside companies.
They don’t
see the light of day, they are crafted into PR sound bites that only reveal a
fraction of what a person, or company is thinking. That is why many
companies are now implementing Thought Leadership programs to help guide and
develop their executives to help align their ideas with company vision and
innovation.
As I
mentioned above, Cisco’s thought leadership programs have been on a much larger
scale than most mid-size businesses will ever employ, however, the basic
principals still apply. Thought leadership programs can range in size, apply to
any industry and be successful if they are part of a company’s core business and
branding strategy.
If you want
to be seen as a thought leader in your market, it’s important to come up with a
thought leadership strategy that will enable your company to develop and
deliver expertise over the long run to help your clients and the marketplace
improve.
This can
produce rewards for your business that can be exponential to both your company
and clients along with the marketplace as a whole. That is why Thought
Leadership holds the hope of inspiring something great.
The world
is watching for guidance, ideas and suggestions. Customers and prospects want
to know that you understand the pressures and challenges that affect them just
as well as you know your own challenges. And yet, they also want you to
inspire them, show them the way to a better tomorrow and to a better future.