Those who win in Fantasy Football have two things in their favor: good players and luck. Picking the best players in the league does not guarantee success, because there are injuries, trades and flat-out bad seasons.

Many variables affect the outcome of the game, just as in business. Aside from luck, you want to pick the right opportunities to grow your business, just as you would want to choose the best players to improve your chances of winning.

Unfortunately, there's no crystal ball to tell you which opportunities will succeed and which will fail. Instead, you can arm yourself with information to help make the right decisions. What process or evaluation model would ensure your decisions have a better chance for success? How do you evaluate opportunities instead of relying on luck?

If you're having a good season but your team could do better, share your weaknesses with 200,000 “MarketingProfs Today” coaches with plenty of successful plays on hand. Submit your challenge and receive a complimentary copy of our book, A Marketer's Guide to e-Newsletter Publishing.

This Week's Dilemma

Turning the odds in our favor

I have a number of opportunities or alternative products/services that could expand my business. I am not sure what evaluation model or process to implement to compare the opportunities. How do I evaluate those opportunities?

—Riley, Owner

Previous Dilemma

Presenting one voice to different markets

My company is technology based, and over the years it has developed into three distinct business units: enterprise interoperability software products, portable device engineering services, and wireless device software products. We market to a wide range of target customers. I am sure this is a problem for many large companies. How do we create and ensure a consistent corporate message that encompasses all of our businesses?

—David Warkentin, VP Sales Marketing, Intrinsyc Software

Summary of Advice Received

David, it is difficult to ensure that a company, especially a large one, communicates as one rather than sounding like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Readers explain how to speak with one voice to different markets:

1. Create a single corporate message.

2. Identify the primary offering.

3. Focus on the audience.

1. Create a single corporate message

The most popular advice is to create a corporate message or brand. Sending mixed messages means you may not have such a single corporate message, and it's time to create one. Barry Vusko, creative director with Firestar Communications, explains what to do once your company figures out its message:

It needs a "unifier." This unifier is most likely a high-level marketing person (VP of marketing, director of creative services, etc.) who can…oversee brand and messaging across the business units. This person works with unit heads and managers to determine how the corporate brand best combines with the business of each individual unit. This is a big job and requires the unifier to understand the business of all the units as well as the targets and their needs.

Some of the artifacts that may come out of this sort of work are a management-approved brand model; a marketing plan showing each major unit delineated as to how the brand applies most to it and its "product;" and a creative brief. This final piece is the "rulebook" for anyone who does any sort of corporate communication—and is a direct siphon from the brand model and marketing plan. Following a creative brief ensures that all communications—internally or externally—are consistent. This is clearly the short answer to a question that can elicit books.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hank Stroll (Hank@InternetVIZ.com) is publisher at InternetVIZ, a custom publisher of 24 B2B e-newsletters reaching 490,000 business executives.