Commented on “A Smarter Planet”

Agree. What boggles me is that in the face of all the knowing in the world (i.e. Evolution, Health Care, Global Warming) a huge number of people pull their blinds, prop their ears and say ” I believe…”

Originally posted as a comment
by babebo
on A Smarter Planet using DISQUS.

Meeting of the Minds webcasts

Meeting of the Minds will feature a world-class group of professors from leading business schools, assembled to share their thoughts and observations from experience in the boardrooms and the classrooms of the world about how marketers can better demonstrate the value marketing creates for shareholders.

Now hurry and sign-up for these free webcasts starting at the end of October and running through till July 2010.

Marketing en de strijd tegen hebzucht

Marketeers der Lage Landen!

Wat vinden wij hier nou van? Inmiddels is het vijfde deel verschenen van Jan Bunt’s schotschrift “Welzijnsmarketing en de strijd tegen hebzucht” en het blijft oorverdovend stil. Ver van mijn bed show? Gaat het allemaal zo lekker in onze dagelijkse marketingpraktijk? Vinden wij Bunt’s aanklacht onzin? Academisch geneuzel? Teveel tekst en te weinig plaatjes?

Is het niet zo dat verreweg de meerderheid van ons marketeers dagelijks te maken hebben met een schizofrene werkdag? Irreële budgetten met onhaalbare targets in vage markten. Afschuiven van de schuld naar anderen binnen de eigen organisatie en/of keihard werkende externe leveranciers. Geloof je nog in je eigen werk? Heb je er nog plezier in? Ben je trots op wat je presteert? Of gaat het alleen nog om lijfsbehoud?

Wat doe jij eraan om ‘the real marketing’ weer op de agenda te krijgen? Welke problemen ondervind je daarbij? Hoe goed lukt het om intern duidelijk te maken dat de keizer geen kleren aan heeft? Wat zijn de belemmeringen?

Uit het bovenstaande mag blijken dat ik het volledig eens ben met Bunt. Wat mij betreft maakt het Europese of Amerikaanse besturingsmodel niks uit. We zijn als marketing het spoor bijster. Er bestaat geen relatie meer tussen opgelegde doelstellingen (de ‘heilige’ spreadsheets van Finance gezeten in de kamer naast de directie / RvB) en de werkelijkheid van de organisatie (onvoldoende kwalitatieve / kwantitatieve middelen), de te bedienen markt (is er überhaupt wel voldoende vraag naar product / dienst om target te kunnen halen) en de noodzakelijke tijd om beoogde doelen effectief / efficiënt te behalen.

We hebben onszelf als marketeers ook veel te verwijten. Zo niet alles. We hebben ons het kaas van het brood laten eten. Allerlei oorspronkelijke functies binnen marketing zijn verzelfstandigd met eigen doelen en en eigen budgetten. (Maak maar eens een turflijstje binnen je eigen organisatie. Hoe zit het met sales (binnen- buitendienst), klantenservice, website, social media, DM, telemarketing, email, enz. Waar zit de integratie en samenhang? Wie is er nog verantwoordelijk voor de klant?)

Ik ben erg benieuwd of jullie ook vinden dat marketing ‘fucked up’ is. En nog belangrijker; hoe kunnen we het tij keren? Trots werkend binnen gezonde, solide bedrijven met tevreden afnemers en onderaan de streep gezond geld verdienend welke de continuïteit waarborgt.

5 reasons marketers hate web analytics

The continuing theme in the above reasons why some marketers seem to hate web analytics is inertia. Many companies suffer from complacency — folks not wanting to make a fuss, not wanting to get at the real root of things. (I have heard web analytics called “the smoking gun” that you can bring to either creative, editorial, or IT depending on the measurement.) This reveals the real strength — and weakness — of web analytics in general. Here is the link.

Emperor’s new cloths torn apart

I am completely and utterly amazed that people can get away with such BS and even get paid for it! Watch for yourself and then read how the bogus is dismantled by following this link to Anna O’Brien’s blog “Random acts of data”.

Let Ricardo Semler into your DNA

Ricardo Semler is one of my greatest inspirations. Here he presents at MIT about leadership and what it is all about. Also look him up over at Wikipedia. Read his books and read articles on him. Get him into your DNA. This is a man in his own class.

Hooray for the data ninjas – NYTimes.com

Acknowledgement for statisticians is on the rise. The world of tomorrow is theirs. Every profession has to deal with massive sets of data so you better come prepared. Tom Davenport recently wrote a book on this topic as well by the title “Competing on Analytics”. Treat statisticians as princes and princesses; they will determine the future of organisations.  For Today’s Graduate, Just One Word – Statistics – NYTimes.com.

Enlightened Stupid Marketer

Does this ring a bell? Could you share an experience with us? (We will censor the names of people and companies.)

Truths of “Real” Marketers

The Top Ten Truths of “Real” Marketers – Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog.

