As I'm reflecting back on the term I can say that I look at marketing a little differently than before. I was included with the party that viewed marketing as this "how to we trick people into buying our stuff" camp. In my opinion marketing data and focus groups etc. were useful to this end. I think that the text book, the readings and after reading Groundswell, I have a different opinion. Marketing (ESPECIALLY ONLINE) is about communicating and creating community. That's the takeaway that I think about now. How is what I am about to do going to create community and will this community be effective at communicating to me what they want. Marketers need to be listeners. I read a link while researching our marketing project on Pinterest that pointed out that the word SILENT and the word LISTEN have the same letters. Think about it.
I really loved the business model canvas as illustrated by Business Model Generation. I am currently undertaking a career change and this book has completely elevated my thinking about my strategy. How I present myself to potential recruiters and hiring managers will be focused on the value that I can truly give to them as well as looking at myself as a product to them.
I really enjoyed this class. It will be interesting to see how it changes as time goes on. This is really a class that is on the bleeding edge of tech and how it relates to business. Thanks for the opportunity.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
New branding! I pulled the trigger. www.tj-mcintyre.com
So after all of the reading on building a personal brand I decided to pull the trigger and get started. What good is this class if I don't utilize it, right? So I searched for my name and almost every iteration was taken. There is a lawyer from Ireland, an artist, and a model plane collector. I finally found tj-mcintyre.com Next I purchased it, found a deal on hosting for a dollar a month and downloaded wordpress. I have never used wordpress before and I'm excited to get to know it better. Uploading it to the server was a one click ordeal and now it is functional. Last night I got crafty and designed myself a logo (Per my action plan) and uploaded it to my site as a placeholder while I figure out the wordpress system. I was inspired by the Tesla project and my personal study or Darren Hardy and Elon Musk. So my branding will reflect them. Please check it out and respond with what you think. www.tj-mcintyre.com
Monday, July 14, 2014
Pew Predictions-what they missed, groundswell review
A couple of thoughts:
After reading the 2008 Pew "Future of the Internet" I have noticed that they never mentioned the movement towards what is begin referred to as the "internet of things." These include intelligent and "connected" devices that utilize the web or the cloud (also amiss) to improve their functionality and also smart connected "wearables". These experts were obviously keyed in on the impact of the iPhone (interestingly as it was released in 2007) as they prognosticated a surge in mobile access to the net and the prevalence of touch access. I wonder what the next six years will bring.
I finished my reading of groundswell. This book provides interesting stories and anecdotes about the futility of companies trying to mold, direct, control, or sway public opinion. When a story becomes socially driven and has broken it is futile to try to restrict the conversation in any way. Doing so only serves to stoke the fire even more. The book has very strong commitment to community based approach to marketing. Groundswell originates from community. A community can be as small as a business person forming a community around their role, or as large as a corporation finding entire market segments to build together i.e. Lego's target of AFOLs or adult fans of Legos. When building community the book recommends that companies listen to them (and they will pay big money to do so!) also the book recommends that companies have clear objectives when establishing communities. All of the activity in a community should be about reinforcing positive behaviors, encouraging new customers, and generating referrals. This is the heart of what the book means to energize the groundswell. How we interact with the groundswell, how a company educates its own culture to work with the groundswell and how the future of the groundswell is a force to be reckoned with (both internally and externally) receive the most coverage at the end of the book. This was an enlightening read and one I will recommend as well as take another pass over in the future. Great recommendation!
After reading the 2008 Pew "Future of the Internet" I have noticed that they never mentioned the movement towards what is begin referred to as the "internet of things." These include intelligent and "connected" devices that utilize the web or the cloud (also amiss) to improve their functionality and also smart connected "wearables". These experts were obviously keyed in on the impact of the iPhone (interestingly as it was released in 2007) as they prognosticated a surge in mobile access to the net and the prevalence of touch access. I wonder what the next six years will bring.
I finished my reading of groundswell. This book provides interesting stories and anecdotes about the futility of companies trying to mold, direct, control, or sway public opinion. When a story becomes socially driven and has broken it is futile to try to restrict the conversation in any way. Doing so only serves to stoke the fire even more. The book has very strong commitment to community based approach to marketing. Groundswell originates from community. A community can be as small as a business person forming a community around their role, or as large as a corporation finding entire market segments to build together i.e. Lego's target of AFOLs or adult fans of Legos. When building community the book recommends that companies listen to them (and they will pay big money to do so!) also the book recommends that companies have clear objectives when establishing communities. All of the activity in a community should be about reinforcing positive behaviors, encouraging new customers, and generating referrals. This is the heart of what the book means to energize the groundswell. How we interact with the groundswell, how a company educates its own culture to work with the groundswell and how the future of the groundswell is a force to be reckoned with (both internally and externally) receive the most coverage at the end of the book. This was an enlightening read and one I will recommend as well as take another pass over in the future. Great recommendation!
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Canvas-Pinterest ASSIGNMENT
Pinterest was formed in 2004 as a highly visual discovery tool. It quickly gained huge amounts of traffic and attracted lots of users.Since inception, Pinterest has made many upgrades to their site's functionality and has improved the user experience all the while staying true to the core mechanics that made it so popular to begin with.
