Interview with Jeff Henry

MARKETING

Up till now, what has been your professional career path?

Innovation, Business, Revenue and Growth Challenges for CEO’s. Building Competitive Advantage, Product Development, Placement, Assessments, Introducing Companies to Opportunities, Modeling, Business Audits, Sales Marketing, Advanced Advertising - Sales Channel Development - Thought Leadership

Jeff is currently the managing partner of What's Next Strategic Innovation. Prior to his current focus, he spent 20 years in senior executive roles with Time Warner Cable where he served most recently as The Regional Vice President for Texas with responsibility for more than 2.2m customers and $2.5b in annual revenues. He led product and competitive strategy for Time Warner Cable and has successful first hand experience with FiOS, U-verse, DirecTV and DishNetwork. While serving on the front lines in competition with the BOCs, worked on Interactive Television, Video OnDemand, SpeedZones, DVR, StartOver, Connected Home and Wireless

Cable TV, Digital Video, High Speed Internet, Digital Voice, Wireless, Platforms, Connected Home, BSS/OSS Support, Technology, Consumer Products

Please list web addresses where one can see something about you.

http://wnsinnov.com/default.aspx

What is your stance as a marketing professional? What are you good at? What differentiates you from others?

I have significant experience with creating new products from concept to cashflow. Building Competitive Advantage and Strategic Innovation. Subscription Services and Consumer Switching Behavior. Strategic Innovation Consulting and New Product Development Strategy. Management Advisory / Project Management / Business Intelligence / Concept to Cashflow / Subscription Services / Sales Channel Development
Global Client Base

A marketing strategy begins with an idea. How are yours born?

I always start with the customer to determine 1st 1) Level of awareness. 2) Level of Demand 3) Sales and Sales Channel Assessment. I believe in the concept of building a "Superior Value Proposition" and the only way you can determine that is to start with your customers.

In which market, products or services, are you currently working?

Cable TV, Digital Video, High Speed Internet, Digital Voice, Wireless, Platforms, Connected Home, BSS/OSS Support, Technology, Consumer Products

Did this product exist ten years ago? And the brand?

Yes these products existed in some form 10 years ago. Digital Cable, Digital Phone and Cable Modem Internet Services. Time Warner

What is the consumer or user like that you have to win over?

Usually it is a consumer that has a lack of awareness for your product or service. There are also potentially large groups of consumers that have misconceptions about your company or products. The easiest tends to be in competitive situations where the objective is to drive switching to your brand.

What is the key to gaining consumer fidelity?

It always starts with providing a superior value proposition and engagement with customers. Building trust and a customer experience where they will recommend you to their friends. Longer term loyalty however always comes from developing unique and superior product attributes that customers perceive are meaningful and compelling.

How do you determine what consumers think and feel? Is something more than qualitative research necessary?

Markets are conversations. One needs to stimulate conversations in many forms. One of the simplest forms is asking a the basic question, "Will you recommend our company or product to a friend"? 99% of everything you need to know starts with this simple question and the answer to why or why not.

What type of communication are you utilizing?

All forms> both traditional and digital (online / internet / mobile). I have a white paper here that goes further into depth https://www.box.net/shared/if38fc77l3

Who/what is your competition?

Anyone in the marketing and consulting field. Companies like www.mckinsey.com/ and www.ogilvy.com/

What differentiates your product/service from the competition?

I have more than 20+ years of practical experience with taking product concepts to cashflow with superior results. See www.timewarnercable.com/ See my resume http://www.linkedin.com/in/jefflhenry


How do you value the results obtained up to now?

I always go back to cashflow growth. If cashflow isn't growing then your strategy is not successful.

What is a better way to communicate your product: emotional or rational?

It depends on what you are trying to communicate about your product. However, consumers typically purchase based on how a product or concepts makes them "Feel" so emotional is the key here.

What's your answer to the typical question: does marketing create nonexistent needs?

Marketing is a facilitator, it cannot create nonexistent needs. However, it can leverage basic human emotional needs and instincts.

In times of crisis sales of generic store brands rise. What should premium brands do or not do when faced with this?

Premium brands need to continually add value and differentiate themselves from generics. Especially in time of crisis, consumers need to feel good about themselves. However, many brands really don't understand why consumers choose them vs the alternatives. And, one of the alternatives is buying nothing. Strategic marketing needs to increase during time of crisis. For example are their multicultural segments that can be developed?

