Marketing News October 2014

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

AMA.ORG

OCTOBER 2014

OCTOBER 2014

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Expert insights on brand vision, intellectual property and marketing analytics

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table of contents

OCTOBER 2014

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

VOL. 48 | NO. 10 AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Ric Sweeney Chairperson of the AMA Board 2014-2015 Russ Klein, AMA Chief Executive Officer rklein@ama.org Dennis Dunlap, AMA CEO Emeritus ddunlap@ama.org EDITORIAL STAFF

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Phone (800) AMA-1150 • Fax (312) 542-9001 E-mail editor@ama.org Elisabeth A. Sullivan, Editor in Chief esullivan@ama.org Melody Udell, Managing Editor mudell@ama.org Christine Birkner, Senior Staff Writer cbirkner@ama.org Molly Soat, Staff Writer msoat@ama.org

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42

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Kristina Zapata, Art Director kzapata@ama.org Vince Cerasani, Graphic Designer vcerasani@ama.org ADVERTISING STAFF

Fax (312) 922-3763 • E-mail ads@ama.org Richard Ballschmiede, Advertising Sales Director rballschmiede@ama.org (312) 542-9076

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Catherine Eck, Advertising Account Representative ceck@ama.org (312) 542-9103 Lore Gil, Job Board Sales lgil@ama.org (312) 542-9033 Sally Schmitz, Production Manager sschmitz@ama.org (312) 542-9038 Marketing News (ISSN 0025-3790) is published monthly by the Publishing Group of the American Marketing Association, 311 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 5800, Chicago, Ill. 60606-6629, USA. (800) AMA-1150, (312) 542-9000.

FEATURES COVER STORY

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Circulation: (800) AMA-1150, (312) 542-9000 Tel: (800) AMA-1150, (312) 542-9000 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Marketing News, 311 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 5800, Chicago, Ill. 60606-6629, USA. Periodical Postage paid at Chicago, Ill., and additional mailing offices.

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Opinions expressed are not necessarily endorsed by the AMA, its officers or staff.

Marketing News welcomes expressions of all professional viewpoints on marketing and its related areas. These may be as letters to the editor, columns or articles. Letters should be brief and may be condensed by the editors. Please request a copy of the “Writers’ Guidelines” before submitting an article. Upon submission to the AMA, photographs and manuscripts will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, adequately stamped envelope.

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Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for all content (including text, representations and illustrations) of advertisements published, and also assume responsibility for any claims arising therefrom made against the publisher. The right is reserved to reject any advertisement.

Copyright © 2014 by the American Marketing Association.

All rights reserved.

Without written permission from the AMA, any copying or reprinting (except by authors reprinting their own works) is prohibited. Requests for permission to reprint—such as copying for general distribution, advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works or resale—should be submitted in writing by mail or sent via e-mail to permissions@ama.org.

Reprints in quantity are available by contacting Kristy Snyder at Sheridan Reprints: (717) 632-3535.

Handcrafted goods are high on consumers’ lists, encouraging more artisans and craftspeople to launch small businesses. New companies like Portland, Ore.-based ADX are popping up to support this ‘maker movement.’

The Sages of Silicon Valley

Twenty-year-old CNET.com has to remain flexible to keep up with flashier, new tech media outlets. The brand has found success in leveraging its long history and in positioning its writers as subject matter experts.

Annual subscription rates: Marketing News is a benefit of membership for professional members of the American Marketing Association. Annual professional membership dues in the AMA are $220. Annual subscription rates: $35 members, $140 nonmembers and $190 libraries, corporations and institutions. International rates vary by country. Nonmembers: Order online at amaorders.org, call 1-800-633-4931 or e-mail amasubs@ebsco.com.

Single copies $10 individual, $10 institutions; foreign add $5 per copy for air, printed matter. Payment must be in U.S. funds or the equivalent. Canadian residents add 13% GST (GST Registration #127478527).

Makers’ Market

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DEPARTMENTS 2

the buzz

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core concepts

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SMB success

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marcom

MARKETING MANAGEMENT THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

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Time for a Deeper Dive Into Digital Media Effectiveness

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Success in the Battle Against Counterfeits

A Fitting Message

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59 AMA career resource center

The First Step in Building a Brand

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Your Mobile Moments Are Shrinking

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10 Tips for a Better Return on Marketing Analytics

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You Are Here

The E-Commerce Elixir

AMA event highlights

64 back page

Pat Dermody, president of Retale

65 AMA community

New School of Thought MOOCs have significant marketing potential for both the institutions that host them and the individuals who conduct them, experts say.

FIND OUT MORE AT

ama .org

OR FIND US ON

Printed in the U.S.A.

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thebuzz LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Networked

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ommunity and collaboration factor heavily into marketing and the broader marketplace these days, as we become more connected both online and off. In this issue, we discuss the marketing power of that connectedness.

Our cover story on page 26 describes the work of ADX, a Portland, Ore.based “makerspace” that offers artisans, craftspeople and small-business owners space in which to work, tools and resources to get the job done, and a community of like-minded peers with whom to share their expertise and their go-to-market strategies. ADX is one of several makerspaces across the country that are both supporting and profiting off of the “maker movement,” helping these small-business owners build their brands and promote their handcrafted goods.

On page 42, we discuss the marketing power that MOOCs, or massive open online courses, offer the schools that host them and the professors who teach them. MOOCs have the ability to bring students from across the globe together to share in specialized academic content and by doing so, MOOCs can boost awareness of both universities’ brands and professors’ personal brands.

Networks are the means by which knowledge is shared, brands are built and business goals are achieved. Add us to your network, and let us know how you’re leveraging your connectedness.

Best,

Elisabeth A. Sullivan esullivan@ama.org

LOG ON:

NEW FROM AMA TV In this episode, learn how a popular research technique can help marketers remain relevant and reduce the length of their companies’ sales cycles. Plus, StatWizards shows you a new way to forecast.

Visit AMATV.ama.org.

NEW AMA WEBCASTS HOW TO MAKE GOOGLE LOVE YOUR GLOBAL CONTENT Is your site ready to be found, browsed and shopped by global consumers? This webinar will show you how to internationalize your website to leverage cross-border opportunities and expand your customer base.

Visit ama.org/Webcasts.

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TWITTER FOR BUSINESS: YES, IT’S FOR REAL THIS TIME Mark Schaefer, author of The Tao of Twitter, will uncover 10 actionable and valuable, new uses for Twitter in your marketing mix.

Visit ama.org/Webcasts.

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thebuzz AMA NEWS

45 Countries Represented at 2014 Summer Marketing Educators’ Conference, Thanks to AMA’s Academic Council

First row, from left: 2014-2015 Academic Council members Zeynep Gürhan-Canli, Koç University; Robin Coulter, University of Connecticut; Vanitha Swaminathan, University of Pittsburgh; and Stephanie Noble, University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Second row, from left: Andrea Dixon, Baylor University; Linda Price, University of Arizona; Sandy Jap, Emory University; and Rebecca Slotegraaf, Indiana University.

Third row, from left: David Griffith, Lehigh University; Mike Brady, Florida State University; Alan Malter, University of Illinois at Chicago; and Natalie Mizik, University of Washington.

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he 2014 Summer Marketing Educators’ Conference (Summer AMA), held Aug. 1-3 in San Francisco, garnered its highest attendance in nearly a decade. Conference co-chairs Rebecca Hamilton of Georgetown University and Alberto Sa Vinhas of Washington State University Vancouver launched the Summer AMA mobile guide, organized a new plenary session and doubled the number of poster

presentations in an effort to expand cross-discipline conversations.

Summer AMA is planned each year with the help of the AMA’s Academic Council, which advocates for the AMA’s academic members; facilitates an industry view of AMA offerings for academics and marketers; and fosters the growth of the AMA academic segment, a community of professionals including marketing educators, doctoral students and scholarly researchers. Next year’s

Summer AMA already is in the works, with Michael Ahearne of the University of Houston and Doug Hughes of Michigan State University at the helm.

Turn to page 62 for more conference photos.

•org Learn more at ama.org/Summer.

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thebuzz BUZZ BIT

ALS Fundraising Takes the Plunge With Experiential Marketing

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y now, thousands of Americans (and a growing number of people outside the U.S.) have filmed themselves dumping buckets of ice water over their heads in an effort to raise awareness of and boost research funds for a neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The filmed exhibitions of charitable concern are part of a social-media-based fundraising effort, dubbed the Ice Bucket Challenge, that quickly went viral this summer after friends of former Boston College athlete Pete Frates, diagnosed with ALS in 2012, kicked off the campaign in an attempt to generate funds for ALS research in Frates’ honor. Their unofficial effort garnered attention from Boston athletes and the local media, and has since spread worldwide. As of Aug. 25, the grassroots initiative had helped raise $79.7 million for the cause, according to the ALS Association, the effort’s primary beneficiary, compared with the $2.5 million that the association generated for the cause during the same period in 2013.

The effort’s success, experts say, lies in its simplicity, and in its ability to engage potential donors via an experiential fundraising and awareness-building message.

Requiring just a bucket of ice water, a smartphone and a social media presence, it’s easy for people to participate.

It also appeals to the “selfie generation” because it gives them a chance to showcase their charitable work online.

All participants must do is film themselves dumping a bucket of ice water over their own heads (or having someone else do the honor), post the videos on their social media pages (Facebook, primarily) and challenge

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acquaintances to either film their own icy baths, or donate to the ALS Association or another nonprofit, or both.

The fundraising effort isn’t unique, of course, but it has gained traction because “anyone can do it, it appeals to all ages and all demographics, and it’s fun,” says Gabrielle Martinez, managing partner and co-founder of AgencyEA, a Chicago-based event and experiential marketing firm.

Add in the potential comedic factor coupled with the effort’s savvy timing in the middle of summer and “it has the components of a perfect marketing tactic,” she says.

A clear, simple hashtag for the challenge also helped drive awareness on social media, and the videos make for interesting entertainment in the social sphere, helping to expand their reach, says Matt Miller, vice president and creative director for experiential marketing at Minneapolis-based agency Periscope. “It’s a little bit out of the norm, so that makes it more fun to share with others, or for other people to then watch that content or want to pass that content on,” he says.

Plus, an experiential marketing effort can be more effective at making a cause-related message hit home for donors, Miller says. “Their understanding of it is a little more ingrained, a little deeper than if they’re just hearing a passive message or seeing a billboard. By being more involved, we tend to remember more, so you’re getting your message across in a different way that’s going to sink in.”

•org This story originally appeared in the Marketing Health Services e-newsletter. To subscribe, visit ama.org/Enewsletters.

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thebuzz AMA NEWS

11 Questions With Russ Klein

BY ELISABETH A. SULLIVAN | EDITOR IN CHIEF

 esullivan@ama.org

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his month marks the transfer of leadership from 15-year AMA CEO Dennis Dunlap to Russ Klein. A career marketer and advertiser, Klein started on the agency side, working on accounts including Gatorade, McDonald’s and United Airlines, and ultimately switched to the client side, where he assumed the role of top marketer for companies including Dr Pepper/Seven-Up, 7-Eleven, Burger King and Arby’s.

Marketing News recently sat down with Klein to discuss his career, his perspectives on branding and stakeholder management, his agenda for his first year as the AMA’s chief executive, and his thoughts on the AMA’s role in illuminating the path toward the future of marketing.

Q A

How did you get into marketing?

I think many people in marketing have their own lemonade stand stories. In my case, it was a barn sale in rural Ohio. Our family had a hobby ranch … and as time went by, we ended up selling our land and the barn was going to be destroyed. It was somewhat of a working ranch and we had a lot of inventory to sell with the objective of using the proceeds to travel someplace exotic. My assignment was to develop the signs for the barn sale and to place the signs around town to attract potential shoppers.

It was an overwhelming success. We sold everything, including parts of the barn, itself. I quickly came to the realization that if you have something that people want and you have a good message, and you put that message in places that intersect with those customers’ lives, good things happen.

We were able to take a family vacation to Jamaica, where we rented a villa for a week, and it’s still probably the most memorable vacation that I’ve taken in my life.

Q A

Why did you decide to start your career on the agency side?

My first job was in Cleveland, Ohio, for an agency named Carr Liggett, now Liggett Stashower. … I got hired into an account executive position for the McDonald’s account. It was a great way to cut my teeth. I did field area marketing surveys and pin-dot studies to identify traffic flows around a given McDonald’s in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. …

Then I took a job working for Leo Burnett for the next, almost, eight years. For me, it was a great way to break into the business. It provided variety because you could work for a different company every two years and not have to leave your own company. I had the chance to feel like I was walking in the shoes of a United Airlines employee, a Kimberly-Clark employee, a Keebler cookies employee, a Maytag repairman, on and on with different accounts.

Q

As a marketer on the client side, you’ve worked with the franchise model. What do you think it takes to create a cohesive brand experience at every customer touch point?

A

Marketing and advertising in a franchise model or any business model like it, where there might be independent distributors or a spider web of installations around the world, creates a challenge around stakeholder management, which is critical. It’s not enough to just develop the right idea. You have to convince thousands of other stakeholders that that idea is the right one for them.

You have to align the organization, and you have to inspire the organization so that they believe in your idea with all of the heart and soul that the creators have for the idea.

“If you have something that people want and you have a good message, and you put that message in places that intersect with those customers’ lives, good things happen.”

I’ve always said that the store manager trumps the brand manager every time. That simply means that great ideas can be dreamt up upstream at a headquarters somewhere, but if they aren’t fully aligned at the front line, in the marketplace—perhaps, the example being a store manager—they won’t get executed with any clarity or with excellence. The greatest of ideas, if not properly communicated, aligned and inspired, will fall short of achieving their goal because it requires that completeness in stakeholder management to bring everybody together behind a given idea. That makes marketing and advertising in those models particularly stressful.

Continues on the next page >>

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“This is a nexus of my lifelong role as a teacher and a student of best practices in marketing science, my love of originality and innovation, and my practitioner experience. … For me, that bundle of both credentials and ambitions that make me tick was all wrapped up in this AMA opportunity.”

Q

Even well outside of franchise models or complex distribution networks, marketers are having trouble unifying their brands and their brand experiences across touch points. What works in getting stakeholders to buy into a marketer’s plan?

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It’s always been my philosophy that there are three ways that you can change someone’s mind and bring someone into alignment: You can force them, you can persuade them or you can inspire them. You can wave a contract or an agreement at them that says, ‘You’re supposed to do this because this contract says you have to,’ or, ‘You have to do this because I’m your boss and I say you have to.’ You can pull out a PowerPoint and show them all of the rational and reasonable facts as to why they should do what you want them to do, and do it exactly the way that you want to have it done. Or the most desirable way, in my view, is to inspire alignment.

By inspiring alignment, you have people come to the idea, rather than the idea being foisted upon your stakeholders and constituents. Inspiration requires vision and relevance, and purpose. It allows constituents to buy in and makes them desire, or hunger, to be part of that vision. That’s how organizations can align effectively, when they’re doing

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it because they’ve been inspired to do so … when they are moved by something that is greater than themselves, by something that is authentic and that is delivered with earnestness, and something that’s uplifting, whether it’s a new marketing idea or a new product idea, something that brings excitement and hope. When you can put that together around an inspired message, it will not only align your organization upstream to downstream, it will bring together sales and marketing, and operations and finance.

Q

You’ve marketed global brands and category leaders, but you haven’t been known to just rest on the brands’ historical standing. You’ve been known to push the envelope. Now you’re at the helm of a 77-yearold organization that’s founded on a pretty straightlaced background of marketing science and marketing research. What do you plan to change at the AMA? How can the organization reposition itself to meet marketers’ needs going forward?

