Being Peter Kim

The Greening Of Direct Marketing

Close your eyes and think back to last Christmas.

Actually, open them again so you can read the rest of this post.

Do you remember the piles of catalogs you receive every holiday season?  For window treatments, electronic gadgets, preppy clothes?  Ever get the sense that all that mistargeted mail was bad for the environment?  Well, you're not alone - once again, consumers are ahead of brands, agencies, and institutions in thought and deed...

New research from my colleagues Dave Frankland and Sarah Glass illustrate the "green-ness" of today's direct marketing practices.  And the results aren't good news for the ozone layer.  Some marketers are taking steps in the right direction (see picture above) - but we've got a long way to go.

Forrester clients can access the entire "Direct Marketing Needs A Green Wake-Up Call" and everyone can read highlights and commentary in Ad Age.

At Forrester's Marketing Forum

I'm at Forrester's Marketing Forum in Los Angeles today.  And again, I'm up at 4 am local - is this technically jet lag?  I won't be doing a lot of blogging or tweeting because my schedule's full.  However, you can get updates from a variety of sources:

- Forrester's Marketing Blog, which has an embedded Meebo chat
- Twitter - not just me, but also Jeremiah, Charlene, Josh, Adam, Amy, Rodney, Nick, Michelle, Barbara, Jeremy, and others
- Blogs:  Jeremy Pepper, Rodney Rumford, Jennifer Jones, Marianne Richmond
- Photos on Flickr

If you're here and see me around, please say hi!  I'll be doing Q&A this morning after Brian's keynote speech on engagement, doing intro and Q&A for Emmanuel Brown from Nike Jordan Brand, and running a track session this afternoon with BzzAgent's Dave Balter and JD Power/Umbria's Janet Eden-Harris.

And if you're here...what kind of attendee are you?

If you have a second, please tell me more about yourself.

Do you know about the Online Marketing Suite?

Last week, Omniture invited me to speak at their Summit 08 in Salt Lake City.  As it turns out, I was given the chance to address an audience of over 2,000 interactive marketers about what's going on in the industry.

When it comes to interactive marketing technologies, all signs point in one direction:  The Online Marketing Suite.  My Forrester colleagues Suresh Vittal and Shar VanBoskirk have written on this idea that you should become familiar with:

"Forrester believes that the time is right for the online marketing suite to emerge. This suite, underpinned by a central hub, is the eventual destiny for all online marketing technology and will enable a single view of the customer across channels, provide process tools to support collaboration, centralize optimization, and support a partner ecosystem."

The Online Marketing Suite may not be as sexy as social media, but it's how business gets done...if you haven't heard about this concept, you may want to keep an eye out for it in the future.

Heading down to Charlottesville in April

I'm heading back down to Charlottesville to speak again at the Online Marketing executive education course.  I was down there in October 2007 and judging from the feedback that organizer and search guru Alan Rimm-Kaufman received, it went pretty well.

I earned my MBA from Darden back in 2000 and have used what I learned every day of my career since.  If you have ever wanted a good excuse to visit a beautiful campus and get smart, this is it.

By the way, the famous (infamous?) Foxfields will be held the weekend before the course.  If you make it down, let's hit the Corner and get a gusburger.  Just don't expect me to stay out with you until 3 a.m. (!)

Reflections on CES 2008

I've just returned from CES 2008, my first time attending the largest consumer electronics trade show in the world.  My primary goal in attending was to get smart on technologies related to my new Forrester coverage area, mobile marketing.  My overall takeaway: it was a world of paradox.

I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the convention, yet underwhelmed by the dearth of 'aha' stuff on display.  You can get a quick recap of the good in c|net's Best of CES; you can also find out more about the bad and ugly in Engadget and Gizmodo.  Walking the floor, you'll find well-produced booths like Intel, Nokia, and Sony but transition quickly into what seems like a super-sized Best Buy, then into sections that seem like they took everything for sale on the long tail of eBay and put it on display.

The general storyline in play was paradoxically "more AND less."  More capacity.  Less physical space.  More processing power.  Less energy consumption.  More functionality.  Less environmental impact.  But what was missing was the breakthrough innovation I've associated with CES in the past - the most relevant announcement to me was Yahoo's Go 3.0 and open mobile apps platform.

