Proven Big M Marketing Techniques

Marketing is the interface a company builds to interact with the marketplace and the customer base. The marketing group, combined with the sales force, is the point in the company where the market understanding resides.

This should be the group that drives the company, that sells the marketing vision and message internally, and if that is not happening or doesn't seem appropriate, there is something seriously wrong.

Big M Marketing focuses on the broader more strategic use of marketing have having solid processes in place to take advantage of this. I sought the advice of Dave Guzeman president of Mindpik and author of a recent book called - Driving Marketing Success with Big M Marketing.



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About Dave

Dave Guzeman Mindpik’s Mastermind, has combined sophisticated technical savvy with keen marketing instincts for over 30 years. A veteran Silicon Valley marketer, Guzeman founded the Mindpik consultancy in 1988 to develop sales and marketing programs for new product launches, startups and turnarounds. Guzeman directs all of Mindpik's efforts to build business plans for capital acquisition or sales of companies or products to targeted markets. Mindpik clients have included semiconductor powerhouses like Signetics (now Philips) to inventive start-ups like Music Semiconductor and u-Nav microprocessors.

Prior to starting Mindpik, Guzeman held executive marketing positions including VP of Marketing at Zilog and VP of Marketing & Sales at ZyMOS. At the latter, he was responsible for introducing the industry's first PC clone chipset, a release that triggered the PC clone avalanche.

Guzeman started the Advertising and PR department at Intel in the mid-seventies where he worked with the company's founding partners to launch the legendary 8080 microprocessor which set the architecture and instruction set Intel still uses today.

Guzeman came to Intel from Teledyne Semiconductor, his first stop in Silicon Valley, where he served as the Digital Product marketing Manager after graduation with a BS in Physics from Aurora University in Illinois.

 

Statistics on Advertising during a Recession

I think Seth Godin outlined Marketing's Catch 22 best in his book The Purple Cow - (and I am paraphrasing here) - when times are tough the tendency is to conserve capital vs. when times are good the tendency is to not be aggressive.

As marketers we are so often faced with the dilemma of having to cut advertising in times of economic softness. But here is some real data that you can use to illustrate why that is a bad idea.

McGraw-Hill Research study of over 600 Businesses found that:

1981-1982 – business that maintained or increased their ad spend during this time

• Averaged higher sales growth during the recession and in the following 3 years!

By 1985 – sales of the businesses that maintained or increased their ad spend during that recession

• Sales had risen 256% over those that had cut back on advertising

Likewise in 2001 – another study found that aggressive recession advertisers

• Increased market share 2 ½ times the average for all businesses in the post-recession

In 2002 – the Strategic planning institute illustrated that during economic expansion

• Although 80% of businesses increased their advertising spend there was NO improvement in market share

• Why? - because everyone has increase ad spending!

Full Disclosure: I got these stats from a paper called Innovating through a Recession by Professor Andrew J. Razeghi at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Not only did I thank him for writing this paper, blogged about it, tweeted it but I also invited him to do a podcast with me so stay tuned. Meantime, I highly recommend you read his paper.

 

Secrets of Web Analytics – a podcast with Avinash Kaushik

Stop everything you are doing and listen to this podcast!

Seriously, if you have never met or had the opportunity to listen to Avinash Kaushik you must hear this podcast – I guarantee you will learn something from this podcast.

Sometimes you meet someone so passionate about something that it’s contagious and if you listen closely you can hear me firing off emails to my team in the background about what I am hearing and learning on this podcast.

I had the opportunity to do a podcast with Avinash to discuss some areas where marketers are doing things right and wrong but all of them are simple but extremely powerful uses of web analytics to make their websites and businesses better on the web. We also took some live Twitter questions as we were doing the podcast. But stop reading this and start listening to Avinash – its 25 minutes long but positively electric!



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About Avinash

Avinash Kaushik is the author of the recently published book Web Analytics: An Hour A Day. 100% of Avinash's proceeds from his book are donated to two charities: Doctors Without Borders, The Smile Train.

Avinash is also the Analytics Evangelist for Google and a co-founder of Market Motive.

As a thought leader Avinash puts a common sense framework around the often frenetic world of web research and analytics, and combines that with this philosophy that investing in talented Analysts is the key to long term success. He is also a staunch advocate of listening to the consumer, and is committed to helping organizations unlock the value of web data.

He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences in the US and Europe, such as eMetrics, Ad-Tech, iCitizen, and SES.

