How Media will Impact your International Interactions

Clay Sharky discusses how Cell Phones, Twitter and Facebook can make History

A lot of this we discussed in StratMktg last semester, but some interesting examples of how some of the usages and shifts are happening from "the simple or disadvantaged" as opposed to from the powerful nations. This doesn't discuss the election in Iran, but it's use of social media and the internet might end up making the Obama campaign's usage look like child's play.

The Marketing Chicken or Egg

Just a little reminder to my classmates as they prep for the Value Proposition work in StratMktg this weekend.  Not only does this include one of my favorite video clips, but also a simple way to explain that marketing does not equal advertising.  

Growing the Business - Deep or Wide?

Reading through an HBR case for ITMgmt, on Merrill Lynch's decision to aggressively move to online services (1999), it highlighted an interesting contrast in strategies.  On one hand, they talked about aligning their services in a vertical manner, "holding more wallet-share of the existing customers".  This model is less expensive for customer acquisition, but it adds the cost and complexity of providing greater value through an integrated set of products.  On the other hand, Merrill Lynch set huge 2005 growth goals with these new services, and the only way to reach those numbers would require them to aggressively add new customers, outside of their sweet-spot customer segments. These new customers were typically younger customers, with net-worth less than $75,000, and more familiar with online transactions through low-cost providers like Charles Schwab (this was pre-eTrade, etc.).

Some questions come to mind:

• Can both strategics co-exist in the same organization, especially with different capture models and different margin models?
• Does one model work better with new products than with existing products?  
• Is this just a matter of market segmentation, and not really two different strategies?
• Should a company go-to-market for new customers with a deep vertical offering, or should they initial start with a simpler model to ease adoption by new customers? 

Both my previous and existing company are both going this dual strategy challenge, so I'll be very interested to see how the discussion in class, with viewpoints from classmates experience, matches or diverges from my experiences.

Strategic Marketing Presentations

One of the things I really like about our Strategic Marketing class is that it is primarily focused on analysis and application of marketing as it relates to our current role (or future role).  It's not heavily focused on quizzes and exams, which often tend to be exercises in memorization (imho).  One of our group projects for the class is an analysis and presentation of an area of marketing that we believe is new, interesting and potentially of use to our companies.  The topics are chosen by the teams, with the goals being both team analysis and teaching something new to the rest of the groups.  I wrote about the Team 5 topic in an earlier post, but the rest of the team projects were announced this weekend.  I haven't seen their abstracts yet, but I thought it might be fun to list some of the things I'd like to learn, and see if any of those aspects get presented.

February 7: Team 1 – “iphone apps”

• How does Apple market the AppStore to developers vs. how Facebook markets their platform (Facebook Connect, Facebook Applications) to developers ?
• Is Apple doing enough with the AppStore concept to leverage developers (or customers) to look for applications that could work between Macs, iPhones, AppleTV, etc..?
• Apple is claiming huge download numbers for AppStore.  What flaws do you see in their model or execution?

February 21: Team 3 – “Search Engine Optimization”

• Beyond paying the highest bid for keywords, what other techniques are companies using to get on the 1st page of Google searches? (Digg, etc.)
• Are the SEO techniques and strategies different for company websites vs. personal blogs?
• Do you expect SEO models will work the same with mobile computing as they do today with desktop computing?  Does the location aspect of mobile computing offer new SEO paradigms?

March 21: Team 4 – “Social Networking”

• If you were VP of Marketing, what would your mission statement look like for using Social Networking to enhance aspects of your company?
• Success with Social Networking requires a willingness to be open and give to the community, which is often counter-intuitive to companies used to controlling information, branding, etc..  What have successful companies done to find the right balance of control vs. openness?
• Talk about how Zappos is using Twitter to impact many aspects of their business, especially as it relates to customers and the community that looks to Zappos for footwear.

April 4: Team 2 – “Interactive Marketing”

• Is it a good idea to create forums where your customers can have interactive conversations which could turn into interactive marketing, without your company being in the middle?
• What are the keys to creating authenticity in interactive marketing, as opposed to coming off as phony?
• Are some groups within a marketing organization (or any part of the organization) better suited to drive Interactive Marketing initiatives that others?  Is there a minimum or maximum distance from the customer (or target) that is required from that organization?

April 18: Team 5 – “ObamaNation: Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Media”

The Intersection of Marketing and Technology

I wrote Monday about our Strategic Marketing project on the social media aspects of Obama's election.  Yesterday was the Inauguration, the significance of which could cover multiple pages (or books).  I'm not going to talk about the historical significance, because I don't have the words right now to do it justice.  So I thought I'd talk a little about how the intersection of Marketing and Technology and President Obama have directly affected me, and give some previews into aspects of our paper. 

