BLOG ROLL
ARCHIVES
November 30, 2005
As you may have noticed from the friendly little redirect from blog.marqui.com, we have made a few adjustments here at Marqui's World. First, our Web address is now www.marqui.com/blog, so please make the appropriate updates to your address book and/or your RSS readers.
Of course, now that I've said that, I must confess that I did something bad to the RSS feed on here, so give me a little while to fix that before you try to subscribe. Yes, this is lame. I know.
Also, since we are now using Marqui's software to power our blog (yippee!), you may notice one other big change...given the amount of spam we were receiving on the old site, we have turned comment and trackback moderation "on." This means if you submit a comment or use the trackback feature, it may not appear right away because it has to be approved first. Don't worry though, Janet and I will release any and all non-spam comments/trackbacks as soon as we can.
Hopefully, this should make our blog a little more reader-friendly. Some of the stuff that was appearing in the comment/trackback sections on our old site was pretty foul, so I apologize to anyone who stumbled across it.
If anyone notices anything else that looks new or different and has a question, don't hesitate to drop me a note or comment.
November 22, 2005
I've blogged before about Web 2.0 - from the conference in SFO last fall. I saw a very good article yesterday by John Battelle, Web 2.0 event founder, in the New York Times (free registration is required) that he wrote about why Web 2.0 is not going to be a bust. (As in bubble...)
Among many good points in the article is that the Internet is exciting again - from a business perspective. And a key driver is that the cost of computing power and technology is dropping through the floor.
Where it once cost millions to put up an interactive web site, people are doing it for free through blogs today. Now, I wouldn't run a business blog with a free application, because you get what you pay for in both cases, but the point is, the Internet is open for business to everyone - for real this time.
November 18, 2005
In addition to the MOM Symposium, I attended InnoTech Austin this week. Great show -- lots of attendees and according to the folks I talked to, a number of good sessions on marketing. (Janet and I were on booth duty all day, so we didn't actually get to attend any.)
Right before I boarded the plane to come home, I purchased a bottle of Texas Crystal water. After taking a large swig, I flipped the bottle over to read the label...and just about choked. Because this is how Texas Crystal decided to describe its "premium" water:
Texas Crystal originates deep underground...it is brought through an orifice without any surface or atmospheric exposure.
Call me crazy, but isn't there some sort of cardinal rule about NOT using the word "orifice" when marketing a food product...?
November 14, 2005
The sessions here are only 35-40 minutes long so we are whipping right through them. Given that I have a relatively short attention span, it's nice to switch topics frequently. However, this means that most of the presentations are a little too high level to have many tangible take-aways.
That being said, here are some highlights from the past three sessions...
Six Sigma Marketing
According to Laurie Cremona, Vice President of Marketing Strategy and Operations at BEA, an organization should consider Six Sigma for marketing for the following reasons:
- To make things more measurable
- It focuses your attention on process management at all organizational levels
- It improves your internal and external relationships
- To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your processes by aligning them with your customers' needs
Cremona briefly described the various stages of Six Sigma (define, measure, analyze, improve and control) and how they apply to marketing. She concluded by recommending a shift in thinking when it comes to innovation. She said that the Western perception of middle and top management is that they are the ones responsible for driving innovation. However, one of the compelling elements of Six Sigma (and Lean, for those who are familiar with it) is that it pushes organizations to encourage innovation across all levels.
Marketing Operations at eBay
The eBay case study was a little disappointing since it was very, very high level. It also had a distinct vendor sales pitch flavor to it - Marketing Transformation Services was back on stage discussing the strategy it has used to help eBay.
However, if you are interested, here are the lessons eBay says it learned from its MRM (Marketing Resource Management) implementation:
- Use a phased approach
- Iterate where possible
- Keep everyone together (location, location, location)
- Aim for common systems, common processes, etc. with enough flexibility to handle various segments and scales
- Remember that easy things should be easy
Strategies for the Marcom Supply Chain
The primary message of this presentation was simple, yet strong. If you don't take a hard look at your entire marketing supply chain, how can you possibly find ways to improve it. One of the best examples the speaker (Michael Moon, president and CEO of Gistics) provided involved something he describes as "carbon monoxide expenses."