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I’ve been asked whether I’m going to shake things up at the AMA. … I would only say that if the AMA doesn’t do its best to keep its brand name fresh, modern and relevant, then how could we be the resource and the

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thebuzz

definitive repository for marketing science best practices and excellence? The AMA has to be on its brand management game. If we don’t anticipate emerging markets, change around which we have to adapt to lead, the marketplace will shake us up. I’d rather that we do the shaking.

I believe that there are a lot of people who care deeply about what the AMA means to them at the local or chapter level, and who have a lot of ideas on how the AMA can be of greater service to more chapters, more volunteers and, ultimately, more members.

Q

Q

Why did you take this role on? What attracted you to the challenge of ushering this organization into its next phase?

A

The opportunity to lead the American Marketing Association into its next era is, for me, a calling. … This is a nexus of my lifelong role as a teacher and a student of best practices in marketing science, my love of originality and innovation, my practitioner experience with a whole host of brands and having been a chief marketing officer at four different organizations. For me, that bundle of both credentials and ambitions that make me tick was all wrapped up in this AMA opportunity.

You’re a newly minted AMA member, yourself.

As an outsider coming in, what are your top-line thoughts about how the organization can boost its thought leadership positioning, its prestige within the marketplace?

A

The AMA’s leadership is made possible as a result of the academic consortium that is at the core of the organization. … The AMA should understand and covet the important role that the academics and journals play in keeping the AMA a cut above every other knowledgebased organization focused on marketing science. Our ability to leverage that—to, perhaps, spotlight it more effectively—will be critical for us with our growth strategies.

Q

Previously, you’ve mentioned tastemakers who are charged with building brands. Where should the AMA’s tastemakers reside? Are they within international headquarters, or ‘IH,’ or are they at the chapter level?

Q

A

A

That’s a great question. My sense of the AMA brand is that the most formative experience for someone who is engaged with the AMA comes through a connection at the chapter level. It’s at the chapter level where the content, thought leadership and marketing science excellence from the AMA comes together with the individual who is seeking a solution for his problem, a better strategy for his business, a chance to meet other marketing talent who could possibly be an alliance, a new customer, a new supplier. The alchemy of those factors happens at the chapter level. I view the AMA’s so-called ‘IH’ as a resource, a support organization to provide the content and support for that to happen at the chapter level.

Q

You’ve talked about establishing open lines of communication with chapters and being really visible there. How do you plan to incorporate their feedback to help advance the AMA brand?

A

My plan is to personally be as available as humanly possible in the markets, in the chapter meetings, retreats, regional meetings and council meetings, as much as my calendar can bear it. I can only be in one place at one time, but I will place being out in the markets as a priority. There’s just no substitute to being there. …

We are at the service of our constituents in the chapters, and both members and nonmembers who procure our work product from us are out there. They’re not in this building. We have to remember to be connected to those individuals. … We’re responsible for the AMA brand, but

As of Oct. 1, you’ve begun your first year as chief executive. What is your agenda for your first year at the helm?

I have an agenda of theories right now and I think that I would be well-advised to keep them at the theoretical level for now. What I really need to do is build knowledge and context. Only then can I place any ideas in proper perspective as to whether they make sense, whether they’re timely and achievable, and whether we have the resources to pursue them.

I think one of our challenges will be really to simplify the AMA, in some ways, because we are a vast generator of content, which is impressive, and we have so many opportunities out there and it’d be great if we could pursue them all, but we can’t. I think that the first year for me will be focused on understanding what matters, understanding to whom it matters and sorting out a game plan that makes sense for the AMA from 2015 to 2020.

Q A

What do you think marketing will look like in 2020?

You know, there is only six-tenths of 1% of connectivity that has occurred so far, in terms of sensors and smart homes and all of the possible things both in industrial markets and consumer markets that can be connected. Only six-tenths of 1% has been connected so far. … As more connectivity occurs, there will be a ricochet effect through marketing that I’m not sure we can even imagine, but I know that that will be the driver. Our ability to not only navigate that path as the AMA, but to throw light on that path for others, I consider that to be the AMA’s duty. m

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coreconcepts

MAP APPS

You Are Here Customers rely on smartphone map apps to locate products and services, but small-business listings aren’t always complete.

Here’s how to make sure that your business is on the map.

BY CHRISTINE BIRKNER | SENIOR STAFF WRITER

 cbirkner@ama.org

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efore the ubiquity of smartphones, customers searched for a local shoe repair store, florist or sandwich shop by dialing 411 or consulting the phone book. Now most people find what they’re looking for by tapping the map app on their smartphones. Small-business

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listings don’t appear on these apps automatically, however, and if your listing is missing or incorrect, your sales will suffer, experts say.

“Apple and Google will call on the big retailers directly and ask for a feed of all of their location data, but they don’t do that for small businesses,” says Nathan

Pettyjohn, CEO of St. Louis-based Aisle411 Inc., which provides mobile location tracking services for retailers.

“Everything is mobile now, so when people look up your store, they’ll follow the map and if it’s not there, they won’t go in your store, even if it’s a block away.”

Here’s how to make sure that your business listing isn’t lost in the digital shuffle.

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Submit or edit listings through each app service, individually.

For Apple Maps, check the app, itself, and if your listing is missing or incorrect, you can submit changes to Apple by clicking on “report a problem.” For Google maps, you can add or change your listing for free via the Google My

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MAP APPS

Business website, Google.com/business.

Yahoo Localworks (SmallBusiness. yahoo.com/local-listings) offers a free basic map listing for small businesses on Yahoo, and for $29.99 a month, you can list your business across 40 local directories, including the apps for Yahoo Local, Yelp, Whitepages, Bing, MapQuest and Superpages. Because larger map app services often pull data from Yelp and TomTom, you also should add or update your listings on those websites.

Figure out your own customers’ most common access points for your company information and focus your efforts there, advises Peter Christianson, director of product marketing at Retailigence Corp., a Redwood City, Calif.-based marketing platform provider that helps stores provide location data for apps.

“You should be talking to your customers and asking them how they found you. If they found you on Google Maps or on Foursquare, maybe you should spend more time making sure you’re visible there.”

coreconcepts

“Everything is mobile now, so when people look up your store, they’ll follow the map and if it’s not there, they won’t go in your store, even if it’s a block away.”

NATHAN PETTYJOHN, AISLE411

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Hire location syndication services to update all of your information at once. Location syndication companies, such as Neustar Localeze, SinglePlatform, Signpost, Universal Business Listing and Yext, also make sure that your data is consistent across all of the major online directories and consumer-facing apps. Their services usually start at $30 per month and the cost is worth it, Christianson says.

“Sometimes, a competitor might change your data and you might not be aware of it. For SMBs, having a solution that does a lot of the work for you is appealing.”

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Look beyond the accuracy of your address. “Apps use specific location information, not just the address,” Pettyjohn says. “Knowing your latitude and longitude is good.

Make sure your coordinates are correct, so the app isn’t sending your customers to a store that’s two blocks away.” This is particularly important if you’re located in a shopping mall or strip mall, Pettyjohn says. “Even with the major retailers we

deal with, if an address is on the corner of a big strip mall, it makes it challenging for people to find it.”

Update your information if you change your address or add another location, Christianson says. “If you open a new store, sometimes it takes a while for your

new location to be indexed by these services.” Correct, consistent online data will ensure that new customers find you, he says. “Customers are starting their path to purchase on their mobile phones.

Most shoppers are starting online, but they end up in a local store.” m

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SEO

Photos courtesy of Homemade Gin Kit.

SMBsuccess

The E-Commerce Elixir A startup home-distilling business shores up its SEO rankings with traditional PR tactics

BY MOLLY SOAT | STAFF WRITER

 msoat@ama.org

T

he makers of the Homemade Gin Kit knew that they were entering an already crowded at-home brewing and craft cocktail space when they launched their product, a gift box of tools and ingredients for at-home distillers—no bathtub required—but rather than investing startup cash in a

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concerted advertising and promotional effort to drive traffic to their site, the founders focused their energy on SEO. The company was launched in 2012 by the husbands-and-wives team of Joe and Sarah Maiellano and Jack and Molly Hubbard, who banded together to build a small business offering home distillery

kits in their downtime. They had dreams of starting their own distillery, but cost and legal regulations made it unattainable, so they decided to build DIY kits around their simple recipe for homemade gin: vodka distilled with a few herbs for 36 hours. The kits contain all of the necessary tools and ingredients, minus the alcohol—two glass bottles, a stainless steel strainer, a stainless steel funnel, juniper berries and a “botanical blend”—all packaged in a clean-lined cardboard box with classic typography befitting the vintage-inspired brand.

The founders all have expertise in fields such as accounting and PR, which they applied to their side gig to get the business up and running as an e-commerce site in time for the 2012

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holiday season. Their initial goal was to sell 250 kits between Christmas 2012 and Father’s Day 2013. Instead, they sold 2,500. Sarah Maiellano, who is the communications director for the brand, credits the kits’ success to PR efforts and earned media, which enabled the site to be found amidst the competitive homebrewing category.

While working full time as a PR representative in Washington, D.C., Maiellano sent samples and press releases for the Homemade Gin Kit to blog authors, gift guide curators and traditional media outlets. The ball started rolling, she says, when the kit appeared in an e-newsletter gift guide from UrbanDaddy, a popular nightlife blog. From there, dozens of lifestyle blogs mentioned the kit and soon The New York Times’ cocktail columnist Florence Fabricant gave the kit a glowing review. More earned media, and online orders, poured in.

“We’re a really small business, so we can’t pay someone to do our SEO and we can’t do it full time,” she says. “We bank on earned media traffic, and our social networks, Twitter and Facebook, to help boost us, too. … Once we got coverage in a lot of reputable places online and people were talking about us, SEO [success] kind of came to us. We’ve been in about 250 media outlets in 18 months, and that includes The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Real Simple and Esquire. Every time one of those major media outlets covers us, we see lots of blogs mention us, too, and that boosts our SEO even more.”

SMBsuccess

The Homemade Gin Kit includes two glass bottles, a stainless steel strainer and funnel, and the brand’s custom blend of botanical “gin-gredients.”

After the initial order boom, the team quickly expanded from its e-commerce origins on HomemadeGin.com into bricks-and-mortar sales through highend gift shops and liquor stores. Earlier this year, with some feedback from craftmaker friends, the team redesigned its packaging, and included custom and highend tools in the kit, making the kit more aesthetically pleasing to the brand’s target market of millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers with disposable income and a taste for craft alcohol, Maiellano says.

With those changes in place, the team also raised the kit’s price from $40 to $50.

Boosting SEO without paying for ads is all about outside links and media mentions, says Bill Ross, founder and CEO of Chicago-based small-business SEO consultancy Linchpin SEO. “External links are always a positive thing. Google also uses mentions in articles that don’t have a link and it’s getting better at that, so newspaper and magazine articles help a lot, as long as they’re authoritative sites. It shows Google that the brand is doing real stuff and getting mentions in publications, so it adds legitimacy and boosts SEO,” he says.

Any article that garners a lot of clicks and contains a link to a brand’s site

will boost the site’s SEO, Ross says, but Google also is able to analyze what it calls “implied links” to organize search results.

Implied links are created when a brand name appears in a legitimate (according to Google) article or blog post, even if the article doesn’t have a direct link to the brand’s site. In a nutshell, good PR means good SEO. For SMB marketers, it’s important to create a “press” microsite on your brand’s home page, Ross advises, and make sure that it links to only the most legitimate media outlets that mention your brand.

“Don’t go overboard and link to every single mention of the brand on blog posts and lesser outlets,” he says. “Pick a few standouts. That signals to search engines, and customers, that the brand has validity.”

According to Maiellano, the brand’s strong search rankings and positive online media mentions keep them competitive in an ever-growing market of DIY kits, alcohol-themed gifts and home-brewing gadgets. “We can’t prevent other people from entering the market,” she says, “but given the SEO that we have right now, it would be very difficult for someone else to phase us out of those top results.” m

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PUBLIC RELATIONS

Photos courtesy of Healing Waters International.

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A Fitting Message A customer engagement effort turned PR campaign helps boost brand awareness and perception for both B-to-B vendor Industrial Specialties Manufacturing and its nonprofit client, Healing Waters International

BY CHRISTINE BIRKNER | SENIOR STAFF WRITER

 cbirkner@ama.org

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ndustrial Specialties Manufacturing (ISM), an Englewood, Colo.-based supplier of fittings, filters and flow control products used by the medical, automotive, mechanical, ink-jet printing and outdoor power sports

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industries, was looking for a creative way to boost customer engagement and expand its industry reach. But what started as a simple social media contest turned into a PR effort to boost brand goodwill.

In April 2014, ISM launched a contest encouraging customers to submit a photo and description online of how they use ISM products. All entrants received $20 Amazon gift cards, and the winner— chosen by ISM’s internal judging committee—would receive an iPad Mini.

ISM posted the entries on its Facebook and Google+ pages.

The goal of the contest, initially, was to increase ISM’s Facebook “likes,” gather customer testimonials to use in the company’s marketing materials, and help ISM pursue more business in specialty industries, says James Davis, ISM’s president. “We wanted to find the most interesting company … with an interesting target market that we could use, so we could go to that market and

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say: ‘Look at this company. They’re a leader in your industry and they’re using our products.’ ” The contest’s goals evolved, however, when ISM received a submission from Healing Waters International, a Golden, Colo.-based nonprofit that builds water treatment systems to provide clean drinking water in Africa, South America and Central America. Healing Waters uses ISM strainers and fittings in its water systems to purify drinking water in developing countries. The organization submitted a photo of a young man in Somalia smiling next to a water filtration system, and it struck a chord with the ISM team.

“We realized that the filters and valves that we provide them are being used to actually help children in these countries,” Davis says. “The Healing Waters story was so compelling that we changed direction and said, ‘Rather than do this to promote our products, why don’t we promote the concept of helping companies with products that help people?’ We tried to make it less self-serving and more charitable.”

Healing Waters won the contest, and ISM donated free fittings to the nonprofit to cover their needs for the next year. Then ISM publicized the effort by posting an article about Healing Waters on its website and Facebook page, and in its quarterly customer e-newsletter, which is sent to 11,000 recipients. In August, it also mailed press releases, accompanied by hardcopy photos of children drinking clean water thanks to Healing Waters’ work, to 300 national publications. The press release explained Healing Waters’ mission, mentioned ISM’s donation to the nonprofit through the social media contest and encouraged other businesses to donate to charitable causes.

ISM’s press release distribution list consists mostly of trade publications for the industries that it serves, including the medical, automotive and mechanical sectors. ISM’s marketing department sends hard copies of press releases in additional to e-mailed releases because the company believes that paper releases are better at gaining people’s attention, according to Davis.

ISM initially planned to promote the contest via a targeted e-mail or newsletter campaign rather than through a widereaching press release, but Healing Waters’ story changed that, Davis says. “For us to do a press release, it has to be somewhat compelling, not just, ‘We did a contest and this is who won.’ This was compelling.”

Ryan Decker, director of partnerships at Healing Waters, adds: “It was exciting for a supplier to take an interest in our work and market that to their own customers. We love when our suppliers know what we’re doing, so they can join

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in on the mission. More than anything, we appreciate that they were willing to help us, not just with parts, but to be willing to add our [story] to their website.”

At press time, ISM didn’t have metrics on the PR effort, but its overall goal is to generate customer goodwill, Davis says. “We’re doing it more as a message and less as a lead generation or branding strategy. Hopefully, our customers will realize that we’re a company with integrity and they’ll continue doing business with us because they like what we’re about.” m

Healing Waters International submitted this photo of a young man in Somalia standing next to a water filtration system featuring ISM’s fittings, which struck a chord with the B-to-B vendor.

