|
|
|
|
|
|
|
« January 2008 | Home
| March 2008 » |
Why do certain companies mean something to us, while others don’t? The answer is a pattern: a code that runs attracts us at the most basic level of human motivation and persuasion.
In today’s show we’re talking about the seven pieces of “primal code” that attract consumers to products and services, personalities, social movements, even civic communities. This fresh new approach is creating vibrant new brand communities all over the world.
With me today is Patrick Hanlon. He’s the author of Primal Branding and founder and CEO of Thinktopia, an idea engineering firm based in Minneapolis, New York and Beijing.
The book is a fundamental read. It is not so much a roadmap as to how to create a primal brand, but a menu of the ingredients that make brands strong at their core. The more primal elements you have, and their relative degree of strength, the more powerful brand you have.
Some of my favorite areas of the book cover issues like a creation story, why alienating people is not so bad, and how these primal elements link directly to your company's culture. Be sure to listen for tips of things you can do today to begin to build (or rebuild) your primal brand.
-- David Kinard
You have a huge pile of leads... from prospects who have expressed interest, but aren’t ready to buy. You know they will buy eventually so you work on nurturing their interest, educating them on your products and services, incenting them to move now. But in the end, the yield from your efforts are disappointing. Why does this happen?
Lead nurturing tends to focus on two primary actions: Educate and Motivate. Motivation is the easier of the two... Create a promotion, special discount, some kind of time limited event. Education is subtler and more difficult.. But how do you get it to them and how do you measure the effectiveness? Email is the cheapest and easiest distribution mechanism. Email is timely and inexpensive but it’s fatally flawed in three critical ways: The information communicated through email isn’t organized, convenient or current.
So what’s the alternative?
Marketing organizations are experiencing significant success using targeted, private web portals in conjunction with email to increase lead nurturing yields and improving prospect dialog. These web portals are mini-websites that contain the content and messaging for a targeted prospect group. Email is used to alert prospects when new content has been added and to remind them to visit.
Todays show is an extension of a recent webcast sponsored by Craig Nelson, president and CEO of iCentera Corporation. They’ve helped companies of all sizes including ADC, Sage Software, and even the American Marketing Association perform targeted one to one messaging, and build better relationships with key customers, partners and prospective customers.
Find out if there really is a possibility to create high levels of customer intimacy with Web portals, and how you can do it yourself by viewing iCentera’s recent webcast on this very topic.
VIEW NOW
I will admit that I though I strongly believe in accountability and feel I am a good enough marketer that my work speaks for itself, I am not always comfortable with having bright lights shone on what I am doing. I think a lot of marketers are this way for this simple reason: While we may intuitively know what we're doing, we can't always prove its the right thing to do.
I've read nearly every book and magazine article on marketing ROI I could get my hands on this past year. Books by Lenskold, LaPointe, and a few others line my bookshelves as a testimony to my endeavors. And in the past year I've interviewed several leading gurus on marketing ROI and accountability on Marketing Matters Live. But it wasn't until this past week that it really all gelled for me.
My company got a new VP. He's a superstar, not in the celebrity sense of the word but more in the, "Hey, this guy really knows his stuff." He has been after me for more accountability in my marketing reports and I've pushed back with nearly every excuse (I like to call them logical reasons) I could think of. But to his credit, he was able to teach this old dog a few new tricks in terms of how I can look at data, report it in meaningful ways, and prove what I am trying to do is the right thing to do. It was quite a simple thing.
In fact, I learned two things from this guy recently. Not only was he able to show me a way to easily report ROI on my efforts, but he was able to get me out of a rut I had slowly put myself in. We marketers are infamous for filling our plates full of activity but not focusing on the things that get results. Today's business climates require us to be generalists in the best sense of the word, but in doing so, our focus strays from doing that which is most impactful. At the end of the day we have a long list of things we did, but really can't point to anything we accomplished with measurable results.
So, though it's well past time for new year resolutions, let's take up the call of focus and reporting once again. Let us as marketers forego activity and focus on results. Let our mantra be, "What is the one or two things I can do this week to make a signficant and positive impact in this area of critical importance to my company?" And then let's not fool ourselves into thinking that we still have to cover everything. I don't know any CEO that would rather have a nifty new photo archiving system over a 10% increase in sales leads for the month.
-- David Kinard
This month the AMA is changing the name of its three year old radio program from Marketing Matters Live to Marketing News Radio. (I have to admit, the name similarity to one of the best situational comedies on TV in the last decade is not lost on me.)
For the past three years I've hosted hundreds of shows, talked to amazing gurus, authors, and have learned a ton. What I am most excited about as Marketing Matters transforms to Marketing News is that, really, nothing is changing. The show will continue to bring in thought leaders, practical authors, and cover the latest in topics.
Some of my favorite shows these past years were the ones where you have called in. I know it's hard as a marketer to find time during the middle of the week - the middle of the day - to listen live to an Internet radio show. But I admit that when you all call in, those shows take on a new life and tremendous insights, practical insights, are brought into the fold.
Thanks for listening. Thanks for making this a wildly popular program. Thanks for being a part of the marketing profession and for working hard to do good work. I look forward to more years as host of Marketing News Radio and can't wait to open those lines for your calls again!
- David
In today’s competitive job market, college kids have got to use every advantage to make themselves stand out from the crowd. If you think it's hard to land a job as a fully-qualified professional, college students have it even tougher. So, today's show is dedicated to helping you -- the college student -- find not just any summer job, but one that will set you up for future success.
Corporate recruiters are looking for tangible, measurable proof of your capabilities, and choosing the right summer job can give you just that. So in today’s show we covered how to identify the skills that give winning candidates an edge and the types of summer work that offer the best experiences. Perhaps it isn't necessarily what you’d think! Finally, we’ll also reviewed how to evaluate different options and how to best present them on your resume. Summer may seem months away, but now’s the time to start planning!
With me today was returning guest Sarah Baker Andrus, Director of Academic Programs at Vector Marketing. They've got more than 200 offices in North America and work with tens of thousands of college students every year, exclusively selling Vector's flagship product Cutco Cutlery.
Specifically, Sarah points out that corporate recruiters are looking for relevant experience from summer employment. They want to know what you're learning in the classroom and what you are doing to apply it in your summer work. That doesn't mean that you can't travel or volunteer, or that you only can take a business-related job. On the contrary, it's just the opposite. You can do nearly anything you want but it should be relevant. Even if it turns out that the summer you spent painting, landscaping, or working with the DOT was the worse thing of your life -- hey, you have that learning experience. If it turns out that you loved working out doors, then you now know that too. Experimentation is AOK, just make sure you walk away with a learning experience you can articulate to the recruiter.
Have a plan. Sarah points this out as key to having a successful summer employment experience. Know enough about yourself and how you might contribute to a workplace, or the world for that matter, and go out and try it.
I have to admit, the advice in today's show is applicable to all of us marketers.
- David Kinard
|
|
|
