Last night’s fireside chat Larry Grisolano provide me with amazing insight – both into the political campaigns process and marketing to the American public. Those revelations stayed with me throughout the night, and I wanted to share a few of them in anticipation of Larry’s larger speech today at Mplanet.

1. Marketers must clearly identify, through research and conversation, what challenges their brand. In early stages, based on research, Obama’s commitment to change politics in America was not as challenged by the other leading candidates as it was by the attitude of “cynicism” among the electorate. Seems to me, if they hadn’t figured that out, perhaps the election would have had a different outcome.

2. Brands cannot be all things to all people; marketers should leverage a clear message and brand identity. Later in the primary, there was a lot of attention paid to the difference in being a change agent v. necessity for experience to lead the country. The team learned it was difficult to be both (according to research) so it diluted Senator Clinton’s message that attempted to combine her resume with her desire to change Washington.

3. American consumers today want genuine engagement and credible message that allows them to own part of the brand experience. Obama campaign activated “a sense of national community,” similar to feeling after 9/11.

Creating a sense of national community is no small undertaking. I hope you’re able to join us today for more insights from Larry. If not, stay tuned for my later post on his presentation.

Nancy Costopulos, the American Marketing Association’s chief marketing officer, provided the above post.

 

Mary Dillon today chatted with marketing bloggers and social media experts at Mplanet following her presentation to conference attendees. Addressing the question of what marketers at all levels should do in the current economy, Mary provided the following tips: understand your target market; engage in simple, clear problem solutions; and invest in marketing analytics. She noted that people at times fear admitting a program – be it traditional or new media – failed, but in the end it’s far better to know what failed and what delivered positive results in this economy.

Both in her session with bloggers and her keynote, Mary talked about delivering what people want in a meaningful relevant way. Whether from internal networking platforms for the McDonald’s crew or a global brand tailored to local interests, Mary and the McDonald’s marketing team ensures their brand promise is the DNA of all genuine platforms. Mary was joined today by our fellow marketing bloggers: Scott Titus, Matt O’Hern, Toby Bloomberg, Greg Verdino, Becky Carroll, Greg Rollett, Susanne Sicilian and Susan Peyton.

Similar to Mary’s conversations on brand promises and its importance today, John Hayes, noted how our generation will “be defined by how we answer the economic hurdles that we face, how we respond not only to our current difficulties, but how we prepare our future generations for security, wealth and prosperity. It’s our time to set up. I don’t care if you’re 25 or 52. It’s up to us.” He provided some tips and points for clearing those hurdles. Take a look at this summary from onsite blogger, Matt O’Hern, on MarketingShift.com.

There’s more coming, including a recap of today. Check back soon and follow us on Twitter at #mplanet2009.
 
Nancy Costopulos, the American Marketing Association’s chief marketing officer, provided the above post.

To say we’re hyper-networked is an understatement. As I return from tonight’s opening networking reception, where colleagues, professionals, exhibitors and sponsors connected in person, I am amazed by the number of individuals with which we can share, interact and influence through traditional and new digital channels daily.
 
John’s post on today’s pre-conference Digital Marketing Lab clearly details the progress and potential digital marketing brings professionals today and tomorrow. In this time of uncertainty, marketers must not be afraid to try new ways of providing relevant, authentic information to customers and businesses when and how they want it. There’s no right way, best practice or one-size for all – consistency (of message and service), credibility and customization are what resonates today.

And as for tomorrow? Well, tomorrow kicks off two days of insights from global CMOs, industry leaders and AMA’s Dennis Dunlap. Global CEOs and CMOs from Xerox, American Express, McDonald’s and other leading brands will answer marketers tough question about building in a global brand in a transforming marketsphere where customers and businesses have greater influence than ever before. You can find an overview of today’s digital marketing lab takeaways and the rest of the conference’s line up here.

Looking beyond the conference, Dennis’ opening remarks will envision marketing’s “tomorrow” in 2015. What will our profession’s role be and do we have the ability to shape our future role today? AMA partnered with Decisions Strategies International in “futures” research on the industry – and the results will definitely give pause to marketers looking to create the next enduring brand.

I invite you to stay connected with all of Mplanet’s events here and on Marketing News, Facebook and Twitter in the following couple of days. Also, be sure to stay updated through the blogosphere. Here’s a post on one of our keynotes, McDonald’s Mary Dillon, who’s hosting a Q&A with bloggers onsite tomorrow.

 

Nancy Costopulos, the American Marketing Association’s chief marketing officer, provided the above post.

Reaching Everyone?

I work with Commercial Printers every day that are printing jobs for businesses that are trying to market or sell their product to you and me, the end consumer. Some of them are helping those customers with more effective marketing by using data to target the right message to the right customer at the right time.

For example, when my daughter Ashley turned 5, she received a coupon from “Build a Bear” for $10 off her “Ashley bear.” What was neat about this piece was it had a picture of the same bear she purchased the prior year. I will say that as a parent, I wasn’t very happy with this coupon because the $10 actually caused me to spend over $30 on a stuffed animal! I had another fun experience recently where I felt I was targeted pretty well. My wife drives a Honda Accord. At the time, it had roughly 60,000 miles on it. We get a free oil change coupon in the mail. Now the postcard had our Honda on the front and it said, “Kim, since it’s time to bring your Honda in for Service, we thought you would enjoy a free coupon.” Well, she did use that “free” coupon and brought it in. And the oil change was in fact free. My only comment was she also rotated tires, did alignment and was told she would probably need new tires in the next 5,000 miles (and so they gave us their price for 4 new tires). Was she targeted because she had 60,000 miles? What a great use of data.

