Apple has been an innovation leader since the early 1980s. So why has it only recently become an Alpha?
Check out this post on Dominate Your World – becoming an Alpha company in a world of followers. You might be surprised to see how the Alpha model works.
Here’s the link: http://alphadomination.blogspot.com/
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Have you wondered why advertising to young persons is so consistently outrageous (and often all but pornographic), yet seldom drives long-term sales success? Wouldn’t you think the companies buying these ads would recognize their mistake, when Alpha companies continually beat them?
“Madison Avenue” obviously doesn’t know how to make you an Alpha… no matter what they say works. The problem is that most ad agencies have recognized the power of “emotional” marketing; but they have missed the fact that pandering to low-level drivers of decisions (most often meaning “sex” or “abuse of others”) has little long-term benefit. In fact, it makes them vulnerable to competitors who don’t use such tactics.
This mythology about how younger persons make buying decisions is creating great harm to the marketplace.
Someone recently asked me if what they saw as the “ego-satisfaction” focus of most of the TV commercials on the Super Bowl is an example of the Alpha Factor model applied to advertising. What we saw was breasts being bared, people being hit in the crotch with glass “snow balls,” and a series of people making themselves feel better than someone else by being mean or coarse or both.
The answer is, “NO.” What we saw was a lack of any understanding of the Alpha model and how to create long-term self-sustaining success. These commercials were more like something high school boys come up with at two in the morning after chugging six-packs of cheap beer followed by vodka chasers.
The real ego-satisfaction elements
The Alpha model that is at the root of Alpha-dominant company thinking has at its core two elements of ego-satisfaction (“self-satisfaction” and “personal significance”). These are the core benefits customers are buying, even though functional product attributes are often cited as the competitive differentiators.
These two ego-satisfaction elements are played out by helping people feel…
The kind of advertising we saw in the Super Bowl commercials pointed to none of those.
Correlation of function and ego-satisfaction
Beyond that, these commercials missed a critical factor in successful marketing: a correlation between function and promised benefit.
The key to successful Alpha marketing is the clear correlation of ego-satisfaction and functional attributes. Function (product attributes or product performance) proves that the ego-satisfaction being promised will be fulfilled.
Consistency of buying process
Obviously, many otherwise smart marketers have become more than a little confused. The truth is that there is little difference in the buying process that leads to loyal purchasing behavior, whether you are talking about persons in their early 20s or in their late 50s. The kinds of things they buy may differ, but young people want ego-satisfaction proven by functionality eery bit as much as do older buyers.
Apple’s line of products is a great example of how a company following the Alpha innovation model attracts both young and old. It has never pandered. It has instead designed a line of products that fulfill ego-satisfaction through their design, functionality, and communications. The young were the first to embrace it, but older purchasers have made it the success it is. They were not alienated by wrong-headed communications, and the result has been that Apple has finally become the Alpha it always had the potential to become.
In reality, there is far more similarity between even the types of things the young and old buy now than there was even 25 years ago. They like generally the same kinds of music. They are familiar with most of the same cultural media and content. Food tastes are very similar. And, most importantly, they make buying decisions in basically the same way.
Study after study (even with audiences in their late teens to mid-20s) shows that persons under 30 are far more motivated to loyal purchasing behavior by Alpha-style marketing communications rather than this kind of pandering. For anyone older than 30, Alpha-style advertising is even more effective in motivating long-term purchase loyalty.
In fact, there is so little difference in core thinking between persons born in the 50s or 60s and today’s youth that differences have had to be created. For instance, the so-called “post-modern” thinking of youth today is nothing but a new name for exactly what the 60s were all about. Before that it was in the twenties. Before that, it was in the late 1800s. And so on, back as far as recorded history can take us.
In the buying process, it is and always will be a process of finding something that meets at least minimum functional performance and then weighing how much various qualifying products provide “self-satisfaction” (how I feel about myself) and “personal significance” (how I think others perceive me). That is the essence of the Alpha model for marketing and innovation.
The only noticeable difference in buying process is in the level of influence peers have upon decisions. Younger persons are far more likely to be swayed by peer pressure (especially in things that are purposely designed to seem “weird” or “wacky” to anyone older) than are older persons. The trouble for marketers is that the things that create interest among younger persons only seldom translate into long-term loyalty, while marketers who recognize the universally common Alpha principles are able to attract both young and old (albeit at different points in the life of the product).
I feel sincerely sad for those leaders who have cheapened their products with the money they could have used to strengthen them and to give them sustainable success by understanding the Alpha model. I hope that some of those advertisers might discover the real path to success in creating self-sustaining loyalty, because some of the products being advertised were viable ones. They just got lost in the mythology of how people buy things.
