http://www.cocomment.com/comments/bostonmarketing Copyright 2007 coComment.com 2009-11-23T23:50:51.653+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/images/logo4rss.gif http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=1879963&comment_id=32358392 John Cass Hi Kevin, Good to see you the other day, great interview, hope you do well with the offer. 2008-10-23T04:06:53.250+02:00 2008-10-23T04:06:53.250+02:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=1862976&comment_id=32138159 John Cass Great article, focusing on the selfless makes a lot of sense. 2008-10-17T05:18:16.073+02:00 2008-10-17T05:18:16.073+02:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=1277901&comment_id=25133555 John Cass I use the 1976 definition of marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK. ‘…the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.’ Yes, marketing is about sales, that's the end result, but how do you get to that sale? You understand what customers want or need, and make a product based on those wants and needs. Marketing is not just about selling a product, its about making a product people actually want, and then selling it to them. Many people in industry equate marketing with just sales or advertising. What about market research? Isn't that part of marketing? Marketing is sales and advertising but it's more than that. 2008-03-31T02:31:41.030+02:00 2008-03-31T02:31:41.030+02:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=1216540&comment_id=23737891 John Cass what a great post! Very funny. 2008-02-02T07:17:28.072+01:00 2008-02-02T07:17:28.072+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=1218631&comment_id=23676869 John Cass I think this a great argument for listening to customers to know whether what you recommend will have an impact with them. 2008-01-31T04:48:23.501+01:00 2008-01-31T04:48:23.501+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=1189973&comment_id=23234190 john cass it is encouraging to see Whitney take part in this discussion, I do think it is important to clarify exactly what the club can and cannot do however. As other people have written, is it possible to take a picture of a ford vehicle with the logo appearing in the picture, and sell that product? 2008-01-17T17:06:31.469+01:00 2008-01-17T17:06:31.469+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=1189539&comment_id=23150138 john cass I am all for science, though my preference is geology, which is also surprisingly an art as you have to read the rocks to think about what happened in the earth even though you cannot observe directly. Oh, I did not think your were suggesting measuring was all bad, just that there's more value in measuring in return in information. I've been a marketing director where the main way we measured was traditional ROI. It helped increase the sales of one company I worked at by 100% in six months. However, I think we could have done better if we had also used ROI 2.0. 2008-01-16T21:48:32.663+01:00 2008-01-16T21:48:32.663+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=1189539&comment_id=23146098 john cass So you are saying measurement is valuable, but it is important to think about what you are measuring. The focus for a successful marketing orientated company is on determining how well you convey information to the customer. Measuring the value to the customer as well as yourself makes a lot of sense, as marketing is all about listening. The focus should be on making a better product/company which is profitable, rather than running a good campaign. I suppose that would mean you might actually see a higher conversion on one type of campaign with traditional ROI, but a lower return on information overall for the same campaign. Media relations is probably a good example of a type of marketing campaign that is often difficult to measure with traditional ROI but easier with return on information as I think it would be easier for a customer to remember a publication's article about your product. 2008-01-16T15:36:08.476+01:00 2008-01-16T15:36:08.476+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=1151032&comment_id=22641296 John Cass You are right the marketing is not social media, where we define social media as just a tool. Marketing is really more about strategy. However, as you suggest the social media movement is not just about tools, it is about a way of communicating with people and a community. Now I will concede that most marketers are only thinking about campaigns and tools. The recent report from Forrester Research seems to indicate that. But I think you are missing something here about the marketing concept. A big part of the concept is listening to customers, and enacting what you learn. From that process companies are better able to market their products. In my experience those companies that focus on listening; product development and customer service are usually the companies that receive the most benefits from social media. Macromedia was the company for me that really demonstrated how a company could use listening to use marketing strategy within social media. While Dell's example continues to amaze me. To me social media, the tools, and the way of communicating finally make it easier, and likely for a generation of business people to actually do marketing as the concept is defined. Though the reality is that the tools were never needed, just the willingness to implement the strategy. 2007-12-18T04:02:57.041+01:00 2007-12-18T04:02:57.041+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=1110212&comment_id=22222161 John Cass @chris Manchester city itself is smaller than many other cities in the UK, about 500,000 people I believe. Except the greater Manchester conurbation does have about 2.5 million people. Liverpool has 900,000. I live in Boston, MA and the city only has 500,000 people, yet the greater Boston area probably has about 2.5 million. Most people here know they live in separate towns; I live in Arlington with 40,000. But if asked by anyone out of the area I'd tell him or her I live in Boston. I don’t know how Manchester compares to other Northern cities in cultural attractions, but I believe Mancunian’s ego on this point comes from the size of the population, historical perspective (the industrial revolution), and cultural attractions. I think what makes the UK interesting is the strength of its provincial cities. The US’s state system fosters diversity and economic diffusion. Having said this, I don’t think Manchester is the capital of the North, mainly because probably only other Mancunian’s believe that. I’ve heard similar statements from other northern cities that also don’t ring true to me; perhaps we’d all be better off spending our time on promoting the whole region rather than just one particular city. The north went through a major economic downturn in the 70’s and 80’s but has managed to revive itself through the vitality of its people in the 90’s. That growth