cadenceblog

What is a meatball sundae?

I attended a webcast called How Do You Avoid the Meatball Sundae presented by  Seth Godin (sponsored by ClickZ Network and BuzzLogic). I try to catch  Seth Godin whenever I can, because he is such a great story teller, totally inspirational, and I always learn something new (like a tool called  Jott)!

Seth was talking about his new book Meatball Sundae.  He started off by saying that he was vegetarian so the idea of a meatball sundae is especially repulsive, but the image being repulsive to everyone was the point. The meatball represented how companies operated in the past (and still do), by creating average products for average people. He is referring to factories, mass production of products, where efficiency is king (industrial revolution). You can view the meatballs as commodities. He also mentioned how advertising such as TV commercials were used to promote and market these products. Companies made average products for average people and used TV to get their message across. In order for TV advertising to work, you had to make an average product that appealed to the masses. The topping part is new marketing (web 2.0) or the new trends in marketing.  So take a commodity, marketing dresses it up using new tactics, and what comes out the door is a meatball sundae.  Not exactly very appealing (a representation of why it doesn't work).

Seth said that there is a lot of opportunity in the new world of marketing but you can't just throw new marketing 2.0 stuff on top of an average product to be more successful. Companies that have been successful with new marketing, are inherently different companies (compared to meatball makers). Darren Barefoot took  great notes on the specific trends and examples presented in the webinar.

If meatball sundaes sound like what goes on in your company and you find that disturbing, you might want to check out the book - Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync. You can also download the related manifesto from ChangeThis. ChangeThis is a wonderful place to find a fresh  perspective on business, culture, or technology (amongst other things). They publish articles, more like presentations, called manifestos, about changing the world. They are free (no ads), you download the manifestos (beautifully presented pdfs) and then ponder..reflect, and possibly approach a problem with a new perspective. ChangeThis is a nice and neat experience, and it helps to spread good ideas. (not surprising - the original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin).

I haven't read Meatball Sundae yet, but I will eventually. I have most of Seth's other books, and I highly recommend them for when you need to get into the "think different, be different" mode,  or need inspiration to change (or ammunition to present change to the higher ups). I bet some day there will be a Seth Godin boxed set (maybe including his action figure that came out recently).

This is a classic one-liner from his  blog, that comes to my mind often:

The two reasons people say no to your idea

"It's been done before"
"It's never been done before"

Even though neither one is truthful, accurate or useful, you need to be prepared for both.

Seth calls himself an agent of change. I can personally attest to this, because it was after reading Small is the New Big, that I started writing this blog!

"It's been done before"
"It's never been done before"

Even though neither one is truthful, accurate or useful, you need to be prepared for both.

Seth calls himself an agent of change. I can personally attest to this, because it was after reading Small is the New Big, that I started writing this blog!

The Prospect’s Protest and The MarketingExperiments Creed

Just an update about "Revolutionizing the way you communicate"  from the recent MarketingExperiments webinar.  The notes were published in the MarketingExperiments blog:

"Yesterday, during one of our most widely attended webclinics ever, Dr. Mcglaughlin passionately talked about marketing to the post-modern consumer in 2008. In it, he stated a problem, puting it in the form of a protest to marketers from today’s average Internet consumer. He then proposed a response, which he put in the form of a creed, that he believes all marketers would be wise to adopt.

During the call and since then, participants and subscribers have been asking for copies of both documents. So, I have the permission and privilege of posting them here"

View the full posting:  The Prospect’s Protest and The MarketingExperiments Creed

MarketingExperiments: 2008 Internet Marketing Strategy

I attended a webinar yesterday presented by MarketingExperiments  called "2008 Internet Marketing Strategy: Are you prepared". I've really been impressed by the quality of information given at MarketingExperiments webinars, and also with the enthusiasm and energy that they are presented with.