P-E Obama took the train into Washington DC, a slower path that allowed more people to join in the momentum building towards the inauguration. Building community.  Allowing multiple media outlets to add their unique angle to the moment.  

I watched the Inauguration through multiple sources:

1. It was a snow day in NC, so I downloaded the UStream (like TV viewer) application for iPhone, and was able to watch on my handheld device while watching the kids make snow angels outside. 
2. When I had issues on the iPhone, I switched over to my laptop to get the live stream from CNN, which had partnered with Facebook to provide an integrated Media + Social Networking experience.  
3. I watched as CNN partnered with Microsoft Photosynth to create real-time 3D views of the Inauguration the pictures of thousands of people in attendance.

Over and over the themes were visible.  Building Communities.  Allowing people to modify the experience to their desires.  Integrating technology so it got to people in ways they wanted. Giving away information to the communities to allow them to build new concepts.

Strategic Marketing Project - Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Media

I'm pretty excited tonight because we got our mid-term Strategic Marketing project approved. (The abstract is listed below) Portia Mount and I had actually talked about a concept like this prior to the class starting, so we were glad that we'd be allowed the flexibility to choose the topic and scope.

Portia is VP of Marketing for her company, so I believe she's been thinking about aspects of this since last summer.  I got the original idea while reading this article from Umair Haque, as part of a continuing series he's doing on Edge Economy and the need for radical innovation to break us out of the challenges of the current economic crisis.  It also connected for me as I reflected back on stories from both Wikinomics and The Future of Work, as they looked at the value of sharing information externally, building communities, building partnerships, and truly building companies that can survive in the pace of the 21st century.  Listening to Seth Godin's podcast on Tribes and Leadership today completed the circle for me, showing how all of these pieces and ideas came together in the 2008 election.

The other element of the project that I'm excited about is that we're hoping to show how this 21st century approach can be applied to more traditional brick & mortar companies.  Portia and I felt like this would be an interesting challenge to research, as well as our way of giving something back to the rest of the class.

The paper and presentation aren't due until mid-April, but I'm already looking forward to starting on this project.  I'll be sure to post updates as we move along.

=======ABSTRACT========

ObamaNation: Lessons from the front lines of social media.

This presentation will look at how the Obama campaign used social media strategies to mobilize grassroots audiences to win the White House and what business might learn from this success. In this presentation we'll highlight noteworthy examples including:

1. The use of Social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter that created new online communities.
2. The Campaign website and its use of targeted messages to create urgency to generate record breaking campaign donations
3. How mainstream newsmedia outlets took advantage of the unprecented online presence during the campaign season to connect to new and younger voters
4. How the rise of the citizen journalist and an expanded blogosphere allowed Obama, a virtual unknown at the start of the campaign, to gain global recognition in one campaign season

"Decision of the Week" - Building a 21st Century Car Company

OK, here goes...we're going to see if we can create some interaction on the site. This question is open to everyone, and all comments are welcome. I'm thinking this one relates to everyone (we almost all drive cars) and it relates to class, as we're taking a mix of Marketing, Operations, Technology and Accounting classes.

We've all been watching as the Big-3 US Auto companies fly to Washington DC and ask for money (bailout, bridge loans, etc.). I believe the total is somewhere between $25-$34B at this point. While these companies all have their share of HUGE challenges (retirement costs, union costs, inefficient operations, poor brand images, etc.), they also have a number of valuable assets (engineering knowledge, production facilities, etc.).  

So here's the question... 

What if the US Gov't (Congress, TARP, Treasury..whoever) decided that instead of giving the existing companies the $25-$34B, they were going to give it to you and asked you to create an automotive start-up. You'd be allowed to pick and choose from existing US Auto expertise, personal, facilities, suppliers, etc., because they all went under. How would you build a 21st century automotive company?  

Some initial thoughts...

