Why did the Dog Climb aboard the Elevator?

It did happen….while I was on my way out of the office, right when we reached the ground floor…a brown mix-breed dog (no collar so not a pet) calmly walks into the elevator as the door swishes open. I am more shocked than amused and try to shoo the little doggie out, but to no avail. A co-passenger quips "Must be tired of the ground floor and would like to visit the basement!" We reach the basement and sure enough Jingle (Yes, I named the dog in those 30 seconds) walks out, all prim and proper, her head held high.

The question is why did the dog climb aboard? I have been thinking and believe either the dog is a thinker and a visionary for its kind or, is simply a follower of the other beings in its existing environment - in this case, the humans.

Translate this to our daily life and we can learn from Jingle that it is all about doing things in a new way!

•    A new way to reach an old goal can lead to doing things more easily - Till the world was introduced to emails, marketers promoted their products via letters and print media. When social media came into being marketing communication saw the birth of micro-blogs and informal connections across Facebook and Twitter.  Building relationships, the age-old goal, just got simpler and faster. The effort and time invested might be equivalent but the costs reduced and the networking became more real-time.

•     You might become the first (in your circle) to try out a new idea -When Facebook started becoming a rage amongst the people for staying in touch and building personal relationships  who would have thought that the same platform could be used  by global organizations to build social connections with their end consumers. Today, from Coco Cola to Ford to Lufthansa, companies are using this channel as part of their everyday marketing. Many of these social connections also attribute to the bottom line – a Coco-cola loyal Facebook fan will buy his favorite soft drink next time she is thirsty.

•      Learning from cross-species - You might be a B2B brand but you could learn from a B2C company like Coco-Cola how to engage with customers and keep them involved. You might be a B2C company but learning how Lady Gaga has created her Little Monsters community can help change how the relationship game is played.  A manufacturing company can learn from Walmart how to ensure that the supply chain is operating as efficiently as possible. In fact, the spill-over is already happening – for example, banks are going the ecommerce way; insurance is available online, just like your favorite sweater is!
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•     Patience is a virtue - Once Jingle got onto the elevator and the doors closed she did not start panicking or, scratching the doors in an effort to get out. She waited till the doors opened, walked out and assessed whether she like the new surroundings or not. Similarly, once you have made the effort, done the research and started on a venture it is best you follow it to some kind of conclusion. Ditching the plans mid-way when you hit a block, without any kind of analysis done on the proceedings, will only lead to frustration. When you start a marketing program, say an e-campaign or, a PR effort, make measurable checkpoints in the roadmap. Every time a checkpoint is reached, review whether the program is going as per plan. If not, recheck whether you could do certain things differently to map to the expected results. Only when this fails should you drop the program. Keeping an eye on the way the program is being carried out can usually help identify problem areas and help rectify them.

Jingle may or may not have stayed in the basement but she tried something new on the way. We might not like where we end up once we start on a marketing program but that does not mean that the learnings from the effort will not help us in the future - after all what good is a best practice repository if the best practices are not updated often enough!