You'll find Avinash's web analytics blog, Occam's Razor.

Here are two links to posts about the dashboard (the first one was the one I had promised):

The “Action Dashboard” (An Alternative To Crappy Dashboards)

Five Rules for High Impact Web Analytics Dashboards

 

Successfully Engaging Customers with a Cause

Case Study at the Media Convergence Forum from Liz Cahill, VP of Marketing and Communications of Lee Jeans

13 years ago Lee recognized women were the top consumers of their jeans. And at the same time cause marketing was starting to take hold. Lee studied the causes that women really identified with and breast cancer was a clear winner. Lee wanted to do something because over 44,000 women a year die from breast cancer each year in the US. But they wanted to give the consumer the ability to make a difference. So they started the “pay $5 to wear jeans to work” on the first Friday of every October (aka - breast cancer awareness day) and wanted to create Lee national denim day. Over the last 13 years they raised $75M for breast cancer research.

At the beginning of the program they were breaking ground – now it’s seems like a “sea of Pink” – So welcome to Web 2.0 it’s no longer about pushing information out – it’s about consumers generating conversations.

Some Highlights:

• Hub was http://www.denimday.com
• They made sure the site was a real online community for men, women and companies
• You sign up, create a “team” and tell your story as a way to recruit and harness UGC
• They started building outpost sites on MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube – tapping into existing communities – making it extremely seamless with denimday.com
• They made sure it is searchable and found at the top of Google and Wikipedia page and it is updated all the time. That’s when the messaging really started to spread like widefire.
• They added celebrity ambassadors like Ellen DeGeneres and allow folks to connect with their ambassadors.
• They also used The Office TV show to create a Public Service Announcement (PSA) and got a 60% conversion rate because of that program off of YouTube.
• They harnessed blogs and message boards – “be very careful if you are trying to sell them – must be a very genuine conversation” Went to breast cancer blog sites – tried to give relevant information and how they can join in National Breast Cancer Awareness day.
• Billy Ray Cyrus – tapped into a whole group of country music fans.

Tips and tricks of the Lee Jeans program

• Empower participants
• Embrace the transparency
• Communicate regularly
• Tag everything
• Ensure consistency in the look and feel
• Do your homework do not “pitch” bloggers
• Be prepared for commentary

How to quantify value from cause marketing

• We can see a direct correlation and high share of wallet
• Over the last 13 years – the brand that cares for me – is one that you recommend to others!

Do a Social Audit

• Must be done continuously – have people monitoring daily on various type of social networks as well as the blogosphere
• What are the conversation being held about the brand and where
• As well as Denimday – what is being said

 

Secrets of Social Media Marketing – a podcast with Paul Gillin

There is no doubt the speed of change in the media space is blinding. New tools become available to marketers and individuals alike nearly every week.

If you have ever felt like it is hard to keep up (and I know I have) then this book is for you. Admittedly, Paul Gillin wrote this book for the 90% of marketers still trying to figure out social media, I can tell you it makes and excellent resource for even the most polished social media expert.

Paul covers topics like how to sell your social media program to by making a strong case, how to be a good listener using DIY tools across many types of media, how to find and court influencers, how to make social media worthy content and measuring results.

I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of his book and really enjoyed reading because it gave me ideas I can put into play immediately. Check out my podcast with Paul as we discuss some of the Secrets of Social Media Marketing.



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About Paul

Paul is a veteran journalist who's always been fascinated by the leading edge of technology innovation.

Paul is a veteran technology journalist with more than 24 years of editorial leadership. Paul was founding editor-in-chief of TechTarget, one of the most successful new media entities to emerge on the Internet. Previously, he was editor-in-chief and executive editor of Computerworld . Currently, he writes the social media column for BtoB magazine. His critically acclaimed new book,The New Influencers, is about the changes in markets being driven by the new breed of online publishers. Published by Quill Driver Books in spring, 2007, it is in its third printing. His second book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, will be published in the fall of 2008.

Paul specializes in advising business-to-business marketers on strategies to optimize their use of online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. He is particularly interested in social media and the application of personal publishing to brand awareness and business marketing.

Paul is an accomplished speaker and media spokesman. He has keynoted more than a dozen technology conferences, including annual user group meetings for IBM, Oracle, Cognos, Business Objects and J.D. Edwards. He has also spoken at scores of other events about technology trends and social media.

His ability to translate complex technology topics into plain English has made him a favorite source for journalists. He has been widely quoted in newspapers and on the airwaves, including appearances on CNN, PBS, Fox News and MSNBC.

