ThoughtShapers.com

Dan Blank: “Best Practices” lead to mediocre results

2010-06-04T22:41:00-07:00

“Best practices are often used to try to reduce the risk of failure. But oftentimes, these strategies are things that worked well six months ago, and… that the value you will eek out of it will be meager and hard fought… I see this again and again in social media. Instead of people thinking INTENTLY about their customers and how to serve them, they look for tactics on how to increase followers or ‘grow their conversion.’

So they move from flavor of the week to flavor of the week of jargon, tactics, and strategies. And they are often too slow and too late to create any meaningful value.”

Dan Blank
We Grow Media

Thoughtshape of the Week: Ron Shevlin

2010-05-21T12:17:00-07:00

“Marketing is suffering from Ignis-fatuus-itis.”

* Igni fatuus: Something that misleads or deludes; an illusion.

Ron Shevlin
Sr. Analyst
Aite Group
(via Slideshare)

ThoughtShape of the Week: Adam Singer

2009-08-22T20:55:00-07:00

“As more businesses realize the truth, that every company is now a media company, the number of organizational entities contributing content to the web will continue to increase.

Yet as the supply of content increases, the aggregate amount of attention available remains static, meaning the fight for attention is an aggressive, daily battle across the spectrum of niches… Fresh content only happens as a by-product of being agile.”

Adam Singer
TheFutureBuzz.com

ThoughtShape of the Week: Jonathan Salem Baskin

2009-03-11T14:51:00-07:00

“‘To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.’ So shouldn’t the reactions to your marketing have something to do with your business proposition?

If the response you’re driving for is a chuckle, or just a pass-along to another consumer, no wonder the gurus don’t want you to measure it. Given a nanosecond of time to interact with people, the best most of us can do is waste it?”

Jonathan Salem Baskin
(via AdAge)

ThoughtShape of the Week: Charles Wiedenhoft

2009-02-12T15:23:00-07:00

“As an avid Internet marketer, I continue to be amazed by the occurrence of discussions that focus more on how to boost Web analytic capabilities and less on figuring out what those numbers mean or, even worse, how to profit from them…

I propose that Internet marketing agencies and internal departments do away with the job title ‘Web analyst’ and instead take time to establish and conduct cross-training programs with all personnel to help them understand what the figures mean and how best to use them in order to meet or exceed a campaign’s stated objectives. In the end, marketing departments will have a much easier time showing a quantifiable return for the investments made.”

Charles Wiedenhoft
Red Door Interactive

ThoughtShape of the Week: Scott McKain

2009-02-04T21:55:00-07:00

�While we often first point the finger at the Chief Financial Officer as being disconnected from customers, the truly shocking part of the study is that it is the Chief Marketing Officer who fails to listen to, and learn from, the very people they are marketing to!�

Scott McKain
Author, Vice Chairman of Obsidian Enterprises
(via GrokdotCom)

ThoughtShape of the Week: Chris Rollyson

2009-01-12T16:18:00-07:00

“The financial crunch will accelerate social network adoption among those focused on substance rather than flash…

Social media can save money.. how much did it cost the Obama campaign in time and money to raise $500 million? Extremely little....

People like to get involved and contribute, when you can frame the activity as important and you provide the tools to facilitate meaningful action. Engagement raises profits and can decrease costs. Engaged customers, for example, tend to leave less often than apathetic customers…

Social media presents many new possibilities for revenue, but to see them, look outside existing product silos. Focus on customer experience by engaging customers, not with your organization, but with each other...”

Chris Rollyson
The Global Human Capital Journal

ThoughtShape of the Week: Lewis Green

2009-01-03T14:52:00-07:00

“At the end of the day, the objective of inbound marketing is not conversation for its own sake, as some social media evangelists suggest, but to use those conversations to learn as much as we can about what customers most want and need from us…

... and then create great customer experiences by meeting those wants and needs at the right time and the right place, which are when customers contact us and wherever they do so.”

Lewis Green
L and G Business Solutions

ThoughtShape of the Week: Jonathan Salem Baskin

2008-12-26T16:39:01-07:00

“... as retailers try to make up with sale items all the sales they were unable to realize with regular pricing, they’re daring consumers to revalue what they’re buying. The greater the pricing variability, the less qualities of brand have any inherent value. Something that costs less due to the exigencies of sellers can never fully be worth more when it comes to the needs of buyers.

Sales are a chronic affliction for businesses, and a constant reminder to consumers that all the imagined promises of branding don’t necessarily connect to the reality of prices. This week’s sales aren’t price discounts; they’re proof that efforts to sell stuff the remainder of the year will be attempted at inflated prices.”

Jonathan Salem Baskin
Author
Branding Only Works on Cattle

ThoughtShape of the Week: Kevin Hillstrom

2008-12-22T18:08:00-07:00

“... our industry (catalogers and direct marketers) hawks the standard ‘Multichannel Customers Are The Best Customers’ line. We encourage people to read the paper and consume information online. We homogenize the overall user experience by trying to make the look and feel of each medium appear the same—instead of capitalizing on the unique differences between channels, we try to force people into doing things the way we want for them to do things, causing both channels to fail.”

Kevin Hillstrom
President
MineThatData