Here are some of the lessons I learned as a CES n00b:

1. Having a bicycle rules.  Learning from the experience of Charlene Li, I rented a bike.  Getting to the LVCC was a breeze, judging by all the car traffic and tales of cab lines.  Riding at night seemed a bit more dicey, but still not so bad.
2. It's easy to underestimate distances and hard to get anywhere quickly.
3. By the end of the day, the press room is a disaster.  I heard that the free lunch line was a spectacle and I was not disappointed - the one day I was camped out doing work through the lunch hour, people were queued 20 minutes before the buffet line opened and then kept streaming in from the hallway like two streams of roaches looking for food.

I've got three days in pictures up on Flickr; would love to hear your lessons as well.

Be social but be private

While things are still slow at work, why not take an hour today and opt-out of directories where you don't want your personal information to be public?

Here are some links you might find useful, from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.  You might find it insightful to run a search on these sites for yourself first to see what pops up.

• 555-1212.com
• Acxiom
• Ameridex
• AnyWho
• Direct Marketing Association
• Experian
• Infospace
• Network Advertising Initiative (12 networks)
• Switchboard

Being smart in social media means you show what you want to show.

Wunderman on direct marketing. Or was it social media?

Lester Wunderman, speaking at MIT:

"We are living in an age of repersonalization and individualization.  People, products and services are all seeking an individual identity.  Taste, desire, ambition and lifestyle have made shopping once again a form of personal expression.  A computer can know and remember as much marketing detail about 200,000,000 consumers as did the owner of a crossroads general store about his handful of customers.  It can know an select such personal details as who prefers strong coffee, imported beer, new fashions, bright colors.  Who just bought a home, freezer, camera, automobile.  Who had a new baby, is overweight, got married, owns a pet, likes romantic novels, serious reading, listens to Bach or the Beatles.  New marketing forms which will link these facts to advertising and selling must evolve - where advertising and buying become a single action."

I was speaking to David Sable of Wunderman last week and he mentioned this speech vis-a-vis some research I'm currently working on.  The quote is from November 29, 1967.  Many people trace the birth of direct marketing to this speech.  Speaking of forward looking, perhaps being a good left-brain marketer is to be a bit of Nostradamus...?

Forty years later, you can apply the same insight to advertisers and agencies today to explain why social computing matters.

The Evolved CMO

Forrester's CMO Group publishes some of the best CMO-focused research that even most Forrester clients will never see.  Why?  Because access to member-only research is one of the benefits of joining the group.

However, CMO Group analyst Cindy Commander recently completed a report in conjunction with executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles focusing on "The Evolved CMO."  And both firms have decided to distribute it gratis.

The report is based on a survey of 132 marketing leaders from companies >$100M.  Some of the key findings from the report:  CMOs need to spend more time on personal development, averaging less than 10% of their time on the activity.  CMOs aren't seizing the opportunity to lead their organizations to customer-centricity.

Most surprising to me:  CMOs rate engagement-related tactics like customer-driven design, social computing/web 2.0, and user-generated content as least important to success - but most important to learn about (!).

Read the full report here (registration required).

Some pronunciation tips

I'm not so great with French, but I thought I'd share some tips on marketing and advertising words from other languages...

• Denuo = "deh NOO" (Latin)
• Jaiku = "y'eye  KOO" (Finnish)
• Joost = "JOO ced" (Dutch, contrary to YO st)
• Wieden = "WHY den" (German, contrary to WEE den)

Then again, English is my native language so what do I know?  Help me out here or offer tips on your own favorites.

Updates from Forrester's Consumer + Finance Forum EMEA

  movistar! 
  Originally uploaded by Pete Kim.

I'm in Barcelona this week for Forrester's Consumer and Finance Forum.  I'm already hearing some great examples of how European companies are using social computing.

Most of my updates from the event will be on Twitter, where Jeremiah, Tracy Sullivan, and I will be tweeting.

Longer updates via blog are at Jeremiah's blog and the Forrester marketing blog.

An idea for managing accounts and email spam

I was walking to lunch earlier this week with Brian Haven and he told me about a simple, clever tactic he uses to manage account logins and email spam.

Background - last time I moved, I changed the name on my magazines to my dogs.  Since then, they've gotten various offers in the mail.  Most recently, Lucy received a trial membership to a women's fitness club.  (She does need to lose a few pounds...)

