Archive for category Random Musings
The best marketing is data driven
Posted by Sam Kale in Marketing & Branding, Random Musings on August 9, 2010
This morning I was in a cross functional team meeting, with representatives from product engineering, operations, and marketing (among others). Before the meeting I introduced myself to someone, who upon hearing that I was with marketing quipped:
Oh, I’m with operations … I deal with the real world. You know, numbers and stuff!
Now, I should start by saying that this person was most definitely kidding. To her joke I gave a wry smile and a nod … and then proceeded to walk the entire room through a somewhat complicated excel model that analyzes resource allocation against strategic goals across a large part of our business.
Later this afternoon I met with someone interested in some other analyses I had recently done. As we walked through the data, we discussed some of the nuances that can be used to separate these data from those, making adjustments to the excel file right there in the room. It was a great discussion with some great ideas exchanged, none of which would have surfaced if the data hadn’t been right there in front of us.
So what’s my point?
My point here is that the best marketing is data driven. We can each argue in favor of our personal beliefs, but its only when we have the data (the right data) that we can move beyond what we think and into what we can prove.
It might seem obvious and trivial, but having the data gives you almost instant credibility. But the data – or the associated credibility – isn’t the end game either.
The end game is to use the proof to construct tangible actions that lead to measurable outcomes (read: revenue).
Making the most of an MBA internship
Posted by Kris Kaneta in Random Musings on August 5, 2010
As the lead MBA recruiter for one of my company’s executive partner schools, I’m often asked about making the most of the MBA internship. Obviously every company is different but here are four things that almost always come up as I talk to full-time-hire-hopefuls.
1) The MBA internship is never what you expect it’s going to be. It’s filled with uncertainty and ambiguity. The project you were assigned to might change. There may not be a project at all and your manager may have no idea what to do with you. Be prepared to get dirty and assert yourself without being that over-confident MBA. That means asking thoughtful questions with all the stakeholders in your business and coming to your own conclusions. Be prepared to scope and pitch your own project! “Nobody had anything for me” is not going to go over very well when you’re jockeying for a full-time role.
2) Focus on what’s measurable and set clear goals up front to objectively evaluate your contributions. You know those sexy, game-changing strategic projects that will forever change the face of business? You know the ones I’m talking about… Buyer beware. While on the surface this can lead to some good learning and exposure – what can you REALLY accomplish in 12 weeks when tackling something of that magnitude? If expectations are not managed from the beginning, you may have nothing to show for heading back to your second year of business school.
3) Know how your business makes money. This probably seems obvious to a lot of you but I’ve met too many candidates who, when explaining their internship, had no idea how what they did contributed to the bottom line. I’d say this is especially true in complex revenue recognition businesses like financial services. Be prepared to defend how what you’re doing translates to growth. Even if you can’t prove a direct impact (which you probably can’t in the short time you’re there), intuitively drawing line of site to revenue (or costs) will really help your audience understand what you you were up to for 3 months.
4) Remember the gatekeepers. Don’t be the guy who doesn’t have time for someone unless they are equally busy and important. I was once stood up by an interviewer (the guy just didn’t show up). My gut reaction was to take the hint and pack my stuff. But on my way out I chatted with the admin who I had greeted earlier in the day and thank goodness I did. She made a few phone calls and within 15 minutes I was interviewing with someone else. The gatekeeper is the gatekeeper for a reason. They are empowered to make judgment calls and you don’t want to be on the wrong side of those.
I’m sure I could go on but these are the big ones I come across with eager-beaver MBAs. For the readers out there, what other knowledge would you impart as interns prepare for final presentations and interviews in the coming weeks?
A musician’s perspective on branding
Posted by Kris Kaneta in Random Musings on July 30, 2010
I’m a guitar player and have been for going on 20 years. In the words of Wayne’s World’s Garth Algar – “I like to play”.
My love for music is a huge part of what defines me and while I couldn’t pack an arena by any stretch of the imagination, I can usually hold my own with the musicians I come across. As far as material possessions go, my Gibson Les Paul is among my most prized. And even though my first purchase 20 years ago wasn’t a Gibson (it was in fact -gasp- a Fender), I promised myself that I’d one day own a Gibson. It took more than a decade an a half to fulfill that promise but, a few years ago, almost on impulse, I pulled the trigger.
Hold back your tears… the purpose of that story was not to reflect on a boy and his longing for a killer 6-string. My point was that 15 years is a incredible amount of time to hold on to a brand as an aspiration.
