Your Marketing efforts have all these different avenues to advance your Brand;

There is research to identify and better understand that consumer, there is advertising to target that consumer, there is the artistic to creatively engage the consumer and, there is the hard edge executive to quantify all the effort and the results. 

Most successful marketers would agree that without innovation you are merely one of the herd; the status quo is not a strategy. If they were not working in marketing they would be actors, for most have that flair, that need to perform.   

Good marketing people understand that they are on a stage and the audience is filled with consumers.  Marketing delivery is geared to encouraging a response, really any response, but preferably one towards your product or service.

Our friends at Burger King have been raising the hackles of their fans.  Most of the noise has to do with the merger with Tim Hortons and corporate headquarter move to Canada, but there has been a flurry of outrage about the discontinuance of their Chicken Fries, which had been a time limited offer.  Social media was in an uproar.  Fans were beleaguered.  Corporate marketing, via Twitter, to the rescue!

They chose a path that was not your typical way to respond to this perceived Brand slight and menu item removal.  They created fifteen different responses to the Twitter fury, all comforting, sort of personalized, with some sly humor layered in the communication. 

According to Adweek, “This kind of one-on-one customer service is time consuming, but for a brand that wants to be truly conversational online, it's no longer optional.”   CMO Eric Hirschhorn of Burger King further clarified the approach.  "Don't be chained to the historical, conventional rules of an industry. To be effective, a marketing strategy needs to be disruptive and adaptive. Creativity is a business tool."

Creativity as a business tool; what a wonderful concept.  We all have ideas, and the right leader knows how to tap into that reservoir and have that creative energy come to light �" draw it out, frame it, polish the message and deliver to an audience that is hungry for something new and exciting.  Same old, same old no longer works, unless that is what you want to be!

John Hendrie is the author of the LRA blog, focusing on anything and everything about customer experience. LRA Worldwide is the leading global provider of Customer Experience Measurement services for multinational companies with complex customer interactions. For over 30 years, LRA’s innovative brand standards audits, quality assurance inspections, mystery shopping programs, research, and consulting services have helped ensure our clients deliver consistent, memorable, and differentiated experiences to their customers. Many of the world's preeminent global hospitality brands, as well as companies in the gaming, dining, healthcare, sports and entertainment, real estate, retail and travel industries choose LRA to help them measure and improve the customer experience. For more information, visit www.LRAWorldwide.com