Earlier this week I spoke at the Sarasota International Design Summit.  In a room full of the best and brightest design minds, the question I asked was "Does Design Matter?"  Sounds like a rather controversial question for a design conference, but it is a key issue to the future of design and marketing.   

I've written about McDonald's for many publications over the years. It's difficult not to write about it when you cover the Chicago business scene as I have, given that it's headquartered in the Chicago area.

In the old days, i.e. pre-2004, marketing at McDonald's was consumer facing while public relations was often relegated to the role of crisis management. That all started to change four years ago and I think the results have contributed greatly to the success the hamburger icon has achieved since.

So I'm looking forward to hearing Mary Dillon, McDonald's executive vice president and global CMO, speak at Mplanet 2009. She answered questions about her Mplanet talk for Marketing News recently. "The focus of my remarks will be on how global brands can build a strategic advantage in today's increasingly complex and fast-moving environment," she says.

Discussing McDonald's marketing strategy, she says: "we are focused on elevating our traditional push strategies with marketing that moves beyond the functional attributes of our offerings and highlights the benefits they deliver. It's about showing people more clearly what we provide."

Veteran business journalist John N. Frank is editorial director of AMA’s Marketing News, Marketing Management, Marketing Health Services and Marketing Research.  He has also started or relaunched a variety of magazines, newsletters, and Web sites in his more than 30 years in journalism.
 

While it might not be listed in any session heading, the country's economic mess is sure to come up at numerous sessions at Mplanet 2009.

But the conference also is designed to look beyond current market conditions to discuss important long-term trends for marketers.

AMA CEO Dennis Dunlap, in the Oct. 15th issue of Marketing News, notes that by building the show around four key topic areas, Mplanet will address big issues and provide usable information for any economic scenario. The four topics are:

• - Brand building in a digital world

• - Connecting with empowered customers

• - Marketing mix planning in a fragmented world

• - Global marketing on a borderless planet

By the way, in addition to being able to hear speakers during their respective sessions, stop by the Mplanet Discovery Center where I'll be interviewing many speakers after their talks.

As planned, I'll be on a theater-in-the-round-type stage in the middle of the exhibit area doing interviews the crowd can watch on overhead monitors. The interviews also will be taped for future showings prior to session starts. We're still working on specific formats for these, but I'm hopeful we'll have time for audience questions. So stop by, listen, and take part.

Veteran business journalist John N. Frank is editorial director of AMA’s Marketing News, Marketing Management, Marketing Health Services and Marketing Research.  He has also started or relaunched a variety of magazines, newsletters, and Web sites in his more than 30 years in journalism.

One of the highlights at Mplanet 2009 is sure to be the release of new research that will be looking at where marketing will be in the year 2015. Decision Strategies International is putting together the AMA-commissioned research that will be discussed at a Mplanet strategic forum by George Day, distinguished marketing professor at Wharton, and Roch Parayre, a senior partner at Decision Strategies.

Where do you see marketing in 2015? Will its role or it’s place in the corporate hierarchy have changed dramatically? The study is projecting seven years ahead, so a good exercise might be to think about seven years ago and what you were doing then.

As someone born and raised in New York City, the first thing I recall from seven years ago, of course, is 9/11. I was writing about public relations then for PRWeek magazine and the stories we wrote in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy dealt with how consumer-products PR had first come to a halt and then had to very gingerly find its way in the country’s newly somber mood.

Today, we’re in the midst of another crisis, this time a financial one. Will this have a lasting impact on marketing? You’d think the most immediate impact will be on marketing done by financial services firms. But, just as in the world’s stock markets, there’s likely to be a ripple effect that will spread to other areas.

Veteran business journalist John N. Frank is editorial director of AMA’s Marketing News, Marketing Management, Marketing Health Services and Marketing Research.  He has also started or relaunched a variety of magazines, newsletters, and Web sites in his more than 30 years in journalism.

“Navigating the New Marketsphere” is the theme for Mplanet 2009. What exactly does that mean?

AMA CEO Dennis Dunlap explains in the Oct. 15 issue of Marketing News that “marketers have and will continue to see tremendous changes impacting marketing on many levels. A key issue and challenge for marketers is successfully navigating through this sea change to emerge as the driving force in the organization behind new strategies and new ideas. And in doing so, demonstrate how marketing is critical to attaining profitable growth in the organization.”