My initial thought was to see if I could envision an automotive company being setup and run like a Silicon Valley company that sells hardware and software.  So this new company might look something like this:

• Design - This would be a combination of world-class engineering talent (in-house) and the use of crowdsourcing efforts to continue to stimulate innovative ideas and leverage "proudly found elsewhere" mentality for global ideas.  Build communities of potential consumers to give you real-time feedback on potential designs and demands.
• Production - Why do the automotive companies need to own their own plants?  I wouldn't advocate outsourcing all the production, especially since the funding came from US Taxpayers.  But I would advocate using some of the funding to kick-start a few production facilities that would be spun-off and allowed to compete against each other for the business.  
• Sales and Distribution - We buy books and media from Amazon or iTunes.  We buy groceries and homegoods from Target.  But we have to go to a brand-specific dealer for a car?  No way does that model continue.  And I'm not even sure the Auto Superstores are the right answer either.  
• Messaging & Vision - Maybe this is really advertising, but the American automotive companies really need to start making ads that create a desire to be in their cars. Knowing that I get the employee discount does nothing to give me that awesome feeling you get in a new car and the adventures it could bring.  

OK, that's a few starting points.  I'm interesting in other areas of innovation, or other aspects to consider for change.  Ideas are welcome....

2nd Semester Class Poll

Was excited about 2nd Semester..Now I'm Torn

It's 11:15pm on Wednesday and I'm almost finished with my prep-work for this weekend's classes, which kick off the 2nd semester.  While I'm still not that excited about Managerial Accounting (because it's Accounting), StratMktg, OpsMgm't and ITMgm't all have aspects that I'm looking forward to exploring.  

I've been giving OpsMgm't quite a bit of thought, as the first class is focused on Operations Innovation, and the concept that 21st Century business success will be driven by new thinking about these types of innovations.  With the Internet and global competition able to commoditize so many things so much faster, it makes sense that OpsMgm't has the ability to provide consistent financial & strategic buffers between product innovations.

But then I'm scanning my RSS Reader and noticed an updated post from Umair Haque, 21st Century Economics.  On the surface, Dr.Haque probably comes across to some people as an angry guy because of the tone of some of his posts.  I've never met him, maybe he is and maybe he's not.  But one thing he definitely is is passionate about the need to really, REALLY think hard about the types of changes that are going to be needed for the world to recover from the mess it's in today.  I'd love to get access to his lab research and better understand some of his analysis, because on the surface they make alot of sense to me.  The concepts around edge economies, asymmetric competition, creating actual vs. perceived value seem to align very much to the other global topics we covered our the BGE class.  We've seen this environment where short-term rapid consumption and lack of concern about global results has consistently caused crisis (US Currency Crisis in 1970s; Formation of the EU; US Credit Crisis of 2008, etc.).

Why do I bring this up?  Because there is part of me that's eager to learn more about these interesting topics, and part of me that wants to throw out many of those existing theories and explore "innovations" in those areas that will sustainable for the 21st century.  Hopefully there will be enough flexibility to find a balance.  I've told my team that I intended to push that envelope quite a bit during the semester, so we'll see how it turns out.  

The long break for work and school is over....back to the routine.

The 2nd Semester Approaches

I think I'm finally caught up with my summaries and impressions from the 1st semester, so it's now time to take a look at the upcoming (2nd) semester, which starts next weekend.  The course list looks like this:

Operations Management - Dr. Jack Meredith

Managerial Accounting - Dr. Bern Beatty

Strategic Marketing - Dr. James Narus

Financial Management - Dr. Sandra Dow

IT Management - Dr. Charles Iacovou

Commercializing Innovation - Dr. Tom Clarkson & Dr. Stan Mandel (Elective)

Based on some initial reading and syllabus review, both Strategic Marketing and Operations Management appear to be extremely interesting.  StratMktg includes an online simulation model, and OpsMgmt appears to be very much about active discussion and the case-study model.  As much as I like Dr. Beatty, I can't say that I'm really looking forward to another accounting course.  I know it's good for me, and so are certain vegetables, but that doesn't mean I have to like them.  Luckily I have a few teammates that seem to grasp it better than me, so I'll be leaning on them again this semester.  I'm interested to see what is covered in the ITMgmt course, since I've spent the past 15 years in the IT industry, although almost entirely on the side of the vendors selling products as opposed to the day-to-day management of those systems.  I'll be interested to see what ROI models and metrics are discussed...maybe it'll help me position and sell my vendor-side products better. The FinMgmt course doesn't have the syllabus released yet, but I suspect that will also be a favorite of mine, as I'm a closet finance junkie.  

I suspect this semester will be as challenging as any in the program, both in terms of the coursework (seems like quite a bit in several courses) and the navigation in the economy in early 2009.  I suspect that we'll all be learning alot from each other as we cope with additional layoffs, economic swings, a new government in place and the overall uncertainty in our connected world.  

The break for the past couple of weeks has been nice and much appreciated, but I'm looking forward to getting back in a routine next week.  I just need to keep reminding myself that 2009 is not 2008, and new thinking and optimism will rule the day.