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2/28/2005 13:43
While digging around BusinessWeek's web site, I came across the publication's blog on marketing and advertising: Brand New Day. It's authored by BusinessWeek's marketing writer, David Kiley. While Brand New Day doesn't really offer any tips for marketers -- it just seems to poke fun at various campaigns -- it's still a worthwhile read. Recent posts include thoughts on KFC's decision to use Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" in advertisements, advice for Martha Stewart and criticism about marketing efforts by airlines. However, it did remind me of a post from Byron not too long ago, pleading for bloggers to include an "About Page" so readers can more easily establish credibility. I'm already familiar with Kiley's work so I knew who he was when I saw the byline, but what about other readers? Or perhaps BusinessWeek is confident that Kiley's position with the publication establishes his credibility? (There is one small sentence on the right saying he covers marketing and advertising for BusinessWeek.) In any case, seeing Brand New Day made me realize how helpful an About Page really is. We're already making some adjustments to Marqui's World based on feedback from Byron (for instance, you'll notice we've removed that silly calendar) and an About Page will soon appear.
2/24/2005 17:56
Great, just what we needed...more reality TV. And this time, the focus is none other than PR. Yes, MTV has decided it's necessary to chronicle the exploits of PR professionals (if you can call them that) at Lizzie Grubman's New York firm. The show, which is called "PoweR Girls," airs in March. Check out the description from MTV's web site:
The life of a PoweR Girl at Lizzie Grubman's New York City PR firm is sometimes glamorous, sometimes stressful but always exciting. Don't miss the drama on PoweR Girls.Now, I'll withhold final judgment until I have a chance to watch it, but based on this description, I fear this show will do little to quash the stereotypes about women in PR. I'll provide an update after the first show.
2/22/2005 15:23
I just got an e-mail from a friend online who passed a funny (and kind of scary) article to me, with the comment: "don't let this happen to you!" The article is all about the addictive nature of blogging that some people have experienced. There are some funny examples of people who've taken blogging (or thinking about blogging) to new levels. I can honestly say that I've thought to myself "this would be a perfect topic to blog about!" while at work. I'm proud, though, that I haven't ever preferred blogging to other outside activites. I'm lucky enough to work for a company who supports - even promotes - this medium of communication. So for now, I get a kick reading articles about those funny characters who get obsessed with the act of blogging. One day at a time.
2/22/2005 8:27
You Software recently issued a press release inviting Microsoft Outlook users to participate in a public preview program for You Subscribe: RSS, a new RSS news reader utility. For those of you who aren't familiar with how RSS feeds work, they are essentially mini "news briefs" from blogs, web sites, etc. A tool like You Subscribe: RSS brings these little news briefs directly into your Microsoft Outlook folders. And yes, you get to pick and choose which feeds you want. The system automatically creates a new folder for each feed. In case you're wondering about the more technical side of things...according to the press release, "You Subscribe: RSS uses an efficient software engine that works in the background to gather, process, organize and store RSS feeds whether Outlook is online, offline or completely closed. With background processing news feeds are instantly pulled into Outlook. There is no waiting for feeds to load every time you launch Outlook. The engine keeps track of RSS subscription preferences and data and keeps RSS accounts synchronized and up to date. It takes care of the business logic of downloading subscription files and updating an RSS feed database." The best part is that it's free. It only took me about 2 minutes to install and so far, it's been pretty useful. Of course, it IS an early release and it looks like they are issuing updates on a weekly basis. Hopefully, that won't turn into an issue. If you're interested in checking it out, you can download it here.
2/18/2005 15:49
...with the new PubSub earthquake subscription service. Yep, you can now "find out whenever an earthquake happens anywhere in the world." You can pick which region(s) you want to monitor and even define a minimum magnitude. Personally, I find this service a bit odd. But for all you earthquake addicts: go forth and track!
