ME 52-42: Marketing Consultant speaks of immediacy in the marketing communication world

Having worked in marketing and advertising for 30 years, Imelda believes that adaptability to change is the key to a marketer’s success. As a consultant, she keeps up with the immediacy of communication, new interactive technologies but holds strong to the fundamental principles of marketing, such as avoiding an ADD culture.

Imelda Gott

Marketing & Advertising Consultant and Contractor

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/imelda-gott/2/724/676

What site(s) do you visit every day for marketing news?

NYTimes.com, wsj.com, Adage.com, aibchouston.com, and some energy-related sites.

What site(s) do you go to at least once a day for fun and inspiration?

Rottentomatoes.com, Pandora, chron.com

Greatest skill a good marketing professional requires?

Adaptability to change—in the market and even in the client.

What's the recent "it" marketing phrase/trend of the moment that you hear almost every day and what does it mean for the industry and the marketplace?

The recent phrase that resulted in a huge change in the company for which I work is “Move the Dot.” After being on vacation, I heard a co-worker discussing a very expensive presentation that was made to our top executives. The premise was that you wanted to do whatever was necessary to “move the dot” and make people want to buy your product. It really didn’t resonate, since the company is an energy wholesaler. All the business units were to operate as independent businesses, and I couldn’t really figure out how this would impact sales—until I realized that the “product” was not what the business units were producing—the excutives were going to sell the company. Four months later, the company is now in the process of a merger.

There have been fads in the marketing world. In your opinion, what are recent developments that are here to stay?

The immediacy of communication. While this has been building since the mid 1990s, with the growth of sophicated smaller devices with huge storage in the past couple of years, marketing has really changed. While this has tremendous advantages, I think that sometimes the creative process suffers from the standpoint of actually having enough time to develop concepts and ideas.

What is essential NOT to do when it comes to your area of Marketing specialty?

Reacting immediately: While sometimes our best idea is the first that comes to us, it is essential to think a few steps ahead and consider alternatives.

What's an immediate hurdle in the marketing world that you think will cause significant changes to the way we market to consumers or business?

Actually I see two: Anonimity and our ADD culture. Although as marketers we attempt to create a personality in our communications, where is the person or people behind the message? For success, I think there must be the overture at least to a two-way communication. The other is the expectation by many audiences that five seconds is enough to convey the message.

Can Marketing ideas travel across continents and languages? Does globalization work or is localization more effective?

They do it all the time. I love to see the best commercials from other cultures—the humanity of comedy, the beauty of a country I’ve never been to. Clothing designers have done this for centuries. Globalization works, and there is no avoiding it. But there must be a local approach, something that says there is integrity in the product.

Best piece of advice you have received professional or personally?

“There’s perfect and there’s commercially acceptable.” This was told to me by a printer when I was really just starting in my career. Striving for perfection is great, but don’t be like one of those priests pacticed self-flagtion. Go on to the next project.

Growing up, what was the first thing you can remember wanting to be?

An Interior Designer.

To Tweet or not to Tweet? Fad or here to stay?

I don’t tweet, but that is not to say that it’s not here to stay. I might tweet later. I might start tweeting next week—if I find something I can’t get any other way. It will be around for a while, but it might just end up the equivalent of a landline phone in a few years. Who knows?

Is Marketing an art or science?

I think that it’s both. The soul of the artist has to compete with the soul of the machine, but that is what makes marketing such an interesting field. Someone will think of the most creative way to present an idea, and it may also encompass reaching people with a very old marketing technique. Look at the Apple stores: the most innovative products using pure point of purchase to reach customers.

ME52-15: Getting a Handle on Tech Space

A cocktail mix of gaming and digital and now, Adam Ziccardi operates in a world where speed and adaptability are key attributes of any good marketer. With social graph and buzz words like global/local infiltrating the everyday workspace, Ziccardi believes it will take the art and science of marketing to remain on top of the tech-sphere.

Adam Ziccardi

Product Marketing Manager,

CBS Interactive

What sites do you have to visit every day for marketing news?

Ad Age Digital, Product Marketing blogs, but lately more and more friends and collegues will post links on Facebook or Twitter.

What sites do you go to at least once a day for fun and inspiration?

Make Magazine blog, Hack-a-Day, Instructables--I'm by no means a hacker but I love to see what cool things people are doing with technology.

Greatest skill a good marketing professional requires?

The ability to balance creativity with analytical skills.