MarketingExperiments is an online laboratory with the purpose to discover what really works. They provide research reports and education (free and paid). They are part of MECLABS, which also owns MarketingSherpa and MECLABS also recently purchased InTouch. I am very happy for Brian Carroll who started InTouch (and who authors B2B Lead Generation Blog and the book - Lead Generation for a Complex Sales) because it is nice to know that his thought leadership, passion, enthusiasm has been fully valued and recognized.  Brian mentions on his blog that he will be continuing his blog, so make sure you visit his blog -  it is hands down one of the best B2B blogs.

Anyhow, back to MarketingExperiments, from what I understand...they invest millions of dollars into research so I suggest that you take advantage of some of their free content such as webinars, their journal, and other information on their website . It is exciting to know that there are folks out there doing solid academic-style research and experimentation in online marketing using live data.

In this particular webinar they outlined what they thought were the 6 most important steps you need to take in your 2008 marketing plan.  They consisted of:

1. Implement truly reliable metrics
2. Improve your capacity to test
3. Reorder your marketing priorities
4. Conduct a thorough competitive analysis
5. Explore and test new media
6. Revolutionize the way you communicate

Some of these may sound like the usual rehash of ideas/advice, but the key points presented under each section were dead-on, presented with a fresh perspective (not to mention backed by research findings). The research that was presented at this webinar will also be included in a briefing, so sign-up for the MarketingExperiments Journal and look out for their next briefing.

Here is a litte bit of information on those 6 steps (until you can get your hands on the briefing):

1. Implement truly reliable metrics - put tools in place to evaluate your current condition, track response to your campaigns, and measure progress towards your goals.  Schedule time to keep score, watch for patterns, learn from mistakes and improve on your successes.

2. Improve your capacity to test - ensure that you have the right tools, talent, and resources to perform useful tests.

3. Reorder your marketing priorities - focus first on optimizing your product and value proposition, then focus on communication of your value proposition.  You need to have a good value proposition, but you also need to present it effectively (in landing pages, email copy, sales path). Finally drive as much traffic as you can to your website.

4. Conduct a thorough competitive analysis - this of course is understanding your competitors, and doing a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). This information is critical to your value proposition. If you search for competitive analysis on their website you will find related briefings in this area

5. Explore and test new media - mentioned here was that we can't ignore some of the trends and changes happening in this area.. and  social media, mobile marketing, impact of blogs,  changes in PPC, and PPC engines. It is important to engage, to explore the relevance, and test.

6. Revolutionize the way you communicate - the points presented here really drove things home for me...and it relates to how we interact with our prospects...this section was so well articulated and will solidify what I think smart marketers already know, or at least have good intuition about. Instead of summarizing here, I would rather direct you to to the actual notes called: The Prospect’s Protest (A Problem) and The MarketingExperiments Creed (A Response) or see the video below:

Sales and Marketing Alignment Webcast

Looking for research and commentary about sales & marketing alignment,  I think you will find this webcast presented by the American Marketing Association (AMA), called For Better or Worse. Marketing and Sales Conflict Can Actually Produce Positive Results useful. It was presented today, but you can view it anytime.

"AMA and University of Florida will debut the findings of a recent Marketing and Sales Alignment survey that amazingly shows how conflict between marketing and sales departments, if managed well, can actually contribute to more positive results."

Some of the things mentioned seem intuitive or obvious by experience but it was good to see some research behind it. Sometimes we feel emotional as marketing or sales folks...and we know there is a difference in perspective, but don't know how to dig through the emotions to the real problems. This webcast identifies very specifically different mindsets and values  between sales and marketing (according to the study) that bring about such conflict. It also provides insight into what can be done to resolve them. It also talks about how some amount of conflict is good, and can lead to positive change for individuals, the groups, and the business as a whole.

You'll see  characteristics and mechanisms of best practice companies in terms of aligning sales and marketing such as joint meetings, cross functional teams, use of coordinators, job rotations, and tradeshows.

Watch this webcast for more information on this research.

Also, visit the AMA Marketing & Sales Alignment site for more information, webcasts and shows on Demand Generation, Sales Effectiveness, and Customer Messaging.