So Brian mentioned how he's doing this with email.  The basic concept is to set up an email address for every account you have that requires a login.  So if you own the domain "foo.com" then you'd set up email addresses like amazon@foo.com, ebay@foo.com and gmail@foo.com. This means you:

• Don't have to remember what address you used to sign up for a service
• Can isolate messaging by account and track back to source
• Have less likelihood that an email address you really like will end up on a spam list
• Will feel good about putting extra functionality to use that you already pay for

There are some variations to this (e.g. forwarding, catchalls), but that's the basic concept.  If you don't own your own domain name already, you can get a one year *.info at GoDaddy for US$3.19.

I know some people use a free email account for all signups, order confirmations, etc.  But sometimes there are account-specific emails that you may want to receive.  We may never be able to filter every spam email in the world, but I thought this idea was cool because it's got more than one purpose.

Anybody have refinements to add?  Been doing this and found any drawbacks to share?

Epilogue: Consumer Forum 2007

  Turn Groundswell to advantage 
  Originally uploaded by Pete Kim.

Back to work tomorrow - unlike David Armano, I have no choice but to live with my Forrester hangover from the Consumer Forum.

This was my 2nd forum and quite a different experience.  One reason was Forrester's use of social media.  You can see the great posts about and reactions to the content in many places - Jeremiah has the best roundups on days 1 and 2.

Overall, there was less evangelizing and more on making social computing real.

I'm interested to see how things are different in Barcelona next month, as well as Marketing Forum 2008 in Los Angeles...that is, expecting bigger and better things.

All these things that I've done

  Portfolio viewer 
  Originally uploaded by Pete Kim.

"...I am so much older than I can take
And my affection, well it comes and goes
I need direction to perfection, no no no no

Help me out"

[just put up a portfolio of sites I've managed.]

(thanks Autoviewer!)

You're not a "marketeer"

Let's drive agreement on this - if you do marketing, you are a marketer.  Not a "marketeer."

1. Marketeer is a pejorative label.
2. Even marketing professionals at Disney aren't "marketeers."  They're called cast members.
3. If you insist on being a marketeer, then you're probably formulating strategery as well.

Thinking through Facebook (for marketers)

Facebook's momentum can be described as any sort of a number of analogies involving velocity.  I've been meaning to write a post but with so much great insight popping up, I'll leave it to aggregation and attribution.

Strategy:

• "I advise marketers not to invest too much time in creating 'a Facebook strategy' as much as they don't have 'an NBC strategy' or 'a New York Times strategy.' Instead, I encourage them to people watch, learn and then plan based on their audience and the big picture." - Steve Rubel
• "Wal-Mart has the opportunity to build a community with these students, but has to resist the temptation of treating this group as yet another marketing channel." - Charlene Li
• "I want to know what's happening in the world faster than anyone else...If someone says something, I want to see it first." - Robert Scoble via Pete Blackshaw

Tactics:

• "Join or build a community, deploy an application (widget), invest in advertising, gather intelligence from profiles, and extend one’s network." - Jeremiah Owyang, "What the Web Strategist should know about Facebook." 
• "Employees are more likely to view important company information when it is just one click away from their Facebook page than if it is on something totally different."  - Shiv Singh, Avenue A/Razorfish
• The annual cost of a sponsored group is $1.2 million - Valleywag

And with all good things comes spam.  The malicious-minded can create fake profiles to mine profile data.

Ries is wrong...again.

I have a lot of respect for Ad Age.  Their reporters are smart, their data is valuable, and their features are interesting.  Ad Age is an important and influential voice in our industry - and I just can't understand why they still have Al Ries writing columns.  Yes, I still read them - to get a perspective on how traditional marketing can't deal with the changes taking place today.

In early 2006, something struck me as odd when Ries declared that Guatemala should rename itself in order to increase tourism.  That idea is about as good as starting a war to lower oil prices.

The second was a blatant mistake that BMW had changed its tagline.  Wrong.

More recently, Ries tells Ad Age readers why the iPhone will fail.  I think generating $250 million in a weekend of sales is pretty much a success.

Now, Ries says that Playboy's move to digital is a bad idea, comparing it to failed product line extensions.  Wrong.  The world has changed.  According to Pew, 47% of all U.S. adults have broadband at home, up from 30% in 2005.  Moreover, this shift has been underway at the company for years and the company turned a profit in FY 2006.  A quick look at the PLA 10-K shows that while revenue from the publishing business has declined for the past 3 years, while revenue from online subscriptions and e-commerce have grown 30%.