What's the recent "it" marketing phrase/trend of the moment that you hear almost every day and what does it mean for the industry and marketplace?

Social Graph--Marketers wainting to take advantage of the rise in "public" word-of-mouth interactions (Facebook, Twitter, Buzz) and weave their way into that conversation. It's a crowded marketpalce with a lot of noise but brands still want to message users in this space, whether it is appropriate or not.

There have been fads in the marketing world. In your opinion, what are recent developments that are here to stay?

Global/Local--with technology moving as fast as it is, I think the buzz term Global/Local is becoming more and more a reality. Mobile advertsing by location is making its way into more aspects of everyday consumption.

What is essential NOT to do when it comes to your specialty?

You can't be closed-minded or have a negative attitude.

Can marketing ideas travel across continents, countries and languages? Does globalization work or is localization more effective?

Haven't seen globalization work in display advertising.

Best piece of advice you've received professionally or personally?

Listen first, talk second.

Growing up what was the first thing you can remember wanting to be?

Scuba diver who painted pictures of the ocean.

To tweet or not to tweet? Fad or here to stay?

I'm not a big Twitter contributor. I do find some value in following companies/brands that I like because of interesting news or offers they might send.

Is Marketing more of an art or more of a science?

Science when it comes down to execution, but I think the art lies in being able to look at the data with the right perspecitve to take advantage of it.

ME 52-13: Technology drives change in marketing

With a background in journalism and entertainment, Any Hsu has recently moved into the technology sector, and believes that technology is definitely a key driver in shaping marketing and the business world. And of course, her most admired marketer is Steve Jobs.

Any Hsu

Sales Account Manager,

LiteOn Technology Group

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/any-hsu/4/802/5b

What site(s) do you have to visit every day for marketing news?

Woot , Facebook, TED, You Tube, BNet, Yahoo Bid, 10+ individual blogs

What site(s) do you go to at least once a day for fun and inspiration?

Same as above. I must admit that I do not have the time to go to all of the websites but I make sure I do it at least once a week.

Greatest skill a good marketing professional requires?

Passion, creativity, great sense of humor and intelligence.

What’s the recent “it” marketing phrase/trend of the moment that you hear almost every day and what does it mean for the industry and marketplace?

“Find us on facebook, twitter, youtube, myspace, etc.” What does it mean? Your friends now check their FB inbox more often than their mail box. So where do you go to find your customers within the shortest time?

There have been fads in the marketing world. In your opinion, what are recent developments that are here to stay?

Social media will definitely be sticking around for a while, however I do anticipate changes in user behavior which will come with more new technology.

What is essential NOT to do when it comes to your specialty?

Nothing, always think outside the box, there is nothing you can’t do, but always consider the consequences.

What’s an imminent hurdle in the marketing world that you think will cause significant changes to the way we market to consumers or businesses?

I think technology is what will bring the next big change, from the internet to smart phones, I-pads, etc, mobility will change consumer behavior and eliminate certain traditional marketing channels.

Can marketing ideas travel across continents, countries and languages? Does globalization work or is localization more effective?

Absolutely yes but not ALL ideas. Some ideas may not travel across different cultures, which could be some what challenging. Comparing globalization to localization is like comparing apples to oranges. They both work and be effective in such different ways. But I think living in a world of no boundaries, glocalization is the way to go.

Best piece of advice you’ve received professionally or personally?

“Vision without a task is only a dream. A task without a vision is but drudgery. But vision with a task is a dream fulfilled.”

Growing up what was the first thing you can remember wanting to be?

A lawyer or a law maker.

Is Marketing more of an art or more of a science?

It’s literature.

Who is your most admired marketer, and why?

Steve Jobs

ME52-12: The Rise of Prosumerism - The Progressive Consumer

Very succinctly put, Shaun Ching states that Marketing is an art form driven by science. A product manager in a world-leading innovative logistics service company, Shaun talks about the shift away from business' purpose of maximizing shareholder-value to consumer-driven capitalism, and the rise of "prosumerism".

Prosumerism - the progressive consumer- is a modern consumer who searches for the highest quality product that best meets their needs and fits their budget criteria, through researching the product’s value, performance and price through social networks and consumer product reviews.

Are you a progressive consumer?

Shaun Ching

Marketing Specialist Advisor

FedEx Corporation

What site(s) do you have to visit every day for marketing news?

www.bbc.co.uk, www.wsj.com. www.smartmoney.com, www.cnbc.com

What site(s) do you go to at least once a day for fun and inspiration?

www.theonion.com, www.oprah.com

Greatest skill a good marketing professional requires?

