Year: 2006

When I went for my MBA, I picked the school by the amount of finance classes that were required…GVSU won with just two needed. I was able to concentrate on the marketing and business classes I wanted. And I felt vindicated when the accounting professor said that marketing ‘is where its at’.

But maybe I shouldn’t be so fast to dismiss finance in marketing, especially when the Marketing Headhunter says so in his post: Why Financial Literacy?

“Increasingly, great marketers are excellent intra-preneurs who can marshal internal and external resources to get the funding they need for their expeditionary marketing projects. That means being savvy enough to speak the language of the risk-averse finance guys in your company. Naturally, the better you can communicate with your internal stakeholders, the higher the likelihood your project has of getting a green light.”

Harry Joiner links to a great finance site with spreadsheets and short articles on different finance terms and methodologies. Its like finding my Finance 524 crib-notes.

That said, there should have also been a MBA class in politics and motivation. (I’m getting my online training on politics at Big Picture Small Office, and motivation at Motivation on the Run.

Survey results can be interesting reading, but a lot of surveys aren’t that actionable. After all, knowing most people think Jessica Simpson is a bimbo doesn’t really help me any. Business trend surveys can be the same way, and the following is no exception. Those who sell to us marketers may find more value in the survey.

Industrial Marketing – SVM E-Business Trends in Manufacturing Report: “Download the 2006 E-Business Trends in Manufacturing Report – the results of a survey of over 220 marketing executives at U.S. manufacturing firms.”

So I started looking for the negative sides of some of the survey questions to help understand my competition and contemporaries. Here are three insights:

Graph 4-1 asked about effectiveness of marketing vehicles in the future. The bottom of the chart was weighted down by trade shows, direct mail, directories, and magazines (see below, dark blue is % saying less effective). I’d suspect that trade publications have a way to go to win the hearts of marketing managers again!

Graph 5-2 showed only 19% of marketers who felt they could attribute 20% or more of their business to their website (even indirectly). Either the website isn’t on their radar or they must rely on outbound marketing.

Graph 7-2 listed ‘barriers to e-business success’, which was a laundry list of political, organizational, or strategic problems. I think these barriers, if they haven’t been overcome already, as so instilled in their organizations that they will be perpetual barriers to success online (it sucks to be you!).

Post a comment if you find something else juicy in this report.

Last February 22nd, I posted I know what Google’s going to do next! Well, I was right. Google Calendar is live.

Here’s a review from StreetLessons.com
Or the analysis at Search Engine Watch
Or you can try it yourself. (And that’s exactly what I’m going to do next!)

(BTW, that one post continues to be the most active on my blog.)

Got this email this morning from Reed Business Information’s direct mail list operation DM2:

“By matching your house file to DM2-DecisionMaker’s powerful database of over 13.5 million direct response sourced business professionals, we can provide demographics such as: buying authority, job function, industry, title and more.

DM2-DecisionMaker can then offer new prospects qualified by these same characteristics! “

Very cool use of a database. And by focusing on characteristics, they can continue to distinguish themselves from new competition Jigsaw.

Our company’s spree of trade shows are done. Just two more this year. I’ve been impressed with some of the show promoter’s attempts at making their events more worthwhile or just plain easier. Here are a list of some things I’ve noticed:

• New SmartBooth programs that help you connect with attendees. I’ve written about it here before, but now I have actually used it. At the very least, it allows you to filter the attendee list and get a feel for how many visitors are actually in your target.
• Show giant Freeman has an integrated event management website that actually makes you feel like you are managing your shows. It has a little way to go yet (try to find where to reserve a forklift), but it is so much better than other shows that have 25 links to different PDF files.
• The last show I was at put round tables at junctures in the aisles. These were a nice convenience to attendees who I saw rearranging their bags, reading materials, or sipping their coffees.
• One major show included carpet, lead retrevial,, a power outlet, a table, and two chairs all in the base price. Just saving me from having to reserve all those was a blessing.

