Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast. Today, I have with me John Gomez. John. Are you there?
Hello, Melanie, this is John from Miami, Florida. So a big hello to you and your audience.
And John, tell us who you are and what you do.
Yes, currently, I am the vice president for Ribbeck Consulting, which is a business that works towards the top 10 technologies, not only in United States but globally for businesses and individuals. So as an organization, our main goal is to support all of these companies that want to work towards the new technologies and exactly, you know, just move forward for what is the there in terms of this tragedy and marketing in order to apply them into their organization.
Sounds quite in-depth, the reason why we are speaking today, John, is what really attracted me talking to you and why I requested you is your strategist. And that's quite a specific role in marketing, isn't it?
It is indeed, and, you know, given the background that I have first as an artist, I felt the need to strapple a little bit, you know, once I became more like the businessman and use all of those tools, learn in the arts within the process of, you know, what could be different or the same in the business world. But actually, it's quite close. You know, when we think about marketing, business is not that far from the arts. I mean, thinking about arts, just to name a few entities, it could be an opera house. It will be a venue, a theatre venue for reasons or an institution. They'll want to make sure that they actually can, you know, portray an idea or a vision or a mission to their audience. And the only possible way to do this is by using the marketing, which we know that has changed a lot. I mean, before the pandemia, everyone was more used with what's called the office marketing. You know, everything was in person, which I greatly miss, to be quite honest with you. But the pandemia make us change. And this pivoting into how we strategize projects, actually, it makes a big impact in us currently. So so now working more towards the online marketing, we have many resources. And as far as using their resources, it is a great... To make it actually easier for the strategist to understand how a business or maybe an individual will like to promote and to, you know, arrive to the to the masses, right?. And then, you know, the other change that I have noticed is what's called the inbound marketing. So so in which, you know, instead of like the old fashioned organizations trying to to go to their consumer, actually now the technology is allowing the consumer to reach the organizations. So is the other way around, which is a challenge, because then we need to define clearly how we can be different from our competitors. So when someone comes to me and say, you know, "John, I would like us, I would like you to help us, you know. Our organization to market" well, when the first question I ask always is like, OK, what we need to market, do we want to market the organization or we want to market a product or we want to market a project. Because you see, for the minds of many, marketing is like the big C. But we don't we don't sometimes don't understand. It's that the C has many features. So so, you know, once we more we go more specific in terms of marketing, they start to understand that each process is going to be delivered in a different manner and
You are talking USP?
Exactly. So so in my personal way to see it, I like to always think of the strategy and process improvements. So I think both are closely related because when we think about process improvement, I believe it's the first step that we need to take towards the strategy for marketing. I have sat down with CEOs that they still ask me, what do you mean with process improvement? And I said, well, you know, if you think about it, the marketing strategy is not going to work as long as we don't take waste from any process that you are applying currently in your organization,
So, how that you work out what that waste is?
Yeah. So anything that is delaying the process for you to be successful is what I call waste or defects. So I tend to use at least two concepts. One is called "Lean Six Sigma" and the other one is called "Kysen". So these two concepts for process improvement are going to help me to define number one. Why do you see what's stopping me from being successful with my project? Let's say my project right now is to do marketing to either my product or my organization. Number two, talking about process improvement. What's the purpose of it? I mean, what's really is going to take me to define within my culture in the organization, it could be one unit or it could be the whole industry. What exactly is going to be the purpose of this process improvement that is going to impact directly the marketing strategy, then the other question that I may ask them is what the focus, was exactly what is going to be a tracking the quantity and the quality of the elements that intervene in this process improvement to clean up, to take the waste away from it and to not to have the effects. So as you see, all this process improvement is little by little, it's going to challenge you to to certain questions that you may not even think about in your everyday life, right? When you are....
Can you explain what Lean Six Sigma is and Kaysen as well? Are they processes or APS or ethos?
Yeah, they're a few process improvements methodology that are used by businesses. But now what we see is because, you know, a business can be maybe just one person. Why not, right? Because we're using those resources that we can find a line, one or two or up to five people can be working, you know, and be the head of the organization. And so what we do as consultants is just to bring these process improvements, in this case, Lean Six Sigma or Kysen to help them with the pre-development of what the marketing is going to be. So anyone who wants to learn Lean Six Sigma will need to register for many different levels of knowledge. And actually, it takes lots of time, but anyone can do it. And you can register with organizations that provide the certification for Lean Six Sigma or Kysen. So these philosophies of of methodology actually are bringing success to companies. So you'll be surprised how many organizations still don't know what these process improvements methodologies are or how they can be used. But once they find out for, you know, going specific, if your goal is to do marketing for a product or to create marketing for your company, in my opinion, professional opinion, I believe without any of these process improvement, there's probably going to be a very little chance that you become successful. So, we find this process improvement and we have apply it. And once again, it depends because you may ask me how much time is going to take to do this.
That's what I was going to ask you actually, yes.