2/18/2005 11:30
Okay, we've all seen them. The cheery little e-mails from some co-worker or acquaintance that proudly state how wonderful LinkedIn is and politely invite you -- the lucky recipient -- to become "LinkedIn" too. If you're like me, you've probably accepted such invites. And then promptly forgotten about the growing list of contacts in your LinkedIn network. I have to wonder whether anyone is really using LinkedIn in a meaningful way. I've seen some folks post about the company's ambiguous business model, but how about some best practices on how to use it? After all, according to LinkedIn's FAQ, it's supposed to be an excellent resource for referrals. I'd love to talk to someone who has actually used LinkedIn for this, so that I can put together some tips/tricks on how to use it. Please contact me if you fit the bill.
2/17/2005 15:11
One of the more enjoyable things about this social experiment of paying bloggers to blog about Marqui has been the banter back and forth - among our bloggers, and our blogger wanna be's. Much of the banter was in e-mail threads, so they're not in the public domain, but there were some laugh out loud reading moments. Here are the Top 10 Blogger Quotes so far (with names withheld to protect the guilty): 1. I'm dirty. So dirty… (Marqui blogger) 2. If you don't stop googling yourself you'll go blind. (Marqui blogger) 3. I'd love more information about being one of your bitches. (Wannabe Marqui blogger) 4. Try reaching a little deeper for a metaphor next time. How 'bout, "poo poo pants.� (Marqui blogger) 5. Blog Slut (Category of blog posts - Marqui blogger) 6. Stop bringing a butter knife to a gun fight. You are not up to the task. (Marqui blogger) 7. It's the fact that I disagree with you that makes you think I should shut up. (Marqui program dissenter) 8. This "blogosphere/purity" rap is so, so, so, so 2003ish. (Marqui blogger) 9. Lets use the code name "pond scum", when you are referring to them so they don't get more press than they deserve. (Marqui program dissenter) 10. Dabblemode powers activate. (Marqui blogger) Of course, perhaps these aren't funny, or even fun to most people. Maybe I should worry a bit about developing a warped sense of humor after only ten weeks of the program? These exchanges haven't all been fun, but they've been very creative and full of emotion. There's not much more a marketer could hope to be engaged in.
2/16/2005 11:43
Another day, another article claiming that marketing is dead…*sigh*…however, this time, the finger is pointed at shoddy market research. In his February 15 Marketing News piece, "MR Deserves Blame for Marketing's Decline," (which is only available online to subscribers) Don E. Schultz says,
Marketing generally succeeds when the marketer knows, understands or at least recognizes the importance and value of the of the consumer in the marketing chain…the truth is, most marketing organizations know little or nothing about their customers, notwithstanding the billions that have been spent on CRM and data analytics.Schultz goes on to say the root problem is that market research doesn't result in meaningful information. Yes, it provides lots of data points, but no real insight. He concludes by saying there is hope in that some research organizations are now experimenting with new methodologies and realizing that true analysis is more important than just reporting numbers. I agree with Schultz that market research processes are flawed, but I don't think faulty research is entirely to blame for the alleged decline of marketing. Yes, a more accurate methodology would be helpful and more analysis would be great but more importantly, companies need to make sure they are actually incorporating information from market research into their marketing initiatives. The key to being a successful marketer isn't just knowing what customers need, but showing how those needs can be met with a particular product or service. Hence, the growing discussion among leading marketers about the importance of "relevance" in advertising, etc. Today's consumers will only pay attention to such things if they are relevant. The same issue of Marketing News has an interesting piece that touches on this, in the form of an interview with legendary direct marketer Lester Wunderman, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Wunderman. Again, wish I could link to it. As a side note, it was amusing to see that blogging has become so mainstream that in the intro of his article, Schultz states, "before you crank up your blog-him-out-of-the-water messages, why do I suggest research is the culprit?" Makes me wonder how many folks WILL blog him out of the water. I'll be keeping an eye out…
2/15/2005 12:53
I received an e-mail today from Curt Rosengren, who's newsletter I've been getting for about a year now. He would accumulate job postings in the Northwest, and send them out to his subscribers every so often. He thought of it as a 'good karma way' to help tech companies and job seekers. Over time, he got 'finders fees' when his honor system worked, and matched employers with employees. In today's e-mail, he stated:
