Agile Marketing a new reality – really?

My line of thinking and rationale for this Marketing Plan was to give parents, teenagers and young adults a reason to come back to McDonald’s by having specialty coffees fill up “gap periods” in the restaurants. By introducing McCafé, it would significantly increase incremental sales by adding sales of daily coffees or treat purchases during gap periods of the day. Gaps periods refer to times such as between the rush periods where there are no customers in the restaurant.

We also wanted to position McDonald’s in the consumers’ mind as a worthwhile place for soccer moms to stay and have a conversation over a cup of cappuccino. We would help save time for these busy parents as they would not have to travel to two different places to satisfy themselves and the cravings of their children, something that Starbucks could not provide.

We believed at the time that entering the competitive coffee market would not complicate operations for McDonald’s restaurants; it would only strengthen the “menu offering” and increase revenue by getting the customers to come back more often for a good cup of coffee.

At the time, I did not know anything about Agile but the way I approached this marketing concept was through a pilot project that encouraged us — the client and the agency — to learn and adapt as we went along one step at a time.

Our key principles as a team were:

• Collaborate closely with the customer – work with senior managers and key decision makers from the client present at every step. We did this almost daily over the phone or in person. I remember craving these client exchanges;
• Bundle products, adapt the menu and maximize business opportunities – work while understanding the need for change. Embrace and be willing to respond to change (in teams, product, process);
• Make a difference – let the client see results (good or bad) early and frequently through the marketing data and proof of concept test results;
• Return on investment – by working closely with our clients at each product development stage, the agency, client and team all avoided unnecessary re-work. We were collaborating as a unit with our hits and misses – we learned and moved on rapidly with a constructive approach;
• Be of service to your client and bring value to the relationship – I have always presented my ideas and followed my heart with much openness. Because of this my clients know I am a trusting, supportive and a resilient partner to work with.

These strong beliefs were confirmed when I was introduced to Agile approaches in 2012.

At the agency Médiabec it was ok to make good or bad decisions and “failing fast” gave us insights that allowed us to move forward more quickly. As a team we learned to communicate on a daily basis and self-manage. We felt empowered and we shared how we made decisions and why.

The ideas we had promoted action and focus which gave us a useful bridge between the planning processes and all parties (McDonald’s, Nestlé and Médiabec). The design, the taste tests and look and feel were a continuous process for cups, promotional material and signage. The designs we developed with few mockups because we had a fast feedback loop with the client.

We experimented with different coffee flavors and machinery. We tested different specialty coffee flavors, pricing strategies and whether customers would like to buy coffee at McDonald’s among other things. The test results helped us explore how to best reap the desired marketing benefits. McDonald’s began pilot projects in over a dozen restaurants in Canada.

We continually experimented to find the best combinations of products, bundles and machinery and reduce waste of resources. We even started playing with the concept of McTreat’s. Small bite size pastries like danishes, croissants, bagels and fun desserts. Our plan reflected our customer facing philosophy to satisfy customer and clients needs at all times – planning is key and continuous. Get the planning right and the organization can get more value.

The constant collaboration with our client allowed us to regularly share our planning, provide them with a measure of our progress and also allowed for real discussions with the client around the next planning activities.

For me, marketing must understand the business inside out. Our team was alert, flexible and prepared to work with many different functional areas of our client’s organization such as marketing, operations, finance and human resources as well. Any decision we made had real potential customer-facing impacts and we needed to be able to support many different areas of our client’s business.

For me, marketing is also much more than market segments and consumer behavior or motivating customers. It starts with identifying a real picture of strengths and weaknesses of the business and a shared understanding of the why because that is how we can create momentum around an idea and turn this idea into a change, a movement, a purpose …a belief.

The planning steps became logical and easy to follow when everyone understands the why, but this can take time. There is a need for constant communication up and down the organisations (Médiabec, McDonald’s and Nestlé) at each stage – Planning effectively is an iterative process.

Here is where we kind of failed –

We added a second team after 4 Months (distributed – One in Montreal and the other in Toronto). Management at the agency wanted us to ensure we supported our clients’ growing needs.

With this new team came:

• a new designer
• a creative director
• a senior consultant with a storm of initiatives and no customer-oriented culture.

This new team created the following challenges for us:

• Gathering market intelligence or outside perspectives was a no-no from now on. They had their expert hats on, and a “stop all this testing” attitude, “leave it up to us”. A “no need to validate with the parties, we know best” attitude. Because of this behavior, silos came up. It was as if we were working on two different McCafé’s initiatives.
• Constant delays and no transparency was becoming the norm.
• We were not aligned or moving in the right direction.
• They presented their work directly to the client without involving us.
• They wanted to introduce a new lounge aquarium concept for McDonald’s. Can you imagine turquoise walls and “Finding Nemo” creative idea to appeal to kids at McCafé…we were selling coffee!!