Paul is a research fellow at the Society for New Communications Research and he chairs the social media cluster of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. He blogs at www.paulgillin.com.

 

Crowds have no leaders!

The Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost and time. Social tools like blogs and social networking sites are helping crowds form around very discrete topics.

But what is missing from these crowds are leaders. Like any social network that you may join you have those that join and just lurk, those that maybe make a comment or contribute but then you have those who stand up, take some initiative and lead! And that’s what these social networks really need is more leaders!

That’s what Seth Godin’s new book Tribes is all about.

For example, the internet is a great place for Ukrainian Folk Dancers because now for the first time people who love Ukrainian Folk Dancing can ban together and create their own “Tribe”.

This is an important fact since traditional media is no longer working. There is just too much noise out there to shout at people. No consumer brand has been built on the back of traditional media for a while now. TV certainly isn’t working for the creation of new consumer or B2B brands.

Which means your only option is to define your brand in a way that is open to a dialog (no Command and Control branding please) and in a way that is narrow enough to start or tap into a “movement”.

Take for example – Harley Davidson – here is a consumer brand that also is a movement a Tribe. Take from the brand what you want and maybe even lead your own Tribe in your own area.

Seth recently held an event in NY to bring his own Tribe together. You can view his slides here and you can listen to the audio of his presentation here.

Some of the highlights from my notes were

7 elements of leaders
- Challenge – leaders challenge their tribe
- Culture – leaders create a culture within the tribe
- Curiosity – leaders open up a curiosity gap for outsiders
- Charisma – being a leader gives you charisma
- Communicate – leaders communicate
- Connect – leaders connect others in the tribe
- Commit – to the movement

5 things tribes want
- Connect – they join to connect with others
- Create Meaning – joining gives them purpose
- Make a difference – joining allows them to make a difference
- Be Noticed – they join to be noticed
- Matter – they join because it matters to them

Marketing management is now Tribal leadership. Start doing things for people not to them. It’s an obligation and it up to you!

 

Redefining the Role of the CMO

Highlights of a Panel at the Media Convergence Forum featuring:

• Jeff Hayzlett – Chief Business Development Officer, Eastman Kodak
• Russ Klein – President Global Marketing Strategy, Burger King
• Nicholas Utton – CMO, E-Trade Financial

Role of the CMO faces evolution and reinvention unlike any of the peers of the CMO.

What the CMO role mean to each of you?

Jeff – My role as the CMO of the company is to create “tension” to move the organization and brand in a massive way. If I stop creating tension or pushing the envelope - I will be fired. And whenever someone says I am getting a little to edgy I show them the - ExtendedStay viral video – that usually works.

Nick – My role was to guide us thought a crisis time where we launched a 10M ad campaign to stem redemptions and customer defections – now our customer numbers are up, revenue are up, retention is up – CMO role is about acting when the chips are down!

Russ – CMO role is defined by being the best all around athlete – it takes the Power of Versatility. The Burger King was a brand people “knew more than loved” – I needed to turn that around – re-mystify the brand so consumers would reengage with the brand to become a “brand people would love to know more about” Digital was a perfect choice for that. Moved past the banner ad quickly to get into “content generate share of voice” rather than buying eyeballs.

Messaging in the digital world

Nick – web is our storefront – need to try to get more customers engaged with our brand online – I don’t have the fortitude to pull all the print and ad dollars offline. Don’t care about the price of media as long as it meets the target CPA.

Jeff – Moving the business model from broadcast to a narrowcast model. There is a 400 employees twittering with Kodak in their name – have to acknowledge how the brand is being using – don’t necessarily condone it or endorse it. The Apprentice integrated campaign mentioned Kodak 4.4 times per minute for 43 minutes – to make it more relevant to end users – making it more branded content.

Russ – there is user generated content which we love to fuel but there is “Content Generated Share of Voice” – if you get a 1/2 Billion hits on a viral video – what can you do to get that to spread? You create more content that is inviting and give them that content – it’s no different than the old P&G ad of the next 30 mins has been brought to you by P&G. Whopper Freakout – that spawned lots of parodies on YouTube – got a lot of hits and generated tons of traffic on the web. We love to see that stuff happen.

What advice would you give a CMO if you met them in an elevator?

Russ –Versatility – beyond the expected things – get smart on it fast
Nick – If you don’t take care of your customers someone else will
Jeff – Just go and get it done – no one is going to die!