Moon says the problem with carbon monoxide is that you can't see it, touch it, taste it or smell it... but if you ignore it, it will kill you. So too will the hidden expenses in your supply chain. For example, he challenged marketers to determine exactly how much they were spending on paper for collateral worldwide. He said that chances are, costs will vary widely based on suppliers in each country and there are almost always ways to "trim the fat."
Kinda makes you wonder what carbon monoxide expenses might be lurking in your programs, doesn't it...?
November 14, 2005
No, that doesn't mean I'm attending a conference on parenting. In the wild world of acronyms, MOM stands for Marketing Operations Management and this is a two-day conference designed to help organizations understand exactly what this means.
Beth Weesner, the Principal at Marketing Transformation Services, kicked things off with an explanation of MOM and an overview of how it relates to other areas such as MRM (Marketing Resource Management) and EMM (Enterprise Marketing Management). Yes, there is definitely a little bit of alphabet soup action going on here!
To give you just the highlights of Weesner's presentation, she emphasized that:
- Companies need to shift from "industrial age" marketing to "information age" marketing. Whereas "industrial age" marketers could hang on to their competitive edge for up to nine months at a time, today's marketers can lose it in a matter of weeks or even days.
- Marketing has evolved to focus on building customer loyalty, education, building a bridge between customer support and the customer, etc. as opposed to just lead generation (sounds like Stephen's post a while back).
- Customers today want to be independent - they want a self service model. The challenge therefore is for marketers to figure out how to facilitate this.
Immediately following Weesner's presentation was a panel discussion on the role of the Marketing Operations Director. The panel included speakers from Intuit, BEA Systems, Symantec and Sun, and the moderator was an analyst from IDC.
The moderator (Michael Gerard, Research Director, CMO Advisory Research, IDC) started off in true IDC fashion...by throwing out some numbers. According to IDC, the role of Marketing Operations Director has been one of the hottest job titles in 2005, accounting for 2%-4% of the marketing staff at technology vendors.
Gerard went on to predict that the role will become increasingly important as more and more infrastructure and processes are deployed within marketing departments. He also said that this position is likely to become the "conscious of marketing." (Okay, I understand where he is coming from on this, but I'd be lying if I said this statement didn't rub me the wrong way.)
At any rate, most of the questions during this discussion focused on how the role of Marketing Operations Director fits within the marketing departments at each of the companies represented. Most of the answers were very similar - for example, the role reports to the CMO and interfaces with sales, customer support, finance and IT.
Probably the most interesting point made during this discussion came from the speaker from Intuit. Carrie Nedrow, Senior Program Manager of Strategic Initiatives, said that one of benefits Intuit saw from implementing the Marketing Operations role was a significant reduction in marketing program cycle time (i.e. the time it takes to craft a new campaign from start to finish). According to Nedrow this has been cut from 24 weeks to 6.
The wireless network here is pretty wimpy, but I'll do my best to keep blogging. Next up: sessions on Six Sigma Marketing and an eBay case study.
November 11, 2005
As marketers, we know how quickly things can change. But these days, the speed of change is accelerating like a Saab - developed by airplane engineers.
(Good fodder for another post - I think that's a brilliant campaign!)
One of our most successful partners, eROI, brought that to my attention with their recently published study of email deliverability and efficiencies.
It shows that email read and click rates are the lowest during the middle of the week and the highest on Sunday and Friday.
Who knew? I've been running under the assumption (and advice from e-marketing pros) that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to send e-mail. Turns out, they're probably the worst!
And, their study shows, the bigger the list, the less responsive. Which makes sense to me, more targeted lists allow you a more targeted message and offer.
Of course, we believe that managing your own opt-in subscriber list is bound to be the most efficient source of opportunity and revenue for your company, whether you're serving other businesses or consumers in your marketing efforts. We happen to make a solution that helps marketers do that every day. And we're constantly challenged to serve our own prospects in a balanced manner with informative and targeted e-mail messages.
It's great to have a partner like eROI, who not only sells Marqui, but educates us as well. Cheers, Ryan and Dylan and crew!