"As you may have noticed, my job postings have been conspicuously absent since December. I realized recently that a big part of the reason for that has been that I've been feeling burned out on it. Jobs have been coming through, but I haven't been able to bring myself to spend the time to post them. In truth, I'm pondering whether or not to keep it going. I think part of the reason for this e-mail is to gauge reaction out there. Not to be overly dramatic, but should I keep going, or just let it die a graceful death? I'm really not sure how much impact it has any more."He goes on to say that he once had 1700 people subscribing to his free job postings e-mail, and that has recently dropped to about 1200. The problem? No one seems to respond any more to his e-mail. As a marketer, I'm intrigued by this. Here's a good samaritan, reaching out a helping hand to hundreds of people every few weeks, with little response. (I can honestly say I have responded to several of his notes - not because of a job listing, but because of compelling disclosures he'd often make.) His mail was often interesting. What's going on here? - Is e-mail a poor information delivery vehicle (after what, only fifteen years)? - Are we looking for two-way conversations in a medium that is not equipped to deliver the kind of human interaction we expect anymore? - Has our aversion to SPAM reduced our ability to respond when someone really offers help? - Is the job market so great that people don't need help finding their next gig? (I wish I could imagine that again!) I find it interesting that my first inclination is to blog about this, not to respond in e-mail. Have my habits changed so quickly? If so, what about others'? Curt, I'll send you the link to this post in an e-mail response. Maybe you can comment on it in your blog. Wow. Welcome to 2005.
2/14/2005 15:17
It amazes me that almost a month has passed since the blog business summit reinforced the beauty of blogging for me as a marketer. I am (not surprisingly) way behind on my plan to share the information gleaned from the event with everyone, but was prompted to write this because of an e-mail I got last week about the guy from Google who lost his job as a result of his personal blogging about work. We've all heard horror stories about bloggers who do it poorly. I am moved to pass along Microsoft's basic guidelines for blogging. I mentioned before that Microsoft thinks of blogging as software evangelism, and it has been used very effectively to put a human face on the great beast. Here are their basic guidelines for being a successful blogger. Be smart: - Respect your existing confidentiality agreements - Don't break news, don't disclose confidential information (They link to the SEC guidelines for disclosure in publicly-traded companies. I'm including a link here to the Small Business guidelines.) - Be cautious with third-party information - Respect prior employers - Identify yourself as an employee - Be cautious how you offer support of advice - Speak for yourself - Think about reactions before you hit "post" (i.e. How would this information look on the front page of the NY Times?) Simple, straightforward, and smart. The conversational medium we're building needs to have some basic, common-sense 'rules' to live by. I suggest these will protect you and your company when you blog. Being smart doesn't mean has to be hard.
2/10/2005 10:17
According to a flyer I just received from the American Marketing Association (AMA), the latest and greatest trend in marketing is Six Sigma Marketing. In fact, AMA is hosting an entire event on it in May: Six Sigma Marketing: Turning the Dream of Marketing Perfection into Reality. Of course, the conference organizers are quick to point out that no one is really using six sigma for marketing right now, but they say it has the potential to deliver:
Amazing Marketing Performance Dramatic Market Share Growth New Product Success Rates of 40% or Higher Advertising ROI of 20% or Higher Customer Satisfaction Rates of 90-95% Significant Improvement in Brand Equity Increasing Customer EquityI did some digging around on the web and couldn't find much more information on Six Sigma Marketing anywhere. A fellow by the name of Sam Decker has posted a few items about it here and here, but I don't think it has quite the "buzz" AMA thinks it does. In any case, the whole concept of Six Sigma Marketing is intriguing since the point of Six Sigma is to use data and statistical analysis to improve performance, and marketing and metrics generally don't go hand and hand. Granted, more and more companies are using tools to measure things like web traffic, e-mail click rates, etc., but there are still so many elements that are hard to measure in a meaningful way (i.e., public relations). Maybe that's why Six Sigma Marketing has yet to take off.