There are too many people wandering around bearing some title in marketing who aren’t delivering anyone any good. They don’t have a clue where they are going. Insecure, always looking over their shoulders, blaming, over-shouting to compensate their insecurity, covering up, shooting from the hip, constantly fleeing forward, proclaiming the latest buzzwords, etc. Besides that they hurt customers, colleagues and the company bottom line, they also hurt the marketing profession.

Sooner or later their scams get measured out in the press and the public in general gets the message that marketing is a bad thing. I don’t like this and it makes me angry that these self-inflated balloons totally screw up the marketing profession.

I’m proud of my profession, I love it, and sincerely believe marketing has something to bring to the table that serves everyone. But it starts with integrity, transparency and walking your talk. The above link from Alain Thys should be read as a code of conduct for every marketer (especially seniors).

To be or not to be digital

Advertising Age has an article on their site stating (based on Forrester Research) that marketing budgets are moving from non-digital to digital. As a fact this may be correct, but the point is that these choices aren’t being made for the sake of technology but because channels are measurable in terms of ROI. Here is the link to my comment.

Twittering Away Time

Twittering Away Time & Money | MarketingNPV

Posted using ShareThis

Putting customers first

This is a post to all native Dutch speakers. Here in Holland we’ve got a new radioshow about how organizations do (not) focus on their customers.

BNR Nieuwsradio is sinds vorige week in de ether  met “De grote klantenshow”. In de eerste uitzending (tevens als podcast nog te beluisteren) waren te gast Will Wurtz, Egbert Jan van Bel en Ruud Huitenga, marketingmanager van Jumbo supermarkten.

Wat nog niet aan de orde is geweest is de koppeling tussen klanten en de winstgevendheid van organisaties. Is dat de sleutel die nog een tijdje verborgen blijft? Want dan kunnen we echt spannende discussies gaan krijgen. Voorlopig blijf ik zeer nieuwsgierig en ben blij dat door een klassiek medium als radio dit onderwerp bij een grotere groep mensen over het voetlicht wordt gebracht.

‘De klant moet weer centraal staan’, is het adagium van menig ondernemer in reactie op de huidige crisistijd. In dit programma houdt BNR de vinger aan de pols bij ondernemend Nederland.
Hoe klantgericht zijn zij? We weten allemaal hoe prettig het is om als klant goed geholpen te worden, maar waarom lukt het de bedrijven waarin we werken vaak niet?

De grote BNR klantenshow gaat over het evenwicht tussen de klant gelukkig maken en tegelijkertijd winst maken. Dit is niet het zoveelste programma waarin consumentleed centraal staat, maar een programma dat juist ook vanuit het perspectief van een organisatie de relatie tussen klanten en aanbieders van producten en diensten onder de loep neemt.

Never the twine of thinking, saying, doing shall…

Last week I read this interesting post by Luis García de la Fuente at his blog titled “Why Social Media May Never Work as a marketing channel.”

He cites the following passage from a post at Opposableplanets.com :

In the age of social networks we find ourselves coming under a vast grid of surveillance – of permanent visibility. The routine self-reporting of what we are doing, reading, thinking via status updates makes our every action and location visible to the crowd. This visibility has a normative effect on behavior (in other words we conform our behavior and/or our speech about that behavior when we know we are being observed).

and follows up with this questioning:

That´s exactly what I think. And that´s because many marketing studies and surveys doesn´t work properly: people know they are being observed, so they say what they think they are expected to say.

What part of social media conversations or blogs are really spontaneous (that means original, and therefore valuable) and what part are just ‘mirrors’ in front of mirrors…???

Initially I agree that using Social Media has a normative effect on our behavior and that it is always very hard to really know the customer through market research and questionnaires. In general customers don’t say what they do and they don’t do what they say.

This is something marketing always had to deal with since the fifties. Through trial and error one could create a proxy of what was working in the market, albeit with hindsight. But then along with lower prices on computers came databases in the eighties loaded with facts on customer behavior. One could now clearly see customers ‘walk their talk’ and ‘putting their money where their mouth is’. Variables (i.e. offerings, channels used, price)  in a marketing program could now be tested and measured very accurately.

The $64.000 question that still remained unanswered was to know what the customer will do tomorrow. To the rescue came the technology of datamining. By using complex algorithms it became possible to predict the future behavior of customers. The biggest benefit of this technology is that one does not have to think up the marketing variables that will have the most influence on the future (profitable!) behavior that marketers are looking for. Given the ROI variables of a marketing campaign the marketer gets a list of customers ranked by probability of response and a cut-off point on the list where profits peak. Each next address being used means profits diminish. Traditional marketers find this very hard to grasp. They are so hard-wired on sales, volume and share of market that they can not make the mind shift to thinking in profits and that there is an optimum where one should stop.

Now getting back to Luis’ post. From a business perspective it isn’t necessary (economically viable) anymore to understand your customers the way that was required in the ‘older’ days. On the other hand, from an intellectual standpoint (or for the fact that we are sociable animals that love to watch each other),  it remains interesting to get a grasp on society by pondering the questions of how and why. To be or not to be is still the question. Although being fake in these digital times seems to be an acceptable alternative as well.

