20SMF Episode #75 - The Final Episode…Sort Of
by Jared on December 15th, 2008
The final episode of the 20-Something Marketing podcast…sort of. Tune in to hear what’s happening.
Leave us your comments, questions and suggestions on the show notes!
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Three Things MBAs Can Learn From The 2008 Election
by Jared on November 5th, 2008
Originally Posted On OwenBloggers.com
Regardless of where you stand politically, I think we can all agree that the 2008 election turned “conventional thinking” on its head in way that very few events in recent history have been able to. As a business student and a huge fan of socio-political trend watching, I also find that there are really interesting lessons we as MBAs can take away from the election, no matter what discipline we’ve chosen.
1 - The Next Generation Has Arrived
3.5 Million new voters were registered this election spanning not only age but also ethnicities. In fact, according to national exit polls, 68% of voters that chose Barack Obama and 31% that chose John McCain were voting for the first time. To boot, turnout was as much as 89% in some states.
What this means for MBAs is that this election has marked the arrival of The Next American Generation culturally and demographically. Because of the strong impact this generation has shown in the election, what were once talking points for experts in finance, marketing, strategy and human capital will now become more like facts.
The lesson here is that the impact of this generation is no longer abstract for many of us, it’s reality.
2 - Stay On Message, Stay Authentic
If you had to pick a single word that described each candidate’s message, chances are that it would be “Change” for Obama and “Maverick” for McCain. Wait a minute, wasn’t it also “Change” for McCain as well? What about “Country First?”
The fact of the matter is that this election also proved a seminal rule about how consumers view authenticity and marketing. Because of the shifts that kept on being made in his message strategy, McCain lost a brilliant opportunity to capitalize on his own authenticity.
With the rise of new media and the Internet, consumers are becoming hyper-aware of who’s trying to get their attention and are becoming less forgiving to those they believe are just pandering to whatever they think they want to hear. The lesson here is to pick a message, whether in your marketing, strategy or in your mission statement that hits at the very core of your authenticity and then stick with it!
3 - The Black Swan Is Real
Even before you begin business school, you start to deal in probabilities. In fact much of modern learning is built on confidence intervals, majority populations/outcomes and marginal risk. What happens if an event lands in the long tail however, where the improbable becomes reality like it did in the recent financial meltdown?
Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls this a black swan and it hit this election like a Mack Truck. The point of a black swan is though it has a very very small probability of occurring, it’s impact all but wipes out the effects of all the “normal” and “predictable” outcomes.
The lesson here is that risk and innovation go together hand-in-hand and just because a scenario has a very small probability of happening, it’s effects should at least be considered in forward-thinking.
This election has been an incredible ride; one that has kept us glued to CNN for way more hours than some of us would like to admit. Now that its over, we have to ask ourselves “what’s next?” After all, we are all in this together and regardless of who you voted for, we all have to get jobs come May.
Technorati Tags: Black Swan, Election 2008, Financial Meltdown, MBA, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Owen Graduate School of Management, OwenBloggers, socio-political, Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management, voter turnout
Technorati Tags: Black Swan, Election 2008, Financial Meltdown, MBA, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Owen Graduate School of Management, OwenBloggers, socio-political, Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management, voter turnout
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Heads-Up: Back In DC For Reaching Out, The Gay MBA Conference
by Jared on October 29th, 2008
Hi There Marketing Fans!
It’s been almost 6 months but I am finally getting back to DC for the annual Reaching Out for GLBT MBAs. Ever since I learned about the conference about a year ago I have been psyched up for this opportunity.
Given the fact that much of what I have gotten to talk about on this show about being gay and in business, you can imagine how great this going to be.
If you happen to be in town or are going to the conference, shoot me a message via the blog - I would love to meet up!
Best,
Jared
Technorati Tags: GLBT MBA, LBGT MBA Conference, Reaching Out
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20SMF Episode #74 - Interview w/Dr. Mark Albion (Author of More Than Money)
by Jared on October 19th, 2008
Are most MBAs out to change the world through business or is it all about the money? Dr. Mark Albion has a new book out that might just answer that question and even suggest ways MBAs can do both.
The audio quality of the interview isn’t the best but its well worth it for the content.
Leave us your comments, questions and suggestions on the show notes!
Referenced Links:
- OwenBloggers.com
- Amazon.com: More Than Money: Questions Every MBA Needs to Answer: Redefining Risk and Reward for a Life of Purpose
- Follow Me On Twitter!
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20SMF Episode #73 - How Leadership Looks
by Jared on September 11th, 2008
Interesting rant on the the paradox at the intersection of critical thinking and relationships…also known as leadership.
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Technorati Tags: leadership, MBA, OwenBloggers, OwenBloggers Viewpoints, podcast
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The Economy is in the Gutter! Now What???
by Joshua Crumbaugh on August 2nd, 2008
Buy a car and get FREE Gas for a year! Buy a house and get Free Gas for a year! The list of gimmicks people are using to drive business goes on and on. Free Vacations, (which by the way every marketer should check out vestedtravels.com – tell them Joshua Crumbaugh sent you) Vegas Casino Cards, Gas Rebate Cards, Dinners and much more; you hear marketers offering incentives to get you to come to their business and spend money. These are great ways to drive business, but should you implement new strategy when the economy is suffering? I feel strongly against using these tactics now if you haven’t used them in the past and the numbers at the various companies I work with reflect this. During these times I forget about “out of the box” thinking and stick to the basics. It’s great to try new things, offer incentives and experiment with your marketing budget to see what tool will be most effective, but when you’re either struggling to keep traffic up or to keep sales up it’s not the time to be trying new things.