Dunlap also discusses how the show is being built around four key themes:  brand building in a digital world, connecting with empowered customers, marketing mix planning in a fragmented world and global marketing on a  borderless planet.

What does navigating the new marketsphere mean to you? How is your marketing job changing and how do you expect it to change in coming years?

I started my career as a newspaper reporter, but realized pretty quickly that newspapers were yesterday's news (and that was even before the Internet sped up their inevitable demise). Today, I use tools I could have never imagined 30-plus years ago when I got out of college an eager young reporter. How about you, how has marketing changed in your lifetime and what do you see ahead?

Veteran business journalist John N. Frank is editorial director of AMA’s Marketing News, Marketing Management, Marketing Health Services and Marketing Research.  He has also started or relaunched a variety of magazines, newsletters, and Web sites in his more than 30 years in journalism.

As I mentioned in my last post, Xerox CEO and chairman Anne Mulcahy will have some fascinating insights to share when she speaks at Mplanet 2009 in January. In a Q&A with her in the Oct. 15 issue of AMA’s Marketing News, she touches on a program Xerox uses to keep in touch with its customers – and I mean really keep in touch, not just pay lip service to the concept like many companies unfortunately do.

 

At its headquarters in Norwalk, Conn., Xerox has a program that requires 20 senior executives to rotate into a position known as Customer Officer of the Day. Whoever is serving in that capacity takes any and all customer calls that come into Xerox’s headquarters that day. The responsibilities of the customer service officer are to listen to a customer, resolve that customer’s problem and take responsibility for fixing the underlying cause of the problem.

 

Speaking about calls that come in, Mulcahy says, “as you might guess, these are not happy customers.”

 

Convert an unhappy customer to a satisfied one and you have a brand advocate for life, word-of-mouth marketing gurus always say. Xerox apparently believes that and is doing it every day.

 

“It all boils down to making it easy to do business with us…delivering a consistent client experience worldwide,” Mulcahy explains.

Veteran business journalist John N. Frank is editorial director of AMA’s Marketing News, Marketing Management, Marketing Health Services and Marketing Research.  He has also started or relaunched a variety of magazines, newsletters, and Web sites in his more than 30 years in journalism.

If you’re wondering what type of insights you’ll hear at Mplanet 2009, take a look at the Oct. 15^th issue of Marketing News due out later this month. We have interviews not only with AMA CEO Dennis Dunlap, but also with Mary Dillon, executive vice president and global CMO at McDonald’s, and with Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox Corp.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be giving you previews here of what they have to say, starting today with Mulcahy.

If you haven’t followed the Xerox saga in recent years, allow me to update you. The company once dominated the copier world but took it’s eye off the marketing ball when foreign competitors charged into the U.S. market and stole market share. (Full disclosure here, I once bought Xerox shares after seeing a Business Week story about a possible takeover. It took years for the shares to get back to, and eventually surpass where I bought them but I was able to sell them for a small profit before the stock market starting going crazy. Thank you Ms. Mulcahy.)

Mulcahy, who became Xerox CEO in 2001 and chairman in 2002, has been working hard to turn the company around and gets high marks for her efforts. Among the fascinating things she has to say in the Oct. 15^th Q & A. is her advice to companies and their marketers to think more like their customers.

She tells marketers specifically to find ways to cut through the messaging clutter customers face by getting extremely personal and relevant in your efforts.

Xerox is stressing personalization in work with its clients. It’s done brochures for the popular copier Mini Cooper that directs people to their own personalized URLs, for example.

From what Mulcahy says, the days of the truly mass mailing –thousand or millions of people getting the same marketing package – are over, or should be if you truly want to grow your business.

Veteran business journalist John N. Frank is editorial director of AMA’s Marketing News, Marketing Management, Marketing Health Services and Marketing Research.  He has also started or relaunched a variety of magazines, newsletters, and Web sites in his more than 30 years in journalism.

By Toby Bloomberg, Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the AMA Mplanet Blog.

