Bloghound

Here are some of the takeaways from yesterday and Thursday’s Innovative Marketing Conference, sponsored by Corante and the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia University. For more in-depth coverage check out the Fast Company’s blog
with many posts from the many insigthoughtful and discplined bloggers
at the conference. (I was so wrapped up in the discussion that I didn’t
take detailed notes, a sure sign of a good conference.)

What are the biggest trends?

• Marketers have no control. Customers do.
• People listen to other people like them, not to companies’ marketing.
• Marketing change requires organizational change.
• Trust. (Companies have to earn it.)
• Co-creation. (with customers, with people within organizations, with partners…)

What’s most risky today?

• Continuing to spend money on traditional advertising, like
  TV, when research shows that customers are leaving. The eyeballs have
  moved.
• Waiting around for proven measurement before moving
  to new approaches. You’ll be hopelessly behind and losing customers if
  you wait for fail proof evidence and best practices.
• Not experimenting. (Continuous theme)

What’s the purpose of advertising?

• Give people something to talk about. Provoke. “Did you see that?” comments. (Russ Klein, Burger King)
• It’s not to inform persuade, convince. It’s about encouraging consumer curiosity in brand. (Joseph Jaffe)

How to determine where to focus resources?

• From John Hagel, who spoke about the economics of attention scarcity:
• Of the total attention we spend on a marketing activity, what’s the value received?
• How much are we spending on acquiring information about individual customers and the value they receive from us?
• How are we helping customers get the attention they want from our companies?

What’s the worst thing a company can hear from the market research people?

• “Customers know you more than love you.” Russ Klein, CMO, Burger King
• The ads are hilarious but the product doesn’t do much for us.

What do we need to know more about?

• How do you build a brand while letting go control of the brand?
• How do you evolve and change the marketing organization?
• 70% of people watching TV or online are multitasking. What are the implications to content?
• What are the new ways to measure marketing? (Flipping from ROI mentality to value to goals)
• What essentials should be in every marketer’s toolkit today?

Notable quotes

• “It’s about relying on the ecosystem (of existing customer
  communities, conversations) vs. the egosystem.” (trying to control
  messages, customers) David Weinberger, co-author, Cluetrain Manifesto
• “Marketing is moving from being all about phallic penetration to a more female openness and acceptance.” Max Kalehoff, Nielsen BuzzMetrics
• “The marketing organization is like Sartre - being and nothingness.” Professor Bernd Schmitt, Columbia Univeristy
• “The revolution is that customers are in control; how it plays out will be evolutionary.” Diane Hessan, Communispace
• “Being
  a CEO of a customer community is more like being an elected official.
  You have to serve the community to keep approval your ratings up.” John Hiler, Xanga.com
• “Marketers are addicted to bad practices.” John Hagel
• “We
  see the McDonald’s brand as a return to childhood. Wendy’s is paternal.
  Burger King is an adolescent, the cool, crazy uncle who’s closer to
  your age than your parent’s. ” Russ Klein, Burger King
• “We’re addicted to our crackberries.” (Audience comment, source not noted.)
• “There
  are all kinds of ways to learn how to observe customer behavior, from
  hiring ethnographers to hiring former CIA operatives to share their
  techniques.” David Sutherland, the Launch Institute
• “Lawyers
  can help marketers become much better communicators in today’s “no
  control” world. I’m a better marketer from what the attorneys have
  taught me.” Paul Zarookian, AIG Insurance
• “The web is not a channel, it is the closest thing to the physical world we’ve got.” Larry Weber, W2 Group

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