Learn about the importance of online reputation management, including how to monitor your current reputation, what you need to do to repair damage, and how to stay ahead of the curve in the future.
Listen to expert Celeste Bishop discuss this in the latest episode of Marketing Thought Leadership.
Lead generation and sales force automation expert Dave Taber talks about what's wrong with many of today's lead generation systems in the latest episode of our Marketing Thought Leadership podcast series.
Dave is the author of a new book entitled SalesForce.Com Secrets of Success: Best Practices for Growth and Profitability
An article in yesterday's San Jose Mercury News entitled "In Recession consumers turn to small indulgences," reinforces what I've been telling clients and students for months:
First, there are companies who are doing well in this gloomy economy, such as Hershey's, Kraft Food, Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree, as well as some that would not necessarily have come to mind, like running shoe and bicycle helmet manufacturers, coin dealers and gardening tools.
Second, a key behavior is for people to trade down from their prior behavior. So people who used to eat out at high end restaurants now move to mid-range eateries; those who used to frequent mid-range eateries go down a notch to lower end restaurants; those who used to go to the lower end restaurants now head to McDonalds or Taco Bell. Or folks who might have eaten out previously are now enjoying a nice dinner at home--a trend that not only helps the grocery chains, but stores like Target as well who are positioning themselves as the key player to help people dress up their "at-home" experience.
This trend is true across many industries--such as hotel and travel, automobile sales and leasing, or clothing. It's not that people are no longer spending; it's that they're spending their dollars much more selectively.
As marketers we need to help our clients focus on reaching the new consumers--those that have traded down to where we are today--rather than those who used to aspire to move up and associate with our brands. The market's out there--it's just dressed differently, with a different set of faces, goals, and challenges than we're used to.
But the opportunity is there for companies to move up by capitalizing on the movement to trade down.
Listen to our latest podcast with Gary Katz of Marketing Operations Partners, defining marketing operations and discussing why this matters to the marketing function.
A recent story in the Wall Street Journal notes that as part of its takeover of Washington Mutual (WaMu), Chase is moving away from the Occasio concept bank branches that WaMu introduced a few years ago.
This is not a moment too soon. As a WaMu customer, it was the time, money and attention to these high-concept, low utility branches that finally put me over the edge and made me a former customer.
It was bad enough that WaMu had fairly poor online banking tools compared to other banks, or that their phone service was not great, but the focus on this ridiculous idea vs. good ole fashioned customer service was just too much. Everyone was confused when these branches were introduced, and no one, especially the poor tellers who had to work there all day, seemed to be enjoying the experience. At my local branch, where a number of the customers don't speak English as a first language, it was total confusion.
The branches did look very nice--warm colors, modern signage. In fact, it looked like what you'd expect to see if Starbucks opened a bank. But here's the catch: I don't want to bank at a pretty bank, and I don't want to bank at Starbucks, I want to bank at a real *bank*--one where they know who I am, they can provide quick and efficient service and we don't have technology for the sake of technology. (The fact that tellers couldn't handle money in this scenario was just plain stupid. You had to go to multiple "stations" to make a deposit, take out cash, complete transactions. What were they thinking?)
This on top of WaMu's total obsession with making home loans to the exclusion of all other services told me to run not walk to another bank. (I wish I could tell you I predicted the banking collapse, but that's not the case...just that WaMu was pretty darn clueless.)
I wonder if they did any kind of testing of this concept with actual customers and employees before rolling it out. And, if they did, did anyone look at the results?
Listen to our recent interview with Pamela S. Harper for her blog Accelerating Progress, about what type of marketing works and what doesn't during a recession.
Also, check out our latest marketing myth: Cut Marketing in a Recession to Improve Financials.
We're taking it to the web with a new BrightTalk webinar channel. Our first freee webinar, scheduled for April 28th at 10am PDT, features highlights of our recent sellout seminar, Promoting Your Non-Profit. Other upcoming sessions include: Effectively Marketing Your Career in Turbulent Times and When Social Media Doesn't Work.
Check out our latest podcast:
Jim Lenskold, the man who literally wrote the book on measuring return on investment for marketing, discusses why it's so critical now for organizations to measure the return they get on their marketing investments in The Case for Measuring Marketing ROI.Be sure to listen to the entire series at Marketing Thought Leadership
The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal has named Linda Popky one of Silicon Valley's "Top 100 Women of Influence" for 2009.
This year's winners, nominated by their peers, were chosen by a panel of judges that included
Shellye Archambeau, CEO of MetricStream; Connie Martinez, CEO of 1stAct Silicon
Valley; Ysabel Duron, Latinas Contra Cancer Founder and Executive Director; and
Wendy Beecham, CEO of Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives.
According to Business Journal Publisher James MacGregor, “The women listed exemplify many of the attributes that makes Silicon Valley a global leader in business, philanthropy and public policy. The experience and skills these women demonstrate have helped to innovate and shepherd the valley to success."
In addition to being the founder and president of L2M Associates, Linda is also the president of Women in Consulting, a San Francisco Bay Area-based community of over 400 consultants and small business owners working to build strong businesses. A consultant, speaker, author and educator, she is the program advisor for San Francisco State University's Integrated Marketing Program and on the advisory board for UC Santa Cruz Extension's Marketing Management Program.
Women of Influence award winners will be honored at an awards ceremony and dinner to be held at the San Jose Fairmont on March 18th. More information about the event.
Ever since Carol Bartz was announced as the new CEO of Yahoo, I've been watching the reactions with amusement. The "pundits" or web gurus or whatever they call themselves have expressed their skepticism about how someone who comes from a hardware and software background can turn around a web company. Why Carol Bartz? Why not hire someone with direct web experience instead?
Last week's announcement that Elisa Steele will be joining Yahoo as CMO was met with the same response: another person w/a hardware/software background and no direct web experience.
Ladies and gentlemen: You're missing the point.
Yahoo has probably close to 12,000 employees, just about all of whom we can assume know the web inside and out. The place is crawling with web expertise--open a conference room and it probably falls right out at you. Yet all of those people with all of that expertise haven't helped Yahoo get out of the rut they're in. In fact, it may have helped them dig a deeper hole.
What Yahoo needs now is strong leadership, solid management expertise, and the ability to create a strategy and execute effectively. And that's exactly why the hiring of Carol and Elisa is *exactly* what Yahoo needs.
I've had the opportunity to see these two women in action--at Sun, at Autodesk, and at NetApp. Carol is a non-nonsense manager who knows her technology and has great business sense. She isn't afraid to ask tough questions or make hard decisions and she will absolutely tell you what she sees without any hesitation, sugar coating, or concern about being politically correct. What a breath of fresh air.
Elisa is both a seasoned, knowledgeable creative marketing executive and someone who can build and motivate a team with amazing effectiveness. She is one of the best I've ever seen when it comes to executing big, complex marketing initiatives--something that should benefit Yahoo tremendously as it navigates perilous waters and attempts to survive as a standalone company.
Both of these women bring the management skills necessary to harness Yahoo's existing pool of web talent and drive them in the right direction.
One more thing. Let's not forget that the CEO of Yahoo's biggest competitor had no more web experience when he was hired than either Carol or Elisa. But, interestingly, Eric Schmidt did have the same hardware/software background--coming from Sun and Novell. Looks like he hasn't done too badly at Google.
Hmm. Maybe there's a pattern here?
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