I guess the worst thing you can be is in the middle - it's refreshing to hear a voice that's consistently wrong.

[Matt, how long does that contract run?  Have you all lined up someone more in touch, like Seth Godin?]

I now pronounce you...CIO and CMO.

Here's an idea from Sam Decker:

"The most important aspect to good relationships is open and frequent communication.  This requires four things:

1. agreement and accountability;
2. face-to-face work with no “over the fence” mentality;
3. open communications and sharing of plans and results; and
4. investment by each person and those under them to build relationships."

Now, are we describing how to make a marriage work?  Because it sure sounds like it.

Sam is a M20 blogger and recently contributed to some new Forrester research called "Partnering for Success: The CIO - CMO Relationship."  The advice given above is Sam's perspective on how CMOs and CIOs can build a more effective partnership.

Maybe that's a good analogy for how close IT and marketing need to be in today's business world driven by technology change.

Good timing - in my own work on the state of the marketing organization, I found that marketers have their most unproductive relationships with the IT department.  This situation needs to be improved - now.

Invitation: participate in Forrester's online advertising forecast. Receive free research.

It's time for Forrester to update its online marketing forecast.  A graphic from the old 2005 - 2010 forecast is at right.  There are a lot of forecasts out there and I think the consensus opinion goes something like this:

"Traditional media flat to slightly declining.  Online channels up, big time.  Unmeasured media...?"

Forrester's last forecast included four areas:  email, online classifieds, search and online display ads.  Not sure how this new forecast is similar/different (it's not my research) but if these areas are important to your business, you can participate here and receive a copy of the research once it's complete.

"Transforming" product placements

I caught the Transformers movie last night; it's the first time I can recall wishing a movie had an "R" rating instead of "PG-13"...maybe because the previews for "I Am Legend" and the untitled 1/18/08 movie looked pretty good.  Still, it was definitely better than the robots we grew up with.

For a blockbuster summer film like this, I was curious to see what brands had stepped up to be incorporated into the story.  Here's a quick run-down and my take; if you've seen the movie, I'd be interested in hearing what you thought.

- GM:  I heard about this first via :30 TV spots and dealership signage.  This is the best and most natural placement for the movie, given that it's all about cars after all.  The only one that seemed forced was the Pontiac Solstice in a showroom - nice car but kind of underpowered vs. the others.

- eBay:  The first couple of times it made sense, but by the 3rd or 4th mention, it was over the top.

- Apple:  I don't know if this was paid, but there was a clear shot at one point of the hero using a MacBook

- Burger King:  The shot of the female lead with her friends at this QSR just didn't seem right.  Not saying it couldn't happen, but in LA?  They should've been eating at Pinkberry instead.

- Mountain Dew:  Machine transforms into Decepticon.  Gratuitous.

- Vespa:  The worst placement of the movie.  When all the other motorized stuff transforms into a cool robot, why not the scooter that you paid to place in the movie?

Hoping we can buy a Duff Beer and and pay $5 to catch the Simpsons Movie on JetBlue this summer...

Luxury, interactive agencies, and financial services

I'm about to wrap up my 2nd trip to New York in two weeks.  I've been blogging about what I've been doing here and over on Forrester's Marketing Team blog:

- The luxury marketing, Google, and Critical Mass
- Notes on luxury:  Giorgio Armani keynote
- Three things about Avenue A/Razorfish
- The company-owned store: an immersive brand experience
- Turning customer experience into a competitive weapon
- Fidelity Investments:  Moving beyond customer satisfaction
- Customer advocacy 2007:  USAA wins again
- What North American banks can learn from Europe

Thankfully I'll be at home for the next few weeks.

The company-owned store: An immersive brand experience

  M & Ms 
  Originally uploaded by Pete Kim.

Whenever I walk through Times Square, I'm amazed to see the number of brand-owned flagship stores there.  After dinner last night, I went into the M&M's store at Broadway & 48th.

This is a great example of how a brand - one that you may not think needs its own store - pulls off an immersive experience for enthusiasts and those who are just plain curious.  For example, the wall upstairs has tubes filled with M&Ms of all different colors - over 22, many of them exclusive to the store.  You pick out a bag and fill with whatever colors you want, $9/pound.  And yes, while that may be 2 - 3 times more expensive what you may pay at your local CVS...it's the experience that counts.

