Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo!, recently identified the volume of information flow as one of the largest challenges facing corporate leaders today.  In marketing, the issue is not simply one of volume but of information richness.  Well beyond the reams of rational data about customer click-thru rates, viewing behavior, etc., the emotion and human insight embedded in unstructured information available via social media (e.g., dialogues, comments, ratings) elevates this challenge for marketers above volume alone.  Read More »

By Rob Hamshar

In this day of the attention economy, most B2B companies have bolted electronic publishing houses onto the front of their marketing engines.  For many, it’s constructed out of little more than a marketing agenda, a keyword index, and reluctant technical staffers-cum-copywriters.  Given its emerging status as the divine path to high-quality sales leads, the online content manufacturing business is burgeoning across nearly every industry. But to the potential buyer conducting research online, this development has been a blessing and a curse, as picking through such a swelling mass of relevant style-over-substance content leads to frustratingly few instances of “I’m glad I read that.”  More often it leads to feelings of boredom combined with a vague sense of being misled with hype, slanted content, unsubstantiated claims, and complex arguments.  Why?

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After my gloomy 2009 retrospective, I thought I’d try for a cheery 2010 prognostication. Then I looked at the unemployment rate, continued declines in construction spending, the looming bust of commercial real estate and quickly recalled why I’m a self-described realist (others call it cynic, take your pick).

So how about an even-handed assessment of things to watch for in 2010? Even the cynic can provide that.  Here are three big macroeconomic and marketing-specific trends every marketer should follow in earnest: Read More »

As followers of the Chinese Zodiac prepare to usher in the year of the tiger, marketers appear to be ushering in the year of the re-org.  Having seen their markets soften, crumble, and begin to show signs of life—all in the last 18 months—marketing leaders are rethinking the organizations they’ve built.  Even if the basic structures we’ve built appear to be viable, new segments need to be addressed and  new teams need to be formed to address markets that look very different from the ones that we faced just two or three years ago.    

Unfortunately, many of the marketing reorganizations that will kick off in 2010 will take a year or two to implement.  Right around the time that key players settle into their new roles, teams start to gel, and new processes start to fire on all cylinders, market conditions will have changed, and it will be time to start all over again.  Read More »

By Laura Morris

One of the most popular questions we hear from members is: “What are my peers asking you about social media?”

After spending last week speaking with members at MLC’s executive breakfast meetings, I got an earful of what’s keeping marketers up at night when it comes to social media.

The key theme:  There’s no longer any debate on if we should engage with our target audiences via social media.  The only question left is “how?”

Your peers are running up against three key challenges when it comes to answering that “how” question.  Here’s how we’re advising them on each: Read More »

By Whitney Satin

Articulating the unique benefits we provide to customers should be second nature for marketers, but this is much easier said than done.  Too often we get tripped up on the arms race for common benefits (e.g., “Our company is the most reliable … no REALLY!) or we fail to deliver benefits that truly resonate with customers.

Let’s table execution problems until after the holidays and turn for now to a slightly more existential challenge: what is your company’s unique identity?  This may sound trite, but here’s a quick gut check: can you articulate it in 50 words or less?  Likely not, and you’re not alone. Read More »

Someone smarter than me has surely waxed poetic on the virtue of looking to the past to prepare for the future.  Yet if 2009 taught marketers anything, it is that the past is no predictor or guarantee of future performance.  Heraclitus figured it out long ago – the only constant is change.  2009 was the year of assumption upheaval, of predictable patterns overturned by equally unpredictable economic conditions.  How about a few examples? Read More »

In the increasingly peer-centric landscape sparked by recent excitement (and anxiety!) around social media, we find ourselves with a new operating challenge: Marketing and Communications functions find themselves at odds with (or just driving different objectives from) many of their peer functions around the corporation.

We’ve all spent too much time talking about why social media matters, and even how to exploit its power, so let me skip over that well-worn path.

Inside the enterprise, I see a culture change afoot.  As companies try to maximize their ability to capture customer voice and shape product, to drive brand and product awareness, to leverage advocacy, they are further extending themselves out beyond the “safe” boundaries of their corporate walls.  We know that social media is by nature unstructured, unreliable, and, at its most powerful, deeply unpredictable. Read More »

There’s a bubbling, burgeoning cottage industry of social media vendors out there.  Some are traditional agencies claiming social media expertise.  Others are small shop upstarts with very clever automated solutions and workflow tools.

Having now conducted dozens of consults with members who have completed their social media maturity diagnostic, we noticed a real appetite amongst members for help navigating this kaleidoscopic (is that even a word?) vendor landscape.  Read More »

The economic outlook has forced most marketers to make some of the toughest resourcing decisions of their professional lives. But this is all going to get easier next year, right? Not really. Findings from our 2009 Marketing Investment Benchmarks Survey reveals that marketers do not expect their companies to loosen their purse strings in 2010.

Results from our tenth annual survey show that in 2009, spend on channels conducive to driving consideration (website, social media, direct mail, PR) held flat or grew; while spend on channels that primarily drive awareness (broadcast, print, online display ads) declined in comparison to 2008. The question we asked was what is driving this trend? Read More »