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MEDIA WORLD

Time for a Deeper Dive Into Digital Media Effectiveness

BY GORDON WYNER | CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

 gordon.wyner@gmail.com

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o achieve the benefits of today’s digital media, marketers must keep on top of changes that have the potential to increase or decrease the media’s effectiveness, or change our understanding of how they work. In this fast-evolving environment, it’s hard to precisely pin down the important trends. Here’s a look at some of the important issues to watch for.

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Potential to increase effectiveness. One of the original benefits cited for digital media is its ability to target individuals. Like other forms of targeted media, the rationale is that if the most relevant and responsive members of the buying population can be exposed to advertising and other marketing stimuli, then benefits accrue to the marketer.

Additionally, there should be less overall waste in the media environment, as fewer mass advertising messages are sent to people who have no interest in the product or message.

Targeting typically is improved by basing it on more consumer information.

Is the information that’s being used for the targeting strategy coming only from the marketer’s own website? Does the targeting strategy include Web search behavior on a large variety of sites frequented by consumers? Does it include thirdparty data on household and individual behavior, and descriptive demographics?

Presumably, the ad targeting tool that claims the richest database can add the

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most value for marketers who wish to find their prospective customers based on the most refined profiles that they can access.

If the addition of information narrows the audience to the “best” prospects, it’s going to cost more per exposure. The added unit cost would be worthwhile if it yields more qualified customers and actual sales than a strictly mass-marketing approach. The answer to the question of worth is based on overall return on investment and can be calculated from data via experimentation and “after the fact” evaluation.

The application of computerized solutions to the buying and placement of digital advertising and the improvement of media allocations has the potential to streamline the process, and reduce time and costs. One application of this technological evolution is referred to as programmatic buying, in which individual ad impressions for targeted site visitors are purchased in real time. Currently, programmatic buying often is associated with auctions for purchasing less desirable

advertising inventory, particularly display ads. However, it could grow to include a wider range of ad types, and incorporate more data and tools to optimize selection.

Its future acceptance by the advertising community and its ultimate success will depend on maintaining a fair market environment, such as by being transparent about fees and advertising costs, or CPM.

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Potential to decrease effectiveness. At this point in time, it’s hard to say how big the resistance to digital advertising is in light of consumers’ privacy concerns, and how big it will become in the future. At some level of resistance or opting out, this will materially impact consumers’ exposure and response to advertising, and marketers’ return on investment.

Moreover, industry studies have claimed that significant portions of online ads simply aren’t seen by consumers, possibly as much as 30 to 50%, depending on the specific context. This constitutes waste in the advertising environment, analogous to spam e-mail. Inflated measures of online exposure translate into higher than stated prices for advertising, lower response and reduced overall effectiveness.

Indicators to watch include studies that quantify the amount of waste and investments by media and measurement companies in technologies to reduce waste. Waste has always been an issue with advertising. Software can help manage the digital media waste in more sophisticated ways.

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Potential to change how marketing works. One of the early claims for digital advertising is that it would rely less on soft measures of consumer response (like survey-based measures of awareness, consideration and intention) and focus more on the demonstrated behavioral response of individual consumers. While intermediatestage consumer response could be measured (for example, clicks or “likes”), they were less powerful metrics than actual behavioral sales response.

Recent news reports suggest greater interest in some additional metrics that are

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not directly tied to sales. For example, Twitter reportedly is considering the development and promotion of more engagement metrics, such as measures of visitors’ length of stay on a site, in addition to user counts.

Perhaps this will lead to greater recognition of the need to understand how advertising works in more detail than simply sales per exposure. The process by which consumers become aware, form brand impressions, use the product and repeat purchase has a role to play in marketing effectiveness, after all. The resources needed to track and understand this process may just be the cost of doing digital business. m GORDON WYNER , vice president of client solutions at Millward Brown, is the contributing editor for Marketing News’ Marketing Management thought leadership content.

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INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

Success in the Battle Against Counterfeits

BY MICHAEL R. CZINKOTA AND ILKKA A. RONKAINEN

 czinkotm@georgetown.edu  ronkaii@georgetown.edu

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he problem of fake or counterfeit products and services is an international plague. Companies keep facing counterfeit product issues with the aim of verifying sellers and protecting buyers, and it’s no longer just in the United States and in other highly post-industrialized countries where the problem of misleading merchandise stands in the foreground.

China’s biggest Internet companies have clamped down on a problem that has hit China’s e-commerce market particularly hard. Common scams involve posting fake ads to draw unsuspecting consumers, selling knockoffs or accepting payments for products that are never delivered. Alibaba, China’s largest Internet trading firm, is striving to project a clean image and increase oversight as the e-commerce platform moves toward the world’s largest public offerings ever. Alibaba spends more than $16 million yearly fighting counterfeit goods, particularly on Taobao, its biggest shopping site.

With the globalization of competition, new markets, especially in emerging countries, have become both recipients and originators of products that involve intellectual property. Just consider the value of African music components that have been integrated into Western melodies. The communication revolution, emanating from the growth of digital and online technologies, has made intellectual property both easier to distribute and more difficult to control.

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Moreover, many countries, particularly poorer ones, are reluctant and often unable to pay for intellectual property.

As these countries grow and develop their indigenous innovations, they also grow in their understanding of the IP issue and their need to protect their own IP, and they develop a willingness to pay for IP. Strategic and Effective Responses It takes effective intellectual property enforcement to ensure that a revolutionary idea can blossom into economic opportunity, and to allow the innovative spirit to create the good, high-paying jobs that will drive our prosperity in this century.

Effective enforcement, in turn, requires understanding the nature of the threat.

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) have become a core issue in the economic debate. Newspapers’ front pages continually report major controversies among corporations, governments and consumers. No longer confined to cheap knockoffs of luxury goods, IP theft is

putting industry and the public at risk of highly adverse economic, safety and health consequences.

Counterfeit goods are any goods bearing an unauthorized representation of a trademark or patented invention, or copyrighted work that is legally protected in the country where it is marketed. Globally, companies reportedly lose a total of $657 billion every year because of product counterfeiting and other infringement on intellectual property. IPR violations have spread to high-tech products and services from the traditionally counterfeited products. Today’s key problems are with high-visibility and strong brand name consumer goods. In addition, previously the only concern was whether a company’s product was being counterfeited; now, companies have to worry about whether the raw materials and components purchased for production are, themselves, genuine.

The European Union estimates that trade in counterfeit goods now accounts for 2% of total world trade. The International Chamber of Commerce estimates the figure at 5 to 7%. In general, countries with lower per capita incomes, higher levels of corruption in government and lower levels of involvement in international trade tend to have more intellectual property violations.

After securing valuable intellectual property rights, the international marketer must act to enforce these rights. Types of action against counterfeiting are legal remedies, bilateral and multilateral negotiations, joint private sector action, and administrative measures encouraged by individual companies. It is essential that all of the parties interact to gain the most effect. A multidimensional threat requires a multidimensional response.

No industry or country is immune from the threat, nor can they address the threat alone. One needs increased cooperation of affected parties, as well as increased resources and improved tools to tackle the growing and evolving nature of the threat. There also is a

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need for better education regarding the risks that IPR violations pose and how to defend against them. The following analysis provides a detailed basis for developing more strategic and effective responses to the burgeoning threat.

Legislative and Enforcement Steps The pharmaceutical industry lobbied to make sure that provisions for patent protection in the NAFTA agreement were meticulously spelled out. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) addressed the issue of international IP protection by responding to the Special 301 Report issued by the United States Trade Representative in May 2012. PhRMA noted, “The Special 301 process continues to be effective in gaining high-level attention from our trading partners—attention that is needed

to redress intellectual property violations and market access concerns.� The PhRMA statement cited the need for IP protections in spurring innovation, research and development, as well as the need for fair international market conditions to ensure that patients have access to medications.

The World Health Organization defines counterfeit pharmaceuticals as medicines that have been deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled as to the identity or source in an effort to make them appear to be genuine. The Food and Drug Administration defines counterfeit pharmaceuticals as drugs that are produced, distributed or sold under a product name without authorization from the rights holder, and where the identity of the drug source is knowingly and intentionally mislabeled in a way that suggests that it is the authentic and approved product. One research firm

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estimated that the global market for counterfeit pharmaceuticals generates revenues between $75 billion and $200 billion per year.

The Pharmaceutical Security Institute, a pharmaceutical trade association created to address illegal pharmaceutical incidents, collects data on the number of counterfeiting, illegal diversion and theft incidents. These incidents increased 78% from 2005 to 2009. Pfizer reports that between 2004 and 2010, it seized more than 62 million doses of counterfeit medicines worldwide. More than 200 million counterfeit Eli Lilly medicines have been seized in 800 raids around the world.

Illegal Internet pharmacies conceal their real identity, are operated internationally, sell medications without prescriptions, and deliver products with unknown and unpredictable origins or histories. These sites are particularly dangerous because

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distinguishes honest and reliable retail merchants, thereby gaining consumers’ confidence and trust.

In 2004, the effort expanded to Guangdong Province when the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department cooperated with the Guangdong Intellectual Property Office. In 2011, the Guangdong Intellectual Property Office, Copyright Bureau of Guangdong Province and Guangdong Province Administration for Industry and Commerce jointly announced the launch of the “No Fakes Pledge” in all 21 cities at the prefectural level in Guangdong Province, as well as Shunde District, Foshan.

All retail merchants participating in the “No Fakes Pledge” post “No Fakes” stickers and tent cards in their shops, so consumers can easily identify reliable retailers.

consumers generally have no way to determine what’s in the medicines that they receive. Consumers don’t understand the risk of purchasing drugs from these sites. Sixty-three percent of Americans surveyed reported hearing nothing or very little about prescription drugs being made with ingredients that make them unsafe to consume. Also, in case of problems, where can the suffering consumer seek recourse?

Educate Hong Kong is committed to the protection of intellectual property. With the goal of enhancing consumer confidence in Hong Kong, and to strengthen the city’s reputation as a “shopping paradise” for genuine products, the Intellectual Property Department has launched the “No Fakes Pledge.”

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The effort was established in 1998 by the Hong Kong & Kowloon Electrical Appliances Merchants’ Association Limited and the Hong Kong Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries.

The “No Fakes Pledge” not only aims to promote a sense of pride among traders who don’t deal in counterfeit and pirated goods, but also aims to enhance awareness of intellectual property protection among retailers and consumers alike. The “No Fakes Pledge” campaign encourages participating retail merchants to set a good example by pledging not to sell or distribute counterfeit or pirated products, thus establishing and upholding honest and trustworthy trading practices. With the help of strong marketing and growing participation, this campaign further

Public and Private-Sector Interaction A number of other governments are drafting similar policies, which have served as a catalyst for enhancing protection in both the public and private sectors in those nations. Efforts to protect intellectual property and modernize the patent and trademark system are crucial.

A victory over fakes and counterfeits will protect the quality and reliability of products and services, and will let customers be more informed and secure in their usage decisions. m MICHAEL R. CZINKOTA researches international business and marketing issues at Georgetown University. He served in trade policy positions in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. His International Marketing text, co-authored

by Ilkka Ronkainen, is now in its 10th edition with Cengage.

ILKKA A. RONKAINEN is a member of the faculty of marketing and international business at Georgetown University. He has received the undergraduate teaching and research award twice, as well as the International Executive MBA award.

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AAKER ON BRANDING

The First Step in Building a Brand

BY DAVID AAKER

 daaker@prophet.com

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t starts with a brand vision. You absolutely need an articulated description of the aspirational image for the brand: what you want the brand to stand for in the eyes of customers and other relevant groups, such as employees and partners. It ultimately drives the brand-building component of the marketing program and greatly influences the rest.

A personal note: While I discussed the concept of an aspirational image in two prior branding books and labeled it “brand identity,” I re-labeled it as “brand vision” in my new book, Aaker on Branding, which is something that I had long wanted to do. I took a mulligan, as they say in golf. The term “brand vision” is much better at capturing the strategic, aspirational nature of the concept. Also, the word “identity” has less energy and too often creates confusion because, for some, identity refers to the graphic design surrounding the brand.

When the brand vision clicks, it will reflect and support the business strategy, differentiate the brand from competitors, resonate with customers, energize and inspire employees and partners, precipitate a gush of brand-building ideas, and generate consistent, “on-brand” brand building over offerings and segments.

When absent or superficial, the brand will drift aimlessly, and marketing programs are likely to be inconsistent and ineffective.

The brand vision model (formerly the brand identity model) is one structural framework for the development of a

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brand vision with a point of view that distinguishes it from others in several ways.

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A brand is more than a threeword phrase. It may be based on six to 12 vision elements. Most brands cannot be defined by a single thought or phrase, and the quest to find this magic brand concept can be fruitless or, worse, can leave the brand with an incomplete vision missing some relevant elements.

The vision elements are prioritized into the two to five that are the most compelling and differentiating, termed the “core vision elements,” while the others are labeled “extended vision elements.”

The core elements will reflect the value propositions going forward, and drive the brand-building programs and initiatives.

For the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business’s brand, for example, they are: “question the status quo,” “students always,” “beyond yourself ” and “confidence without attitude.”

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The extended vision elements serve a useful role.

They add texture to the brand vision,

allowing most strategists to make better judgments as to whether a program is “on brand.” The extended vision affords a home for important aspects of the brand, such as a brand personality, that may not merit being a core vision element, and for elements, such as high quality, that are crucial for success but may not be a basis for differentiation.

Such elements can and should influence branding programs. Too often during the process of creating a brand vision, a person’s nominee for an aspirational brand association is dismissed because it could not be a centerpiece of the brand. When such an idea can be placed in the extended vision, the discussion can go forward.

An extended vision element sometimes evolves into a core element, and without staying visible throughout the process, that would not happen.

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The brand vision model is not a “one size fits all, fill in the box” model with pre-specified dimensions in which all brands in all contexts need to fill in each box even if the box does not apply to them.

Nor are brands excluded from using a dimension that lacks a “box.” Rather, the dimensions are selected that are relevant for the context at hand—and contexts vary. Organizational values and programs are likely to be important for service and B-to-B firms but not for consumer package goods, for example.

Innovation is likely to be important for high-tech brands but less so for some packaged goods brands. Personality often is more important for durables and less so for corporate brands. The dimensions that are employed will be a function of the marketplace, the strategy, the competition, the customers, the organization and the brand.

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The brand vision is aspirational and can differ from the current image. It is the associations that the brand needs to have going forward, given its current and future business strategy. Too often,

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product-market contexts is elegant and convenient but not feasible in today’s complex marketplace. The goal should be creating strong brands everywhere, not the same brand everywhere.

Mangers need flexibility to adapt the brand to their context while still avoiding programs that are inconsistent with the vision.

The brand vision can be adapted in several ways. Those employing the brand in different brand contexts can emphasize different elements of the brand vision, can interpret vision elements such as quality or innovation differently, or can augment the vision with additional elements.

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a brand executive feels constrained and uncomfortable going beyond what the brand currently has permission to do. Yet most brands need to improve on some dimensions to compete, and add new dimensions in order to create new growth platforms. A brand that has plans to extend to a new category, for example, probably will need to go beyond the current image.

