Monthly Archives: March 2009

March SVAMA Event – Entrepreneurial Marketing

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Christopher Brown| Leave a comment

We had another awesome event last week in San Jose, this time the topic was Entrepreneurial marketing….

A couple of photos…..

Thanks to SVASE we had a great turn out of marketers and entrepreneurs interesting in hearing from a panel that was keynoted by Donna Wells from mint.com. Mint.com is a great financial tool that helps you keep track of what your spending on by providing updates and suggestions on how you can save money which is pretty critical in this economy….

Joining Donna were Kimber from Increo Solutions who make two cool products, one called backboard which is a feedback tool that allows users to easily collaborate and provide feedback on documents online and the other is embed it which allows embedding of a large number of documents in websites using flash and TJ a serial entrepreneur with two new businesses at the moment, slice (really cool designer home cutting products) and partybeans which allows you to customize jelly beans and other fun sweets in packages for parties and different life events….

So it was a great panel with lots to share on whats working and what’s not… here were my takeaways:

1. Marketing is changing in a big way, product is more important than ever before because you can’t cover up a crappy product that does not deliver value with lots a marketing spend anymore… word gets out and the product falls over

2. It is possible to get quality customer insight and feedback at a fraction of the cost, online research tools and social networks allow for testing and refinement that was not possible a few years back

3. PR is replacing advertising – we have known for a long time advertising is not trusted by consumers but in the past it was the fastest way to get massive awareness quickly. These days PR can help drive awareness very quickly and influence customers more effectively

4. Using a professional blogger  is a very effective strategy for start-ups looking to generate WOM and awareness fast

5. Tireless promotion pays dividends….

I am sure I missed something?


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Posted in Entrepreneurial Marketing, svama

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” -Peter Drucker

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Lucas Coffeen| 1 Comment

There is no easy and reliable way to measure market culture. Following the logic of management magnate Peter Drucker, there also is no easy and reliable way to manage it. But, that’s about to change.

For the past two years, we’ve been hard at work developing an organizational culture survey…one that’s more relevant and fundamental to performance than anything we’ve seen in the market…one that specifically measures market culture.

I’m happy to announce that development cycle is nearing completion and that the instrument will be unveiled for commercial use later this Spring.

Two weeks ago we completed a study with the instrument that included dozens of companies and nearly 1000 employees. We’re in the process of analyzing all study data, determining the level of validity and reliability and establishing correlations to business performance.

Because this is an exciting time for us (and should be for anyone interested in their organization’s performance) I’ll be posting periodic updates on the blog, letting you know what’s coming out of the research and how the instrument is progressing.

Lucas Coffeen

Project Leader

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Posted in Uncategorized

SVAMA Marketing ROI Event

Posted on March 18, 2009 by Christopher Brown| Leave a comment

We had a really great event on Marketing ROI the other week that I forgot to post on earlier but better late than never…..

We had Jim Lenskold from the Lenskold Group keynote and a talented group on our panel that included Seth Berman, Director of Strategy and Operations for Blue Shield of California (a great client of ours) and Laura Van Galen the CEO of Bleu Marketing Solutions. I had the opportunity to moderate this great panel and took the opportunity to get as much audience input as we could take to cover a wide range of issues related to Marketing ROI, from where to start, to the culture needed to support ROI improvements etc…

I think the bottom line is marketing ROI is necessary but often painful for organizations to deal with because it requires discipline and analysis and it is so easy to do what’s been done before because it is safe and accepted. Marketing ROI is a bit like diet and exercise, you know you will be leaner, fitter and better of for it but its just so hard to do…. so what’s the answer?

Don’t think about it and just start building it into your own culture, every activity that you engage in as a marketer ask yourself 3 questions:

1. Why am I doing this?

2. Can I measure it?  (if unsure have other people measured it?)

3. Is it providing a positive return given the time effort and money expended on it?

Here are some photos from the event……

jim-lenskold-presenting-at-the-svama

Jim Lenskold Keynote

chris-brown-moderating-at-the-svama

Chris Brown Moderating

Our Talented Panelists

Our Talented Panelists Seth Berman of Blue Shield and Laura Van Galen from Bleu Marketing

Our very own highly talented EVP from our Boston Office Sean Gallagher with Jim and Seth

Our very own highly talented EVP from our Boston Office Sean Gallagher with Jim and Seth

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Posted in Marketing ROI

Comcast Customer Experience…..

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Christopher Brown| Leave a comment

customer-satisfaction

I just had a great comcast experience that had brought me back to blogging…..

Don’t get me wrong I have had a number of bad comcast experiences in the past… but that was  on the consumer side of their business… for now I have been turned around and feel a tremondous sense of loyalty… so what happened?

In our business internet speed is critical we have 3 offices around the globe as well as individual contractors scattered around different parts of asia, europe and the US and we use skype to keep in touch with everyone…. a number of years ago I signed up for comcast business service 8mbps for $160 per month. The service has been bullet proof… at the same time we signed on for vonage which has been cost effective but the call quality has just not been good enough for professional calls. I would describe myself as a satisfied customer… but satisfaction is not always enough to guarantee ongoing business, companies need to over deliver and continually create more value.

Last week I was proactively contacted by Comcast and asked if I would be interested in bundling a phone with internet.. the bottom line is I will get a phone and faster internet (they are going to 22mbps next month) for $120. They are saving me about $80 a month (when I cancel vonage). So what, big deal I hear you say…. well this is a great example of a company getting on the front foot to boost customer loyalty in tough times.

Every business wants to save money right now no matter what industry they are in or how profitable they are… why not proactively help customers save? Yes it may cost your business some margin but it will ensure customers are less vunerable to switching and provide better life time value… so on balance there should be a better marketing ROI…

What are you doing to help your customers save money right now?

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Posted in Customer Satisfaction, Customer Value