Dellnotes – Directors cut

Rick Spence attended the Art of Marketing last week – where one of the prominent speakers was Mitch Joel – a past IIMA presenter – who left us with a number of provocative thoughts. Did the speakers solve the problems of the online marketing world? no (much to Rick Spence’s chagrin). BUT there are some important take homes – ones that make you think about your business, your brand and what you could be doing to bring about a shift in behaviour towards your brand, your product or whatever your shtick might be.  Spence took the notes – and my best of his best:

1. Success, he says, won’t come from what you do online, but from “the activities of the users in your channel.” Mitch Joel.

2. “People want to buy and interact with brands that stand for something,” Seth Godin says. “This is where it gets really hard for you — because that means you have to stand for something.”

3. Prufrock Coffee, an unassuming coffee shop in east London, England, offers customers a “disloyalty” card, Godin says. Get it punched by visiting eight competitors, and Prufrock will give you a free coffee if you come back. What better way to turn customers into fans? How can you leverage your competition to YOUR advantage?

4. Zippo reignited its own brand, says Othmer, by creating an app that puts a picture of a Zippo lighter, with flame, on your iPhone screen. People hold it up on concerts at arenas where lighters are now forbidden. So maybe you don’t need to make an iphone app. BUT what can you do to reignite your own brand?

5. Chicago-based Max Lenderman, an adman specializing in experiential marketing, says six million new cellphone subscribers sign up every month in India. Nokia markets in remote villages using travelling vans that double as stages for acting out commercials. After online, says Lenderman, experiential/event marketing is the fastest-growing form of marketing. Okay – maybe you aren’t going to start your own travelling Punch & Judy opera – but maybe there’s something you CAN do thats radically different.

I love articles like this. They give me pause – and make me think – I don’t expect speakers to cut up the food on my plate and put in my mouth. I expect them to create an appetite in my brain for more. Stir it up. Sounds like this conference did. Congratulations to the presenters and attendees. Now what can you and I do as friends of IIMA to stir it up in our own digital lives?

Steve Deller
Past President
Past Director, Education
IIMA

Bookmark It

No related posts.