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The brand essence represents a central theme of the brand vision and is optional. When the right brand essence is found, it can be magic in terms of internal communication, inspiration for employees and partners, and guiding programs. Consider “transforming futures,” the brand essence of the

London Business School; “ideas for life” for Panasonic; or “family magic” for Disneyland. In each case, the essence provides an umbrella over what the brand aspires to do. The essence always should be sought. However, there are times when it actually gets in the way and is better omitted. Mobil (now ExxonMobil) had leadership, partnership and trust as the core brand vision elements. Forcing an essence on this brand likely would be awkward. If the essence does not fit or is not compelling, it will soak up all of the energy in the room. In these cases, the core vision elements are better brand drivers.

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The brand vision is adaptable. Having the same brand vision in all of your brand’s

The brand position is a short-term communication guide that often expresses what will be communicated to which target audience with what logic. The current positioning often emphasizes the brand vision elements that will appeal and are now credible and deliverable. As organizational capabilities and programs emerge or as markets change, the positioning message might evolve or change. The centerpiece of the position often is a tagline communicated externally that need not and usually does not correspond to the brand essence, which is an internally communicated concept.

What does a winning brand vision look like? As noted above, it should differentiate, resonate, inspire, and precipitate ideas. It also should have credibility internally and externally.

That means that there should be proof points or strategic imperatives, planned programs that will create proof points.

In addition, the very strong brands tend to have in the vision a source of energy, a higher purpose, and a personality. m

DAVID AAKER is vice chairman of San Francisco-based marketing consultancy Prophet and author of Aaker on Branding: 20 Principles That Drive Success.

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SOCIAL MEDIA

Your Mobile Moments Are Shrinking

BY JOSH BERNOFF

 jbernoff@forrester.com

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he hardest thing about mobile strategy is the new thinking that it requires. As I explained in my last column, mobile success is a matter of capturing mobile moments. Whether it’s the moment when you set out on your bike and want to know if it’s going to rain or the moment you see that piece of news that makes you sell your Apple stock, the key is to design applications and sites that deliver the exact, relevant interaction in a mobile moment.

Let’s assume, for a moment, that you’ve embraced this and you haven’t made the fatal mistake of trying to shovel your website into a mobile site or app. You’re all set, right? Not so much. Those mobile moments—the moments in which a person pulls out a mobile device to get what he or she wants, immediately and in context—are shrinking. And soon, even the apps will be overkill.

The reason is that you don’t need much to make a decision. Already, the tiniest of moments spur you to action.

You wake up when the alarm goes off.

You stop at a red light. You head into the kitchen when the teapot whistles.

Your phone already engages you with brief signals like this. They’re called push notifications. You get a message about when the flight is landing, when your next appointment is and who won the ballgame. Then you act on those notifications, even if acting is simply going, “Uh-huh, the Yankees lost again.”

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These aren’t just mobile moments.

They’re micro moments. A micro moment is a mobile moment that requires only a glance to identify and delivers quick information that you can either consume, or act on immediately. My colleague and co-author Julie Ask writes about them in detail in her latest report for Forrester Research, “Micro Moments Are the Next Frontier for Mobile.”

The technology to act in micro moments is happening now. In the latest iteration of Apple’s mobile system, iOS 8, you’ll be able to take action quickly in response to a push notification (accepting an invitation to a party, for example). And technologies

like iBeacon (which identifies locations) and analytics create the pinpoint context to make micro moments relevant rather than annoying. You’ll only get the ones that are right for you.

If you’re following the buzz about wearables like Google Glass and interactive watches, be aware that micro moments are what they’re made for. In a micro moment, your watch can tell you that you’re about to be late for an appointment, or let you approve or reject a questionable credit card purchase with a quick tap.

What can marketers accomplish in a micro moment? You can make it easy to buy on impulse. Wines ’Til Sold Out (WTSO) sends a notification that sounds like clinking glasses telling you the wine of the day. Buy a bottle and get a great deal, if it’s not too late. One day, WTSO sold 105,000 bottles. Flash sales like that are a powerful way to win in a micro moment.

You can alert people that they ought to take action. Nike tells people when their shoes are about to wear out. Walgreens reminds you that your prescription needs refilling. Sephora tells you when you’re near a store and you could get rewards benefits.

You can even alert people that no action is required. A simple message might tell you that a package has arrived or an insurance claim has been processed.

The challenge is that these micro moments are a stretch for most marketers to think about. My advice is a more targeted version of what I said in my last column: Use the four-step IDEA cycle to define your strategy: identify, design, engineer and analyze.

The first step is to identify the simplest interactions. What can you reassure or inform people about in a moment?

If you’re with a media company, that’s easy: Events from tornado warnings

The moments in which a person pulls out a mobile device to get what he or she wants, immediately and in context, are shrinking. And soon, even the apps will be overkill.

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to election results make sense as micro moments. But why not tell people that it’s time to service their car, or sign them up for the 4 p.m. Italian recipe of the day?

Second, design the interaction. The key here is simplicity. Look for events that people can react to in the real world, or reply to with a simple yes or no answer. If they have to make a series of choices, it’s too complex.

Third, engineer a quick feedback loop. Determine the desired response by integrating consumer profiles built over time with real-time context. In one case, a gaming company built a plan to message high rollers about to walk out of

a casino, plying them with free drinks or a free night’s stay to get them to return to the tables.

Finally, analyze the results. Your timing must be perfect. Unless you analyze which micro moments are working, you won’t know how to improve things.

Ironically, the app—the very bit of software that may be too complex for a micro moment—is the key to success here. When your customer signs up for your app, you get two things that you need: You’ll be able to collect the historical information that you need to target customers in the right micro moments and you get permission to

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send them notifications (if they opt in).

These are the keys to success in a micro moment. m

JOSH BERNOFF is senior vice president of idea development at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. He is the co-author of Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business and Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, both published by the Harvard Business Review Press.

Groundswell was named book of the year by the AMA in 2009.

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marketingmanagement

THE CMO SURVEY

10 Tips for a Better Return on Marketing Analytics

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BY CHRISTINE MOORMAN

 moorman@duke.edu

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arketing leaders report that their companies are spending 7.1% of their marketing budgets on marketing analytics and expect to spend 12.3% in the next three years. These spending levels may be the long-awaited coming of what Bob Blattberg, Rashi Glazer and John Little called “the marketing information revolution” almost 25 years ago. However, it turns out that this revolution is plagued by the same fundamental questions that marketing information has been subject to for decades. In particular, there is quite a lot of information out there, but making it contribute to company performance is a challenge.

The CMO Survey has included a section on marketing analytics since August 2012.

Examining responses to the question, “To what degree does the use of marketing analytics contribute to your company’s performance?” on a seven-point Likert scale where 1 is “not at all” and 7 is “very highly,” we see no change in this contribution level over the last two years.

As shown in the chart on the facing page, the contribution level is modest and not changing over time. More spending with no increased contribution for marketing analytics is not sustainable, from an investment perspective. Here’s what companies can do to improve their return on marketing analytics:

1

Think of the user of marketing analytics as a customer of information. Deshpandé and Zaltman, the earliest scholars in marketing to

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an innovation that must be diffused throughout organizations. This requires building awareness and knowledge, and persuading potential adopters of the value of unlearning old ways of making marketing decisions and learning new ways. As with any innovation, there are costs and benefits that must be managed.

examine why companies were not fully utilizing marketing research, conclude that a key reason is the lack of “user” focus in the management of marketing research.

Think of your users as your customers, and ensure that marketing analytics answers their questions and leads them to ask even better questions in the future.

2

Evaluate the quality of your marketing analytics. Only one-third of companies in the CMO Survey formally evaluate this important aspect of marketing. Evaluation should reflect users’ perceptions.

3

Appreciate that the production and utilization of marketing knowledge are separate activities in companies.

In fact, a better way to think about marketing analytics is that it represents

Garner top management support. Kohli and Jaworski’s foundational work on market orientation shows that top managers must line up behind the organization’s efforts to acquire, disseminate and use information about customers and competitors.

Marketing analytics is no different, except that now marketing leaders also may have to develop the required technical skills. I’m reminded of an old Marketing Practice Prize video in which the CEO of the company said, “I had to learn regression.” Leaders may now need to learn propensity score matching and regression discontinuity models, but the point remains: Line up your leaders and help them see the value of doing the math.

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Experiment. Only 11.9% of companies in the CMO Survey use experiments to measure marketing return on investment. There are many ways to use observational data to make inferences about the effect of marketing spending, but experiments offer companies the best insight into how returns vary by types and levels of spending.

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Invest in “time to knowledge.”

This is a concept that Jim Figura, former vice president of global customer insights at Colgate-Palmolive, and I have been talking about for years. The issue is how long it takes your company to convert its data and information into knowledge and insights that the company can act on. It may be worth investing in the development of a capability in this area given that competitive advantage may lie in how fast your company can act on your marketing analytics.

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Lead on. Marketing leads marketing analytics in only 68.3%

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THE CMO SURVEY

of companies surveyed. This means that marketing leaders often need to cooperate with other key leaders, such as the CIO or CTO, in the analytics area. Building credibility by building technical skills is important in this regard. However, it is equally important to ensure that technology does not dominate insight or that systems do not crowd out the focus on the customer.

If customer insight is a key objective, marketers must bring that to the table.

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Build analytic-savvy human capital. Only 3.4% of marketing leaders stated unequivocally that their companies have the right talent to fully leverage marketing analytics.

On a seven-point scale where 1 is “does not have the right talent” and 7 is “has the right talent,” the mean score in the August 2013 survey was 3.4. Furthermore, when asked, “How challenging was it to find the right marketing analytics talent?”

83% reported a score of 4 or higher on a seven-point scale, where 1 is “not challenging” and 7 is “extremely challenging.” One solution is to identify managers within the company who can be trained to serve in marketing analyst roles. If companies use this approach, they will need to boost marketing training budgets, which are expected to grow by only 2.5% in the next year.

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Think human capital = financial capital. Earlier analyses of survey results show that companies with above-average marketing analytics talent experienced significantly higher marketing return on investment rates than companies with below-average analytics talent (+4.18% vs. +2.51%).

When it comes to profits, the same

marketingmanagement

To what degree does the use of marketing analytics contribute to your company’s performance?

1=Not at all and 7=Very highly 7 6 5

3.9

3.7

3.5

3.7

3.7

FEB ‘14

AUG ‘14

4 3 2 1 AUG ‘12

FEB ‘13

pattern emerged: Companies with aboveaverage analytics talent experienced profitability increases of +4.69% compared with +2.71% for companies with below-average analytics talent.

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Focus analytics on key marketing assets. When asked what areas of their companies use marketing analytics to drive decision making, fewer than one-third of companies report using marketing analytics to drive decision making in customer acquisition (31.7%), customer retention (27.6%) and branding (22.0%).

Given that these activities lie at the core of marketing’s contributions to the company, it is imperative that marketing leaders focus on these areas.

Founded in August 2008, the CMO Survey is administered twice a year via an Internet survey conducted by Duke University, in partnership with McKinsey & Co. and the American Marketing Association. The August 2014 survey, involving 351 marketing leader respondents, was the 12th administration of the survey.

AUG ‘13

If marketing leaders want marketing analytics to be a part of their role and to contribute meaningfully to their company’s performance, they must take proactive steps to manage marketing analytics as an innovation that can be diffused throughout their organizations.

This includes actively promoting the value of marketing analytics’ insights (especially to top management). If not, analytics ultimately will migrate to another area of the company, or it will be viewed as the purview of a few scientific types and not as a key tool in the firm’s arsenal of strategic marketing activities. m

CHRISTINE MOORMAN is the T. Austin Finch Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

•org For a complete set of findings related to the August 2014 CMO Survey and for all past surveys, visit CMOSurvey.org.

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Handcrafted goods are high on consumers’ lists, encouraging more artisans and craftspeople to launch small businesses.

New companies like Portland, Ore.-based ADX are popping up to support this ‘maker movement.’

BY CHRISTINE BIRKNER | SENIOR STAFF WRITER

 cbirkner@ama.org PHOTOS BY NICOLLE CLEMETSON AND HANMI HUBBARD MEYER

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onsumption is art these days, and a product’s source matters more than its label. “Mass-produced” is déclassé to today’s discerning customers.

“Handmade,” “small-batch” and “artisanal” have become standard criteria to get products from clothing and home goods to food and beverages and beyond into their consideration sets.

Handcrafted goods have gone from niche offerings to more major players, so much so that the artisans and craftspeople behind them—or the “makers”—have their own movement.

Handcrafted products not only are sold online and in boutiques and galleries, but also in mass-market retail outposts. San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma Inc.’s home goods chain West Elm, for example, now collaborates with artisanal product brands and handmade product platforms such as Common Good, Potter’s Workshop and Etsy to add small-batch goods to the retailer’s mix of contemporary furnishings and décor.

Small businesses and mom-and-pop shops have been selling handmade goods for hundreds of years, of course, but in the digital era, DIY-friendly retailing sites and crowdfunding platforms have made it easier for woodworkers, metalworkers and other artisans to build their businesses, expand distribution and, ultimately, sell more product. It’s also easier for makers to connect with each other and share best practices. Annual conferences for the maker community, called Maker Faires, originally started in San Francisco and New York, and now are popping up across the globe. Overall attendance has climbed from 74,000 in 2009 to 120,000 in 2013, according to Make magazine.

Although some handmade goods have a kitschy reputation, the maker industry is a serious business. Revenue from maker-driven companies in the U.S. grew from $525 million in 2011 to more than $1 billion in 2013, according to Forbes. And artists and artisans aren’t the only ones who are benefitting. Across the U.S., nonprofits and for-profits have been launched to support the “maker movement,” offering artisans and craftspeople the space, tools, training and even promotional assistance necessary to bring their goods to market. Some of these makers behind the makers now have thriving businesses of their own, forming a handcrafted subcategory to the artisanal industry.

Portland, Ore.-based ADX is a warehouse-like, 14,000-square-foot hub for builders and artisans.

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Making the Space

Portland, Ore., is known for its love of all things handcrafted.

Stroll through the city and you’ll find a plethora of stores that specialize in handmade products, with everything from handcarved ukuleles to homemade jam, hand-stitched leather bicycle accessories and make-your-own kombucha kits.

Charles Heying, associate professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University and author of Brew to Bikes: Portland’s Artisan Economy, has been studying the maker economy for the past seven years. “When I started writing about

it in 2008, the word ‘artisan’ wasn’t used very widely, but now I’m seeing it everywhere,” he says. “People want to identify with the product they’re using, and artisan products … are actually telling a story. You meet the artisan and you connect with the product.

Larger firms [are] trying to find the same sweet spot, where the consumer takes the product and identifies with that brand and identifies with the quality. That’s why the time is right for this artisan notion, and why the maker movement is happening.”

Etsy and other e-commerce platforms have found success by offering artisans distribution and go-to-market opportunities.

Now more organizations are capitalizing on the maker movement by supporting artisans’ production processes, opening up “makerspaces” across the country that offer space for artisans to create their works, the tools they need to do so and training on how to use those tools. Some of the biggest benefits of many makerspaces, of course, are the branding and marketing power, and the go-tomarket advice available from their in-house experts and artisan communities, experts say, helping individual craftspeople build their businesses and brands.

Nonprofit makerspaces have been opened in libraries in cities from Washington, D.C., to Twin Falls, Idaho. To foster innovation and potentially to spur on new product ideas for their own businesses, corporations such as Northrop Grumman, Ford and GE are building their own makerspaces and helping to fund existing ones, and universities are getting in on the act, too. Harvard University donated equipment to Artisan’s Asylum, a makerspace in Somerville, Mass., and Arizona State University has provided funding to TechShop, a nationwide chain of makerspaces.