Owning an Les Paul was always a boyhood dream. But come on, I’m now in my thirties – surely I didn’t think that owning a Gibson would transform me into Slash or Jimmy Page. Of course not (though that would be some nifty marketing). So what is so dang enduring about the Gibson brand? Well…
1) Gibson symbolizes an uncompromising approach to quality, and dog gonnit, I’m worth it. If it’s good enough for Slash, it’s good enough for me.
2) Gibson owners are fanatical about, well, Gibsons. While I don’t own a Harley, I imagine the kinship to be comparable. There’s a mutual respect and admiration that comes with owning a Gibson – as if it gives you immediate credibility. Part of it is their branding and pricing strategy – which even at the low end will cost you more than most high end guitars – making ownership an elite club among the musically enlightened. But it’s not just fancy marketing. Last year I had the honor of playing in a fundraiser and tribute to the late (but always great) Les Paul himself and I was amazed at the immediate kinship people had despite having never met before. Yes we were all musicians but this was more than just simple commonality. Which goes to my next point…
3) People are fanatical for the brand, but the brand is also what it is because owners are so fanatical. Or put more simply, Gibson is a brand, personified. The zealots are Michael to Gibson’s Air Jordan. But with even more zeal. Just go on youtube and look up Gibson. From young to old, from hack to pro – people are showing off their finely tuned axes. There is an incredible symbiotic relationship, a personal pride that defines those musicians, and that in turn feeds the brand. And the best part is that it costs Gibson nothing in terms of marketing dollars.
Play a word association game with a Gibson owner and you’ll see what I mean.
…Party on Wayne.
The trusted advisor
Posted by Sam Kale in Product Marketing, Random Musings, service marketing on July 25, 2010
As a brand new father, I’ve been surprised by a great many thing recently. And one of those thing is the sheer number of advertisement that portray themselves as “Trusted Advisors,” trying to convince me that I need to act now to make my baby happier, make her life better, keep her safer. On and on and on, until I couldn’t tell one from the other.
And so it made me start thinking about the idea of a Trusted Advisor. As we think about word of mouth marketing and social media, the idea is to assume the role of the best friend, of the parent or elder statesman, the all-knowing one that we rely on to steer the ship through the dark and lonely night.
All of these tactics share one thing: all try to get me to buy something. Now, I’m not saying that outbound marketing with a purchasing call to action is bad. Many of us spend quite a bit of time trying to perfect that skill.
But when’s the last time a Trusted Advisor told you *not* to buy something?
To be clear, I’m not talking about telling someone to buy Your Thing instead of Someone Else’s Thing. I’m talking about not buying The Thing at all. I’m talking about telling you that buying The Thing, whether it be from them or from someone else, is not the best use of your resources right now. Perhaps somewhere down the road buying The Thing will be the right thing to do, but for the moment you are better off focusing your time on getting ready for The Thing.
Because in the end, isn’t being the Trusted Advisor about building credibility? Can you be credible when you *only* recommend things that directly benefit you?
Hey everyone
Posted by Sam Kale in Random Musings on July 21, 2010
As a frequent commenter on this blog, Kris finally asked me to join in the top part of the blog and contribute some posts.
Whereas Kris is focused more on commercial (or sales-side) marketing, my interests are more on the product development side. An unabashed geek, I often like to talk about the intersections between seemingly disparate products/service and how they can be combined to make new and exciting things.
You can catch me on twitter at @sam_kale, on LinkedIn, or in the pages of this blog.
Customer Service Rant
Posted by Kris Kaneta in Random Musings, service marketing on September 3, 2009
Several weeks ago My wife and I were at a movie theater around town (for my local friends, the Marcus Majestic). And we were sitting in their new dinner style theater, complete with individual captains chairs, tables going across each row and an attentive wait staff which could be summoned with a dimly lit light at your table. The experience is truly one of a kind and was completely worth the added premium in ticket price (about $1 more, though I’m sure the food was also more expensive).
As we sat waiting for the previews to begin, chowing on popcorn, I noticed each seat had a pamphlet on ATTs new Uverse offering. I considered at the moment what a great idea that was. You have a captive audience that clearly values the multi-media experience, and since this is a full service dining experience, chances are folks were coming in before showtime and would have time to kill (as we did). During this time I had also become increasingly annoyed with time warner cable who over the past six months had raised our prices on three separate occasions, all due to promotions expiring. I’m ok with this when its within reason…but our cable/internet charges spiked 50%. Talk about a bait and switch. So already inclined to say good bye to TWC, we switched to uverse that week. I’m not quite a Uverse evangelist but so far, I’ll say it as been great, especially since its completely integrated with a multitude of online accessible features (the video quality is also perceptibly better).