Leadership flexibility to adapt strategies in the fast changing pace of marketing environment, and the ability to make fact based decision in ambiguous business situation where few data points are available.

What’s the recent “it” marketing phrase/trend of the moment that you hear almost every day and what does it mean for the industry and marketplace?

Reinvent marketing to steer organization to be customer-manager driven and not product manager driven. Basically it is the customer centric approach to develop customer managers who engage individual customers on narrow segments in two-way communications, building long-term relationships by promoting whichever of the company’s products the customer would value most at any given time. To compete in this aggressively interactive environment, companies must shift their focus from driving transactions to maximizing customer lifetime value. That means making products and brands subservient to long-term customer relationship. And that means changing strategy and structure across the organization-and reinventing marketing department altogether. Transformation of this scale must be driven from the top down. But however daunting, the shift is inevitable. It will soon be the only competitive way to serve customers.

There have been fads in the marketing world. In your opinion, what are recent developments that are here to stay?

The era of the purpose of corporation should be to maximize shareholders’ wealth has shifted. It is a tragically flawed premise, and it is time we abandoned it and make the shift to a third era: customer driven capitalism, where CEOs are free to concentrate on building the real business, rather than be constrained by managing shareholder expectations. The quality of corporate decision making would improve because thinking about the customer forces you to focus on improving your operations and the products and services you provide, rather than on spinning lines to shareholders. This does not mean that you will lose cost discipline, the profit motive will not go away. It means we need to reinvent the purpose of corporation to not fall in the trap of trading long-term gains from temporary gains.

What is essential NOT to do when it comes to your specialty?

Failure to keep abreast of the latest thinking in marketing and business world and stick to the old dogma of how previous marketing successes were formulated.

What’s an imminent hurdle in the marketing world that you think will cause significant changes to the way we market to consumers or businesses?

The proliferation of marketing mediums to reach customers and the rise of prosumerism.

Can marketing ideas travel across continents, countries and languages? Does globalization work or is localization more effective?

It definitely can, with screwed localization tactics to bring the global ideas that can connect with local customers.

Best piece of advice you’ve received professionally or personally?

At the end of the day, one would not cringe on the deathbed and say to oneself: “ How I wish I spend more time at work!”. Career is only a one part of our lives, don’t let it over rule our being.

Growing up what was the first thing you can remember wanting to be?

Newscaster in BBC news

Is Marketing more of an art or more of a science?

It is an art form driven by science.

What is a recent campaign that you admire?

The HTC wants you campaign is brilliant. HTC “Quietly Brillaint” brand positioning focuses on “You”, the consumer. Rather than technical capability or product specifics (yawn, IPad), the “You” campaign trumpets the emotional connections made possible through smartphones. It is a riveting positioning and the television commercials undermine the marketing principle that companies that offer products that complements consumers just the way they were are emotionally more resonating, rather than offer products that will make them a better person – more responsive, better organized, less cluttered.

ME 52-6: In an Era of Real-time Feedback and a Deluge of Data

While immersed daily in the youthful field of video games and consoles, Sara Borthwick has relied on her marketing skills that have developed over the years in order to bring new insights and help translate a deluge of data and information into a more palatable menu for publishers and advertisers.

Sara Borthwick
Sr. Product Manager, Industry Products, TRAX
GameSpot
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Sara/Borthwick/

What site(s) do you have to visit every day for marketing news?

I subscribe to about 14 work related newsletters, so the only sites that I actively visit are Business Insider and MediaPost. I also avidly read the news and the NYTimes, Economist and WSJ have good articles about marketing and sociology/psychology/linguistics that I find useful.

What site(s) do you go to at least once a day for fun and inspiration?

Girl Genius, XKCD, TED, LiveJournal, Apartment Therapy, TMZ, and FiveThirtyEight. News sites: CNN, MSNBC, NYTimes, Economist

Greatest skill a good marketing professional requires?

Marketing is an art and a science. As such, I think that the best marketers are highly empathetic and able to easily put themselves in their consumers’ shoes, however, they are also highly logical, and able to distance themselves from emotions when necessary to make hard but logical choices. Now the combination of empathy and rationality is the necessary skill set to do marketing well, but I believe, as Plato did, that if a marketer is skilled at rhetoric and persuasion they will have tremendous success even if they aren’t as strong in the empathy/logic skill combination.