Portland-based ADX, which was founded in June 2011 and stands for Art Design Portland (a play on Portland International Airport’s code, PDX), is a 14,000-square-foot hub for builders and artisans. Its founder, Kelley Roy, was inspired to open ADX after reading an article in The New York Times about 3rd Ward, a former Brooklyn-based incubator

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ADX offers members access to a welding and woodworking tools, laser cutters, table saws, routers and 3-D printing equipment. It also offers members promotional help, featuring member profiles on its website and showcasing members’ work in monthly “First Friday” shows.

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If somebody’s working out of their garage, they’re isolated. … The collaboration that goes on between people in [ADX] helps you get to the ‘branding, marketing, selling’ business phase.

– Kelley Roy, ADX

for artists and craftspeople. At the time, Roy, who has a graduate degree in urban planning, was running Art Department, a gallery and events space in Portland. Because of her work as a consultant for gallery spaces and small businesses, she saw the marketing benefit of a space like ADX for its members.

“I’ve always interacted with creative people, and I realized that they needed a lot of help when it comes to business development, marketing and networking,” she says. “If somebody’s working out of their garage, they’re isolated. Working out of a space like this, you have this whole network of people to tap into. It’s an affordable way to do that initial design and prototyping, and you can access all the experts around you for free. The collaboration that goes on between people in the space helps you get to the ‘branding, marketing, selling’ business phase.”

Adds Tessa Blake, ADX’s former marketing director and events manager: “Our motto is, ‘Work together,’ and that’s exactly what it is.

You’re not going to be able to be good at everything. You might be a great woodworker and you might be able to build a great product, but that doesn’t mean you’re great at marketing or messaging.

Everyone helps each other with that, too.”

Companies can rent floor space at ADX for $250 per square foot, and individual memberships, ranging from $50 to $175 per month, include safety training and varying levels of access to ADX’s wood shop, metal shop and electronics lab, which house welding and woodworking tools, laser cutters, table saws, CNC routers and 3-D printing equipment. ADX also offers classes in metal, wood, electronics and upholstery at various price points. (Its introductory welding class is $235 for nonmembers and $85 for members, for instance, and its introductory wood class is $210 for nonmembers and $90 for members.) ADX has 10 full-time and 25 part-time staff members who work as instructors and fabricators, and ADX occasionally recruits instructors and staff members from its membership. Since its founding in 2011, ADX has incubated more than 100 businesses and 200 crowdfunded projects.

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Many for-profit makerspaces operate on a similar membership-and-classes model, but ADX also gets revenue from a third source: its fabrication business. ADX’s fabrication work includes projects such as a large sign made of steel and light bulbs for Portland-based pizza joint Sizzle Pie, tap handles made of reclaimed barn wood, brass and steel for Portlandbased Pfriem Family Brewers, and a 40-foot chandelier for a Denver apartment complex. “A lot of folks are looking at our business model for how to run a successful space, and that’s the secret sauce,” Roy says.

Marketing the Space

Opening a space like ADX in a city like Portland is bound to generate some word of mouth and earned media pretty effortlessly, but to get people talking, Roy and her team have focused on a mix of print and out-of-home advertising, corporate partnerships and tours.

Before ADX opened its doors, Roy and her team hosted open houses to spread the word and to get feedback from designers, fabricators and potential members. Then she hired Portlandbased branding firm OMFG Co. to develop ADX’s branding, and to design its signage and website. “OMFG set the stage for our brand language and the tone of how we speak to the world, which is professional, yet fun and accessible,” she says.

OMFG designed ads to promote ADX’s opening, which ran in The Portland Mercury, an alternative weekly newspaper, with slogans including: “Makers Gotta Make” “Builders Gotta Build” “Welders Gotta Weld” and “Thinkers Gotta Think.” Poster-sized versions of the ads were plastered on Portland buildings that were under construction. “Most of the places were approved,” Roy says. “We did get in a little bit of trouble, which was good. … People who come into our place have that independent spirit, that ‘Do what you gotta do’ attitude. It set the tone for our style and appeal.”

ADX markets its services and resources through its sister brand, Portland Made, a nonprofit founded by Roy in 2013 that provides education, resources and branding tools for Portlandbased businesses to build brand awareness and perception for the area’s artisanal offerings. The organization hosts networking events for member businesses, and its website features member profiles and lists events and classes at ADX. According to a study

by Portland State University, Portland Made member businesses brought in $242 million in revenue as of August 2014. “[Portland Made] is more consumer-based, to help them understand that buying local might be more expensive, but what it does for the economy and what it does to support people here is important,” Roy says. ADX also markets through its corporate partners, such as Dearborn, Mich.-based Carhartt Inc., which offers a 15% discount to ADX members at its Portland store. Carhartt profiled Roy on Crafted in Carhartt, the work-wear brand’s blog geared toward female makers. “Because we are a brand for people who work with their hands, it made sense for us to feature Kelley and ADX,” e-mailed Tony Ambroza, senior vice president of

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ADX memberships range from $50 to $175 per month, and include safety training and varying levels of access to the company’s wood shop (above), metal shop and electronics lab. Right: ADX’s fabrication work includes tap handles for Portland-based Pfriem Family Brewers.

marketing at Carhartt. “Kelley’s advancing the maker movement in her community, and we want to inspire women to create by reading about other women who are successfully doing that.”

Another of ADX’s corporate partners, San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk Inc., offers ADX members use of the company’s design, engineering and entertainment software, and Autodesk software developers even teach a few ADX classes.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel Corp. hosts happy hours at ADX that feature demos of its latest 3-D scanning equipment.

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Intel sponsored a multiday workshop at ADX with 90 fifth graders and their parents, from Forest Park Elementary in Portland, where ADX staff members taught the children about circuits and touch-screen technology. “ADX is a win-win for us,” says Aubrey Clark, northwest region education relations manager at Intel. “A lot of our employees were already members. It was a fantastic project that fit with Intel’s STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] and education initiatives. The students were inspired, and community engagement was great.”

Moreover, ADX gets a marketing boost from the state and local governments. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and other politicians have held events at ADX, and it’s a regular stop on Portland Mayor Charlie Hales’ economic development tour, in which development directors from around the world are shown around Portland to use it as a model for their own city development efforts. “Politicians like us because we’re this very creative economic development organization,” Roy says. “They

don’t provide any funding, of course [laughs], but they talk about us and they use us as an example of how they want the world to work.”

Adds Heying: “Portland is the hottest thing going in Japan.

People from Japan are coming here all the time to study our artisans and makers. There’s a Portland mania going on.”

ADX offers free tours of the space on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and holds happy hours and “lunch wagon” events every Friday, where members and nonmembers can learn about Portland’s manufacturing ecosystem via an interview-style panel with a Portland Mercury editor and Roy. About 75,000 people have visited ADX since it opened, and about 200 visit the shop each week, according to Blake. “It’s not about raising awareness [of ADX] anymore,” she says. “It’s about finding students, finding architects, finding people who want to quit their day job and start their own business, people who are going to come into the shop and it’ll be a resource for them.”

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Portland-based nonprofit Wind & Oar Boat School operates out of ADX and has built five boats there thus far.

Working Together

Maker case studies featured on ADX’s website, blog and social media channels serve the dual purpose of both marketing the makerspace’s usefulness and helping to build its members’ businesses. ADX’s digital channels highlight some of its success stories, including its fabrication projects, as well as member profiles, which link to members’ websites and Etsy pages to help them promote their work and gain exposure. ADX also displays member projects at monthly “First Friday” shows.

“We want to be able say, ‘This guy came into the space, learned some skills, started his own company and now he’s super successful,’ ” Roy says. “The more people who see that value, they see our value. The more successful we can help our members be, the more successful we are.”

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One of the members who have benefited from ADX’s resources is Andrew Moe, who has run his own furniture design firm, Studio Moe, from ADX since shortly after ADX’s launch in 2011. “When I left New York, I sold all of my shop equipment, so when I was setting up in Portland, I was looking for a space that had equipment, and the communal aspect appealed to me, too,” Moe says. ADX’s Autodesk software and its CNC router helped to make his manufacturing and production process more efficient, and being at ADX has given his business more exposure, he says. “ADX has a lot of people coming through constantly. People notice us and see our work in person who might not otherwise see it.”

Portland-based nonprofit, Wind & Oar Boat School, which teaches people how to build boats, also operates out of ADX. One of Wind & Oar’s goals is to educate kids about the importance of math, science, design and problem-solving skills through wooden boat building. The organization has built five boats at ADX so far, and has increased its overall enrollment from 160 students in 2013 to 230 students in 2014. The boats

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built at Wind & Oar either are donated to local schools and organizations, or are auctioned off for their benefit. “[The kids] get to see a lot of makers at work and get exposed to a lot of different things that they could be doing with building,” says Peter Crim, Wind & Oar’s founder and executive director. “Because it’s a community place, the ability to go and chat up your neighbor and say, ‘I’m having this problem,’ is great. Besides borrowing tools, the camaraderie and the ability to learn from your peers is part of the allure. Anybody who comes to see the boat school sees ADX and appreciates the things that are going on there, and anybody who comes to ADX gets to see what we’re doing. It helps to spread the word.”

The Next Generation of Makers

Beyond offering the space, resources and exposure necessary for craftspeople to get their businesses up and running, ADX is encouraging the next generation of makers by offering training programs and scholarships for high school students and at-risk youth. “There are all these manufacturing jobs available right now, and manufacturers are screaming that they can’t find a labor force because we haven’t been training people,” Roy says. “We’ve removed shop classes from schools. We need to start training these kids immediately because we have the space, we have the tools, we have the expertise. … If traditional school isn’t working for kids, they can come in here, get the skills they need and become immediately employable.”

This summer, ADX recruited high-school-aged kids through Worksystems Inc. and Impact NW, two Portland-based organizations that support at-risk youth, to work on a project to rewire electric bicycles. Hands-on projects give kids a taste of the maker lifestyle, Roy says. “If an eighth grader came in here and said, ‘I want to start my own business and develop my own product line,’ great, let’s do it. That’s one of my big goals: In the next year, someone under the age of 18 comes to ADX, starts a business, develops their own product and is running a successful company. That would be rad.”

ADX wants to offer end-to-end support for the maker movement, even staying engaged with former members as they grow beyond the makerspace, Roy says. “We realize that in that second stage—and we, as a company, are in that second stage— you still need help, you still need networking and marketing resources, you still need the community behind you as you grow.

We feel like proud parents. We have a handful of people here— Kyle with his cutting boards, Scott with his straight razors—we’re trying to connect them with opportunities because we want to be able to say, ‘Hey, they made it.’ ” m

Top: ADX founder Kelley Roy (left) leads a tour. Middle: Industrial and vintage-inspired décor and signage appear throughout the space. Bottom: The sign for Portland-based pizza joint Sizzle Pie was made by ADX’s fabrication team.

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THE SAGES OF

SILICON VALLEY Charged with reporting on the industry that corners the market on innovation, 20-year-old tech news site CNET.com has to remain flexible to keep up with flashier, new tech media outlets. The brand has found success in leveraging its long history and in positioning its writers as subject matter experts.

BY MOLLY SOAT | STAFF WRITER

 msoat@ama.org PHOTOS BY CNET’S JAMES MARTIN

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Twentysomethings dominate the tech industry. They’re the

entrepreneurs, the innovators, the digital natives.

But hitting the two-decade mark as a tech company puts you among the “gray hairs”—think Yahoo (20 years old) and AOL (29)—not necessarily a good thing if you’re trying to convey a hip, fresh, innovative brand identity that’s keeping pace with the oh-so-cool startup scene.

San Francisco-based tech media site CNET.com, 20 years old this year, has managed to remain relevant in the increasingly saturated tech media space by adapting its industry coverage to appeal to both tech geeks and everyday consumers. It sets itself apart from the tech journalism pack with both detailed gadget reviews and breaking business and consumer news, and CNET marketers have found success in positioning the brand as a source for subject matter experts, building brand and media partnerships that leverage CNET’s historical perspective on the ever-evolving tech industry. That strategy is paying off in website traffic and advertising partnerships, the company says. As of September 2014, CNET was attracting an average of 14,834,000 monthly unique visitors in the United States, according to Nielsen, making CNET the most highly trafficked tech news site on the Web.

A Legacy Brand

CNET—a nickname, of sorts, for “computer network”—was founded in 1994 by tech entrepreneurs Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie to offer tech news programming on radio and TV networks, including USA Network, the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy) and Sirius XM Radio. During its inaugural year, the company expanded its content into an online news website. In 2000, after a series of acquisitions that included

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comparison shopping site MySimon and Web video platform TV.com, the company grew into CNET Networks Inc. and extended its reach.

CNET hit its stride as the tech industry was garnering interest from executives and consumers well beyond Silicon Valley. At its inception, CNET offered content for true techies, product news and reviews for those consumers in the early to mid-1990s who were interested in the still-nascent computer industry and Internet, but it adapted its coverage and democratized its approach as the industry garnered more attention and media competitors began to surface.

In the early 2000s, CNET’s competition seemingly grew overnight as more consumer-focused news and review sites started covering the tech industry, yet the news outlet managed to remain in the lead, says Duy Linh Tu, director of digital media at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. “CNET has been around since before Engadget and Gizmodo, and all of those guys. They were the original nerdy news outlet,” Tu says. “In the early 2000s, the market for consumer gadgets was just developing. PDAs were just developing. Then smartphones started rolling out and, eventually, with the iPhone around seven years ago, non-nerds became interested in technology, too. It became more of a consumer interest at that point, as opposed to a niche for nerds.” The fact that CNET can speak beyond

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the tech-world trifecta of professional nerds, gadget geeks and Silicon Valley insiders puts them ahead of much of the competition, he says.

“We found a very early moment in the popular technology conversation to talk to regular people about technology and to help them,” says Lindsey Turrentine, who joined CNET in 1999 as a software review writer and now is editor in chief of reviews. “We’ve always done that. … We really break down tech barriers for most people.”

CNET’s team of about 90 writers, producers and editors now produce several articles, product reviews and how-to videos each day for CNET’s product- or news-focused microsites.

“A lot of our DNA is in video,” Turrentine says. “We had these deep roots in video production [and] I’m able to hire talent all over the world who create entertaining shows that bring people back. We’ve found a really good way to marry that repeat storytelling with solid advice because it turns out that when people are interested in technology, they’re interested in learning about more than just what they can buy.”

Gerry Imhoff, senior vice president of global information technology services at Fenton, Mo.-based global market research firm Maritz, says that CNET always has been a valuable resource for high-level tech professionals and that positioned the CNET staff as subject matter experts from the start. When it expanded its reach to include more consumers, that early expert-level positioning lent the brand prestige, he says. CNET now aims to speak to everyone who might buy a tech gadget, from tech professionals to tweens to high-networth boomers.

Talking Tech in Layman’s Terms

According to Katie Kulik, senior vice president of ad sales and marketing, and a 15-year veteran of the CNET brand, in 2008, CNET Networks was bought by CBS Interactive for its “users in different yet very complementary verticals to the ones that already existed at CBS: games, technology, business.

It really rounded out their online offerings,” she says.

While CBS is known to appeal to the gray-haired set, CNET’s appeal reaches across age brackets, positioning the brand as a viable competitor to trendy tech news and Silicon Valley gossip blogs like Gawker Media’s Gizmodo and Valleywag, long-form tech journalism from Wired and PC Magazine, and tech review sites like Engadget and TechCrunch. “And this partnership has helped my team have even better relationships with brands,” Kulik says.

“CBS Interactive has such a host of sites, and these truly vertical passion points that are so diverse make it a really fun conversation for me to have with a brand marketer. We now hit on every demographic.”