In a world filled with complex distribution and trade operations, the company-owned store is a manufacturer's best option to maximize presentation of a brand on its own terms.

p.s. this applies to your website, too...

Doing what's wrong for the customer: JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Do you ever get privacy policy notices from the financial institutions you deal with?  You have to according to the law.  I got one from Chase today and found the phrasing quite interesting.  Chase gave me two privacy option choices.

- Option 1:  "Even if you do tell us not to share, we may do so...as permitted by law."
- Option 2:  "Even if you do tell us not to share, we may share other types of information within our family."

To me, this says that Chase is going to try and make money off of my information in any way legally permissible.  Whether I like it or not.

This is very far from the concept of customer advocacy - defined by Forrester as "the perception on the part of consumers that the firm does what's best for its customers, not just the firm's own bottom line."

It seems to me that if Chase really had my best interest in mind, they'd write this policy in plain English and give me an option to truly retain my privacy.  Is 2 - 3% on all of my transactions not enough to run a business?

Digital Agencies at ARF re:think

The second panel of the day at ARF's re:think conference was "The Agency of the Future" including R/GA, Avenue A|Razorfish, Nitro and Digitas.

Continuing on the one-of-these-outfits-is-not-like-the-other theme, Nick Law, Chief Creative Officer from R/GA shows up in short sleeve shirt, jeans, and swooshes in stark contrast to other panelists in standard business casual.  Interactive is the new traditional and its agency executives appear to have followed suit, so to speak.

Get it?

Followed suit?

Ok moving on, Rance Crain of Ad Age did a nice job of moderating and stirring up the pot.  He suggested an alternative title for his panel as well:  "Digital:  Just Another Silo?"  BTW, I'm guessing he's not a big fan of subservient chicken, either.

Torrence Boone of Digitas described his company as a "full service agency" with roots in direct marketing and capabilities today in integrated and digital marketing.  Which is a good thing because I'm planning a Forrester Wave on integrated agencies later this summer.  Torrance defined a big idea as a filter on what to do or what not to do.  It's built out of consumer insight, media context, and consumption patterns, along with a good dose of gut and intuition.

Steve Marrs of Nitro spoke about his company's small size and global reach.  They have three main offices, in London, New York, and Shanghai (the largest).  Shanghai as largest is intriguing (unless I heard wrong).  Steve said that his agency approaches work by separating strategy from advertising - the way it used to be.  Nitro defines a big idea in part as something that drives business results.  Note to Nitro:  a good place to start would be SEO for "nitro."

Clark Kokich of Avenue A|Razorfish described his company as a "full service interactive advertising agency."  He mentioned that he's been in the agency game for a long time and left his first stint because of a feeling that what matters to client businesses happens inside the core of their firm - untouched by agency projects.  He brought this focus back to AARF to focus on what's "crucial to the client's business."  Clark also mentioned that his agency's purpose is to drive business results, because "you can't build a brand through advertising." 

Nick Law of R/GA showed how the "Agency of the Digital Age" is helping one client - Nike - beyond advertising.  Their work on Nike+ gets deep into product as well as promotion - these being "wearable, networked computing devices."  Not much more to say, because Nick showed how R/GA is doing it.

These agencies are certainly well-positioned for the future, especially given the way consumer behavior is shifting to digital.  However, as interactive agencies compete for strategy work, they are going to run into formidable competition - traditional management consultancies.  We've been here before and last time the old guns won.  This time around...?

Research Agency CEOs at ARF re:think

The second day of the ARF's re:think conference opened with a panels research agency executives, called "The Research Agency of the Future" with the CEOs of GfK, Kantar, TNS and Nielsen.  Moderator Jim Figura of Colgate-Palmolive said it should have been called "Insights Agency of the Future."

Most of what these CEOs had to say didn't get beyond what you can read in the press today.  Thus as Joe Mandese wrote in his post on the official re:think blog, the interesting parts of the panel came from reading between the lines.  In fact, most of the talking points were so generic that I didn't know what company was being referenced for the middle two speakers.  GfK was introduced by the moderator and Nielsen went last by process of elimination.  But for Kantar and TNS, it was a few minutes before I knew what company was being represented.  This was because none of the CEOs told the audience their name, title, or company when they took the podium - they all just started talking.  Perhaps these guys are rockstars of research to the ARF audience.

