Speaker Preview: Xerox’s Mulcahy Takes the Personal Approach
If you’re wondering what type of insights you’ll hear at Mplanet 2009, take a look at the Oct. 15th 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. 15th 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.
Posted by John Frank on October 3, 2008 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
It would be great to see more diversity in the line up and more multicultural content.