Marketing Today

I'm A Marketing Technopologist. Are You One Too?

Last night, I headed over to IceBox Co-Labs for the October Social Media Club of Louisville event featuring Dave Knox, chief marketing officer at Rockfish Interactive and former brand manager at Procter & Gamble.

Knox’s presentation was titled "Brand Manager 2.0" and it focused on managing a brand and digital marketing from a big brand perspective.  He quoted the American Marketing Association when he explained that marketing has changed more over the last three to five years than in decades before that. How do we marketers survive and thrive.  Well, in five easy steps:

1. Become a marketing technopologist - this is from a WSJ article which originally coined the term that describes a person at the intersection of anthropoligist, technologist, and marketer.

2. Try purpose-inspired brand building - as Know explained many of the products that have been marketed over the last 20 years have focused on upgrading products to better, faster, cheaper, whiter, brighter, etc.  Companies that are standing out from the pack and doing the right thing include those like Nike who is "bringing inspirational innovation to every athlete" and (a favorite of mine) LEGO who is "providing fuel for children's imaginations."

3. Practice consumer collaboration - if you think about it, the most successful companies stay close to their customers.  Knox gave the example of how Starbucks is running "My Starbucks Idea" to gather feedback from their customers.

4. Facilitate conversations and community - Knox's example here was a site created by P&G called "Man of the House" that focused on the men who are shopping and taking care of kids who were not only P&G customers but who appreciated talking with other guys like themselves and who don't want want to be marketed to like the lady of the house.

5.  Get to know the everywhere shopper marketer - marketers need to understand that the "digital revolution" is all about customer empowerment.  Every product review, recommendation, piece of signage, and ad is helping customers make decisions.  To ignore that this is happening can be a waste of your marketing budget and efforts.

Special thanks to Jason Falls for organizing it and to Kix.com, the Kentucky Indiana Exchange, an online community that presents a new opportunity for growing, retaining and attracting talent in the Wired65 region for their sponsorship of the event.

 

KFC Colonel Joins Road Crew to Fix Louisville's Potholes

Colonel Sanders out fixing potholes in Louisville, Kentucky?  That's right!  On March 25th, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) announced:  "KFC COLONEL AND ROAD REPAIR CREW TAKE ADVERTISING TO THE STREETS TO RE-“FRESH” AMERICA’S POTHOLE-STRICKEN ROADWAYS"

What an interesting way for an established brand to create news by linking product news that doesn't really seem all that newsworthy ("In Honor of its Freshly Delivered and Prepared Fried Chicken on the Bone...") to an event that gets national pickup by the press.

My Personal History with KFC

In the interest of full disclosure, 90% of my family lives in Kentucky and I've been eating Kentucky Fried Chicken at family picnics and events my whole life.  Along with my brother and sister, I actually worked at the KFC in Westport, CT for a few summers while on college break.  None of us know the secret recipe which is locked in a vault somewhere.  We do know that the recipe never changes and that there's a strict way to cook that chicken so it always tastes the way you expect it to.  This is part of why I thought this press release was so interesting.  It's a reminder that KFC is still using "fresh chicken on the bone" as it has for 50 years and making the connection to becoming the "first ever corporate sponsor of 'fresh-ly repaired potholes in U.S. Cities."

Cause Marketing

As all of us marketers scramble to pick up social networking skills and promote our products and services out there in cyberspace, it's important to remember the people we market to and what matters to them.  Cause marketing has been around as long as public relations has been around.  It's the concept of combining the efforts of a for profit business with a non-for-profit business cause for mutual benefit.  And, if all goes well, everyone's happy and you get a great story to tell.

According to KFC, they are looking to mayors from cities across the United States to nominate their cities for the Colonel's KFC-branded pothole repair.  This marketer sure hopes that Mayor Menino of Boston nominates my town for the program.  I'm a loyal fan of Kentucky Fried Chicken who will be buying a couple of buckets for my annual Kentucky Derby party this year.  If I get over to my local KFC without losing my car in a pot hole, I'd be mighty appreciative of that!