What’s the recent “it” marketing phrase/trend of the moment that you hear almost every day and what does it mean for the industry and marketplace?

For the past 6 months or so, I’ve heard a lot about “cause marketing.” Basically consumer packaged goods associate themselves with a humanitarian cause, creating a halo effect for the brand. When a customer is at a shelf and selecting between two or more options, the brand that has a connection to a humanitarian cause will seem to be more desirable, even it is priced higher.

Interestingly, cause marketing has been around for a very, very long time. This is not a new innovation, just a new emphasis. I actually believe that if a significant number of brand marketers jump onto the cause marketing bandwagon at the same time, the ensuing flood of cause marketed products will diminish the value of the practice. Not only will savvy consumers catch on and become skeptical/jaded, but also the general halo effect will diminish.

There have been fads in the marketing world. In your opinion, what are recent developments that are here to stay?

Green marketing was a fad that started about 3 years ago. Companies touted carbon neutral or partially recycled products. To me, the fad got out of hand when I saw recycled toilet paper... Certain products didn’t do much to help the planet, just alleviate guilt. Fortunately some of the egregious examples have disappeared, leaving truly useful, recycled products behind. Additionally, I think that the green marketing fad has caused all companies to think about the environmental impact of their practices and their products. I’ve noticed a significant decrease in packaging of all goods, and I was quite excited to see my local grocery store sell whole coconuts without the plastic wrapper.

What is essential NOT to do when it comes to your specialty?

Do not mislead. To be wrong is not OK, but it is forgivable, but to intentionally mislead is unforgivable.

What’s an imminent hurdle in the marketing world that you think will cause significant changes to the way we market to consumers or businesses?

With all mediums becoming digital and thus trackable, marketing is getting a near real-time feedback loop. The wealth of information is overloading current systems and processes that were designed in another era. The world of marketing must either figure out a way to incorporate and respond appropriately to the deluge of consumer feedback, or it must change the game. Amazon.com does a good job of incorporating and responding appropriately to the wealth of information, while Apple does a great job of changing the game.

Can marketing ideas travel across continents, countries and languages? Does globalization work or is localization more effective?

Great ideas are universal ideas. They speak to the human condition. Great marketing ideas can be the same. The challenge is that across the globe, we speak thousands upon thousands of different languages and the great ideas must be communicated in a way that each individual person to can hear it and be motivated to change their behavior. The communication of the marketing idea, whether through marketing communication or product design needs to be adapted for each audience; translated into each audience’s languages and cultures.

Best piece of advice you’ve received professionally or personally?

Before I started college, an older cousin pulled me aside and told me that it doesn’t matter what you major in; a company will have to train you anyway. Study what interests you and makes you want to go to class. That really resonated with me. When selecting a college, I looked for good engineering programs. I thought I was going to get a degree in material engineering until I took my first engineering course. Uggh! I hated it. But because of my cousin’s advice, I didn’t feel like a failure or feel any pressure to keep going. Instead I took a variety of courses that interested me and came out with a liberal arts degree that trained me for no profession but gave me the skills to think critical, communicate well and learn any subject quickly. My cousin’s advice still sticks with me because it was a version of “do what you love.”

Growing up what was the first thing you can remember wanting to be?

I remember being about 10 years old and complaining to my parents at dinner one night that it was completely unfair that kids couldn’t vote. I had thoughts and opinions. The laws would impact me just as much as someone twice or four times my age. I should have a say. At that time I believe I also stated that I wanted to be a politician. That may have been my earliest career ambition. That, or being a pastry chef. I can’t really remember.

What do you think are some of the most promising models for monetization of digital content?

While advertising will always continue to be a revenue source for digital content, I’m really impressed by companies that are making money off of the information they collect from consumers of their digital content. Twitter has announced it is profitable based upon selling access to its data stream. Facebook makes money by selling access to users’ information to other sites if that user opts to share the information with the other site via Facebook Connect. The Business Insider is starting to sell its analysis work as a research product. CNET.com sells their catalog of consumer electronics product details to retailers and manufacturers.

What are growth opportunities within the Marketing industry, as people are looking at their careers?

Analytical marketing is a growing subfield within the marketing industry. With all the deluge of data coming in from all angles, there is a tremendous need for marketers to make sense of the information and respond appropriately. That requires marketers who not only understanding traditional marketing (4 Ps) and marketing strategy, but who can also quickly access and manipulate large data sets. Statistical skills are key.