April 10, 2008
On "Life After Katie"
I know this is a marketing blog, so excuse me if the following post seems every so slightly "off-center" but IMHO it is completely relevant...
I just finished reading a posting on the Time.com Tuned In blog by James Poniewozik titled "Life After Katie." The posting was about the rumored demise of Katie Couric's CBS Evening News show. His commentary should be read by every marketer, in every industry, in every role because it applies to all of us.
Here is a small excerpt from Jim's entry:
"Katie was brought in on the premise that she and her star power—plus a revamping of the newscast format—could bring in new viewers to the evening news, rather than just steal a few hundred thou from the competition. She cannot. God cannot. It is a losing proposition. As I have written before, Couric's newscast has been an expensive final refutation of the desperate belief that it is possible to reverse the slow, inexorable decline of network news. Network newscasts are a holding effort. They are a rearguard action. They are prisoners of demography and cultural shifts that are as irreversible as the physical laws of the universe."
Besides being cool writing, he is right. The article goes on to explain the various demographic reasons why Katie doesn't deserve $15 mil a year to safegaurd her chair while the broadcast's Nielsen ratings plummet. The point for me, however, was broader.
Across all facets of marketing, B2C and B2B, there are dramatic and continually evolving ways in the way the people consume information. Not that long ago, Wired magazine ran a cover story on "snack culture"...our growing predilection for information in small bites (bytes?). Media fragmentation continues to alter audience accessibility to marketers. Blogs and online video are redefining the term pundit. For marketers, the impact is a new landscape in which you must paint your marketing plan. And like network news broadcasts, any efforts to do things "the way you've always done them" would be rightfully characterized as another "rearguard action."
Katie Couric and CBS may have done a favor for more than just NBC and ABC. They may well have taught every advertiser and marketer just how important it is to change...or die.
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February 27, 2008
On Marketers...And Dinosaurs
I was driving into work this AM listening to WCBS radio in NY (I know... how retro. ;-) There was a story about the number of e-mails that a typical businessperson receives in a day. The point of the story was that if you spent even a nominal amount of time processing each e-mail, it would take about 2 ½ hours a day just to process e-mail.
That got me thinking about the changes in marketing that are on the horizon. The boomer generation of marketers was raised on the philosophy that if you need more awareness, more orders, or more action, simply push out more marketing. We manage daily communications similarly — pushing information (e.g. "e-mail") to colleagues and blithely copying large blocks of people.
The Gen Y/Millennial cohort now entering the workforce has been raised differently. They eschew e-mail in favor of self-service, permission-driven social networks. They tune out irrelevant marketing. They tell manufacturers how to market instead of passively absorbing what the company chooses to spit out. They collaborate with peers. Welcome to new world of communications.
The implications of this psychology and behavioral change are immense. My company lives in the B2B world and we see the growing need for a whole new way for companies to interact. Dealers don't have time to read all the "noise" they receive from the manufacturers they represent. Salespeople can't spend 10 hours a week in training to learn increasingly arcane product features. In short, the philosophy of B2B communications must change in the same ways that B2C communications have already begun to change. But marketers have never been known as the most adaptive of species, and this change does not come easy for most companies.
My advice? The next time you prepare to send an e-mail, or approve that new mailer or ad, think hard about the changes happening around you. Do your actions account for new media, new strategies and new organizational behavior? Change happens by slowly modifying behavior on the thousands of small decisions you make daily, not just the big, high-profile ones.
Of course, you could just continue "business as usual" ... and reserve your place in the same hall as T-Rex.
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February 10, 2008
New Expectations: HP's IdolHands Contest
By now, most marketing excutives have heard about the short-tenure woes of the CMO in many organizations. In an article in The McKinsey Quarterly titled "The Evolving Role of the CMO" there were some interesting insights into the trends that are makig the job so difficult. One insight I thought was really relevant was how today's marketing executive must manage a rapidly expanding universe of marketing techniques, channels and skills. For example, in media alone the expansion of user-generated content makes traditional approaches to media planning and execution insufficient. Add to that the increasing demand to create immersive engagement in campaigns that create more lasting mindshare and viral extension.