If your company if it's a big company, I mean, I've done projects in which Lean Six Sigma can take up to a year. So so, because these are everyday work and there are many elements that are contained within the process that unless you don't take the time to do it, you know, some people may say, oh well, but it's going to take longer than I expected. Yeah, but the result after work is going to be a long term positive result. So it is good to clean the process of the functionality of your organization. And then in this case, because we're talking about marketing applied the marketing strategy. So with the marketing strategy, I like to use a concept that is known in the business world, which is called design thinking. And one of the, you know, challenges that, you know, I when I sit down with with my, you know, it could be, you know, mentor for companies or older employees for companies. The first thing I asked them, and I'm basing this in design thinking is what's the empathy that you have for your customers? What's the empathy that you have for your competitors? Because that's the first key element of design thinking. So when we think about design thinking, we say it's a human centered concept. It's all about having empathy for those that you may want to help or you may want to have them to buy your product, or you may want them to follow you as the influencer or as the company or, you know. So the first thing is you have to take the people's first approach, how they see you and what are their problems in their everyday life. Because you want to find solutions to their problems. You want to find solutions to the inherently desirable, you know, wishes that they may have
The pain points you ask.So when you go and meet a business owner for the first time, you say, "What are your pain points that your customers are experiencing? Because this is what we need to convey as part of the strategy.
Correctly, and then they asked me how we do that. Well, it's very simple through observation. So observation is actually what is going to give us that world of having that minor detail to what our customers actually need. And once we notice things that others don't, then we are going to be successful. So if I want to market a product for someone who I want them to obtain from my company, a mistake from many organizations is to kind of anticipate, you know, the need that perhaps doesn't exist from customers. So, of course, then you ask yourself why someone is not buying my product, why people are not actually feeling in tune with my product, because it's not a need. So that is the all around. We kind of have to make it work backwards. So we first
Can you make it a "wants" John? Because, you know, people want stuff and desire stuff. It may not be a need. I mean, nobody needs Jay closs. They can just use clothes, you know, old clothes if they want. But you can make it a desire somehow.
You can make it a desire. But, you know, I like to call this the job to be done if your product is not making a job for me, is not fulfilling a need that I have, then why I will get it? for instance and I'm going to give an example. If you think about cars, why people buy cars?, because it gets the job done for the customer. So you buy the car because you need the car for many different reasons. I need the car to transport myself to my job because I need to go to the supermarket, well think about places like Miami and who knows, Miami. They for sure understand that is not the type of city in which you can make a living without a car. So a car, it's a, you know, a number one need for anyone who's living in Miami. So when you think about a product, you have to ask yourself, is getting a job done for them. But how do I know if actually is getting a job done for them, well, that's why you have to get close to your customers and you need to talk to them. You need to observe them. You need to see exactly what is their activity in terms of, you know, for what you want to accomplish for reasons. I want to give you another example. In India, eighty percent of the population did not have a fridge you know, in their house. Imagine that. Eighty percent of the population. So you have this company that said we need to solve this issue because the incumbents, companies that are creating fridge. They're not doing it for that 80 percent. They're doing it for that twenty percent who actually have a physical space in which you can fix the fridge because you have a house that has a living room, you have a kitchen. Right. And not the money to pay for the product, but that 80 percent, they don't have actually the physical space. They don't have the money and they don't even have a kitchen. Sometimes these people actually use the bathroom, the kitchen at the same time. Now how this company actually figure this out because they put design thinking into into place. So the first thing is they say, let's go to our you know, our customers and let's just observe and take notes. And then, you know, they spend, you know, like six months just observing them. They will knock their houses, they will sit there, they will just observe and they notice that, to make a fridge for them, you needed to have a certain size. There was lack of power. So question, how can you create a fridge that is going to be able to still work if there's a lack of power? I mean, and you may ask me, what was the first need any of them in aggression talk about it for having a fridge in their home. And you know what they say? To be able to have a cold glass of water.
Wow.
So when you have that empathy, you know, which is the design thinking, then you can integrate the thinking of your organization. So you can rely actually in analytical problem process once you got the matrix for real. And once again, this is not your imagination thinking what I think it is, or basically knowing the numbers or because I went to Google and I Google numbers. No, you actually meet your costumers before you actually create the product and then optimization, which is, you know, like I always say, there is always a potential solution for any problems.
It was fascinating, that was an amazing example you gave there, John, of, you know, design thinking and how they observed the people in India. And I had no idea it was so high that there were such a few fridges my goodness, honestly, you are an absolute font of knowledge. John, is there any way we can learn more about yourself? And if anybody's looking to find a strategist, where would we find out more information about you?
Sure. I have my LinkedIn profile open to anyone who would like to connect with me. I have also Twitter and Facebook, if they can find me. My name is John Gomez, also, more than welcome to assist them throughout my company, Ribbeck Consulting. And I would like to take the opportunity that, there are two beautiful concepts that we are creating. One of them is called Internet of Things in the Arts and Internet of Things in the Educational System for Latin America. And we're doing this because we're living in the time of digital transformation. So anyone who would like us to assist them, organizations or individuals, we provide those services and it will be fantastic. So you can just go www.refexpoconsulting.com.
And it's all for smart cities, isn't it?
Yes, that's the future.
Oh, totally, I completely agree with you. Well, I could listen to you all day, John, and I'm probably going to talk to you after this podcast. So but thank you so much for joining us today on the show. And a fascinating topic. I'm delighted that we've managed to speak to a strategist, certainly in your sector. And, well, we really look forward to learning more from you at a later stage, hopefully. That's all for now from the Monday morning podcast. Thank you for listening. And we'll be back next week and will apprise you during the week of what we've got coming up next. Take care.