Christine Castro, senior vice president of communications at CBS Interactive, agrees. “You can’t underestimate the value

of the assets these two brands bring to the table for each other. There’s no other pop-up that’s going to have the kind of creative and technical talent, expertise and infrastructure that I can call on for CBS. It’s a huge competitive advantage, from my perspective. … [Also, CNET] being a part of CBS gives us all of these other avenues to amplify what CNET is doing, in a way that’s consistent for the entire company.

CBS reaches all of America, so it’s intuitive for CNET to be affiliated with other news outlets that have that kind of reach, that kind of tradition, and those kinds of assets and colleagues.”

“CNET has been around since before Engadget and Gizmodo, and all of those guys. They were the original nerdy news outlet.”

– Duy Linh Tu, Columbia University The CBS affiliation has allowed the editorial team to speak to a broader audience through CBS news affiliates on TV and radio, and on CBSnews.com. The CNET writers appear as tech experts on live news shows and morning shows across CBS, which strengthens CNET’s positioning as a source for how-to videos and general tech advice, Turrentine says.

CNET editors also continue to appear as experts on MSNBC, CNN and NPR, among others, and these appearances draw eyeballs to CNET’s website, Kulik says.

Other CNET distribution partners—for content from game and product reviews to breaking news stories—include Yahoo, AOL, Google Play Newsstand, Flipboard, Roku and Xbox. This kind of exposure in print, radio, TV and online makes it unnecessary to budget dollars for print and online advertising, Kulik says, since CNET draws eyeballs from other news media rather than banner ads and newspaper spreads.

CNET has leveraged its positioning as a source for tech subject matter experts into new business development and in-store marketing opportunities, chief among them a partnership with Minneapolis-based Target Corp. In November 2012, CNET partnered with the big-box retailer

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From left: CNET’s Lindsey Turrentine, editor in chief of reviews; Katie Kulik, senior vice president of sales and product marketing; Connie Guglielmo, editor in chief of news; and Mark Larkin, general manager.

to promote personal electronics, timed to debut before the holiday season, by featuring CNET’s video product reviews and tutorials on in-store screens and on Target.com. “It’s a great way to distribute our content in a relevant way, where people are making purchase decisions,” Kulik says. It’s difficult to track whether there was a correlation between the launch of the Target partnership and any bumps in CNET’s site traffic, as visits to CNET.com are at their peak during the holiday season, she says, but the partnership has given CNET’s brand visibility through bricks-and-mortar stores and helps bring more attention to CNET.com’s consumer electronics content.

Brand Partners

Since much of CNET’s consumer branding is based on the site’s long-standing reputation as a trusted tech media

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outlet for both techies and luddites, Kulik and her team spend much of their time marketing to CMOs and Madison Avenue execs, creating mutually beneficial business relationships—which, Kulik is quick to note, remain separate from the CNET journalists’ work to maintain the “separation of church and state.” CNET editors serve as brand advisors to electronics companies, for example, advising product marketers on industry trends and consumer interest.

“We use our editorial power in the marketing landscape,” Kulik says. “We also come in and do really customized presentations for certain clients, so we’ll bring in one or more editors to sit down with the CMO of a client company, whether that’s in retail, CPG, auto and, obviously, consumer electronics and tech. They’re having really interesting conversations about what’s coming next in technology— new ways in which customers will consume media in

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self-driving cars, for example. Our editors act as consultants and knowledge experts in this area because this is our bread and butter, and there are definitely opportunities where it turns into an advertising relationship.” In other words, she says, these consultations help position CNET as the go-to tech news source in the minds of major tech advertisers.

CNET is a media partner at many tech and advertising industry tradeshows, including the Cannes Lions festival and the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). According to Jeff Joseph, senior vice president of communications for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), based in Arlington, Va., which hosts the show: “CES is a B-to-B show, yet we’re in an industry that’s consumer-oriented. Having those media partners that can tell that story, that can translate what some of these business deals mean for the consumer marketplace, is critically important. CNET has been a partner on that from my earliest days here.”

The media partnerships help shore up CNET’s expertfounded brand positioning, but the CES partnership also came close to tarnishing CNET’s tech industry prestige. CNET has run CES’s Best in Show awards program since 2006, and during the January 2013 show in Las Vegas, CNET’s staff voted Dish Network’s “Hopper with Sling” digital video recorder Best in Show. However, CNET’s parent company CBS was in active litigation with Dish Network at the time and made CNET retract its decision, announcing that the Razer Edge gaming tablet won, instead.

CES responded by stating that CNET would no longer choose the Best in Show winners, and that the Dish Hopper and Razer Edge would share the Best in Show award.

Afterwards, Gary Shapiro, CEA’s chief executive, wrote an op-ed in USA Today accusing CBS of “destroying its reputation of integrity in an attempt to eliminate a new market competitor.”

“It was clear that this was a large corporate entity digging into and interfering with the process of one of its partners, but we have nothing but the highest respect for the [CNET] editorial staff,” CEA’s Joseph says. “When it happened, we focused on the heavy hand of the corporate parent versus the editorial integrity and good faith of the staff. The storm occurred and we moved on.” CNET remains a media partner for CES and a close industry partner for CEA.

Expanding Verticals

With its combination of product reviews and tech news, CNET is well-positioned to be a partner for brand marketers in appliances, gadgets and computing products, Kulik says. In the past two years, CNET has expanded its appliances and automotive verticals with increased product testing and news coverage, and boosted its international offerings to remain relevant to an increasingly splintered and far-reaching online audience.

Since July 2013, CNET has run a facility that tests appliances and other larger gadgets in Louisville, Ky., and the company plans to build a sample “smart home” where the CNET reviews team can install and accurately test how features such as digital lighting, sound and temperature programs work in a realistic home setting. That project could open up CNET to new advertising opportunities, Kulik says, by creating expanded partnerships with technology and appliance brands that could include exclusive product reviews and long-term advertising contracts.

“Our editors act as consultants and knowledge experts in this area because this is our bread and butter, and there are definitely opportunities where it turns into an advertising relationship.”

– Katie Kulik, CNET And in September 2013, CNET’s editorial team created CNET en Español, a separate site that has both original content and translated CNET content for Spanish-speaking audiences. It’s a niche that wasn’t being filled, Turrentine says, but after the CBS acquisition, her team had the money and manpower to fill that gap.

CNET might be ancient, in technology terms, but its long history has proven to be a competitive edge, says Connie Guglielmo, CNET’s editor in chief of news, who joined the company in March 2014 from Forbes. “Technology used to be a sidebar in a lot of coverage. I’ve been a tech reporter now for 20 years and certainly have seen it go from very, very niche to much more common,” she says. “CNET, early on, recognized the importance of tech as a part of business, as a part of culture, as a part of everything that we do. CNET has this collective history of tech that no one else has.” m

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MOOCS

NEW SCHOOL OF THOUGHT MOOCs have significant marketing potential for both the institutions that host them and the individuals who conduct them, experts say

BY MOLLY SOAT | STAFF WRITER

 msoat@ama.org

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MOOCS

assive open online courses, or MOOCs, have become part of the common higher education vernacular all over the world. In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary added the acronym last year. Some see MOOCs as a passing fad, others as a major threat to the future of traditional on-campus education, but experts agree that they’re here to stay, and that their potential marketing power for their host universities and their featured speakers is undeniable.

MOOCs are run by for-profit websites and individual universities, and as nonprofit online partnerships between higher ed institutions. They are run in conjunction with tuition-based, on-campus programs or as separate educational entities apart from any traditional university setting. There are many versions of MOOCs, and many ways to incorporate them into a degree or certificate program, but they all have one thing in common: They represent the future of higher education, according to experts.

MOOCs won’t replace traditional bricks-and-mortar university educations—at least not in the foreseeable future—but they’re changing how teachers teach and learners learn.

The smartest colleges and professors are embracing MOOCs, and the data that can be gleaned from them, to market their insights and their modern approaches to education.

MOOCs 101

MOOCs’ origins reportedly stem back to at least 2008, but The New York Times deemed 2012 “the year of the MOOC,” as several venture- and grant-backed MOOC giants sprang up, including Mountain View, Calif.-based Udacity and Coursera, and Boston-based nonprofit EdX, founded by Harvard

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University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The typical MOOC has 33,000 students enrolled, according to a 2013 study by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

However, only 4% of MOOC participants complete their courses, according to a 2013 study by the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

Many higher ed institutions worry that MOOCs will draw away tuitionpaying students from bricks-and-mortar campuses and put professors’ jobs at risk, says Cathy Davidson, the director of The Futures Initiative at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, a Udacity board member and a member of the National Humanities Council. Davidson has taught one MOOC on the future of higher education through Duke University and its MOOC partner, Coursera. “We’re all fantastically concerned with the cost of higher education,” she says. “A few years ago, people thought it was all just going to be online and everything was going to be cheap. The implication was that suddenly, the kind of funds that people have to pay for tuition at elite universities was going to evaporate.

Technology was going to solve the problem. Clearly, that’s not the case.”

The smartest higher ed marketers,

Davidson says, are figuring out how to draw MOOC students into paid online or on-campus programs, using their MOOC experience to brand themselves as adaptable, tech-savvy organizations, and shoring up on-campus learning through data collected through MOOCs to remain cutting-edge.

Setting the Curve

Higher ed institutions must stay ahead of the curve as hybrid learning—a combination of online discussion boards, video lectures and in-class learning— becomes more ubiquitous, Davidson says. Universities with the most brand equity were some of the first to dive into the MOOC movement, lending credibility to the online format, and many smaller institutions have followed.

In 2012, Harvard and MIT pooled $60 million in funding to start EdX, a nonprofit online MOOC provider with open source code that can be used by any university, individual or company. Marketing firms, for example, can use the source code to create an online course on marcom or SEO best practices. The site has reached 5.3 million course enrollments by 2.5 million students across the world, and offers more than 200 courses through 53 partner universities, according to EdX.

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Established universities often don’t need MOOCs to help build brand awareness or prestige, nor do they need help recruiting potential students from around the world, but they can benefit from MOOCs’ ability to expand their educational opportunities. “Harvard is a unique institution in that we have 35,000 undergraduates vying for 2,000 spots, so we don’t really see that changing no matter what we do online,” says Michael Rutter, communications director for HarvardX, a Harvard University initiative to enable faculty to build and create open online learning experiences for residential and online use, and to support educational research. “People always want to physically come here, people always want to have an education here, so in that sense it’s hard to say that we’re competing for that. It’s more that we’re using the technologies to expand pathways or opportunities to engage.”

Having leaders like Harvard operating in the MOOC space has helped online learning tools and platforms gain more credibility and traction, says Steve Fireng, CEO at Lenexa, Kan.-based higher ed marketing firm PlattForm and a career-long higher ed marketer. “When we saw very highbranded schools and very well-known faculty deliver all of the education, it opened up more of a market. We were able to say, ‘This is really an acceptable way to learn.’ It provided numerous opportunities as a marketing company because it opened up channels and programs that, in the past, schools were not completely comfortable in doing.”

MOOC participation by Harvard, MIT and other leading universities has given the learning format a seal of approval from academia, allowing smaller players to leverage MOOCs’ global reach to help boost brand

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awareness and build the institutions’ credibility. Moreover, they allow smaller schools to position themselves as subject matter experts in certain disciplines, says Jeanne Gosselin, senior enrollment management and marketing consultant at Glenside, Pa.-based higher ed marketing firm Paskill Stapleton & Lord Inc., which works with small colleges and universities including New York’s Paul Smith’s College and Nevada’s Great Basin College. “MOOCs create an opportunity for a smaller institution to establish a niche in a certain area,” she says. “Even if they’re looking at online education, people are still going to be drawn to a regional or famous institution and if you’re not in their region, then you’re not a part of that conversation. But with MOOCs, because it’s nationwide, it allows you to get into a playing field you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.”

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MOOCS

Moving Beyond the Ivory Tower

While Harvard and the other Ivy League schools might not need such assistance, MOOCs offer smaller institutions the opportunity to reach well beyond their home countries and engage students from around the world, boosting their brand awareness and perception, and potentially attracting future students and online learners. According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, for example, 78% of Wharton’s MOOC participants live in countries outside of the U.S., and nearly half of those international students hail from developing regions including India and sub-Saharan Africa.

MOOCs have the potential to help schools connect with new demographics of on-campus students and online learners, says Nancy Moss, communications director of EdX. For example, she says, one of the universities

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“I don’t think MOOCs are going to solve all of the problems of continuing education, but they lead people to forms of technology and online learning that can help [higher ed institutions] be more relevant to the contemporary workplace.”

– CATHY DAVIDSON, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK participating in EdX, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, has been able to reach many more students who are interested in its tech-focused graduate programs by participating in MOOC programming. “[Delft] is very well-known in Europe and the Netherlands but doesn’t have that global cache that MIT or Harvard would have,” Moss says. “[Delft] has gotten a

whole lot more geographic distribution for those interested in its graduate programs since they started offering MOOCs on EdX.” MOOCs also have the potential to help schools market their paid online educational opportunities, experts say.

Institutions could promote e-learning courses at the completion of a MOOC, prompting virtual students to engage

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further with the organization—or, given MOOCs’ high dropout rate, schools could reach out to virtual students when they click to end a MOOC session, offering them other educational pathways to pursue related knowledge.

The University of California, Berkeley was the first institution to join EdX other than its founders, and the program is driven mainly through Berkeley’s Resource Center for Online Education (BRCOE). UC Berkeley isn’t yet leveraging MOOCs as a digital marketing vehicle to promote paid online education courses because the demand for certificates from paid online courses from top-tier universities like UC Berkeley already is strong, says Chris Van Nostrand, director of marketing at BRCOE. However, MOOCs are driving knowledge of and interest in online education in general, he says, because a MOOC won’t be right for every professor or student, but there are many more options within the larger portfolio of online education offerings. “MOOCs have really started a dialogue about online education because they’ve tapped into this public awareness. There’s a zeitgeist aspect to MOOCs that made it more of a topic of conversation than previous types of online education.”

According to Van Nostrand, MOOCs are a great way to introduce people to certification programs and higher ed tracks for working professionals who are looking to shore up their résumés.

“This expectation of customization and personalization that’s in every corner of the marketplace is true in education, as well, and online education provides an element of flexibility, especially to working professionals who can’t be on campus for a full-time program.”

Adds Davidson: “I don’t think MOOCs are going to solve all of the problems of continuing education, but they lead people to forms of technology and online learning that can help [higher ed institutions] be more relevant to the contemporary workplace.”

need help building brand awareness, they certainly can benefit by hosting MOOCs, as MOOCs are perceived as a modern learning opportunity, experts say. That positive association also benefits the professors leading the MOOCs. According to a survey conducted last year by The Chronicle of Higher Education, which polled more than 100 college professors who have taught at least one MOOC, 37.9% said that their motivation for teaching the course was to increase their visibility and reputation within their discipline, 33.0% wanted to increase their reputation in the media and the general public, 14.5% wanted to avoid becoming obsolete as college learning moves online and 1.0% wanted to improve their chances for tenure.

MOOC professors often are more desirable for promotions and journal publication, says Jamie Murphy,

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marketing professor and director of research at the Australian School of Management in Perth, Australia. “As MOOCs seem here to stay, a professor with MOOC experience has a leg up for tenure, promotion and job applications,” Murphy says. “In addition, a successful MOOC garners huge PR for the university, school, department and professor.”

When a professor teaches a MOOC, she builds her personal brand as a thought leader, according to Davidson.