As a case in point, take a look at HP's recently released Idol Hands contest. This is not your typical marketing program. This interactive, user-generated content program supports HP's $3,500 TouchSmart line of touch-screen PCs, billed as "The perfect PC for families looking for an all-in-one touch-screen PC with easy, convenient access to information, family schedules, TV, music, movies and photos."
The campaign is intended to get consumers to upload a homemade video starring their hands. And upload people are! Some of the video are dumb, some quite elegant. All in all, it represents a completely different way of thinking about and using a marketing budget. The concept is engaging, interactive and gets an audience focused on one aspect of the value proposition for the product line. Very clever.
Gotta run, now. I need to get back to editing my submission....I could really use the prize money.
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February 1, 2008
Surfing Innovation. Cool, Dude.
Great blog posting by consultant John Hagel in his EdgePerspectives blog. The piece, titled "Innovating on the Edge of Big Waves," talks about what business executives can learn from surfers.
I found several of the points especially valuable:
- If you want to push your performance levels, find the relevant edge. The example "companies making diesel engines and power generators should be actively engaged in finding ways to more effectively serve lower income customers in remote rural areas of emerging economies. These demanding customers could prompt significant innovation in both product design and distribution processes in an effort to deliver greater value at lower cost."
- Bring technology developers and users together at the edge. Commonly discussed but less commonly practiced...no one knows better how to innovate than users forced to operate under challenging conditions.
Worth the time to read...worth even more time to think about how it could be applied to business situations you face in your company.
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November 20, 2007
Being Innovation
I was reading Tom Kelley's "The Ten Faces of Innovation" the other day and was struck by a paragraph just 14 pages into the book. The book which describes 10 approaches to innovation which it describes in terms of personas rather than elements. The sentences that caught my attention were:
"And thinking of the ten innovation elements as personas rather than tools reminds us that innovation is a full-time endeavor for all modern organizations, not just a task to be checked off periodically. The personas are about "being innovation" rather than merely "doing innovation."
Ever since I've read that, it has stuck in my head.
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April 27, 2007
Are YOU A Luddite?? (Marketers Take Special Note!)
I don't think of myself as a Luddite (From Wikipedia definition..."The Luddites were a social movement of English textile artisans in the early nineteenth century who protested — often by destroying textile machines — against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt threatened their livelihood.").
Just wanted to start off that way. I graduated from an Ivy League school, have a graduate degree in Chemistry, and have been an entrepreneur for 20+ years. I know how to use by DVD player, installed my home office network, have a Sonos wireless music distribution system in my house and have a Rhapsody subscription license.
But, as I was catching up on Robert Scoble's now-famous blog (Scobleizer)...started when he was a Microsoft Technical Evangalist and now maintained from his new post as VP of Media Development at PodTech.net...I began to feel like one. His May 24 posting "Google Tracking My History" is valuable for anyone who's business is touched by the Internet (read...everyone.)
I didn't know about Google History (heck, Seth Godin already has a History history...). I had not yet signed up for my Twitter account, and so, even as a pretty forward-thinking marketer, I did not know what Twitterment was.
Now that I have flogged myself mercilessly, let me note that I often work in industries that are pretty "conservative." And as a reader, if you had never heard the term Luddite, have never visited Wikipedia, did not know who Robert Scoble was, did not know Seth Godin, aren't familiar with Google applications, never had heard of Twitter or did not get the Rhapsody reference...then I suggest that you start looking for work in a textile factory.
The point? The next generation of marketers are entereing the workforce. Check our this year's Brandweek list of "Marketers of the Next Generation." (If link broken, let me know...) Some of their tactics scare even me, but if you find their work offensive or silly or useless....then you are not connected to the changes that are coming. As with any revolution, this one will be fueled by information and what most of us over 50 types need to remember is that human knowledge accumulates and it is accelerating the pace of learning. Marketing as we know it is being turned upside down and you need to shake off the dust and start learning the new tools. They may not all apply immediately for you...but awareness is the start.