Can you cite brands or well-known products that you admire for marketing brilliance?

There are the easy ones like apple. But one that jumps to mind was a Eugene Oregon car dealership that ran the same simple talking head television spot for almost 15 years. Honest, simple, dealership you can trust before and after the sale. And they were fanatical about their relationship with their customers and brand perceptions. Financially driven companies tend to get greedy and take advantage of their customers and lose the "will you recommend us to a friend" approach. If people won't recommend you to their friends, then they are telling them not to buy from you and your products.

The consumer is king: have advertisers realized this yet?

I think advertisers have realized that, however their chief financial officers probably have not. That is the biggest problem business face today is allowing their marketing and products (value proposition) to be driven by their financial officers. Knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing creates companies that go out of business. Humans are intangible and socially driven.

Are we heading towards more individualized marketing and advertising?

Of course the answer of this depends on whether or not your product is broadly consumed or niche. Online and Digital marketing gives us tools that allow us to speak to customers individually and that is one of the basic premises of building a positive net promoter score. Does your company relate to you as an individual? Even mass consumed products today can relate to customers today as individuals by using online and digital tools.

What percentage of your marketing budget is invested in digital advertising and why?

I look at the target customer and how to best engage with them. In certain cases my entire plan will be in digital advertising. This also depends on the size of your budget. I always start with Digital and then move to traditional. But you really need to start with your target customers before answering this question. What's important is how can you stand out amongst the crowd?

What is the most surprising thing you have learned about digital marketing in the last few years?

I think the most surprising thing is how little most traditional business know about it. Most people don't have a clue about how it can help their business. Read the Cluetrain Manifesto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cluetrain_Manifesto (...)

A few years ago, it was said that online sales would end up killing traditional store sales, but that has not been the case: how can you explain this?

People want to be able to browse, touch, feel and be in a social environment. Why does Apple have stores? They also want a place to go for service and support. Most traditional retailers don't understand that and online ones aren't much better.

How do you evaluate the potential of social networks for marketing on-line? Do you really think there is a new 2.0 marketing paradigm?

No, I don't think there is a new paradigm. I just think there are new tools available to accomplish the same objective that we have in the past. Read the Cluetrain Manifesto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cluetrain_Manifesto (...)

What industry or market segment do you find attractive for devoting yourself to in the coming years?

I came from the cable and telecommunications industry and still think it is a very interesting space. Solar energy has great potential to develop and become "productized". There is more opportunity today then ever before. Clearly serving baby boomers and gen y because of their massive numbers. Multicultural is emerging as well. Providing digital marketing consulting is broad as well.

Be a prophet. What phenomenon will revolutionize marketing in the next few years?

Marketing will not be revolutionary, it will be evolutionary. There will be a gradual movement towards creating further engagement digitally. Probably the biggest key to that will be smart connectivity of the television and embedding interactivity into the content. Virtual reality might be one area that really takes hold in a world of mass interconnection and smart devices where viewers / participants actually become part of the content. View SecondLife http://secondlife.com/

Are you part of any professional networking sites? Has it served its purpose for you?

I use linkedin. http://www.linkedin.com/in/jefflhenry People are not utilizing it's ability to create virtual teams and really drive business and commerce.

How do you do your own personal branding? What do you recommend other professionals do to position themselves in the job market?

I have written a white paper on this subject go here https://www.box.net/shared/if38fc77l3

http://wnsinnov.com/default.aspx
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jefflhenry
http://www.twitter.com/jefferylhenry
https://profiles.google.com/jefferylhenry/






© Jeff Henry
Web address for this interview:http://www.whohub.com/jefferylhenry

Does this sound like your Digital Agency or the Consultants you just hired? Hardly Working: Start-up Guys

Does this sound like your Digital Agency or the Consultants you just hired? Hardly Working: Start-up Guys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMmdl4VltD4&feature=youtu.behttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Vice chairman of product development Bob Lutz diagnoses the sickness at the heart of American business: data-driven cost optimization.

I know some cable guys that could take a lesson from this article. Guess who I am talking about? Just replace "Car Guys" with "Cable Guys" in the title of his new book. Car Guys Versus Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business, by Bob Lutz, the former vice chairman of global product development for GM.