Archive for October, 2005
Episode #13 – The Age Thing
by Jared on October 27th, 2005
Marketing to older folks – its not just for burial insurance salesman anymore. This episode deals head on with one of the most difficult challenges of being a 20-something professional – being 20-something….
I) Trust, Credibility, And Mashed Bananas
II) News: Martha’s 3 Million dollar man, bosses can kill you, etc.
III) Enhancing your age appeal through street credit
Referenced Links
Burker King Masks
Vote For The Show on Yahoo!
Click Here To Listen To The Podcast
Case Studies As A Marketing Tactic
by Jared on October 27th, 2005
I always think its hilarious to watch my journalist friends bicker about journalistic “integrity” and the need to keep advertising out of it.
Luckily, we have no such burdens here in the Land of Marketing where ad execs run naked in the streets with the Wall Street Journal and 24 year-old hacks like myself are actually relied upon for sound marketing advice. However, it is interesting to realize that we deal with our own version of content integrity with our use of case studies.
In most respects, case studies present the facts of a case, and the outcomes that occurred and usually nothing more. We have all seen them in our college classes and we have used them to study a particular topic or situation. In the end, we are supposed to have a moral to the story and a lesson we can take with us. Essentially, because its purely academic, the point is to not use a call to action.
But then again, that’s academic.
What happens though when you have a case study from a for-profit entity that is trying to establish their credibility as a product or industry expert. The idea is yes, you want it to resemble, sound, and function like a traditional academic case because it maintains the integrity of the source. However, you need to remember what you want it to be used for - to drive leads!
Here is the “catch 22″ of using case studies as marketing tactics - by putting a call to action at the end of the study (i.e. “to find out more information on how to accomplish X, call 1-800-WHO-CARES”) , you are making it a more effective marketing tool but you’re also undercutting its legitimacy as a learning mechanism which should, in theory, make it less effective in marketing.
Its a tough situation. You have to have a call to action - you can’t escape the need to put that connection at the target’s fingertips.
Here’s to Life - And Shirley Horn
by Jared on October 23rd, 2005
Jazz an incredible medium for the communication of passion and purpose. No one knew that better than the incomperable Shirley Horn.
Ms. Horn, a native Washingtonian died yesterday at the age of 71. Her lyrics evoked a hauntingly beautiful picture of life both rough and dramatic.
The Washington Post wrote a great eulogy to her masterfull art - please take time to read it, listen to her music and realize that life is out there - go and get it!
Episode #12 - Too Scary To Interview
by Jared on October 20th, 2005
Its almost Halloween so we are pulling out the stops to exploit it for all its worth! Interview with 20-Something Marketing Ghoul, Kristen Malo (The Fright Catalog), Halloween Marketing Hilarity and of course - News You Can Use!
Show Notes:
I) Halloween Commerce
II) Interview With Kristen Malo, Marketing Director - The Fright Catalog
III) News: Destination and Direct Marketing, Beer Pong Gone Wrong/ PR Quote of the Week
IV) Game Plan: Research and You Shall Find
Referenced Links:
FrightCatalog.com
America’s Promise
NEW DISCUSSION TOPIC: Direct Mail – How To Make It Less Annoying
Click Here To Listen To The Podcast
AMA Seminar Re-Cap
by Jared on October 15th, 2005
AKA - What I Learned On My 3-Day Training Seminar That I Already know I knew….
So, its my first day back and like a good little worker drone, I am forced to re-cap what I learned at the American Management Associaiton training seminar. The good news for AMA is that I will respect their content and not poach any of it for my show or for this blog but the better news for you guys is that its going to make for better podcasts!
I think the #1 take-a-way is to be flexible. Normally, I love to be hard-core. I think that if you can’t stand for something, you probably shouldn’t be in marketing. Its a mandatory pre-requisite then, that as marketers we are able to maintain an independant view of the reality of the modern marketplace. It makes sense to me that though we should do everything we can to be flexible to our internal audiences, if we are too flexible we risk not doing our jobs which is to make our work apealing to our external audiences.
Here’s a quandry then - what happens when you are busy being flexible and concilliatory with one hand and with the other you are still basically following your own ideas? Isn’t that being dishonest?
Being flexible while remaining hard core - can it be done?
Episode #11 - Beginings
by Jared on October 13th, 2005
We all have to begin somewhere – projects, relationships, marketing campaigns. What’s so special about beginnings and how can we as 20-Something Professionals make more of them for ourselves?
Show Notes:
I) Dating and other beginning moments
II) Case Study: Jared’s Bar Marketing
II) Game Plan: How to make your beginnings count
AMA Update #2 - We’re Not Mean - We’re Just On Point
by Jared on October 11th, 2005
Surprisinigly, I am enjoying the training sessions. Of course, I am not going to be revealing everything that we are doing just to protect the content of the AMA. I can tell you though that attending one of these courses is more valuable than I had originally perceived.
One of the more interesting things to report on is an exercise we did with the so-called Influencing Style Clock which is essentially a work-oriented personality identifier. It breaks out human work and influencing styles into 4 categories: Visioner, Regulator, Harmoniser and Orchestrator. I, apparently have a good break out between Visioner and Orchestrator with the latter being the dominant trait.
As the exercise moved on, we separated into our respective groups and answered a series of questions for the entire session group. One of the first questions was “What is one thing you want people to know about your influencing style?” To this, orchestrators are usually very strong personalities with very little room for playing around or to care about stupid things like people’s feelings. (I kid, of course)
Our answer then, to the questions was “We’re not mean, we’re just on point!”
Its true. I will freely admit that I am very much a driver when it comes to getting things done but many times my efforts are construed as mean-spiritied and careless of what people think.
Touchy-feeling vs. getting things done? This is always a great debate and one that this class apparently renders moot with the underling term that we all have to be flexible to really get the things done that we need to get done.
The question I have is what about persuasion? How do we persuade, compromise, and apparently get people to do what WE want without you know…selling out.
Promises of more hilarity tomorrow but if my boss is reading this: I don’t care how much I learn here, this still doesn’t mean I will be nice to you-know-who.
AMA Training Update #1
by Jared on October 10th, 2005
So, as I mentioned 2 or 3 eppisodes ago, today is the first day of training at the American Managament Association. It certianly promisses to be interesting or at least entertaining for you guys. I plan to blog every day or even hourly if I can get access to a computer for a quick snippet.
As a quick overview, one of my personal, professional development objectives is to be a more effective communicator when it comes to my higher-level reports. In any given day I have to convince several high ranking executives in my company of various marketing ideas. This course, is slated to work on those skills to get results, without stated authority.
We’ve all been in type of fix before and we know that our ideas are worth listening to. However, our older counterparts and managers sometimes need to know we are working for them rather than against them…this, so far has not been one of my stronger points. I have what you call a startelingly direct communication method. When I feel like I am right and that my idea is being thrown out for stupid reasons, my initial response is more to go more agressive.
This, however following a noble cause of not giving up, usually earns me the reputation of being threatening rather than helpfull - if you don’t work with me on a regular basis. Its not that I’m a bad person, I just have strong views, as we all do.
Join me as I will probably be the youngest person in this training group and I give you a bell by bell account of my walk into a much-needed training session.