News:

How IBM, Hallmark & Apple get innovation right–but not for the reasons you might think.

www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2010/id2010028_823268.htm

What are the design highlights of the past ten years? Click here to find out.

In his book, “Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life and Maybe Even the World”, Warren Berger argues that design applicable to just about any challenge and its principles accessible to anyone.

Read more.

Beth Comstock, CMO and Senior VP at General Electric explains how marketers can help rebuild the economy. Check it out here.

In an interview with BusinessWeek, Phillip Kotler - marketing guru at Northwestern University - talks about marketing in today’s turbulent environment.

Among the highlights:

• Marketing has been over-identified with marketing communications - to its detriment.
• Great marketing operations find opportunities, then develop and launch successful solutions, which if properly used can be a company’s growth engine.
• Understand your target customers and solve their problems in a better way than your competitors
• Brand promise should be delivered by everyone in your business network (employees, distributors, suppliers)
• Innovate constantly in your products, services and supply chain

Click here for the entire interview.

Twitter, it seems we hear about it everywhere now. With all its exposure, you’d think it was one of greatest tech offerings ever - an essential part of millions of peoples’ lives the world over.

However, a recent study by Purewire (a Web security firm that operates TweetGrade) suggests that while millions visit Twitter.com, the number of active users may be much less.

According to the study:
- 80% of Twitter users have fewer than 10 followers
- 30% have no followers at all
- 40% have never sent a Tweet 

Furthermore, a Harvard Business School study points out that 10% of Twitter users produce 90% of all Tweets.

For more information, check out href=“http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/06/on-twitter-most-people-are-sheep-80-percent-of-accounts-have-fewer-than-10-follower/”>

The ins and outs of social media, as well as new takes on conventional networking were on tap at our first annual wine tasting event held the evening of April 29th at WineStyles.

Matt Rosenhaft of Grand Central Solutions stressed the importance of having a marketing strategy with clearly defined goals before diving into social media. Simply throwing technology at a problem is an invitation to failure.

Properly done, social media:

• provides a more interactive website with repeat visitors, dialogue, personalization and human touch that creates a large amount of user-generated content
• provides a single point to manage inbound lead management, qualification and referrals
• supports a new buying model with buyers doing internet research before engagement
• creates a central repository or all customer interaction; documentation, collateral, video, demos, testimonials, referrals, qualification, solutions, partners and support

The finer points of establishing relationships through face-to-face contact were discussed by Wendy Kinney of Powercore. Attendees were given tips and taken through a series of exercises they can use to help establish a rapport with someone they’ve just met at a business function:

• Begin by offering a confidant handshake - not limp but not too strong.
• When meeting a new prospect, give them a clue to help remember your name such as “Shawn Stroud—rhymes with Proud”
• See if you can find something in common such as places you’ve visited, interests, etc.
• Offer an example of what you do well business-wise and be able to cite a specific example.

The bottom line is people like doing business with people they like. By first establishing a personal connection, you’re more likely to be able to establish a business connection.

Since its inception, there as been disagreement and/or confusion as to exactly what constitutes “Web 2.0″. Regardless of what Web 2.0 is or isn’t, by and large it has failed to become a financial success. In fact, there are those who see 2.0 as history and 3.0 as having already arrived. Check out this post on Fortune’s website: http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/07/technology/hempel_threepointo.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009010815

In this case, IQ refers to your imagination quotient. According to an article in the latest edition of Fast Company, companies that out-imagine and out-create their competition will have a decided advantage in the marketplace.

Furthermore, companies will only prosper if they constantly innovate while creating “elegant, refined products and services.”  This – according to the article – is the emergence of the design economy.

To meet the demands of this new economy, companies will have to change how they handle workflow. There’ll be fewer fixed permanent assignments, instead work will flow from project to project.

The design economy will also impact strategic thinking. Instead of using just the two types of logic: inductive (proving something operates) and deductive (proving something must be) – a third type combining these two – abductive will play an important role. Abductive thinking suggests something may be and reaches out to explore it.  In other words, designers act on what’s probable, instead of what’s certain; they learn by doing, identifying weaknesses and making corrections along the way.

The design economy is sure to have far reaching effects that are just beginning to be felt – from business school curriculum to how successful companies interface with their customers.

You can read the entire article at http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/93/design.html?page=0%2C1

Recently attended the BtoB NetMarketing Breakfast (Thursday, November 6, 2008). Kudos to BtoB Marketing’s David Bernstein and Robert Felsenthal for pulling together a very informative panel. The VP’s of Marketing presented their company’s current integrated marketing plans and strategies. From shoes strings to deep pockets, the examples covered the spectrum of budgets while each made smart decisions. One quick takeaway is the surprising cut in trade shows from the marketing budget – almost completely – while the Internet and “new” tools (podcasts, webcasts, webinars, blogs, etc…) are in the budget.

Take a look at Stratix Corporation – Paul Shiman, VP of Marketing & Strategic Alliances, and his team are reshaping the entire brand of this company and taking it to the next level. Working with a few Internet agencies around town, he’s staying cutting edge and testing his methodology as he goes – one smart marketer. Watch this company. Great site – informative and easy to navigate.

Another company to watch is ControlScan. Heather Foster, VP Marketing, is getting the job done there while keeping a tight rope on her budgets. She’s making sure there’s value added and integrating her message throughout all marketing channels. She’s focused on keeping the information fresh and is doing a great job.

The behemoth that is Randstad is updating their web site. God bless Ann Lally, the Digital Strategist who is heading up this endeavor. I caught up with Jiri Vala, JWT, who is working on the project. I’m sure it takes a village (JWT) to rebuild a village (Randstad). I can only guess at the budget, the time it has taken and the number of layers and pages on that site…and those are just the accessible pages.

Takeaways
- Keep your site information fresh and relevant
- Integrate throughout all marketing channels
- Be a thought leader in your area of expertise

Until next time,
Wendy