I am a huge fan of target marketing. In fact, when done right, I believe it is the best use of marketing dollars. Having said that, I am still amazed how many of my customers that do variable printing like this, still don’t use multi media tools like email, facebook, twitter, blogging, linkedin, plaxo and on and on. I wonder, are they connecting with all empowered customers?

For example, I recently purchased a 46 inch LCD TV. At the place I purchased this TV, I asked about installation. For the TV with mount, installation costs exceeded $375, not including HDMI wires, electric above the fire place and so on. My wife said to check on Craigslist. So I did. I went to my city and searched “install lcd tv” and had 6 ads posted in the past 7 days. Two weeks later, my TV was hung, electric was run and total cost out of pocket was $250 including mount, electric, hdmi cables and everything else.

People want to be communicated to in different ways. As a marketing expert, are you taking advantage of all the tools available to help market to your potential customers, all your potential customers? It’s in exploring this question that I see so many opportunities. Do you?

Scott Titus has been with Xerox since 1995 and is a part business consultant, part one-man marketing machine and part sales professional.  Titus has been among the top three sales representatives at Xerox Corporation for eight quarters running.  He produces a monthly e-newsletter, writes his own blog at Ideas, Ideas, Ideas and creates his own Web videos. His current approach includes helping his customers develop “their own multichannel communications” and spends much of his time consulting with clients about their business initiatives and how marketing tools can help drive additional revenues for them and their customers. He has been featured in industry articles on such topics as “Trust Equity” and also made Xerox’s Profit Accelerator Magazine two out of the three volumes to date.

Overheard the other day from a cashier at my local grocery store (a large chain, by the way): “Can I get a bagger over here?  You aren’t paying me enough to have me bag the groceries, too!”  I heard this as I was coming up to the check-out counter with my purchases (which were only a few items).

Wow, what does that do to the brand’s marketing messages?

Who Speaks Louder?

The issue here is this: a customer doesn’t differentiate between what marketing is saying and what they hear from customer service personnel.  All messages, regardless of medium or origin, add up to communicate the brand’s image to the customer. 

Yet too often, marketing and customer service are managed separately in a company or organization, they don’t speak to each other, and they don’t have common metrics (you know, those things that drive the behaviors?).

When we look at it from the company’s perspective, we see silo-thinking, each department focused on their own area.  When we look at it from the customer’s perspective, what do we see?  One brand, with everyone working together for a great customer experience?  Or many experiences, looking like many brands, with the experience differing based on how customer service personnel are asked to behave? A strong coordination between marketing and other customer-facing parts of the organization is critical to put our best foot forward for our customers. It means we should view our customers as one of the most important assets that we have; therefore, we should plan each step of how we are going to get, keep, and grow these assets.

Empowered Consumers

This gets even more tricky when we think about a brand's presence online. Now the places that a brand can impact a customer are multiplied many-fold. They include a brand's website, any branded social media properties, as well as consumer-generated content (ratings, reviews, blogs, videos). Customers may agree or disagree with the branding that a company is doing, but in a digital world, they now have a very fast and easy way to share their thoughts. Thousands or millions of others can see, hear, and experience multiple customer perceptions of most brands, regardless of whether that brand has a strong online presence.

In the digital world, other customers (the community) may be a stronger influence on the company’s brand than the company itself.

Questions to Consider

Who is speaking the loudest to customers at your organization?  Do you need to bring those messages into alignment?  How can you work with those who are the most influential voices, rather than against them, to strengthen your brand and the loyalty of your customer? What do customers think about your brand, from all perspectives?

These are all critical questions to answer as companies consider how to weather the current economic storms and build stronger customer relationships.

As Director of Social Media for the San-Diego based start-up Brickfish, Becky Carroll is responsible for all aspects of social media marketing, including audience engagement and loyalty, social media outreach, and thought leadership. The author of the business blog Customers Rock!, she also teaches the class “Marketing via New Media” at UC San Diego Extension. Becky is a regular personality on the Big Biz Talk Radio show, a nationally-syndicated program, a contributing author on the recently-released business books Age of Conversation and Age of Conversation 2, and a sought-after speaker on social media and customer loyalty.

Results, seemingly, are what everyone is looking for as consumers and companies scrutinize expenses and ROI (return on investment) in these days of economic shrinkage. At the same time that the financial downturn is impacting many, if not most, Americans (as well as people and businesses in many other countries) it is revealing efficient companies, strategies, business and technology mavericks and emerging market opportunities. Those who do not succumb, close down, declare bankruptcy, become obsolete, unnecessary or unemployed may survive the crisis and be stronger for their efforts and business acumen. Part of that efficiency is the ability to understand the direction the markets are taking and how to stay ahead of the curve. Relationships, specifically our ability to maintain and benefit from them, is one of the tools we can rely on moving forward.

At this point in the year I think we need to take a look at how we've integrated Social Media as part of our overall strategy. Along the social media marketing continuum I believe we are at the point where 'Web 2.0' and 'social networks' are no longer apart from the net as a whole.

All social media channels open a line of communication between you, your audience, colleagues and friends. When you are creating a marketing strategy, you need to think about the response of all of these constituencies across channels. There are people who will see you across blogs, FB, Twitter, etc. All your branding and content needs to be consistent. Everything works together (or it doesn't).

Here are three questions you should address when assessing your strategy:

1. What can I contribute that will be of real value?

2. How can I share what I'm doing without a 'hard sell' ?

3. Is this channel a place I am connecting with colleagues, friends or customers or some mix? How can I make sure all these constituencies are served?

Stephanie Diamond writes The Marketing Message Blog and is the founder of Digital Media Works, Inc. She is a seasoned 25+ year management/marketing professional with experience building profits in a broad range of product and services businesses. In addition to writing for the Mplanet blog, Stephanie will be speaking at Mplanet's Digital Marketing Lab in January 2009.