Don’t Diffuse The Focus @ Burke’s Billing Builders.
February 10, 2005
I’m fortunate to be able to travel the country and work with hundreds of businesses each year. I learn so much from my travels that I’m able to help a lot of people make good decisions when it comes to advertising, marketing, and running their company. It’s truly a Masters in Business earned on the street.
I see successful companies and struggling companies alike. They have more in common than they know. I find that the line between good companies and great companies is very narrow. One quality nearly all great companies share is laser-like focus. A lot has been written about this and rightly so. It could be the most important element needed to become a successful company. The best companies I see are those that know what they do best and don’t waver from that mission no matter how tempting.
Sometimes great companies lose focus. When companies reach a certain level of success (and it varies from company to company), sometimes the officers and directors think they can successfully grow into other non-related businesses by extending or leveraging their current brand. This arrogance, meaning a certain “bulletproof” attitude, can be quicksand for successful companies. Perhaps they think they have more “brand currency” to spend than they do. I’m sure the reasons vary, but it’s very hard to do successfully. Let me give you two recent examples of businesses that tried.
When I say the name “Sara Lee”, most of you (like me) will think of baked goods, pound cake, or dessert. That’s what they’re known for. But if I told you that they also owned Hanes Underwear, and the Wonderbra Company, you’d probably be surprised. In the February 11th edition of USA Today, the headline in the business section read “Sara Lee to shed clothes, focus on food.” They’ve already sold off their Coach Leather division.
I’m sure the directors of Sara Lee had very good reasons to grow as they did. But what happened? The new CEO indicates they lost of focus on their core strength. They want to get back to that.
When I say “Eddie Bauer”, you probably think rugged, outdoorsy clothes. Most people would. Yet they are also in the home furnishings business. They own 34 Eddie Bauer Home Stores, which they will close this year, according to Furniture Today magazine, to “focus on their apparel specialty stores.” Again, I’m sure the board figured they could extend the line to home furnishings. But it didn’t work and now they desire to get back to the core business.
It’s easy and natural for businesses to try and extend their brand. It can be done successfully, but my experience is that it fails far more often than it works. And when it fails, it’s hard to get back to the core business. Xerox lost loads of money when they tried to get into the computer business in the 1980’s. Not enough people wanted to buy a computer from a “copier company”. Or, I suppose, a bra from a cheesecake company.
Bottom Line: Focus is incredibly important to business success today. We live in an era of specialization that is more competitive than ever. Diffusing the company’s focus makes it harder to compete in its core discipline and very hard to succeed in its new area. Stay focused, dominate the core, and stay out of the quicksand.
Dave Burke is President of Burke Media Marketing, Inc, an advertising sales training consultancy. Dave works with radio, TV, and cable sales teams and their clients to help them dominate their markets. He can be reached at (603) 746-5588 or http://www.BurkeMediaMarketing.com