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How can you make your staff an Alpha “superstar” staff? The answer is not to put the right people in the right seats. It’s putting only superstars in those seats. Here’s how you can make that happen…
Your staff is second only to what you sell in defining how successful you will be at growing your business. As an employer, I have had great teams; I have had almost great teams; and I have had mediocre teams (thankfully, only in my early days as a business owner). The difference in results was dramatic, as a focus upon hiring excellence increased.
Employee teams who are committed, talented, persistent, and ready to do whatever is needed can accomplish almost anything. Employee teams that have to make up for even a few weak members have a much harder time even accomplishing the minimum. Any company aspiring to become an Alpha has to address this issue early and with a commitment to not give up even after your entire team is superstars.
I was at a conference a week ago, and I heard John Bisnar, a very successful “Alpha” attorney in California, describe how he gets and keeps the best employees. His process for getting and keeping “superstar” employees is a worthwhile model for any aspiring Alpha to look at. It’s certainly a strategy that has merit for any business of any size. In fact, a version of this is used by Andy Grove at Intel, one of the few long-term Alpha’s still maintaining its Alpha position today.
The strategy is pretty simple in concept, but, like most things that really work, it is hard to stick to and implement consistently. Here’s how John’s version could be applied to your company:
Start with a clear definition of what a “superstar” employee would look like in your company. Write a list of the specific attributes and behaviors you would expect from someone you would consider an “outstanding” performer you would not want to lose to someone else. This is not a job description. This is a description of how a superstar employee works and acts.
For instance, your list might include things like…
John Bisnar’s team came up with 25 attributes that they believed describe a “superstar” employee in their company, no matter what specific job title they hold. When they hire, they only hire someone they believe will become a superstar, as defined in that list. They look beyond just how much experience the person has or what success they have created in the past. They look for signs that this person has what it takes to become a superstar.
That means that they look at how the person is motivated, and how that matches with the company’s environment and motivational system. It means they look at potential as much as past experience, as long as the skill sets are already in place for the job being filled. It also means that they are weighing how a person likes to please others and how well that fits within the model the company follows with its customers and other employees.
If they don’t see a clear indication of a superstar, the person doesn’t get hired. There is no hiring for a “B” team.
Everyone is held to the same standard of excellence. When a person proves that he is not going to become a superstar, he is gone as quickly as is practical.
Why this obsession with excellence? Because in order to become and stay an Alpha, you have to be absolutely committed to having the right team driving your company. The difference is not just how much people enjoy coming to work and working with each other. It is also a matter of how much horsepower you are efficiently putting to the wheels of your daily efforts.
More gets done with more effectiveness and greater return on investment, because every great employee spurs on every other great employee.
How many times do you hear employees complain about how another employee is not contributing as much to the team as should be expected. Certainly, as the employer or manager, you don’t hear it as often as they are telling it to others. Mediocre or lazy employees are a drag on the entire organization, both in direct efficiency an in poor morale created.
So how do you implement such a process, when you already have “B” or “C” team employees on staff? John Bisnar’s plan is a good one. When he instituted this, he divided all employees into three groups:
The last group was replaced as quickly as possible. The second group was challenged to become superstars and given a clear definition of what that looks like (that’s where the list of superstar attributes really comes in handy). If they didn’t make it in a short period of time, they too were replaced.
Then, here is the most important part: How do you keep your superstars? Certainly, every other employer out there would love to have more superstars. So, the superstars you have need to be continually “loved.” That simply means that they want to recognize that the company (and especially top management) sincerely appreciates what they are doing and the effort they are making to help the company reach its goals. You want them to not even consider an offer from a competitor.
That doesn’t have to mean money, although that might be the motivation for some. Actually, many research studies over the years have shown that being valued as an employee is demonstrated by being clearly noticed by top management and by being included in hearing what is going on, what the company is planning to do, and being invited to participate in that process.
As the Alpha model has proven over and over again, money is never as big an incentive as is feeling “successful” in what you are doing and knowing that others notice and care about you. Those are the employee versions of the “self-satisfaction” and “personal significance” factors of the model.
Can you succeed without following a superstar-only model? Certainly. It just takes longer and costs more.
There are Alpha companies now and in the past who did not have superstar teams. But that typically became more of a problem after they became Alpha’s, because once a company gets comfortable, it often loses sight of what got it there.
What I have seen is that having a “B” team staff makes it a longer and more expensive process than having an “A” team. There are just too many stumbles and too much pressure on the superstars that are on staff to enable the kind of sustainable success that should be anticipated as you move toward Alpha status.
You can become an Alpha. If you are an aspiring Alpha and don’t already have a copy of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at how to really create market dominance and self-sustaining success, you can get a copy at www.thealphafactor.com or at almost any online bookstore.
If you would like to know more about John Bisnar, visit his website at www.bestattorney.com.
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