Self Disruption

Radical Innovation
 

Ron Spink

Chief Executive Officer

AC Business Media

Ron joined AC Business Media as Chief Executive Officer in the Summer of 2021 and quickly led his team in an analysis of the company’s place in a media world shaped by multiple disruptive influences.  They focused on questions like, “What is our true business?”  “What do we mean to our clients and audience base?”  How might we be disrupted by 3rd-party intermediaries moving into our markets?”  “Are we helping our clients to invest their advertising budgets effectively (with us) as they communicate through a TOTAL buyer’s journey?”  

The team realized that some Self-Disruption, and even Destruction, might be in order.  Ron’s presentation at MediaGrowth Executive Summit 2023 outlined a number of changes ACBM made.  We’ll discuss just one here.

Ron and his team, working with The Farnsworth Group, designed surveys for each of the three marketplaces that ACBM serves; Heavy Construction, Landscaping and Supply Chain.  But these surveys didn’t ask the usual questions about their audiences’ opinions of ACBM, it’s products and its competitors.  Instead, the surveys focused on the information sources and direct “tools” that audience members used (and trusted most) to educate themselves and make decisions at each step during their Buying Journey – from Awareness, through Consideration, Preference, and Intent to Purchase.  

The surveys included “tools” such as: 
•    Industry Media Print Publications
•    Information Direct from Dealers/Distributors
•    Online Video
•    Email Offers from Manufacturers
•    Industry Media Email Newsletters
•    Industry Media Websites
•    Industry Peers
•    Online Educational Content/Training
•    Search Engines -- and a number of other information sources; 40 in all.

Audience members from each marketplace that ACBM serves were asked to rank the tools they used and trusted most at each step of the Buyer’s Journey for information related to: 
•    Brand or Product Awareness
•    New Trends
•    Process Innovations
•    Successful Technique Developments
•    Product Comparisons
•    Help in Purchasing a Product
•    Potential New Product Manufacturers 

Answers were compiled and presented in charts that “mapped” their usage and trust of information sources.  “We took a hard look at our product portfolio to see if it matched the ‘Jobs to be Done’ by our marketing customers today.” said Ron.  “Were we helping them to drive sales growth, to identify highly likely prospects and move them along on the buyer’s journey, to drive leads through engagement, and to achieve client acquisition, retention and repetition with the least amount of friction? 

When that wasn’t the case, we disrupted ourselves so that disruption was less likely to come from some outside source.”  Ron shared how these maps of audiences’ usage and trust of information sources helped ACBM fine-tune its product and services portfolio by both adding and eliminating features.  They also helped ACBM’s salespeople get the attention of clients and prospects.  They could show advertisers where to invest their budgets to be in the places where their target buyers were looking for information – as they passed through every phase of a buying decision -- maximizing marketing investment, and efficiency.

“Now we can tell marketers, ‘Here is where your target audience is looking for answers during each stage of their buyer’s journey’”, said Ron. “’And here is how our suite of products can help you meet them in each of those places.’"

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