Perhaps a few people may wonder .. why AMA asked me, a volunteer who is active in social media but is not a Fortune 100 CMO,  to kick off the inaugural Mplantet Blog post.  My thoughts are that AMA wanted to reinforce its commitment to the new “marketsphere” where the people behind the enterprise and customers are in this game together. For me, that’s what Mplanet is about .. an opportunity to explore the innovative side of marketing where marketing professionals from diverse disciplines can learn with and from each other.

I agreed also as a way to thank AMA for the benefits I’ve received from my volunteer opportunities. In fact, it was my involvement as the chair of AMA’s first Hot Topic workshop on blogs that taught me initial lessons about social media.

In keeping with a critical concept of social media, transparency, I’d like to tell you my story and share the lessons both AMA and I learned. The experience reinforced that we were entering a new world where we could no longer pretend the brand was the center of the universe. Customers were influencing the brand perception and purchase behavior among thousands of their closest friends.

Marketing Beyond the Website kicked off  December 2004 in Seattle. It was the first national event developed for marketers that focused specially on how to use blogs as a marketing strategy. Needless to say all involved were excited about the venture. However, before we arrived in Seattle we had a jarring surprise and a wake-up call about blogger relations. 

A prominent tech blogger, TDavid, MakeyougoHmm.com, had reviewed our program and what he told the world wasn’t pretty. His post declared that the workshop wasn’t worth the price, the speakers’ incentives were to make money; and if that weren’t enough, he critiqued every speaker’s blog.

As the Mplanet conference confirms, AMA is no stranger to professional development events; however, the staff was not prepared for the impact bloggers could have before the doors opened. Pat Goodrich and Clara Nelson, the terrific AMA staff behind the scenes, said that although AMA had its share of negative reviews, this was a first for them … a before the event critique.  As TDavid told me .. the irony was blogs were being used to attack and defend an event on blogging.

Since I was the chair, I was asked to take the lead in reaching out to TDavid. I commented on his post, told the story on my blog and sent him a direct e-mail. Much to AMA’s credit they didn’t ask to review what I wrote.

Unlike some other situations, this story has a happy ending.  After listening to my explanation and realizing that we were committed to helping marketers understand this new world,  TDavid posted a positive comment about the value of the workshop.

TDavid wasn’t out to harm AMA or the speakers. He did point out several issues that we corrected, resulting in a stronger more relevant program. By honestly reviewing the workshop he sincerely felt he was servicing his community. Since he also was considering attending, he felt as a prospective customer he had every right to voice his opinions and concerns. The lessons we learned four years ago hold true today .. perhaps even more so.

Lessons Learned

One blogger can be the snowflake that can start an avalanche. There is risk and reward in a blogged economy. TDavid

• Bloggers are people who want to connect. They want to know that they are being heard. Bloggers care.
• With the easy use of blogs, micro blogs, podcasts, vlogs and other social media tools marketers can not  control how customers will reposition a carefully crafted message.
• You can not control customers’ conversations. The secret is you never could. However, you can manage those conversations by listening, participating, and caring.

What happened to the AMA workshop? It turned out to be the most successful Hot Topic AMA had presented. We brought the event to six markets within 10 months.

With the launch of the Mplanet blog and the continuation of the Mplanet conference,  AMA is taking an active leadership role in social media marketing. This is a multiple author blog and there are talented people waiting in the wings to add their voices.  Yes, there are CMOs along with authors, marketing practioners and AMA staff who will participate in our conversations.

My personal goal for this fledging blog is that together we can develop a community who will create a safe environment to explore new media marketing issues and challenges. A community where all opinions are welcomed and respected. Learning together we can keep our profession vital, innovative and relevant.

An exciting and powerful benefit from an active online community is relationship building. But it goes further. As Richard Binhammer  fondly known as Richardatdell, said to me, “Love online offline.” Virtual is great but nothing beats a handshake face-to-face. In January 2009, Mplanet provides us with an opportunity to take our conversations offline in Orlando. Until then please join me in creating a vibrant, virtual exchange of ideas.

Toby Bloomberg is the president of Atlanta-based Bloomberg Marketing and also writes for her blog, Diva Marketing. A national speaker and facilitator of social media marketing and traditional marketing topics for organizations like the American Marketing Association, the Olympic Organizing Committee and SCORE, Toby has over 15 years experience. In addition to co-hosting the Mplanet blog, Toby will be speaking at Mplanet's Digital Marketing Lab in January 2009.