Adding the second team caused a situation where we were in two distinct camps instead of collaborating together to deliver the project. We were missing time-lines and drowning which was pushing the client outside of the sacred relationship we had created with them.

Our knowledge was not being implemented nor considered and they seemed to be taking over the project. We were determined to keep going but this was risky business because as mentioned earlier, we had real business impacts on our client each step of the way.

We lost focus and lost our sustainable pace. The second team forgot to begin with the end in mind. Our job was to help introduce a coffee concept and sell coffee at McDonald’s not re-brand and re-design the experience at McDonald’s.

The sensible thing to do was to change immediately as a team. Re-build a happy team that worked together with rules and respect. We were to focus intently on what the client needed at that moment – and not commit too far into the future, as we should not have done …turquoise …arrrrg!

We sold our idea and collaborated for many months after. Then McDonald’s took over and went live to test in different markets across Canada and has never stopped testing, improving, adjusting and listening to clients.

What I discovered is this Agile Marketing approach allowed us to keep things simple and identify what could bring the most value to the project. It allowed us to seek value in our on-going micro marketing strategy.

Essentially, we realized our focus needed to be on:

• How to bring the café to McCafé
• How to develop a new brand and position this high in-demand product within the golden arches
• How to build a strong coffee connection with the McDonald’s customers.

Agile Marketing makes us look at the essential and simplify. We then can better identify what brings the most value to a project with continuous insight.

Let me share some of the other key learnings with you:

• The client cannot plan for everything and is not always right. This is hard, especially when one of your core values is to serve your client wishes.
• You can’t rush frequent inspections of a concept. You need to validate as much as you can before moving forward, even if it looks and feels right.
• You can challenge management and your client. You need to be prepared to not demolish though and maybe push back on things they hold to be a basic truth such as: “Big successful brands have equity” or “product line extensions make eminent sense in the boardroom”.
• Be patient, creative, test and share results fast for continuous improvement. For me, this was an amazing example of the new culture we had created. We had an amazing relationship with the client as we were talking not just about concepts, but the heart of the business.

We approached the McCafé project with constant proof of concept. We delivered smaller portions sooner for immediate feedback from both the client and consumer. Agile Marketing belongs in the testing mode of great ideas with continuous improvement and gathering feedback as a safe check to move forward. We sum it up in two words: Program “Roll-out & Release” (potential realized).

This marketing pilot project was more than just a battle for great coffee products in a competitive market – it was also a battle of public perception.

Before I joined Pyxis, my very best work experience was with the following McCafé case study.

With the addition of a new team with an old approach, I got to experience first hand the pros and the cons of using either approach. When I joined Pyxis and learned all about Agile, I knew it was a good fit, as it was clear to me that the best of my extensive marketing was, indeed, Agile Marketing.

For me, the days are long gone of working on advertising campaigns or new products for Months without sleep and keeping our fingers crossed before the big reveal – the big launch. I’ve seen this from the front row, most marketing mistakes stem from assumption and ego.

Why Agile Marketing?

• It is a solution that allows teams to be dynamic and flexible throughout project’s stages;
• It is constant prioritization and helps identify goals for the next steps;
• It is instant improvement with communication and collaboration (breaking silos);
• It is transparency brings trust to a team and to the relationship with the client;
• It is inspect and adapt with “thunder” for decision making;
• It is feedback and test-driven with customer focus;
• It is speed-to-marketing the market;
• It is immediate value.

In today’s always on and always connected market – stop – have a nice cup of coffee and bring a killer and unique value to your client with Agile Marketing!

Many Thanks to Annette von der Emden the Human Resources Director for McDonald’s Suisse Restaurants Sàrl who shared the memories this past fall when I was in Geneva, you sparked in me this experience report…and Pierre Leblanc gave me the latest set of McCafé cups…for me they are like little trophy’s!

I dedicated this personnel recollection of my McCafé story to my new collaborators in the Agile world and to Pyxis Technologies, François Beauregard and my buddies who support me daily Mathieu, Daniel, Martin, Christine and the Agile Marketing Team.

I thank the Mediabec family and Gilles Charest, who taught me “been there done that” and if you truly feel it, believe it then go do it MC – Merci.

To Marc Caira from Nestlé so many years’ later I still hear your voice …think like a customer and bring it to the next level.

Johanne Viau, my Pepsi Canada client who became my Mc Café partner for Months, you were key and so dear to this project.

To Nanette Brown, my Agile 2016 Shepherd, many thanks for your patience, many follow-ups and collaboration.

To my writing guru, Steffan Surdek, thank you for pushing me outside my comfort zone and challenging me to be better – I embrace your role as being my disruptive officer.

To my past advertising buddies, and amazing clients, I cannot forget…I still continue to learn immensely from my interactions with you as my mentors.

And finally, to My Dad, who is turning 75 tomorrow – I’m still learning and listening …you will be reading this for the very first time, I am blessed, love you.