I want to continue to rant against candy bowls in booths. Even a giant like GE had mini Starlite mints in a bowl. Get real quality candy, please!!! And component people, why not give away samples instead? But more about that later.

Some readers may recognize their media company here, to everyone else, let this be a warning:

You know you’ve lost your brand voice when…

• You create 20 different positioning statements and 5 brand concept statements
• You hire a market research firm to analyze them
• The firm then surveys your customers about which is ‘most appealing’

And, frankly, all these statements suck to begin with. They lack specifics about the product and compelling reasons to be an advertiser. The survey was a chore to read all of them. It all smells of marketing by committee (and that’s how you lose your brand voice). Snippet:

“With XXX you are forming relationships with prospects, deepening relationships with customers and entering a relationship with a firm that can help you improve the productivity of your on-line marketing efforts. There is a big difference between a customer and just another click.”

Don’t ask me what message is ‘appealing’ either. These statements need to be compelling! Ask your salespeople what work with their prospects. They could write statements a thousand times better.

MORE: Maybe this article at MarketingProfs.com would help this company: Brands Matter in B2B Markets which reviews the why and how of B2B branding. Kevin Randall’s last point is important: “Strong B2B brands are branded from the inside-out, top-down, and bottom-up.” The statements in the survey seemed to be from the outside-in, which is maybe why I reacted the way I did.

I’m back. Spring break and a trade show have slowed me, down, but I’ve got a backlog of links and pieces to post. Here’s a great one pointed at by Marketing Update from Progressive Business Publishing (I recommend signing up for their email newsletters here).

This article talks about how to build a successful fractional-page ad, step by step. This is great stuff:

“If you flip through successive issues of any trade publication, you’ll often see the same smaller half, quarter, and one-eighth page ads repeating every single month.

This is often a telltale sign these fractional-space ads are paying their own way by generating solid sales leads for their advertisers, where larger, prettier, full-page ads in the same pubs often appear and disappear like footprints along the beach.”

BMA: Ugly Little Ads that Sell: How to Make a Smaller Ad Pull Better Than a Bigger One

The two magazines I read regularly are Men’s Health and Wired. They feed my brain in small chuncks and expose me to useful and/or facinating information. Wired is worrying me…

RANT:
Did you notice that Wired was a little skinnier last month? Not thinner, skinnier. The magazine is no longer an oversized publication. According to a note in the magazine, it now ‘conforms’ to industry standard size. I disliked it, but accepted it without too much thought at the time.

Today I get a mailing at work to subscribe to Wired for $10. Friggin ten dollars! I don’t know what I used to pay, but ten dollars is chump change for something as great as Wired Magazine. I freaked out.

A great value? Yes. Will they sell more magazines at ten dollars? Maybe. Will they save money conforming in size. Probably.

But here is my realization: Obviously they don’t think their magazine is special anymore.

What next? No more use of flourescent and metallic inks? No more infoporn? Wahh!!!

I don’t want my ten dollars buying a shell of the magazine it used to be. I want it big, bold, beautiful. Unfortunately, I suspect that Wired has jumped the shark.

Larry Hendrick brings us an improved goal-setting acronym, SMARTER:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time Sensitive
Enthusiasm
Reward

The interesting thing that Larry has talked about is that achieving a goal is not necessarily the same as a reward. Now he’s improved his original acronym to include Reward as a separate item. How motivating to go set some new, smarter goals!

Get the details here: Motivation on the Run » SMARTER Goals
(and subscribe to his podcast while you are there!)

Jay Lipe interviews Marketing Headhunter Harry Joiner in this post:
Smart Marketing: Tips from a marketing headhunter:

“What are the top 5 things you look for in a person for any marketing job?”

1. Business orientation
2. Humility
3. People skills
4. Inquisitive
5. Track record

It’s also a good review for doing your current job better. It probably wouldn’t hurt to track Harry’s blog to keep up on the mind of a recruiter.