2/9/2005 9:01
Wanted to give a quick recap of an American Marketing Association luncheon I attended yesterday...Nike's Lisa MacCallum and Jodi Sittig gave a presentation on how the company shifted its traditional focus on marketing to men (specifically to teenage boys) to include more of an emphasis on women. From Lisa's and Jodi's point of view, the keys to successfully penetrating a new market are: 1) Recognizing it's about relationships (where have we heard this before?). Main take-away: before pursuing a new market, companies need to make sure they are committed to -- and capable of -- building and maintaining a relationship with that particular market. For instance, will they be able to establish a credible point of entry? Will they be open to learning from the experience and refining their product or service? In Nike's case, they had to take a hard look at whether or not the company's understanding of male-driven sports would translate into an ability to establish an ongoing relationship with female athletes. 2) Maintaining focus. Main take-away: By pursuing a new market, a company is already taking a risk so it's important not to stray from other core competencies. For Nike, this meant starting out by focusing on women runners. Nike already had a strong reputation in the world of running, so this was an area where the company could easily establish credibility. 3) Living the brand values. Main take-away: Companies need to make sure that pursuing a new market won't jeopardize or dilute their existing brand. From Nike's perspective, this meant they had to make sure the Nike Women initiative adhered to the company's overall brand principles, which are: -Inspire -Innovate -Focus -Care -Connect To illustrate these points, Lisa and Jodi provided an overview of the Nike Shox for Her campaign and Nike 26.2 marathon. The American Marketing Association usually posts PowerPoint slides online following its events. I'll provide a link if/when those slides get posted.
2/7/2005 11:06
There was a fair amount of discussion this weekend regarding the value/proper use of conversation coordinators. Rok Hrastnik's expanded piece on dialog facilitators might be helpful for organizations looking to add something like this to their marketing program. Of course, anyone who is still wondering WHY it's so important to keep an eye on blogs should check out Jeff Nolan's post about the Dunkin Donuts fiasco. The Burger King reference is particularly amusing.
2/4/2005 12:43
Earlier this week, Marc Canter mentioned that Marqui has started using a "conversation coordinator" to help us stay on top of what bloggers are saying about our company. It was interesting to see that Rok Hrastnik picked up on this idea and recommended that other companies "start thinking of hiring conversation coordinators or dialog facilitators to keep tabs on blog (and RSS) conversations." Is Marqui really the first company to formalize this role…? Regardless, I agree with Rok that some form of "conversation coordination" is going to become an important element of a company's overall marketing strategy. Whether it's a full-time hire or the responsibility is simply assigned to someone as part of his/her job function, the point is that businesses should be aware of -- and actively responding to -- what's being said about them in the blogosphere. As far as how we're using our conversation coordinator, she: • sends us a daily summary of what folks are saying about Marqui and whether or not there are any issues we need to respond to • scans a number of high profile blogs to see what they are writing about and flags posts that we should consider commenting on (not necessarily related to Marqui) • notes any common themes or industry trends that she thinks we should be aware of Of course, this isn't to say that the rest of us here at Marqui aren't actively reading blogs; almost all of us do. It's just helpful to have one person aggregating and analyzing the information on a regular basis.
2/3/2005 16:35
It recently came to my attention that not everyone is aware of the glory of Google News. For those of you who have yet to be indoctrinated, this excellent little feature allows you to easily conduct a search of recent news articles. Just click on the link that says “News� on the main Google page and enter your search term. You can even sign up for Google Alerts if you'd like to be notified every time something gets covered in the news (i.e. your company, a competitor, etc.) This may not sound too exciting or revolutionary to some folks, but for marketing people it's very helpful. In fact, I no longer bother with more traditional clipping services, such as BurrellesLuce. The lag time with these services is just too long. Of course, Google News only finds recent articles and it doesn't pick up blog content like Feedster, but for instant media coverage gratification, it can't be beat. The best part: it's free. It probably won't stay that way (particularly since it's only in beta) so enjoy it while it lasts.
February 2, 2005
I can't even tell you have many times I've heard "PR is dead" or "marketing is a goner" in the last few weeks...particularly while I was at the Blog Business Summit. Therefore, it was a relief to read Susan Getgood's piece, “It's not EITHER direct marketing OR blogs. It's AND!�
Thank you, Susan!
February 1, 2005
Eric Rice, DL Byron and I spoke recently about the status – and future – of Marqui's PayBloggers program (if you're so inclined, you can listen to the Podcast here). Both offered some excellent feedback on the program and ways to improve it. The number one concern? The frequency of the posts.
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