Information R/evolution

One for the weekend to get back fresh on monday and rise to the occasion.

This video was made by Mike Wesh. “My videos explore mediated culture, seeking to merge the ideas of Media Ecology and Cultural Anthropology.” Check out his website at Kansas State University.

2009Q1 marketing budget 20% down: ROI time!!!

Forrester put out a report last week:

“Our (Forrester) Q1 2009 Global CMO Recession Online Survey reveals marketing leaders under pressure to deliver results.”

Whether they like it or not, the CMO’s are under a bad moon. Budgets are down seriously by 20% consequently leading to cost-cutting on mass media by 60%. Ouch!!!!

Special attention (bold emphasis by me) for Forrester’s first  recommendation (out of four):

1) The report showed renewed focus on return on investment measures for marketing — this is a healthy development that will help you post-recession. ROI analysis will eliminate, or at least minimize future marketing nonsense.

Before Marketing ROI there is creativity

Design the customer experience that the customer is willing to pay for.

Do Social Media friends influence buying?

The basic outcome; yes people influence each other through their networks. On the other hand; what’s new? Humans are social animals that live in groups. In this research there are leaders (12%), followers (40%) and laggards (48%). Leaders keep moving on (revenue -14%), the followers imitate (revenue +5%) and the laggards (revenue change 0%), well, just lag unaffected. “Keeping up with the Joneses” is as always the game being played by customers and this can play tricks on your ROI from marketing.

As the researchers point out there is still a lot of groundwork to be done. The last paragraph of their conclusion:

Our findings are relevant for social networking sites and large advertisers. The members in high status group have an influence on those in the middle status group for the diffusion of a new product. However, a successful diffusion in the middle status segment may make high status members lose interest in the new product. This interplay of product diffusion and customer segmentation leaves much room for future research.

To my knowledge this is the first scientific research done on the effects of social media in terms of revenue effects. The  research and report “Do friends influence purchases in a social network?” is crafted out by Raghuram Iyengar, Sangman Han and Sunil Gupta. It is a free download from Harvard Business School.

Is er licht in de marketing tunnel?

Hier word ik niet vrolijk van. Recent heeft de CMOCouncil (gezaghebbende club van Amerikaanse Chief Marketing Officers) haar jaarlijkse Marketing Outlook gepubliceerd. (Korte registratie en gratis downloaden.) Hoe was het in marketingland in 2008 en hoe wordt het in 2009? Marketing wordt steeds moeilijker en complexer en de Chiefs zitten als kreeften in een pan met water. Lees ook het no-nonsense commentaar van Jim Sterne.

Jeff Jonas (IBM topdog) Explores the Nature of Data

…. his first principle. “If you do not treat new data in your enterprise as part of a question, you will never know the patterns, unless someone asks.”

… Jonas calls enterprise amnesia. “The smartest your organization can be is the net sum of its perceptions.”

Getting smarter by asking questions with every new piece of data is the same as putting a picture puzzle together, Jonas said. This is something that Jonas calls persistent context. “You find one piece that’s simply blades of grass, but this is the piece that connects the windmill scene to the alligator scene,” he says. “Without this one piece that you asked about, you’d have no way of knowing these two scenes are connected.”

The Four Hundred–Jeff Jonas Explores the Nature of Data in COMMON Keynote

Why think?

Niet gesponsored!

Vele handen maken licht werk.

Investigate your MP’s expenses.

De bonnetjesaffaire in Engeland. Alle declaraties zitten in een ’schoenendoos’. Het zijn er zoveel dat er geen peil op te trekken is. Wat doet The Guardian? Zij roept lezers op om allemaal een stapeltje op te pakken en te turven. Uniek in de wereld!

10 Things Your CFO Should Know About Measuring Marketing Effectiveness | MarketingNPV

10 Things Your CFO Should Know About Measuring Marketing Effectiveness | MarketingNPV.

Een hechte relatie met Finance is niet bepaald gangbaar in de meeste organisaties. Waarom daar meer aandacht voor zou moeten zijn en welke agenda je zou moeten hanteren wordt in dit artikel uitgelegd. Het is natuurlijk logisch als je het hebt over de feiten van Marketing en de financiële consequenties voor de ‘bottom line”.  Je kunt er meer budget door krijgen!

The basics in marketing

No matter how many facts we have available we should realize that the fundamentals of marketing are based on basic human needs. This is what makes marketing such a fascinating area of work.

Stretch your mind

Truly inspiring talks from people of all walks of life who are at the front of their fields of work.

De eerste poll!

Geef ook een toelichting op je antwoord via onderstaande ‘comment’ link.

Profit Driven Marketing

From one of the best consultancy agencies (Booz) this new book is published. It offers a framework for implementing processes and structures within companies that aspire to reap the best profits through ROI Marketing.

Learning and Darwin…

Marketing ROI

Very good book on calculating an integral marketing ROI at the levels of (multichannel) campaigns, the customer and the company. Check out the Lenskold website.

What do you believe in?

“In God we trust; all others must bring data.” – W. Edwards Deming