Marketing departments tended to be marginalised rather than margin focused. Professor Michael Thomas stated: Marketing as a discipline is more vital than ever, marketing as a department is increasingly failing to match up to expectations. The marketing department is critically ill; only urgent treatment will enable it to fulfil the role that is now clearly staked out in the minds of top management.
• Marketing departments undertake an ill-defined mixture of activities, • Marketing departments have been over-indulged, • Marketing departments rarely lead the drive to enhance business performance, • Marketing departments are often too short-sighted, • Marketing departments are being marginalised, • Marketing directors and managing directors disagree, • Marketing directors overestimate their contribution. Even in the 1970s a familiar cry echoed across the business community: Q. What do marketers need to do to become more professional? A. They need to come to terms with finance, and they need to demonstrate that they are the professional experts in respect of marketing information and as a consequence we must come to terms with Information Technology.
Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog A new study out by Forrester seems to indicate that there's not enough people using location based services for marketers to bother with them right now. Although they also suggest that people should experiment with these tools as well. Well, I also have a study (well, not a study really, just a discussion with some smart folks) that I believe shows something pretty significant: The Truffle Strategy: Tempt Your Customers 28 Jul 2010 at 4:37pm by Futurelab Could eating a chocolate treat make you want to buy a TV or a cruise? The surprising answer is YES! At a mall I used to frequent, there was a candy kiosk that always offered a sample chocolate to each passerby. I wondered about the economics of that practice – it seemed that almost everyone grabbed the treat and kept on walking – but I assumed that it must be profitable. True Nature of Technology Seen by What Enthusiasts Do with It 28 Jul 2010 at 4:11pm by Futurelab Interesting idea this. Broadly I agree. You can plan and theorise all you want, but it’s not till technology gets into the wild, and in the hands of users, that you can really see what it offers. And it is often the enthusiasts who lead... the ones who experiment, who knock off the rough edges, who show what is possible. What Color Is the Triple Bottom Line? 27 Jul 2010 at 4:44pm by Futurelab I recently posted a query on Twitter and Facebook asking a simple but vexing question: "Someone committed to the environment is called an environmentalist. What do you call someone committed to sustainability?" 5 Things That Create Ridiculous Customer Experiences: Can?t We Avoid Catch 22? 27 Jul 2010 at 4:12pm by Futurelab The other day I was on the phone with my insurance company because they had rejected, for a second time, a procedure for my son which was performed by a physician who they claimed was “out of network” — let’s call him Dr. Brown. But, as I logged into the firm’s web-site (again), I was able to easily find Dr. Brown who was “in network”. As I had done a few weeks before, I mentioned this to the customer service representative, and she was not able to look at the web site from her computer, so I had to read her the name, address, and phone number so that she could contact him and make sure that he was “in network”. Interruption vs. Engagement, Revised 26 Jul 2010 at 5:28pm by Futurelab Last week in Advertising Age, I tried to argue that we marketers should reevaluate our approaches to "interruption" and "engagement" marketing, as I think we're using both terms incorrectly. Budgets are getting shifted away from the short commercials of traditional media into longer social experiences of new media, like Old Spice's recent campaign, as if the latter's entertainment can replace the former's historic utility. Video Gets More Attention on Mobile Devices than on the Desktop 26 Jul 2010 at 4:51pm by Futurelab Web video viewers stick around longer on mobile devices than they do on the desktop, according to this article on the Forbes blog. The habits of 125,000 unique mobile visitors were analysed and it was found that, iPad users look at videos for 5 minutes, Symbian users for 4.1 minutes, Android users for 3 minutes, and iPhone for last 2.4 minutes. The Brands at Comic-Con 2010 26 Jul 2010 at 7:06am by Futurelab What a show! Comic-Con 2010 was a blast. Having heard about Comic-Con for so many years, I went to check it out for myself this year. Not only did I want to see the crazy costumes and live panels, but I also wanted to see what was going on from a brand point of view. I expected to see all of the network, studio, comic book, and TV show brands, but what other brands would be there? Here’s my recap: Colouring between the Lines 24 Jul 2010 at 5:11pm by Futurelab When children first start to draw we teach them to colour in between the lines. We reward accuracy rather than interpretation. Neatness, not expression. This says a lot about our own predispositions. In this short but insightful interview, Seth Godin talks about an education system characterised by an industrial model from an industrial era. 25-Cent Creativity Booster 24 Jul 2010 at 4:29pm by Futurelab Want to boost your creativity by investing a quarter or so? Buy a lightbulb. Not the fancy LED, halogen, or compact fluorescent variety – just the old-fashioned, cheap incandescent kind that come in four-packs for a buck or so. Skeptical? Read on… It's Possible to Think of Internet as Positive and Negative 23 Jul 2010 at 5:42pm by Futurelab Another great quote from Clay Shirky, as noted by Russell Brand. Clay has a real talent for summing things up in an eloquent, yet down-to-earth, way. Stop Picking on the Mailroom Guy: the Empty Strategy of Squeezing the Bottom ... 23 Jul 2010 at 4:51pm by Futurelab A guy I used to work with left an all-hands meeting one day. The company had just announced a layoff (it was long enough ago that this was still stunning, not an everyday occurrence like it is now). He turned to me and said, “They always get rid of the mailroom guy.” What he meant was that the burden of whatever circumstances caused the company to cut back fell on the lowest-paid employees. And whatever mistakes the mailroom guy had made, they hadn’t caused the company’s distress. 93% of the World Is Not on Facebook 23 Jul 2010 at 4:19pm by Futurelab Facebook will today announce that it has reached 500 million users. This number is incredible, and perhaps even more impressive is the rate at which the social network is growing. Just five months ago they had 400 million users. The site’s user base has grown by 25% in less than half a year. Incredible stuff. Power of Word of Mouth (WOM) 22 Jul 2010 at 4:54pm by Futurelab An article in the Creating Results blog has some interesting stats about the effectiveness of referrals in the Health, Travel and Financial Services Industries MySpace and Facebook: How Racist Language Frames Social Media (and Why You Sh... 22 Jul 2010 at 4:19pm by Futurelab (This post was written for Blogher and originally posted there.) Every time I dare to talk about race or class and MySpace & Facebook in the same breath, a public explosion happens. This is the current state of things. Unfortunately, most folks who enter the fray prefer to reject the notion that race/class shape social media or that social media reflects bigoted attitudes than seriously address what’s at stake. Newsfeed display by CaRP
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