Social media is providing marketers with an array of tools and opportunities that offer an unusual entrée into understanding the good, bad and ugly of how customers use and perceive brands, your company and even your employees. In today's world, it is increasingly critical to understand your specific customer needs and to build business relationships both on a local and global … [Read more...]
The New Pay-to-Play Model in the Blogosphere
The old model of journalism is dying, at least online. Relationships between companies and media writers have been supplanted by a new business model. My European colleagues, particularly those in Germany, clued me in to how public relations "works" in their countries: If you want your material to appear in newspapers or magazines, you must purchase advertising. Of course, … [Read more...]
Engage or Perish: The Choice Is Yours
Like the Industrial Age, the Conversation Age (often referred to as Web 2.0) requires businesses to change and recognize that the status quo is unproductive and unacceptable. If your company is to remain competitive, increase market share and grow its business, the time to reinvent yourself is now. That means it's time to invest in social media, specifically blogging, and add … [Read more...]
12 Essential Tips For Success in Social Media
Whether you call it social media or consumer-generated content, there's no debate over the accelerating popularity of Internet sites and forums where consumers share opinions and experiences about every product and service imaginable. From blogs and podcasts to wikis and social networks, social media allows consumers to rate and review products, advise fellow consumers and even … [Read more...]
A Firsthand Tale Of Adopting Web 2.0 Technology To Build Brand
As marketing evolves into a two-way conversation that technology enables, it changes how we interact with customers and the value we offer the marketplace. Traditional marketing - based on interruption, forcing oneself on others and being loud and mostly irrelevant - becomes obsolete. I consider this exciting. Some consider it scary. Many consider it a return to what marketing … [Read more...]
Q&A: Dennis Morrow
As director of information architecture and usability, Mr. Morrow leads Web Associates' holistic approach to combining user interface design, human factors and usability practices, resulting in positive user experience initiatives for the agency's family of global brands. PERFORM: What is the most common mistake you see companies making when it comes to their website design and … [Read more...]
The Power of Corporate Blogging: Some Guidelines for Doing It Right
On May 31, 2006, The New York Times published an article by columnist Thomas Friedman that featured some pointed criticism of General Motors. Friedman charged that GM's promotion of SUVs was feeding America's addiction to oil. Comparing GM to a "crack dealer" for oil dependency, he said the corporation is "more dangerous to America's future" than any other company. GM officials … [Read more...]
The Rise of Social Sales and Marketing
The jury is in. Evolution hasn't really caught up with humanity's highfalutin attitudes about our species' uniqueness. Less than 100 years ago, human existence was purely about survival in most cultures. Our survival depended on our ability to work as a group. Like it or not, we are still essentially animals grouped in packs. We hunt in packs; we farm in packs; and, indeed, we … [Read more...]
New Channels Help You Find Your Missing Audience
If it's getting harder to reach your target market with TV and online ad campaigns, it's likely because your audience has left the building. Or it could be they've entered another world - a virtual world. But not to worry: you can still connect with them. Two emerging media platforms are addressing the major shifts in consumer behavior: mobile advertising and in-game … [Read more...]
Mapping Your Company’s ‘Value DNA’
Ever since 1896, when John Patterson, founder and CEO of NCR, held the first training class on how to sell cash registers, the best salespeople have always focused on selling solutions and communicating value from the customer's perspective. So why is it - more than a century later and after billions have been spent on solution-centric sales training, solution messaging … [Read more...]
The Changing Influence of the CMO
The marketing function has evolved in recent years, becoming more important to the success of the business and becoming higher profile. To test our hypothesis about the ways the chief marketing officer has changed and the new requirements for the role, we embarked on a study that involved interviewing more than 30 CMOs from major U.K. businesses, most of them FTSE 50 … [Read more...]
Q&A: Joe Melanson
In Mr. Melanson's role as Aquent's chief sales officer, he and his Enterprise Solutions team work with leading global companies to increase their capacity to execute marketing initiatives. Since joining Aquent, he has helped clients build their capabilities by leveraging Aquent's services in consulting, outsourcing, staffing, technology and training. Joe has created customized … [Read more...]
Is It Time for a New Marketing Organization?
Psst, want to know the secret to better marketing ROI? Just hire a statistician, add some complex analytical models to measure the marketing mix and voilà! That is overly simplistic and wrong, isn't it? If it were that easy, we'd all know exactly what we were getting for our marketing dollars. The truth is that it isn't even close to being that easy. Many ascribe the difficulty … [Read more...]
Personalized Marketing
INTRODUCTION: THE DREAM The relationship marketing arena stands on the cusp of its golden age, at an inflection point parallel to that of the golfing world. Just as golfers with the best technology at their disposal should be shooting under par like never before, marketers equipped with cutting-edge technology tools and awash in a sea of consumer data should find that … [Read more...]
Pencils and Towels
Nothing from my marketing past could have prepared me for this meeting. Fresh from having run a large, publicly traded interactive agency, I was in my second month as president/CEO of a mid-size, independent experiential/promotional agency. Earlier in my career, I had been embedded in the fact-based, data-driven world of direct marketing. Sitting around the table were some very … [Read more...]