“The excitement about MOOCs on the positive side, and the hysteria about them on the negative side, was important for educators to become less complacent in their role,” he says. “Until MOOCs, the rap on professors was that we were a bunch of isolated fuddy-duddies. It turns out that if we can talk in a platform that’s accessible to the public, the public is coming in droves to listen.”

Building a Professor’s C.V.

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MOOCS

A MOOC can allow a school to gather data on everything from student engagement to interest levels in particular subject matter, all of which can help enhance on-campus learning. “If you think of the kind of data that we have access to, it’s research at a scale that education has never seen before.”

– NANCY MOSS, EDX MOOC professors are able to get more eyeballs on their research projects. For example, Michael Goldberg, a venture capitalist who currently is working as a visiting assistant professor of design and innovation at Cleveland-based Case Western Reserve University, taught a MOOC through Case Western and Coursera called “Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies.” The course attracted 23,000 students in 183 countries.

Goldberg, a relative unknown in business academia and a newcomer to traditional university teaching, says that getting in on the ground floor of the MOOC movement created buzz for his work.

“People around the world are really interested in this topic, and instead of publishing an article or book on it, I took the MOOC route,” Goldberg says. “It was a great platform for me and I was glad to get in early. Now that I’ve done it, I have additional insights and expertise in my field, and with the entrepreneurial aspects of MOOCs, specifically.”

Goldberg’s MOOC generated earned media for his topic and for the university, as well. The course inspired a six-installment feature in Entrepreneur magazine, and Goldberg has appeared on CNBC and MSNBC, and has written for The Huffington Post. “It’s been great for raising awareness for the topic, and about me and my university,” he says. “My administrators are really excited about the publicity, as well.”

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Gaining Insight

Along with expanding a university’s educational reach and boosting its brand awareness and prestige, a MOOC can allow a school to gather data on everything from student engagement to interest levels in particular subject matter, all of which can help enhance on-campus learning, says Nancy Moss, communications director of EdX. Harvard and MIT’s goal in starting EdX was, among other things, to “provide and conduct research on teaching and learning so that institutions, faculty and students can understand how best to teach and how people learn,” Moss says. “If you think of the kind of data that we have access to, it’s research at a scale that education has never seen before.”

HarvardX synthesizes the data collected through EdX MOOCs to distribute to the other universities in the EdX network, Rutter says. “We’re not competing with Stanford’s physics course or MIT’s physics course. Rather, we’re trying to figure out which aspect of each one is the most successful and how we might each learn from that. With all of the data you have with students, there’s an ability to do a lot of interesting Big Data work on things like educational outcomes and assessments, and all of that can be shoveled back into classroom learning as well as online learning.”

UC Berkeley’s BRCOE has a MOOC lab designed to address questions in teaching and learning that can be informed by MOOC data, such as the best ways to create discussion boards and online forums. BRCOE is experimenting with using MOOC lectures to disseminate background information to students before class so that on-campus discussions can be much deeper, Van Nostrand says.

“Our MOOC lab is designed to address important questions in teaching and learning that can be studied by having access to these enormous data sets that MOOCs provide,” he says.

“We’re doing research into, for instance, the best ways to facilitate discussion forums, and that has implications for on-campus and online courses.

MOOCs really allow this kind of research because of their size and scale.

In thinking of educational channels on a spectrum, there are opportunities for innovations in one area to affect other areas, as well.”

Today’s consumer—in this case, today’s student—is changing, demanding that content and information be delivered anywhere at any time. MOOCs address students’ changing demands and needs, and by incorporating MOOCs into a comprehensive on-campus and online curriculum, universities place themselves at the cutting edge of higher-ed teaching and learning methodologies. Higher ed marketers must embrace the MOOC, not hide from it, to show that their institutions and professors are competitive. “For 20 years, we’ve had a stereotype that college is outdated, professors won’t change and higher education hasn’t changed since Socrates,” Davidson says.

“Actually, universities are trying many different things, among them MOOCs and individualized online learning, and students creating multimedia as part of projects, e-portfolios, digital badging. … MOOCs are addressing a need for change, not as an ultimate solution, but as an example of the kinds of things higher education is willing to explore.” m

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CUSTOMER RESEARCH

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DIRECTORY OF HIGHER EDUCATION MARKETING PROVIDERS

There are nearly 5,000 higher education institutions in the United States, and they are all trying to convince prospective students, and their parents, that they are the right choice. With the cost undergraduate and graduate degrees at an all-time high and increased competition from non-traditional and overseas universities, higher education marketing departments are more pressed than ever.

Finding the right higher education marketing partner can mean the difference between success and failure. Whether you are looking for an agency to create and plan your next marketing campaign, a software company to manage your social media efforts, or a research company that specializes in the higher education market, AMA's Directory of Higher Education Marketing Providers is the perfect place to start your search.

AN ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO THE OCTOBER 2014 ISSUE OF MARKETING NEWS. COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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160over90

http://www.160over90.com 160over90 is a branding agency headquartered in Philadelphia, with offices in Newport Beach California and Gainesville Florida that provides companies with integrated marketing solutions to help solve business challenges in various areas. Through a proprietary process, 160over90 creates strategic solutions that evoke a desired reaction from our clients’ customers.

Carnegie Communications

CollegeWeekLive

http://www.carnegiecomm.com

http://www.collegeweeklive.com

Carnegie Communications has been a leader in education marketing solutions for almost 30 years. With access to millions of students, we can reach your target undergraduate, graduate, or alumni audience. Our recruitment and lead generation services, combined with our digital marketing capabilities, deliver customized solutions to help you reach your recruitment and enrollment goals.

CollegeWeekLive is an all-in-one enrollment management solution that offers colleges and universities a way to engage with potential students throughout the enrollment process. The highly interactive and customizable solution has proven to help universities expand reach, increase yield and improve recruiting efficiencies.

Collegis Education

http://www.collegiseducation.com

Adobe Systems Inc. http://www.adobe.com/ education

Adobe is the global leader in digital marketing and digital media solutions.

Adobe tools and services empower faculty, staff and students to create groundbreaking digital content, deploy it across media and devices, measure and optimize it over time, and achieve greater success. Through integrated software, resources, and affordable purchasing options, education institutions can provide their campus with the tools to optimize learning and elevate administration.

Chegg Enrollment Services (formerly Zinch)

http://www.chegg.com Chegg Enrollment Services provides solutions to help colleges and universities find, attract, and engage prospective students researching schools around the globe. Through it's unique, multi-channel offerings, Chegg helps you find traditional undergraduate, transfer, and graduate student inquiries across the US, China, and emerging markets.

Capture Higher Ed

The Chronicle of Higher Education

http://www.capturehighered.com

http://www.chronicle.com

Capture partners with enrollment management teams to help grow and shape their traditional undergraduate class. Capture is unique in the industry in that we deliver decision-ready applications — mission-fit, qualified students with completed applications and all required supplemental materials.

The Chronicle of Higher Education is the only academic resource delivering the latest news, data, and insight to help college leaders and marketers stay informed of academic trends to plan for the future of higher education. The Chronicle offers several solutions to reinvent your institution in today’s evolved landscape.

Collegis Education makes a difference by bringing technology and insights together to drive the future of education. Our team works to create integrated, data-driven strategies to support the entire student lifecycle — from the time a prospective student begins their college search to the moment they start their career.

Constant Contact

http://www.constantcontact.com/ associations Constant Contact® is revolutionizing the success formula for small organizations through affordable, easy-to-use Engagement Marketing™ tools that help create and grow customer relationships. More than 600,000 small businesses, nonprofits, and associations worldwide rely on Constant Contact to drive ongoing customer dialogs through email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, and online surveys. All Constant Contact products come with unrivaled KnowHow, education, and free coaching with a personal touch, including award-winning customer support.

The listings continue on the following page

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The listings represent paid listings as well as sponsors and exhibitors at the 2014 AMA Symposium.

Converge Consulting www.convergeconsulting.org Converge Consulting is a Higher Education Marketing firm that delivers Memorable Marketing with Measurable Results.

We use research, Google Analytics, inbound marketing, brand marketing and strategic communications practices to positively impact student recruitment and alumni engagement for colleges and universities around the world.

Fuseideas

Inside Higher Ed

http://www.fuseideas.com

http://www.insidehighered.com

Fuseideas is an award-winning national fullservice agency with a passion for advertising.

We provide smart, compelling brand creative rooted in sound strategic thinking. We are a relationship driven, interconnected team of creative, technology and media professionals, fused together for the sole purpose to grow a client’s business.

Inside Higher Ed is the free daily news website for people who work in higher education. Breaking news, lively debate, and thousands of faculty and administrative job postings draw 1.2 million readers a month. Online. Daily. Free. Ahead of the curve. Sign up for free daily news updates at www.insidehighered.com/ newsletter/signup

Hannon Hill Corporation http://www.hannonhill.com

Creative Communication Associates (CCA) http://www.ccanewyork.com CCA is the nation's leading full-service marketing and branding agency for higher education. From enrollment to advancement to institutional marketing and research, our customized solutions for colleges and universities are realized at the intersection of strategy and creativity. We help institutions tell their brand stories in consistent, compelling, and memorable ways – and the results speak for themselves.

Hannon Hill is the creator of Cascade Server, the #1 CMS for higher education! Don’t just manage your content; amplify your content with the powerful combination of Cascade Server and Spectate, our proprietary content marketing software. Stop by our booth at the Higher Ed event for your free copy of our Content Strategy for Higher Education whitepaper today!

JetSpring http://www.jetspring.com JetSpring is a provider of Live Chat solutions specializing in the cultivation of prospective students for colleges and universities. Employing only U.S.-based Live Chat Agents with four-year college degrees and providing the necessary software for each school, JetSpring resolves the challenges faced by both in-house and outsourced Live Chat programs.

HTM University

http://www.htmuniversity.com

Emma http://www.myemma.com/ universities More than 400 colleges and universities depend on Emma to send stylish email newsletters and announcements to students, parents, faculty, staff and alumni. Emma lets you set up multiple accounts for your departments and even create and share custom templates, ensuring your brand shines in every email.

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HTM University, a division of Home Team Marketing, specializes in fully-integrated marketing campaigns for higher education institutions. Campaigns can be customized locally, regionally, or nationally and run for the duration of athletic seasons. With access to over 11,000 high schools nationwide, HTM University specializes in fully-integrated on-site marketing campaigns designed to reach students and their key influencers.

HTM University works with NCAA, NAIA, community colleges and other public, private and non-profit and profit higher education institutions.

Kelmscott Communications http://www.kelmscott.com Kelmscott Communications is a single source provider offering strategy, analytics, accountability and a suite of enrollment solutions for higher educational institutions – from private liberal arts colleges to large public universities.

Specializing in strategic communication plans we deliver state of the art dynamic solutions in pursuit of a single goal: your enrollment success.

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kor group

Mogo Marketing + Media™

http://www.kor.com

http://www.mogomarketing.com

brand strategy | design | web A team of inventive brand strategists, designers and developers who build integrated admissions and advancement communications programs for colleges, universities, and independent schools.

Our communications programs resonate with our clients’ target audiences and deliver measurable results.

Mogo Marketing + Media™ is a digital marketing agency that helps brands connect, engage and activate their customers. Our Mogo Interactive™ platform, powered by best-in-class technology, drives ROI within integrated advertising campaigns across display, video, social, mobile and search.

mStoner Inc. Lipman Hearne

http://www.mstoner.com

http://www.lipmanhearne.com

Bring your brand to life with mStoner.

Since 2001, mStoner has helped more than 300 institutions build smart, sustainable solutions for strategy, branding, technology, and marketing.

For more than 40 years as the nation's leading full-service marketing and communications firm serving the higher education and nonprofit sectors, Lipman Hearne has helped clients, including over 450 colleges and universities, build their reputations, raise funds, broaden their influence, and accomplish their highest aspirations.

NewCity http://www.insidenewcity.com NewCity is an interactive design agency specializing in websites, apps and promotional campaigns. In our open studio in Blacksburg, Virginia, we are a team of 35 designers, coders, thinkers, writers and strategists driven to dig through the layers of noise, dysfunction, clunkiness and groupthink to discover your unique situation and build something spectacular, beautifully functional and unmistakably you.

Noetic Consultants www.noeticconsultants.com Noetic Consultants helps colleges and universities define their brand; increase Advancement commitments and improve the quality of applicants through smart communications strategies. Is your message clearly defined? Are you reaching all of your key audiences? Do you get strong response from your outreach? Call us, we can help: 240-388-0635

Multiple, Inc. http://www.multipleinc.com

Maguire Associates

http://www.maguireassoc.com Maguire Associates is a comprehensive market research and consulting firm providing educational clients with researchbased marketing strategies and services.

Our services include market research, brand strategy and positioning, message development, marketing and communications planning as well as enrollment management consulting, student satisfaction/retention studies, financial aid analysis, and alumni and advancement engagements.

We're a strategic design firm.

We help people imagine, name, visualize, establish, position, market and grow businesses, organizations, products and services. Our clients look to us to help define their unique challenges and opportunities, find insights to inform potential solutions, to create brand communication solutions that project their strongest attributes, and to differentiate them from competitors.

2014 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education www.AMA.org/HigherEd

NRCCUA®(National Research Center for College & University Admissions™) http://www.nrccua.org NRCCUA® operates the nation’s largest College Planning Program, MyCollegeOptions.org™.

This program contains nearly 6 million students – serving as a link between students’ educational goals and NRCCUA member schools. NRCCUA offers proven predictive modeling and marketing services solutions to assist institutions in the building and shaping of their class.

The listings continue on the following page

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The listings represent paid listings as well as sponsors and exhibitors at the 2014 AMA Symposium.

Oberlander Group http://www. oberlandergroup.com Oberlander Group is a design firm that helps colleges build strong, distinct brands.

Services include strategic development, branding, print design, writing and web design. We’re an experienced team that is consistently recognized in national competitions such as CASE and the Educational Advertising Awards.

Oracle Marketing Cloud http://www.oracle.com/ marketingcloud Modern Marketers choose Oracle Marketing Cloud solutions to create ideal customers and increase revenue. They use integrated information from cross-channel, content, and social marketing with data management to deliver personalized customer experiences across all marketing channels.

Visit oracle.com/marketingcloud.

Peterson’s http://www.petersons.com As a trusted partner to thousands of education institutions, Peterson’s Interactive gives clients access to more than 5 million prospective undergraduate and graduate students that we service each year, helping schools drive student enrollment.

Primacy Ologie

http://www.ologie.com

Pandora Media Inc. http://www.pandora.com

Ologie is a branding agency. We help companies, institutions, and organizations discover their authentic story and find their true voice. We aim to make every brand we touch clear, compelling, and consistent, so they become better known, better understood, and truly unique. We focus our work in three areas: education, healthcare, and financial services.

Pandora connects bands, brands and fans through the passion point of music.

Our monthly unique visitors are 76 million strong – about 450 Woodstocks – and the combination of our personalized listening experience and precision targeting ensures your message is reaching the right audience at the right time.

Website: http://advertising.pandora.com

OmniUpdate

Paskill Stapleton & Lord

http://www.omniupdate.com

http://www.psandl.com

OmniUpdate® is the leading web content management system (CMS) provider for higher education. The company focuses on providing an exceptional product and customer experience to its OU Campus™ CMS users who manage more than 700 web and mobile sites in the U.S. and around the world.

Paskill Stapleton and Lord is an Enrollment Marketing Agency focused on the long-term enrollment health of our client schools. Their expertise includes the following services: admissions publication design, admissions staff development, advertising design and placement, enrollment consulting, market research, video production & website design.

The

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The 2015 AMA Media Kit is now available!