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April 23, 2007
Dealer 2.0 -- The Web 2.0 Remake of Dealers As We Knew Them
It has been a little over two weeks since my last posting...an inexcusable lapse for any true "blogger." I have been on the road a tremendous amount -- visiting customers, making sales calls, spending time with suppliers and also executing projects. It was an exciting time that left me with many ideas for writing about.
Last week, I presented a customer a new concept for their channel partner programs: "Dealer 2.0". The idea behind this was the fact that Web 2.0 phenomena are requiring distribution channels to evolve and adapt. Here is my thinking.
Operating in the world of channel marketing, I see a dizzying amount of change happening...and and equally amazing amount of disorientation. Customers are spending more time online researching and planning their purchases. That means that the dynamic of what a dealer, retailer or distributor needs to do to be successful is different. Customers are not so easily "bamboozled." Real-world customers want different types of support today, not just help picking out whether they should buy the 28 PPM or 35 PPM multifunction printer model, or the Metallic Blue or Gunmetal Grey paint on their new SUV. Add to this the fear of sales disruption that is pervading many manufacturers. As manufacturers jockey for stability in sales, they are continually rejiggering their channel programs -- at the same time that market forces are also disrupting routine operations. Not a pleasant combination for the channel partners.
My Dealer 2.0 concept is built around the fact that distribution channels must think about the value they add. There is not room for "dumb" channel partners who simply add cost without commensurate value. Pricing transparency brought on by the Internet has made it increasingly difficult to integratre simple "markups." I encourage people to leverage Ted Levitt's venerable whole product concept when thinking this through. For example, the following diagram is a whole product mapping for an office products dealer:
The old standby of "a good product at a good price" (think Wal-Mart) is no longer enough...even for Wal-Mart. The Dealer 2.0 concept is a valuable one for both ends of the distribution chain. As a manufacturer, are your programs adapting to meet the needs of an evolving, increasinlgy electronic-tools savvy set of partners? As a dealer, are your programs and customer service initiatives evolving to meet the demands of an increasingly savvy customer base?
I have long believed that "where there is change, there is opportunity." But, seizing the opportunity can be a scary thing.
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March 11, 2007
Mental Break: Innovation Thoughts (Good and Bad!)
Innovation is the word of the day for businesses large and small these days. From small local dealers to multinational conglomerates, innovation is the fuel that drives business growth. So, in service to our readers, here are some fast thoughts on innovation:
- According to the Franklin Institute's Braindrops Website (cool place to bookmark) it takes about 90% less energy to recycle aluminum cans than it takes to make new ones. (3/11/2007)
- Some of the patents issues in 2006 (Ref. New York TImes Sunday Magazine 12/10/2006) included:
- a head-nodding alarm to avert sleep while driving (No. 7,126,485)
- an apparatus for injecting an edible filling to a bagel (No. 7,107,900)
- a device for dispensing animal-scent attractant for behind ankle of user (No. 7,093,770)
- a ball with gripping handles (No. 7,044,820)
- a ropeless jumprope (No. 7,037,243)
- a urinating animated toy (No. 7,115,014)
- the reissue of a lap-dance liner (No. RE39,371)
- The Sony Playstation 3 processor runs at 1.8 teraflops (with a theoretical limit of over 2 teraflops). Teraflops is floating point operations per second...a measure of a computer's processing ability. To put this in context, 1.8 teraflops is roughly equivalent to the processing power of 287 Pentium 4 PCs, or 10,000 Cray-1 supercomputers (...at least, "supercomputers" when they were introduced in 1976.) (Facts courtesy of Wired Magazine.)
It's all enough to make you stay up late and try to invent something....
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March 10, 2007
The Importance Of Merchandising Your Channel Marketing Program
If you're title is "Channel Marketing Manager" or "Director, Channel Programs" or some similar version, I have some advice..."Get Your Consumer Hat On."
Many B2B channel marketing programs would benefit from a dose of "consumer-think." It takes real energy to gain adoption for new marketing programs among channel partners bombarded with messaging from multiple suppliers. That means programs need to, first and foremost, be relevant and valuable to the channel...not just be pumping up the volume on self-serving manufacturer-talk. But, even a well-conceived program requires serious merchandising to get the attention of over-burdened partners. Forgetting to "market" your valuable "marketing program" is one of the surest ways to doom the program to failure.