OK…let me now get to the purpose of this rant…Why Time Warner Cable sucks.
1) When I called into to disconnect our service, TWC informed me that they could not cancel until they physically had the cable box in their posession. OK…I can understand that to a degree. So my wife accomodatingly drives there that day, at which point we expect a refund for any unused service, right? Wrong. 4-6 weeks.
2) 4 weeks go by…Instead of a check, we get another bill. It would seem “Mr. Kaneta, that when you returned your equipment, the store failed to issue a disconnect.” So not only did I not get a credit, I got another bill and had another month’s worth of fees charged to my credit card.
3) I call up TWC (the rep was actually very polite and helpful)…we work it out such that an agent will arrive at our house to do the disconnect in a week but I won’t be charged for anything beyond the day I returned equipment. Great…except they can’t send me my money until 4-6 weeks after disconnect. So all told I’m out 2 months of service fees that will take 10 weeks from the day I cancelled to show up in my mail box (if I’m lucky)
4) Sadly this is not the first time this has happened to me with TWC. How often does TWC fail to disconnect and charge their customers?!?!? Truly an unbelievably poor service experience… With as much as they spend on customer acquisition, you would think retention and user experience would rank among one of their priorities.
So with that being said, Time Warner now ranks among my five worst service providers on the planet. In no particular order because they all suck… 1) Time Warner Cable. 2) Sprint. 3) Stonegate Properties (my first apartment after college). 4) CARTUS Relocation Consultants. 5) The money-eating vending machine in my office.
Congrats Time Warner Cable… you’ve officially moved from mediocre to suckville.
Rejection101
Posted by Kris Kaneta in Random Musings on May 1, 2009
Yesterday a friend shared with me this piece from the WSJ on college rejections. The article discussed how there are a record # of HS graduates this year and subsequently a record # of college applicants. Of course with any application process there’s bound to be rejections, and this year was no exception. None of this of course surprised me…and I’m glad that the pool of talented human capital continues to improve. What did surprise me were the completely misguided priorities for some of these kids.
For example – one of the prospects discussed in the article applied to 17 schools. SEVENTEEN… back in the mid 90s I remember applications being around $50-$150. Who’s got the bank roll for 17 schools? What’s worse is that he was not admitted to 13 of the 17. Who the heck is this kid’s guidance counselor??? Among his list of rejections was Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Johns Hopkins… BUT he is “bound for one of his top choices, Pepperdine.” Not a knock on Pepperdine of its graduates, but kids that want to go to Malibu for a few years probably don’t share the same prioirities as those applying to Ivys and the like.
The column goes on to say how distraught kids are at the lack of sensitivity schools excercise when rejecting candidates. Really!??! As if to say letting you down easy makes you any more or less qualified. Lets face it, given that some of these schools have around a 7% admittance rate, ODDS ARE YOU’RE GOING TO NOT BE ADMITTED. Unless of course your daddy donated a building. That’s just reality. But maybe that’s the problem. Maybe kids today (man that makes me sound old) have grown up in an over PC, hypersensitive, there-is-no-such-thing-as-failure school and familial system.
Here’s my proposal – American academic institutions need to start teaching courses on accepting negative feedback including rejection. If we go through life thinking we’re the bomb, and not understanding our true level of qualification, how will we ever grow? Negativity can be good – it can be what drives you. A favorite example comes to mind, and that’s NBA star Gilbert Arenas, aka Agent Zero. Arenas wears the #0 because thats exactly how many minutes he was told he’d be able to play in the NBA by a former coach. Great example of taking some of that negativity and turning it around on the world to be better, to learn, and to grow.
Sliced Bread
Posted by Kris Kaneta in Random Musings on April 30, 2009
I have the mundane task (with the help of a couple other folks) of creating a “What is Marketing” presentation for new hires at my company. I say mundane because for someone like me who lives and breathes marketing, there is so much that I originally wanted to talk about, but then I realized that the vast majority of my audience probably won’t know a thing about marketing. So when it doubt Keep It Simple Stupid.
So I scoured the internet for a really basic yet informative definition of marketing, something that we can all relate to, and I came across this video from TED / Seth Godin. TED = Technology, Entertainment, Design. In the first few minutes he talks about the creation of sliced bread… I think we all know the saying of sliced bread. Watch the first few minutes (or watch the whole thing if you want) and realize that great products die every day without ever being sold. Products/services with the greatest of intentions die because we focus on the design and specs (which are both important), and fail to diffuse / share their true significance. Just ask Otto Rohwedder.
Can you imagine our world without sliced bread?
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