So… What do I do then???
I start by sticking to what I know works, focusing on my image and utilizing marketing venues that are already at my finger tips. Do you have a marketing blurb in all company emails that go out? Hotmail actually coined the term viral marketing by doing just that. Are you pushing your sales staff and providing them resources to enlarge each transaction. Clients don’t get offended when you ask them if they would also like “x” service/product. Have you tried running a regional ad in a national publication such as “Time Magazine” and then framing it and putting it all over your office (As seen in Time Magazine.) Clients flock to companies they trust when their pocket books are hurting, build trust not gimmicks.
Action Steps:
List five things you are doing now to earn extra consumer confidence and credibility.
List five additional things you can and will do to earn extra consumer confidence and credibility.
Put into writing exactly why your offerings provide exceptional value.
If you aren’t already begin marketing to your past customers to gain repeat business. (Vtiger CRM is a great FREE open source CRM) In most cases getting this set up will only cost you time.
I realize we are marketers not sales men/women, but the best marketers understand sales so I am going to leave you with this:
Don’t sell me things – Sell me what things can do
- Don’t sell me tires – sell me freedom from worry and low cost per mile.
- Don’t sell me clothes – sell me neat appearance, style, attractiveness.
- Don’t sell me candy – sell me happiness and the pleasure of taste.
- Don’t sell me property – sell me a home that has comfort, cleanliness, contentment
- Don’t me books – sell me pleasant hours and profits of knowledge.
- Don’t sell me toys – sell me playthings to make children happy.
- Don’t sell me tools – sell me the pleasure and profit of making fine things.
- Don’t sell me refrigerators – sell me the health and better flavor of fresh-kept food.
- Don’t sell me plows – sell me green fields of waving wheat.
- Don’t sell me things – sell me ideas, ideas, feelings, self respect, home life, happiness.
Check back soon I will be writing two more posts about marketing in a troubled economy. Also, I want to hear your comments
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A “thank you” card from the intersection of my dream internship and real life
by Jared on July 20th, 2008
If you ask me what it is that I have done with my new media experience while getting my MBA – I probably won’t have a single, decent answer. Oh, I have plenty of decent answers, mind you; I just haven’t found one that fits all occasions.
At first, I started off thinking new media wouldn’t be a good hook for the more traditional brand management MBA internships I was after. Then, I realized that new media MBA internships actually existed and tried to pivot my search in that direction and new media became my main selling point. Ultimately, I ended up wasting so much time figuring out how to market myself that April came around and I still didn’t have an internship locked down.
While most of my friends were signing great summertime commitments with companies like P&G and Deloitte, I was stuck trying to figure out if I could realistically pass off the title of “Barista” as graduate-level job experience. Then, it happened; my dream internship fell into my lap when I was least expecting it.
Granted, the experience did come with a few strings. Before I could take the internship, for instance, I would also have to spend a month coaching undergraduates in business strategy. What happened here was real life…apparently it happens, occasionally.
Flash forward to the last four weeks of summer: Most of my friends are either getting ready to complete their internships or have so, already. I, on the other hand, am only a quarter into my dream internship, trying to figure out how to cram 8 to 10 weeks of experience into just 4. Though I have to spend countless hours over the weekend working on presentations and creative briefs – literally turning out pages of the best marketing ideas I have ever had – it’s the reminder that this is real life that keeps me going.
In new media, when we step out of the digital-meta-wiki-blog-pod bubble, we’re sometimes surprised to find that the real world can, and will go on without us. The benefit I have found however is that my time in new media has made me more entrepreneurial and ready to face those glimmers of opportunity, no matter how strange or oddly they are presented to us.
For that, I am eternally grateful for my circle of new media friends and the people I have met along the way. Thank you.
Technorati Tags: new media, mba internships, surviving business school
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How should KFC change its business model to attract 20-somethings?
by Jared on June 28th, 2008
(Some of the undergrads I coach, posing with the colonel at KFC’s museum)
One of the more interesting sides of my various MBA internships this summer is the chance to guide undergrads through several, strategic-level consulting initiatives. Of course, my favorites are the ones where we are able to find ways to get your input into their direction.
In fact, here’s your chance to weigh in on a project we’re working on for KFC: http://urlzen.com/6k
The team has structured a quick survey about Fast Food in general, and KFC in particular, that we would love to have your opinion included in. As with most the of the surveys I work with, I’ve encouraged them to get creative with the insights they want to gather. Help us get to a statistically significant sample size (for the purposes of this survey, they want 100 responses by Sunday morning).
Again, we need your input on a survey for Fast Food and KFC so take a moment to browse over to our survey page and let us know what you think!
Technorati Tags: Colnel Sanders, KFC, Owen Accelerator, Owen Graduate School of Management, Accelerator
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