is something to celebrate whether its in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds or Sheffield. Few American’s probably realize this but the North was very sparsely populated up until 200-300 years ago. While the UK seems like an old country, in many ways, parts of the country were very much shaped by the industrial revolution. Lancashire for instance was the least populated part of the country before the revolution, and one of the most populated after the growth of its manufacturing towns. I used to hear from American’s that the US was very new, 400 years or more usually around since 1776, nothing appeared to happen in North America before then for some people, (I lived in California at the time) but from my perspective the north is economically and culturally a similarly dated concept to the US going only back to the mid-eighteenth century. @Chris, next time you hear an egotistically orientated Mancunican going on about Manchester being the capital of the North, remind them that many cities in the north are economically and culturally linked in ways that only foster growth for all northern cities growing together. What would Manchester be without the port of Liverpool, and what would Liverpool be without the markets of Manchester. 2007-11-14T17:11:14.501+01:00 2007-11-14T17:11:14.501+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=988924&comment_id=18638803 John Cass One of the big questions people ask about blogging is, “how much time will it take to blog?,” in reality I think that question really means that people are wondering what the ROI of blogging is. I think you have to explain to people through examples as you have done in your article. It think it might just be a matter of waiting for that ‘ah ha’ moment. After all remember how long it took to convince everyone that SEM and SEO was a good idea. 2007-09-05T21:15:36.601+02:00 2007-09-05T21:15:36.601+02:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=922236&comment_id=17854474 john cass Yes in a way, it is easier to find a category if ordered alphabetically, while a tag cloud can be rather confusing for the tags that reference only few articles. Tag clouds are good for highlighting the topics that are most popular, so by definition tag clouds under represent those topics that are not popular. However, a list of 20-40 categories in the side navigation of a blog is unmanageable because you will probably have to scroll up and down to see all of the categories. Unless you know what you are looking for, in that case to me it is easier to find a category from a list of categories if ordered alphabetically, no matter how long the list. Having said all this my preference is for a tag cloud, but there are limitations, I think however the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The only way to determine if you should use a tag cloud for a particular audience is to test it, and see what the audience thinks. 2007-07-28T05:01:03.597+02:00 2007-07-28T05:01:03.597+02:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=638783&comment_id=12407557 John Cass I like the analogy between business cards and social media. Collecting cards for the sake of quantity just wastes time, especially if you have no intention of making an ongoing connection. 2007-04-19T06:41:44.346+02:00 2007-04-19T06:41:44.346+02:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=523976&comment_id=9786159 John Cass Did you get a byline on the posts you did write, or were the posts identified as coming from the company in general? I agree public relations people should know enough to be able to help their clients with advice and background information. Though I am not sure what you mean by writing, "The PR people who understand the value of blogs also need to ensure that foundation is appropriately vetted and stylized to maintain the blog’s integrity." So that I can understand, would you explain further? Maybe with some simple examples. 2007-03-06T05:23:42.354+01:00 2007-03-06T05:23:42.354+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=526934&comment_id=9785895 John Cass Howard Schultz joined Starbucks from an espresso machine manufacturer, after researching why Starbucks was his company's top retailer for espresso machines. He has a long history with the espresso machines. 2007-03-06T05:17:58.674+01:00 2007-03-06T05:17:58.674+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=456605&comment_id=8239413 John Cass you have a double post. What's the story with Groundhog and Punchbowl? Do you have a link? 2007-02-06T07:58:32.934+01:00 2007-02-06T07:58:32.934+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=445307&comment_id=7999767 (anonymous) I do not think that social media is just about people talking about brands. I think a good part of social media is about conversations that have nothing to do with companies or brands. People talk about the weather, politics, their children, love, sex, and their favorite vacation spot. That is actually one reason why conversational marketing works so well, the people who are really successful realize that it is more important to build a relationship and connection than it is to sell the brand all the time. Tim Jackson from the MASI Guy blog is one such person http://pr.typepad.com/pr_communications/2006/11/blog_reader_res.html. While I do not disagree that marketing is in the final analysis about selling stuff. The approach you take to get there can be either through the sales model or the marketing model. As a marketing professional, conversational marketing or social media is nothing new to me because the marketing concept is all about listening to customers to understand their needs and wants and attempting to satisfy their needs and wants efficiently, and profitably. That means I have to listen to customers if I want them to buy stuff, that means I have to converse with them.So to answer your question, can marketers ever get social media, I answer yes, if they practice real marketing. 2007-02-01T07:53:18.744+01:00 2007-02-01T07:53:18.744+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=433389&comment_id=7491990 (nobody) n the companion case study about general motors I wonder if Charlene measured the negative impact of word of mouth marketing from General Motors not responding to every comment. I have spoken with a few GM FastLane blog readers and they were not happy with the lack of response. In fact one gave up on thinking of buying a new car. Did Charlene include that in determining her numbers? 2007-01-27T05:58:50.951+01:00 2007-01-27T05:58:50.951+01:00 http://www.cocomment.com/sidebar?object=people&context=explore&mode=detail&id=bostonmarketing&conv=396624&comment_id=6567626 John Cass Great blog post and excellent viral marketing device. Wow, I actually got listed in one of these blog lists. To me PR is part of marketing so reviewing both the PR and marketing communities makes sense. 2007-01-17T23:32:31.748+01:00 2007-01-17T23:32:31.748+01:00