Here is an example. We have a client...a tools wholesaler located in Oklahoma. Now, Oklahoma, tools and wholesaling do not sound like they lead to creative marketing. But these folks are good...really good.
They contracted a set of interns to call thousands of channel partners to update their profiles and gather e-mail address to kick-off an electronic communications program. They observed channel partners abandoning orders for customized flyers and said: "Can we target these people with a special offer?" They looked at people who had ordered marketing programs and said: "Can we give them an incentive to order again?" If you are in consumer markets, you're thinking "what's the big deal?" But, if you are in B2B channels, this IS a big deal.
This client's team is thinking like marketers or merchandisers -- when they launch a program, they focus on ensuring its success instead of just setting it on its way! They're being analytical. They're being creative. That is very different from the "throw stuff at the walls and see what sticks" approach that so many manufacturers take with new marketing campaigns. Too often, companies fall prey to the desire to introduce "something new" instead of ensuring the sustained success of concepts they already lauanched. This leads to fragemented mindshare in the channel and even more confusion.
In the perfect world, all channel partners would be dedicated, single-supplier drones tethered to your messaging. GET REAL. Successful channel partners are high-performance sales organizations with little marketing skill, but lots of manufacturers vying for their loyalty. To get noticed, you need to get your consumer mindset turned on.
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February 28, 2007
Act Globally, Think Locally
One of my favorite annual issues of Harvard Business Review is out — the February issue with the annual "Breakthrough Ideas" column. This year, one concept caught my attention "Act Globally, Think Locally."
This reveral of the familiar adage, "think globally and act locally" reflects the author's perspective that "companies today need both global reach, in order to spot useful local ideas and incorporate them into strategy, and physical proximity, in order to effectively tap sources of tacit knowledge and thus sustain competitive advantage."
We have long held this view in our business, which is focused on supporting the localization of marketing messages being deployed by large enterprises through disparate distribution channels. The interesting observation, however, is that competitive financial pressures are continually driving companies to look for ways to unify messaging, manufacturing, etc in order to hold down costs. The resulting homoginization results in milquetoast marketing or equivalently bland product design.
The article is worth reading. As always, all the ideas are intriguing.
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November 12, 2006
Personal Fabrication: The End of Channels As We Know Them?
A favorite topic of mine is "adding value in the channel." From auto dealers to insurance brokers to industrial wholesalers, I am continually reminding clients to think about "how you add value to the customer transaction?"
A few days ago, there was an interesting post in MIT's Advertising Lab blog, a very forward-thinking location for discussion space on the future of advertising. The AdverLab's post discussed an article in Fortune magazine about MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld and his Center for Bits and Atoms.
Before you go running screaming into the hills, this is not just about pie-in-the-sky futuristic thinking. Both the MIT post and the original Fortune article bring an interesting perspective to the future of personal manufacturing and how the concept is being put to test today in $40,000 "fab labs" sprinkled around the world. The AdverLab post carries the conversation into the future of advertising where the implications are obvious. I am fascinated by the implications to distribution and sales.
Unlike the disintermediation craze of the Internet-fueled late 90s, this technology really does "eliminate the middleman." In fact, it eliminates mass manufacturers in many industries as well. Yes, the concept is some number of decades from reality, but take a moment to think how fast technology advances arrive today. As the article points out, the music and video industry is being recast by consumer-created content. But this is "consumer creation" taken to a new level.
Think it is all "geek speak"?? Check out these real-world rapid prototyping and fabrication companies, like Z Corporation with their Z Printers, that are reforming the world of manufacturing:
- Z Corporation
- The Ennex Companies
- Geomagic, Inc.
- 3D Systems, Inc.
- Stratasys, Inc.
It opens fascinating thinking about how today's channels will be reformed in the new age of digital manufacturing. I, for one, don't see this as "armageddon" but rather as a reminder that "how you add value" will continue to evolve.
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