Request a copy to help with your Advertising/Sponsorship plans for the New Year: 312-542-9076 • 312-542-9103 • 312-542-9033.

http://www.theprimacy.com Primacy is an award-winning, independent digital agency that delivers powerful experiences connecting brands, people and moments. Primacy combines in-depth education expertise with cross-industry experience, unparalleled client service, and solution-oriented innovative technology.

Primacy drives meaningful impact and measurable results around admissions, advancement and academic reputation outcomes. Services include strategy, design/ UX, marketing, media planning/buying, technology, video and mobile.

Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) http://www. promotionalproductswork.org Promotional products are one of, if not the most valued of all advertising media. Marketers design and produce strategically branded promotional campaigns to reach and appeal to a highly targeted audience in a tangible, long-lasting and memorable manner. PPAI is a not-for-profit association serving the promotional products industry.

The listings continue on the following page

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The listings represent paid listings as well as sponsors and exhibitors at the 2014 AMA Symposium.

R2integrated http://www.r2integrated.com/ clients/education R2i is a digital marketing and technology agency focused on delivering ROI. We specialize in helping clients reach digital maturity through selection, optimization, integration and activation of the right marketing strategy and technologies.

We are organized as a “dream team” of technology specialists and digital marketers with an elite capability to bridge the gap between marketing disciplines and advanced technologies required for end-to-end customer experience management.

Stamats, Inc. http://www.stamats.com We believe in two things. The importance of higher education and the need for all of us to work smarter.

We know the people who work in higher education simply cannot work any harder.

The only option is to work smarter.

Better ideas, execution, & results.

That’s our goal.

Let’s be smarter. Together.

VisionPoint Marketing http://www. visionpointmarketing.com VisionPoint Marketing is a marketing agency that helps colleges, universities and community colleges meet their admissions, branding, fundraising and communication goals. Our commitment to strategy, diverse understanding of all marketing disciplines and ability to build consensus across scores of stakeholders enables us to form deep, long standing client relationships.

Waybetter Marketing TERMINALFOUR Royal & Company

http://www.terminalfour.com

http://www.royall.com

TERMINALFOUR is a digital engagement & web content management platform for higher education. We enable Universities & Colleges to drive student recruitment, retention, alumni fundraising & research promotion by maximizing the effectiveness of their digital & content strategies.

For more than 20 years, Royall & Company has been the leader in strategic direct marketing for higher education. Royall partners exclusively with colleges and universities to meet and exceed their enrollment and advancement goals by delivering high-impact direct marketing that is custom-designed to address their unique challenges and deliver maximum return on investment.

SimpsonScarborough

U.S. News & World Report

The best brands inform, measure, and refine their efforts. Regularly. Doing so leads to more meaningful results and gives marketers a way to report their successes.

SimpsonScarborough is your partner in informing and developing those strategies.

With an exclusive focus on higher education, our team believes that understanding your brand leads to others valuing it.

U.S. News & World Report has developed an analytics dashboard which features a historical archive of rankings and rankings data. Utilizing high-level graphic capabilities and data visualizations you can create reports and tell compelling stories about your institution in a matter of minutes. A subscription includes access to proprietary data points we have never released until now.

http://www. simpsonscarborough.com

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http://www.ai.usnews.com

http://www. waybettermarketing.com Waybetter builds personalized data-driven marketing campaigns that help universities get better results with student search and yield.

We focus on delivering individualized messages by learning what each student cares about, then responding with relevant content. We don't believe in same-to-all messaging and have proven results with clients across the USA.

West Virginia University Integrated Marketing Communications Online Graduate Program http://www.imc.wvu.edu Earn a master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) online from West Virginia University. Our program is perfect for working professionals with curriculum designed to teach you skills today that you can use tomorrow. Learn emerging trends such as mobile marketing and social media marketing.

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advertisers’ index ADVERTISERS’ INDEX Quick source for contacting the suppliers in the October 2014 issue of Marketing News.

Advanced School of Marketing Research ............... p. 55 Ph. 1-800-AMA-1150

Pacific Lutheran University School of Business......... Inside Front Cover

URL: http://www.ama.org/advsmr

Ph. 253-535-7244 URL: http://www.plu.edu/msmr

AMA 2014 Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education / ConnectEd ............................... p. 57

SIS International Research . ............................... p. 45

Ph. 1-800-AMA-1150

URL: http://www.sisinternational.com

University of Georgia / Marketing Research Insitute International — Principles of Market Research ................... p. 47

Ph. 212-505-6805

Ph. 1-800-542-3537 URL: http://www. principlesofmarketresearch.org

URL: http://www.ama.org/highered

AMA Members Only Webcasts . ................................ p. 46 Ph. 1-800-AMA-1150 URL: http://www.ama.org/mow

AMA Webcasts ........................ p. 60 Ph. 1-800-AMA-1150 URL: http://www.ama.org/ webcasts

AMA Whitepapers ................... p. 17 Email: sales@ama.org URL: http://www.ama.org/ whitepaper

Lipman Hearne, Inc. ............. p. 49 Ph. 312-356-8000 URL: http://www.lipmanhearne.com

Marketing News ....................... p. 15 Ph. 1-800-AMA-1150 URL: http://www.ama.org/marketingnews

Northwestern University / Integrated Marketing Communications....... Back Cover Ph. 847-467-1882 URL: http://www.imc.northwestern.edu

Oracle / Marketing Cloud . ...................................... p. 19 Ph. 1-800-633-0738 URL: http://www.oracle.com/ marketingcloud

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RESOURCE CENTER

amacareers

On the Job Bill Sheridan, market research and analysis chief at Washington, D.C.-based Amtrak, discusses what helped propel his success

Q

What is your role in marketing and how did get to your current position?

A

I am responsible for market research and demand forecasting at Amtrak. My journey from director of market research for long-distance trains in 1995 to my current position included three years as a consultant outside of Amtrak, then back to Amtrak in several positions, which has included roles that revolved around pricing, planning and finance, and market research.

“I encourage folks to move around within a company whenever possible. By moving across departments, you enhance your value within your company and expand your network.�

Q

Name the top three characteristics that have contributed to your success.

A

1. Leveraging my analytical perspective in a creative environment.

2. A thorough understanding of Amtrak services and the decision support needed throughout the company.

3. Being in the right place at the right time (and willing to take advantage of diverse opportunities).

Q

What advice would you give newcomers who are interested in the marketing world?

A

I encourage folks with analytical skills and perspectives to consider market research or other decision-support

opportunities in marketing. I also encourage folks to move around within a company whenever possible. By moving across departments, you enhance your value within your company and expand your network.

Q

Are there any growing jobs or industry trends that students should pursue?

A

Instead of changing companies to advance your career, you might want to move to other departments within the same company. This will enhance your value as you move up the organizational ladder. m •org

For more career profiles and advice, visit ama.org/Career.

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ADVERTISING RATES ■ Straight Classifieds: $165 for up to 50 words

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Support Marketing News Advertisers. They Support Your Association.

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RESOURCE CENTER

amacareers

On the Job Shakir Moin, CMO of Coca-Cola China, discusses workplace flexibility, the importance of failure, and why your career is like a marathon

Q

What is your role in marketing, and how did you come about your current position?

A

I am the chief marketing officer for Coca-Cola China.

About a year ago, I received a call from the president of Coca-Cola China who invited me to serve in China. The Coca-Cola Co. has an extremely well-disciplined talent management process, and my outcome was a result of this process. While I had barely served in my prior role (as head of marketing for Coca-Cola ASEAN), I passionately believe that working for Coca-Cola is a privilege. Therefore, when the call came, I accepted with pride.

Q

Name the top three characteristics that have contributed to your success.

A

1. An incessant and passionate desire to learn.

2. Hard work with a bias for action.

3. Flexibility to adapt to change (multiple countries, roles and challenges).

Q

What catalysts or life-changing moments or decisions have guided you?

A

Q A

1. Marketing has to be a passion point. Understand what true marketing is and then decide if you want to build a career in marketing.

2. Your career is a marathon and not a sprint. Don’t chase short-term sprints and sprinters. Enjoy the run.

3. Always know your real priorities. More often than not, we chase the wrong dreams.

4. Try to figure out how you will measure your life (Clayton Christensen’s brilliant perspective). It’s lifealtering.

5. Family is always first. Nothing else matters more than them.

6. Never stop learning.

7. Take care of your team. World-class people build world-class brands.

8. Never lose humility.

I surmise, as with most people, that the catalyst moments in my life were the failures. In almost every one of them, the failures had less to do with external issues and more connected with my own failings. Every time I have looked back on my self-assessment, I have realized that I failed to evolve myself.

A positive force was the birth of my children, which really helped me appreciate the true need for work-life balance, and the power of focus and simplicity to manage the various priorities on a daily basis.

Q

Q

A

What advice would you give newcomers who are interested in the marketing world?

A

The marketing world is forever changing, which allows you to be creative and passionate about whatever field you are interested in. Seek to embrace this change. Effective marketing is not always looking for the right answer but creating the answer that is right for your brand or business.

Are there any new jobs or industry trends that you think students should pay attention to?

Are there any new jobs or industry trends that students should watch out for and possibly pursue?

E-commerce is rapidly emerging as a game-changing capability that will challenge everyone who is not part of it. It will affect existing business models, forcing them to evolve faster and sharper. At the same time, it’s an all-new avenue of growth. I see it as an opportunity for everyone, and not only e-commerce players, but it’s happening fast. As someone very wise recently told me, “There are no traditional businesses, only traditional mindsets.” m

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amaevents

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

AMA CLOSEUP:

The 2014 Summer Marketing Educators’ Conference

With the highest attendance in the last decade, this year’s Summer Marketing Educators’ Conference, held in San Francisco in August, featured a mobile program guide, an expanded poster session and crowd-selected best posters, and a new member welcome breakfast. The conference coincides with Academic Placement, at which applicants are interviewed by universities from around the world. Clockwise, from left: Conference Co-chair Alberto Sa Vinhas; (from left) Gary Lilien, Dennis Dunlap, Russ Klein and Ric Sweeney; (from left) Alexa Fox, George Deitz, Laurel Aynne Cook and Hyeong-Gyu Choi.

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Allison Johnson

Jagdish Sheth

Rebecca Hamilton

W E ST E R N U NIVERS ITY

EMORY UN I VER SI TY

CON FER EN CE CO - CHA IR

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CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

amaevents

Clockwise, from left: David Griffith (left) and Steven Dahlquist; Geraldine Rosa Henderson, recipient of the Williams-Qualls-Spratlen Multicultural Mentoring Award of Excellence; Klaus-Peter Weidman (center) and a group from Leibniz University Hannover take a selfie between sessions.

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backpage

EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS

“IT’S ONE THING TO TAKE CARE

of a 150,000-square-foot store. Now, you’ve got to take care of a bricks-and-mortar store, a dot-com store and a mobile commerce store.

You’ve expanded the opportunities to sell, but you also have to pay attention to the care and upkeep of the stores.”

Q

How does Retale work?

BACKGROUND Many customer journeys now begin and end on mobile, requiring brands to create multichannel— or omnichannel—presences and setting the stage for vendors like RETALE to succeed. Retale, a smartphone app available in cities across the U.S., allows consumers to locate stores nearby, access online circulars and pull up mobile coupons on their smartphones to present in-store. The Chicago-based company, whose parent company is Bonial Enterprises North America Inc., works with more than 110 retail brands including Target, Best Buy, CVS and Macy’s, and the app has more than 2 million downloads as of July 2014.

Marketing News caught up with PAT DERMODY, president of Retale, to discuss the app and the future of retail in the digital era. Dermody, who joined Retale as president in May 2013, has 20 years of marketing experience on both the agency and client side, at companies including Sears Holdings Corp., Leo Burnett Worldwide Inc. and DDB Worldwide.

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A

If we open it up, it will show where we are, and that there’s a CVS not far from us. Then if you click on that, it shows you which deals are happening at that CVS. When you open the circular, it acts just like your paper. From a user experience, everybody knows what to do. We’ve all been turning pages since we were little kids.

It’s a really simple user experience, and it’s a really simple install for retailers. …

Shoppers can ‘clip’ the coupon virtually and present them in the store. You can clip them and put them in your online file, and the store can scan the bar code from your iPad or phone. The whole idea is to replicate the circular experience and present the full story that a retailer puts into that circular.

Q

Given your experience with mobile, what’s your advice for creating effective localization strategies?

A

One could argue that newspapers could get very ‘micro’: They could get to a sub-zip-code level. Digital allows you to get to the household level, to the personal-device level, if people want you to. It’s taking that approach and making it better and more measurable. That becomes the opportunity for retailers. … Retailers have always known how to localize. They just need to recalibrate how they think about it, and test and learn their way into programs that deliver effective

localization, both in terms of how you communicate to your customers and what you communicate to your customers, with the economies of scale that you need to run your business.

Q

What else should retailers do to adapt to a mobile marketplace?

A

It’s one thing to take care of a 150,000-square-foot store. Now, you’ve got to take care of a bricks-andmortar store, a dot-com store and a mobile commerce store. You’ve expanded the opportunities to sell, but you also have to pay attention to the care and upkeep of the stores, and what goes into keeping it current. You have to make sure that the shirts are folded on the shelves and they all look fantastic, and you also have to make sure that the content on your website and mobile site looks fantastic.

There’s a lot to take care of on the back end. Part of that is supply chain. People are becoming used to instant gratification. They want it when they want it. They don’t want to wait. That’s why you see a lot of retailers working on same-day delivery or next-day delivery because that’s the intersection of online shopping and bricks-and-mortar. It’s 4 o’clock and I have to have something for a cocktail party at 7 p.m. I’d love to get on my phone as I’m waiting at my dentist’s office so I can have it waiting at my house at 6 so I can wear it tonight. That’s what people expect. They’re working on supply chain and delivery mechanisms, and at the same time, they’re tending to multiple stores that are up and always open. m

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EVENTS

amacommunity

AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education Nov. 10-13, Austin, Texas The 2014 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education will cover key learning areas, including building strong college and university brands; effective methods of print, Web and social media marketing; measurement of marketing activities; marketing communications strategy; trends in higher education marketing; innovative recruitment and fundraising strategies; and more.

Today’s AMA! Rajan Varadarajan (left) and David Stewart (third from left) present the Tom C. Kinnear Award, which honors outstanding scholarship in the AMA journals, to some authors of this year’s winner, “From Nutrients to Nurturance: A Conceptual Introduction to Food Well-Being,” published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. Authors present include Sonia Grier, Brennan Davis, Maura Scott and Russell Laczniak.

Formoreinformation,visitama.org/HigherEd.

FACE-TO-FACE EVENTS

Take control of your career: Visit ama.org/Events or call (800) AMA-1150 to register.

Advanced School of Marketing Research

The Art of Being Insightful

Essentials of B2B Marketing

Nov. 3-7, Atlanta

Nov. 3-4, Philadelphia

Nov. 17-18, Chicago

Attendees at The Art of Being Insightful will learn the thought processes and structured approaches most likely to lead to a deeper understanding of marketplace dynamics, consumer motivation and the nature of a problem.

Essentials of B2B Marketing provides insights into the B-to-B marketing realm and its functions for improving performance with both short-term and long-term strategies. Learn what tools are available and how to use them to your advantage.

To register, visit ama.org/Insightful.

To register, visit ama.org/EssB2B.

Learn how leading firms are using advanced marketing research techniques to better understand customers, increase sales, use media effectively, make new product development decisions and price products for increased profit in today’s challenging environment.

To register, visit ama.org/AdvSMR.

FIND OUT MORE AT

ama .org

OR FIND US ON

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