November 9, 2005
Intriguing name for a post, isn't it? It was even more compelling as the title of the American Marketing Association luncheon I attended yesterday in Portland, Oregon. John Jantsch, the founder of Duct Tape Marketing, was in town to reveal the 10 Natural Marketing Advantages of a Small Business.
Not surprisingly, John is a firm believer in the idea that bigger doesn't necessarily mean better - in fact, he says a growing number of large companies have recognized this and are now rushing to embrace their inner "smallness."
So what are these fabulous marketing advantages you wonder? They are:
1. Focus
2. Reach
3. Nurture
4. Surprise
5. Transform
6. Partner
7. Automate
8. Educate
9. Meaning
10. Play
I can't possibly do his presentation justice in writing, but I will highlight two of the points that I found particularly interesting: reach and surprise. For reach, John reminded the audience that small businesses are often extremely close to their customers - so close that they can "reach" out and touch them. From a marketing perspective, this means that a small business is in a much better position to conduct "true" market research on the fly because they can go straight to the source: a real customer with a real need.
Of course, this isn't to say big businesses can't do the same thing but it is a little harder and it takes a little longer.
In terms of surprise, John pointed out that a small company isn't burdened by ridiculous amounts of red tape or processes so it's easy to "surprise" customers (or partners or whatever) with a special discount or a random gift. He went on to say that people tend to remember these types of surprises -- and talk favorably about them for a long time. (Reminds of the experience Janet had with Umpqua Bank a while back.)
One other item I'll mention about the presentation is that I liked John's simple explanation of marketing: getting someone - with a need - to know, like and trust you.
Food for thought.
November 8, 2005
There are more women online today than men. Check out these stats from Jupiter Research:
>> 70 percent of all U.S. women will be online in 2006
>> 67 percent of women online make online purchases - and this number is expected to grow to 74 percent by 2010
>> in 2010, 85 million women will purchase products and services online
I got an e-mail invitation today to complete a survey about how I purchase technology products from WITI and IDC, titled "Let your Voice be Heard." It stated:
"WITI and IDC invite you to participate in an important research study about purchasing technology products.
This research will help technology vendors to develop, market, and sell technology products more effectively to you. The study will examine which technologies women are buying this holiday season and who they are buying them for. Individual responses will be kept strictly confidential and results will only be used in an aggregate manner.
We want to hear about your shopping experience for technology products this holiday season!"
It's gotten me thinking - Marqui markets a software service to women:
1) do we provide the right information to them in the right way to satisfy their needs?
2) how are women's informational needs different from men's?
In the survey, I noted that comparisons are important to me. As are recommendations from third-parties. It makes me realize we don't do a very good job online of providing comparisons. And our case studies (arguably third-party recommendations) are kind of buried in the client section of our site. I have to do a better job - based on my own admitted needs - for our prospects and clients. Imagine that!
I'd love to hear from others about companies (either technology or not) who do it right. I know Dove and Nike are making a lot of noise in their "unique" approaches to marketing to women... who else has the right voice?
November 2, 2005
Stumbled across this post from The Content Wrangler (love that name!) about a software company's less-than-perfect attempt at online marketing.
Reminded me of a very similar experience that I had this week with the W hotel in Seattle. Now, staying at a W hotel is, without a doubt, a fantastic experience. The service is outstanding, the decor is gorgeous...I could go on like this for hours.
The W even goes so far as to send a "thank you" e-mail after a visit. What a wonderful idea -- particularly since the e-mail includes a link to special offers, making it very easy for the recipient to book another trip right away.
Too bad the link on my little thank you note was broken.
I actually need to go back to Seattle in a couple of weeks so it would have been very convenient for me to just book my trip right then and there. But instead, I received an error message. It's a minor irritation, but now that I have not been delivered directly to a "book now" type of page, I will probably shop around a bit to see what rates other local hotels are offering.
Bottom line from a marketing perspective? After a wonderful stay, my last impression of the W is a generic Page Not Found message. And while I won't boycott the chain because of one e-mail faux pas, they won't necessarily get my business on this upcoming trip.
| Marketing Automation | Web Content Management | Campaign Management Privacy Policy | © 2008 Marqui Inc. |
 |