Wide Angle

Let’s face it: some brands have it easier than others when it comes to social media.

But while the Harley Davidsons and Coca-Colas of the world have a leg up, companies in “unsocial” industries (pharma, financial services, manufacturing, I’m talking to you) can still take advantage of the opportunity that social media offers.

Matthew Lehman, the Web Experience Director at Progressive Insurance, has some great suggestions for how companies in “unsocial” (and yes, sometimes downright unpopular) industries can use social media to boost customer satisfaction. Read More »

If your company is like mine, the beginning of the fiscal year (now, for most of us) is when we’re thinking about project portfolios and operating plans – and, it’s the one time we managers have to focus on our direct reports’ development plans.  Setting development goals for staff while creating these “IDPs” (as we call them: “individual development plans”) is easy for some functions. Sales has revenue goals. Procurement has cost-cutting goals. But for marketing, setting development goals – and understanding the underlying functional competencies marketing staffers need to develop (and then creating action plans that line up to their current projects) – can be a little tricky. Why? Read More »

For those of us in the B2B marketing world, understanding what drives sales rep effectiveness can help define the role we play in supporting our sales team.  In a recent quantitative effort by the Sales Executive Council (SEC), rep characteristics—having to do with Attitudes, Skills/Behaviors, Activities and Knowledge—were studied.  They found that certain attributes tended to clump together into a few profiles.  More specifically, five distinct groups of sales reps were found, each containing a very different combination of attributes.  See if you can guess the clear winner and the clear loser as I summarize them here: Read More »

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Concourse D and I’m eating Sbarro, drinking a Coke, and overlooking flag carriers from the Netherlands, France, Italy, and the UK. The voice from above announces flight information in three languages – Dutch, English, and the language of the country’s destination. The passengers next to me are listening to iPods singing American pop, heading for Africa.

Whither globalization? I beg to differ.

There was a bit of consternation at the Davos confab earlier this year as to whether the era of globalization was the root cause of the global financial meltdown, and as a result, perhaps it was time to roll back some of that interconnectedness. Nicolas Sarkozy was particularly pungent in his argument to this effect. Granted, globalization certainly hastened the onset of recessionary tendencies the world over; international capital flows have only increased since the Asia financial crisis of the late 1990s sent a minor shock wave through the system. Read More »

It’s a question that has perplexed humankind for centuries: If a tree falls in the woods and no one’s around to hear it, does it make a sound?  Now Marketing may not be known for its penchant for solving existential conundrums, but the same line of reasoning can be applied to the customer experience.  If you identify a set of benefits but the organization fails to demonstrate them, do they really exist?

We’re a biased group, so while differentiation may be the bread and butter of our world, the sad truth is that that simply isn’t the case within many B2B organizations.  Marketing can (and should) take the lead to identify the core set of unique benefits that set the company apart from competitors.  But when it comes to embedding these throughout the customer experience—that requires coordination of many moving pieces across the enterprise. Read More »

Very rarely does one member conversation spark a complex web of issues, but one yesterday with a senior marketer at a consumer firm in a mature industry did just that.

The firm has reconfigured its entire new product development process, from stage gates, to resource allocation, to organizational structure and ultimately, the locus of innovation – a conscious shift from incremental to disruptive.  Simultaneously, the company placed brand management among its top priorities for the year.  Our dialogue quickly turned to the intersection of the two and which was actually driving the bus. Read More »

Tired of playing 20 questions with your legal team?  Let Lizzie help.

As Digital Web Lead at Allstate Insurance, Lizzie Schreier has faced her share of legal battles.  After jumping through hoops to persuade Allstate’s legal team to embrace (or at least accept) social media, she’s ready to share her key lessons learned. 

Here’s her advice on how you can make the marketing / legal partnership a little less painful: Read More »

Friday’s Wall Street Journal showed a delicious contrast in innovation approaches in side-by-side articles (yes, I’ve just revealed I still read a broadsheet from time-to-time).

On the one hand, you have P&G launching the latest, feature rich, premium-seeking version of its Fusion razor.  Blade edges so fine you need a microscope to see them.  Anti-hydroplane technology.  And an even more ergonomic grip. 

(Wait.  Backup.  My razor blade can hydroplane? On my face?  Scary… Does my auto insurance cover that?)

In contrast, the neighboring article details GE’s plans to launch a handheld ultrasound device.  Price point: under US$10,000.  Compare that to $25-50k for laptop-based machines, or $250k for a cart-based ultrasound.  Of course, the handhelds won’t have the functionality of the others, but for many situations, they don’t need to.  Cutting out features in favor of portability and low price actually opens up new markets.  That’s smart, “good enough” innovation in a tough economic environment. Read More »

The post title is cheeky, yes; but this one incredibly true. The more we see members implementing a social media strategy, the wider the gap grows between success and failure – and along with that, the attendant risks of failure. For those looking simply to make the social media case, failure means another year lost while consumers and technology forge ahead. For those making social media a central part of the customer experience, failure means massive personnel costs that could have been spent on tried-and-true techniques. So without further ado, the top ten list: Read More »

Plenty of Council members are asking us questions about social media ROI.  As our research team scans all that’s been written on the topic, we occasionally come across little gems.  One that may have escaped your attention is a section of a larger 2007 study, Never Ending Friending, which may provide some valuable rules of thumb and benchmarks for those of you diving into social media ROI.

The study was commissioned by MySpace which, at the time, was on the top of the social networking heap.  You’ll likely want to skip the first 34 pages (unless you have a keen interest in MySpace circa 2007), and get right to the meat.  Read More »