Klaus Wübbenhorst from GfK proposed his company was best positioned to help businesses - after all, GfK stands for "growth from knowledge."  I asked Klaus about GfK's brand monitoring plans after the panel.  No response - he looked at me as if I had just asked him to go a grab me a coffee with cream and two sugars.  I asked again, mentioning how TNS and Nielsen were building capabilities in the space.  He mumbled something to the effect of "sure, it's important."  I asked him if he thought brand monitoring were an important capability for a research firm to have in its portfolio.  Certainly a slow-pitch underhand softball in my book, but it must have looked more like a Matsusaka gyroball.  No response.  Pretty clear he just wanted me to leave; unfortunately, I had to in order to deliver my breakout session.  Note to Klaus:  70 million and growing.  Think about it.

Credit to Eric Salama from Kantar who was aware enough that the Blackberry in his pocket was creating interference with the mic.  Salama says it's time to mind the gap between what research firms promise and what they deliver.  His firm's strategy hasn't changed for four years, built on three principles:  people, innovation, and data quality.  I asked Eric about brand monitoring, too.  He said none of his companies were doing it.  I asked about Visible Technologies - he said, "yes, we have a partnership with them."

David Lowden from TNS had this to say:  "The research company of the future will be a partner with its clients."  "Cost-effective servicing is an increasingly important issue, but quality must remain."  "Clients will only commit to insight that positively impacts business in a meaningful way."  He did mention the Cymfony acquisition as part of their efforts to stay cutting edge.

David Calhoun from Nielsen was certainly different in appearance - he was the only panelist sans jacket.  He also heavily referenced his client-side experience, which others did not.  Calhoun was formerly at GE and mentioned his experience and mentors from there both in his prepared remarks as well as the Q&A.  These remarks certainly pointed out management acumen that puts The Nielsen Company in good hands - hopefully Calhoun will be able to change the industry standard as well and help marketers make advertising work.

Wunderman: We create relationships...or else

Lester Wunderman, speaking at Forrester's Marketing Forum:

“We create relationships…or else.”

"The business of advertising is to create relationships between buyers and sellers.  We used to be in the business of direct marketing – now we’re in the business of relationship marketing."  We will eventually move on to personal marketing, which will be facilitated by the use of data.

"Communications used to be dominated by the seller.  Today, the hero is the consumer.  Advertising used to speak – now they must listen."  Marketers need to move from product trial to creating and retaining loyal customers.

Four goals for direct marketing:  Relevance, relationship, repurchase, and retention.

Do consumers switch brands because they’re not loyal?  "No - people aren’t loyal to brands like they’re loyal to country, family, or faith.  Loyalty means fealty."  "I doubt you’d put your life on the line for your favorite brand of breakfast cereal."

"Word of mouth is still the most powerful force around."

Closing thought:  “In marketing, as in life, there’s no substitute for imagination or leadership.”

UPDATE:  Mr. Wunderman's own post regarding his speech.

Making Customer-Centric Marketing Real

Yesterday, I gave the opening keynote at Forrester's Marketing Forum.  The audience was engaged and in a great mood.  In a nutshell, here's my message:

Customer centricity is easy to say - and hard to do.

We have some great bloggers here that have written recaps:

• Josh Hallett on hyku
• Julie Katz on Forrester's  Marketing Team Blog
• Marianne Richmond on the Resonance Partnership blog

The most interesting side note from the session?  Six different people told me afterwards that they are familiar with the Wellesley dump.  It's a small world after all.

UPDATE:  Got feedback on the scoring - I was the highest rated speaker of the event.  Good times!

Forrester Marketing Forum - this week

I'm in Miami for Forrester's Marketing Forum.  Beginning Tuesday, check out the team blog for updates.  I'll be posting here on the sessions I'm attending as well.

Wednesday morning I'm delivering the opening keynote, so hopefully we'll get a good recap from Josh, Marianne, Julie, or Ross.  (It's kind of tough to blog your own speech.)

Sales and PR - learn from the mistakes of advertising

When I was a client-side marketer, I would get calls all day long from sales people pitching stuff.  After a month, I learned how to vet call value within the first 10 seconds.  After six weeks, I learned how to respond to aggressive sales pitches.

I don't have [a lot of] sales people calling me anymore, but I do get lots of people calling to try and pitch their great ideas.  Of course you think it's great.  It's your business.  But why would you assume that I am #1 interested in your offer, when I'm almost certainly in the middle of something else that has nothing to do with your call and #2 that I am interested in stopping what I'm doing to listen to your pitch?