The Pinterest site now has monetization built in through two major platforms. The first is through selling paid "professional" boards to businesses. These give businesses online storefronts and online catalog functionality that is superior to many social media offerings (such as Facebook) in terms of order size from customers. Also, customers tend to enjoy browsing products on Pinterest over similar competitive offerings.
Pinterest also has unique opportunity in the marketing data business as it collects information on the buying behavior, consumer trends, preferences etc. of its visitors. Marketing data is in high demand and a site with the traffic that Pinterest garners is likely to be able to deliver a feature rich application that excels at helping advertisers make their data more actionable.
I selected a cost structure for Pinterest that I felt best reflected where Pinterest allocates its resources. Site design, structure, functionality, and its programming is where Pinterest spends its cash. Hiring talent especially to improve data marketing support and programming support is reflected in salary and wage.
Business model canvas - ASSIGNMENT
Executive Summary
I modeled a relatively new company called HydroFlask. Hydroflask was officially formed in 2008 in Bend, Oregon but is just beginning to reach a mainstream target. The company has a unique water bottle that is vacuum sealed and is excellent at preserving temperatures and liquid integrity. Hydroflask is a privately held company and so information regarding its processes, accounting, and business operations is difficult to find. In making my assumptions I used market information for Dicks Sporting Goods. I believe that Dicks sporting goods is one of the largest if not the largest of Hydroflasks customers/retailers and therefore I derive available market information. In doing a web search on the DicksSporting Goods page I noticed about 40 competitor water bottles. Also, I was delighted to see hydroflask appear as the first entry. There is one other brand that also makes water bottles that are vacuum sealed and sold through dicks. I was very conservative in my sales and cost estimates. While Hydroflask is marketing its bottles towards five different customer segments it only has three bottle designs. Each bottle doesn't seem to have any particular features or style that would differentiate itself to the class it is trying to reach.
The various parts of the business model canvas that I think are most unique is that company has specifically chosen the five customer segments I included. The company currently only has one revenue stream, selling bottles.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Numerati
The articles on marketing data all seem to be driving the same point, prediction. I think that big data is trying to predict within a standard deviation how to or when to display an ad and suddenly we will purchase. I think that we are too complex but it is definitely interesting work.
I've been interested, and thinking a lot this week, about the idea of influence. If a marketing ad has influence (as we have learned lately from the Facebook studies and how FB can direct our moods) that is measurable, can we measure the influence friends recommendations have on each other. Do closer friends opinions influence our buying decisions more, or political votes, etc.?
I wonder what the smart watch, with its focus on health analytical will do for marketers. Could it measure peoples mood? And prompt them with an ad accordingly?
Anyway, I have learned a lot about data from the readings this week. The article about advertisers and clues from smartphones has me looking at marketing as more of a detective than a salesman. It's not about proving to people why something is better, but finding out what people prefer and getting that to them, so they can buy something they wanted already. Looking for the right clues (and respecting privacy) is important for this all to be effective.
I've been interested, and thinking a lot this week, about the idea of influence. If a marketing ad has influence (as we have learned lately from the Facebook studies and how FB can direct our moods) that is measurable, can we measure the influence friends recommendations have on each other. Do closer friends opinions influence our buying decisions more, or political votes, etc.?
I wonder what the smart watch, with its focus on health analytical will do for marketers. Could it measure peoples mood? And prompt them with an ad accordingly?
Anyway, I have learned a lot about data from the readings this week. The article about advertisers and clues from smartphones has me looking at marketing as more of a detective than a salesman. It's not about proving to people why something is better, but finding out what people prefer and getting that to them, so they can buy something they wanted already. Looking for the right clues (and respecting privacy) is important for this all to be effective.
Friday, July 11, 2014
Brand engagement
Reading the worlds most valuable brands - whose more engaged was enlightening. I will post my thoughts here as I read and circle back to find answers.
The article points out that brands who operate in more channels are engaged deeper in those channels and then points to brands simply learning from their experiences as reason for that engagement. I'm wondering if engagement expenditure could be used as a metric to determine engagement. How much are brands spending to be engaged? Are brands finding a better return at higher levels of engagement?
Financial performance correlates with engagement. This may be correlation but it is too hasty to derive causation.
I love Starbucks high engage meant focus on building relationships and not using social as an outlet for marketing. Huge payoffs with that philosophy and obviously it works with their score and limited staff. Kudos.
The article points out that brands who operate in more channels are engaged deeper in those channels and then points to brands simply learning from their experiences as reason for that engagement. I'm wondering if engagement expenditure could be used as a metric to determine engagement. How much are brands spending to be engaged? Are brands finding a better return at higher levels of engagement?
Financial performance correlates with engagement. This may be correlation but it is too hasty to derive causation.
I love Starbucks high engage meant focus on building relationships and not using social as an outlet for marketing. Huge payoffs with that philosophy and obviously it works with their score and limited staff. Kudos.
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