Maybe advertisers don't understand this either.  Interruption and irrelevance don't work.  You can't annoy consumers into caring.

Push and pull.  Permission and relationship.  Use them wisely.

Reverse Product Placement - coming to a 7-11 near you

Article in the Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch via Boing Boing that 11 U.S. 7-Eleven stores will be rebranded as Springfield-style Kwik-E-Marts, complete with reverse product placement of Krusty O's and Buzz Cola.  No word on whether the stores would be staffed with their own sleepless Apu Nahasapeemapetilon or carry frosty Duff Beer in the cooler.  Taking convergence culture even further, 16 different towns of Springfield are competing to host the Simpsons movie premiere.

For some smart thinking on reverse product placement, check out what the minds at MIT's C3 have to say about it.

UPDATE:  Locate a Kwik-E-Mart on the 7-11 website.

Speaking about speaking

I'll be talking about marketing and advertising as part of some great events in the next month or so.  If you're around and want to meet up, let me know!

• Wed March 14th:  CTAM Board of Directors, New York
• Wed March 14th:  The Ad Club Symposium 2007, UNagency of the Present, Boston
• Wed March 28th:  MIT Enterprise Forum, The Future of Advertising, New York
• Wed April 11th:  Forrester's Marketing Forum, Miami
• Tue April 17th:  The ARF, re:Think, New York

Are you a client-side marketer or brand monitoring vendor?

If you're a client-side marketer or brand monitoring vendor, I need your help.  I'm kicking off new research and want to hear from you.

• Client-side marketer:  I will be keynoting Forrester's upcoming Marketing Forum and presenting new research.  I want to hear how you're getting along with reinventing the marketing organization, so join our research panel to voice your opinions.  Be sure to choose the "marketing leadership" box.
• Brand/blog/social media monitoring vendor:  In the wake of the TNS/Cymfony deal, I'll be revisiting this space sooner rather than later.  I've heard from many new firms in the space - send me a ping to make sure you're on my radar.  Best way - leave a comment with your name, email address, and URL.  Alternately, you can email me at [pea kay eye emm] @ forrester dot com with the information.  We'll be back in touch with you within the next week or so to ask some questions.
  
  This universe includes companies like 1st2c, Attentio, Beechwood, Biz360, Brandimensions, Collective Intellect, Cymfony, Fluxmonitor, iCrossing, Janya, Mindcomet, MotiveQuest, NameProtect, Nielsen Buzzmetrics, Radian6, Relative Noise, Umbria, Verisign, Visible Technologies, Vocus, and WagEd.  If you're a vendor and that list didn't get your attention...you need to improve your product!

Thanks for your help.

JetBlue: Stories that won't be shared...or will they?

Tough travel day out of Boston today, in the wake of a snowstorm.  Thankfully my 4 hours delay has me sitting in the terminal, rather than 8 hours on the tarmac.

You think any stories from today or yesterday will make it into Sincerely, JetBlue?  Of course not.  But they're out there anyway...

Resources on reinventing marketing

Happy Valentine's Day!

Prompted by a discussion in the comment thread of a recent post, I figure it's time to revisit the idea of reinventing the marketing organization.  However, before we get into that, let me make a couple of things clear:

• This is my personal blog - all of the content here is my personal opinion.  I pay Typepad's annual fee out of pocket.  I blog "officially" for work somewhere else.
• I don't receive any compensation (commission, credit, or otherwise) for Forrester reports purchased from the forrester.com website.

I've been fortunate to be able to share my research on reinventing marketing to many public and private audiences since the report was published in July 2006.  Here's a compilation of content related to my work that you might find useful (some subscriptions may be required):

• The original Forrester Reinventing The Marketing Organization report (July)
• My post on the Forrester marketing team blog about it (July)
• Ben's take at Church of the Customer (July)
• An archived Forrester client teleconference (August)
• A podcast and discussion from Forrester's Consumer Forum 2006 (October)
• My post on the Forrester Consumer Forum EMEA blog in response to questions after my speech (November)
• Josh Hallett's summary of my speech at Mplanet 2006 (December)

And links to others who are thinking in the same direction:

• The ANA's Bob Liodice
• ANA Marketing Maestros Will Waugh and Michael Palmer
• Ed See at MMA
• McKinsey & Company

I'll be extending the research into discussion of agency relationships and building internal credibility in the upcoming quarters.  Would love to hear thoughts on where this can/should go.  For example, how does this apply to B2B marketing?  My Forrester colleague Laura Ramos will move the ball forward in that area.

[BTW the picture has nothing to do with reinventing marketing - it's a picture of what Cambridge looks like today outside my window.]

Carnival of Marketing: Marketing experiences, not products

The carnival this week spotlights one post that signals a permanent shift in marketing.  Becky Carroll points out the importance of Marketing Experiences, not Products.

Becky's key points echo some of the points I speak about for companies that want to Reinvent The Marketing Organization:

• The customer experience encompasses all aspects of a customer’s interaction with us.
• The entire company plays a role in “marketing.”
• Once we understand our customer’s wants and needs, we can begin to market to them through the customer experience.

Customer-centric marketing is key.  What happens when it's not?

• A car story, regarding Subaru
• Another car story, regarding Saturn

Marketing has evolved from products to services and now to experiences.  I've heard some say that the next step is "transformation."

Carnival of Marketing - Week 1

Lots of great content submitted for this week's carnival of marketing.

Let's start by thinking small and a great post from Dimano Marketing, offering 99 Branding Tips For Poor Web Startups [or anyone, really!].  On the other hand, we have Jim Logan pointing out differences in B2B vs. B2C marketing and copywriting.

mindblob points out an older post on a topic that always seems relevant - blogging motivators, i.e. why people blog.  A question that many marketers no doubt still seek an answer for.

Continuing with social media, Sara Holoubek points out an example of social media before there was "social media":  Burma-Shave.  As an aside, you might enjoy the Vintage Advertising group on Flickr.

But I'd be remiss by not closing with a totally astonishing and awesome post from Andrea Learned - also the reason for the photo of Tofino (credit: Jacek S. on Flickr).

Discovered a good marketing blog lately?

In the wake of the Z-list, blogger Todd And has created the Power 150.  Neat way of bringing a bunch of different "authority" metrics together.  You might want to check it out and see if there's one or two new feeds worth picking up.

GMOOT - I'm a victim

GMOOT syndrome.  Coined by Ad Age:  "Get me one of those," the basic command from CEOs to CMOs or CMOs to their agencies [or staff].

I admit it - I was a victim.  Here's the evidence from a past job.

Better to be late (and do it right) than early (and wrong).  Social computing turns an internet adage on its ear - now, failing fast just makes you look bad.  That's because doing it right is so easy.  Just be authentic and you'll do it right the first time.

So you want to be a CMO?

[New year, new blog.  I'm cross-posting here from a blog I started called "Do You Have A Second?"  It's a career-related blog; in my time as a manager, mentor, peer, and employee, I received my fair share of good and bad advice.  The name comes from the phrase that you often hear when someone wants to share a piece of candid feedback with you.]

Back in October, I was a privileged fly on the wall of Forrester's CMO Leadership Board meeting in Chicago.  The guest speaker was Greg Welch from Spencer Stuart, talking about what makes a good CMO.  Greg should know - he handles some of the highest profile searches around.

Some things you may know already:

• CMO tenure is way down - almost 23 months, about half of CEO tenure.
• These are $1mm jobs that are really general manager roles that come with high stakes and expectations.
• New chief marketers need to build bridges and prove that marketing delivers value, doesn't just spend money.
• A key question: does your marketing team look like your customer base?

CEOs are looking for a fit at the intersection of job (i.e. responsibilities), organization (i.e. cultural elements), and personal qualifications (i.e. competencies).  The top skills required for success?

• Leadership - influence and impact.
• A track record of results - no excuses.
• General management and P&L experience.
• Innovation experience.

So how do you get there?

• In the short term, create a list of your 100 goals in life.
• Develop a personal board of directors.
• Gain experience with a blue chip company in an industry that you like.
• Network now.
• Get an international assignment.
• Go through a sales rotation.
• Participate in an acquisition.
• Manage your career aggressively.
• And finally (maybe the toughest one for this day and age) don't change companies too frequently - loyalty counts.

Thinking through this advice, I feel it's important to figure out WHY you want to be a CMO.  If you like creating ads but don't like numbers, shoot for VP of Advertising and love your job.  If you enjoy focusing on a single market, work towards managing a regionally-focused subsidiary company.  If you have brilliant ideas but don't want to manage people...become a consultant!