From Fast Company

How to Measure Ad Success in the Digital Age

Great article on how to understand marketing spend in TODAY’s marketing environment.

From the article “”It used to be that you’d watch the Super Bowl spots played on TV and in the news right after,” says Jill Beraud, chief marketing officer of PepsiCo, which monitors chatter on Facebook and Twitter to measure an ad’s success. “Now, the longevity of these Super Bowl spots is endless between YouTube and all the digital tools that are available.”"

Why spend $ if there is no return?  Measurement is key.  The tactics are new, so must the measurement tools.

What did you like?  Why?

Thank you to Professor William E Huxhold for speaking to our class regarding the “Use of GIS in Business” as a prelude to GIS Day at UW Milwaukee and for suggesting the following videos an introduction to GIS.

http://geospatialrevolution.psu.edu/episode1/complete

http://geospatialrevolution.psu.edu/episode2/complete

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXqLHSBP_x0 (Start here)

How can you see GIS being used in Marketing as well as other aspects of business?

From Baseline Briefing

CIO + Marketing

I found a real message in this article.  Often, CIOs do not “get” websites.  However, CIOs plus marketing professionals (and other line of business managers) will add significant business value.  Alone, either management professional may not.  I believe that the same is true for all “information technology”  used for business.  We NEED to have line of business managers and subject matter experts working WITH technical (IT) professionals to yield strategic business value.   One of the key outputs of the collaboration of CIO  and CMO will be an “enterprise architecture” that works for the entire firm or organization.

From the article “Businesses need CIOs to lead—with marketing—and devise mature 21st century information management strategies and tactics to support the corporate Web presence so it will send the right message but also be technically sound. These Web solutions involve library services, information and application architecture, metadata management, Web records retention, Web content management systems, portal software, search engine implementation and optimization, and more.

Without the expertise of the CIO’s office, marketing teams frequently take a superficial approach to application development, understanding only the service results, but not the underlying architectural concerns. In many instances, we’ve seen application waste—multiple Web content management systems and unnecessarily redundant e-commerce applications.”

What do you think?

From Future Think Tank

Socialized Innovation

I find this brief article interesting about how some organizations are using social media, inside and outside the company….

From the article….. “Forward-thinking companies use social media for more than just creative marketing campaigns. These companies harness the power of social media to promote a culture that fosters innovation, empowers effective collaboration with customers and partners, and streamlines idea development channels.”

Interesting?

From Business Week : Debra Benton

This article written by a CEO Coach describes the qualities of a CEO.  Are you ready?  By the way, she contends that you can learn the qualities and I say, hopefully, say practice them.

Get Yourself some Executive Charisma

Do you agree that these qualities can be learned?  What would you ADD to the set?  Any you disagree with?

Learing to be a CEO

From Business Week

The article lists and briefly describes ten business management practices to get rid of.   Some of which I agree with, some I do not.   I still like #8, however some of what Liz Ryan says, I can agree with.

Management Practices to Axe

What should go, what should stay?

From Directions Magazine

A Podcast  (~15 Minutes) Explains how GIS (Geographical Information Systems) can be used in retail situations.

Using GIS to Understand the Retail Marketplace Get your headphones ready

What do you think?   How can YOU use GIS to understand YOUR marketplace?

Thank you Jason

From: The New York Times

With our choices for entertainment and “content consumption” being ever wider, and the traditional venues for advertising becoming increasingly less effective, advertisers are looking for more places to place TARGETED ads.

Product Placement in Music Videos

Are you seeing more of this?  Are you tolerant of this?  Do you expect this?   Will you pay more for no ads?

From Baseline Magazine

Slideshow makes a series of observations  “What’s Wrong with Microsoft”

Do you agree?

Hugh suggested the linked White Paper from Eaton regarding the economics of running a data center.

The report is 12 pages long, however, if you are interested, the report is good, especially if you are an IT person or Power Quality person.

Economics of Data Center

I am personally interested in the capabilities of “real time” measurements.

Here is the Abstract:

“IT teams grapple with some inescapable realities. The cost of operating the data center is outpacing the
cost of IT resources themselves. High-density equipment pressures power and cooling systems to the
max. Moves, adds and changes can turn the power infrastructure into a deck of cards, at risk of
overloads, tripped circuits and unplanned shutdowns.
It doesn’t have to be that way. There are practical and affordable ways to ease these concerns without
making major changes in the power delivery system.
High-efficiency power quality systems, greater visibility into power conditions at all levels, flexible options
to power all those dual- and triple-corded servers, modularity for flexible growth… new approaches and
technologies such as these are redefining the economics of running the modern data center.”

What do you think is interesting?

Thanks to Hugh for these links.

We discussed briefly Next Generation 911 in class.

An article discusses what the problem is and what it is going to cost to fix it.

Next Generation 911

Wikipedia Explanation of NG911 From the article: “In addition to calling 9-1-1 from a phone, the public will be able to transmit text, images, video and data to the 9-1-1 center (referred to as a Public Safety Answering Point, or PSAP)”

Did you know about this?  (I did not know about PSAP)  What do you think?

A blog post at Harvard Business School states that the USA cannot make the Kindle.  The article gives lots of insight into the design and manufacturing of the Kindle.  More importantly, it raises the questions associated with the importance of our (USA) ability to manufacture a product such as the Kindle.

The US Can’t Manufacture the Kindle and that’s a Problem

What do you think?  Does the USA NEED to be a manufacturer?  Why?   Is this “killing innovation”?

I learned about this new book from an article and short video on the INSEAD KNOWLEDGE website.

The article is “The Innovation Manual“  and we can see from the perspective of a marketing professor a number of key points, many of which we have discussed in our classes, but it serves as a great reminder about the “basics” .

David Midgley, the author of the book, uses the example of the Apple iPod and the business model it created.  Once again, we see this model coming out as a key to success. Further, the role of customers in product/service innovation and development.  We also read about the importance of an innovation culture and the challenges of maintaining a culture of innovation.  The book promises to tell us all about it.

What do you think of the reminders here?  What should be emphasized more?   Less?

Seems to be a bit of a theme this Fall, but yet another article about the Kindle.  (I bet you can guess what might be on my Christmas List this year) However, as we think about NPM (New Products Management) we need to understand how important “Launch” is, and pricing.  This article points out a bit about how we need to think about launches in multiple countries may in fact, cause problems for us.

The FAST Company article “Has Amazon Bungled Kindle’s International Launch” gives us a bit of a case study.  What could/should they have done differently?   What have we learned about the importance of a “service” strategy that becomes part of a product launch?  What have we learned about partners?

Thank you Hugh for suggesting this article.

According to the article “DSIA ramps up cloud-computing platform“   —–

“Military program managers frustrated by having to wait six months to get a server provisioned might want to take a look at the Defense Information Systems Agency’s new cloud-computing offering. The agency is boasting that can provide a NIPRnet-connected, production-ready virtual server within 72 hours.”

This is Defense Department certified, not just your average storage in a cloud.  According to the article “DISA has also prepared the virtual environment to conform as closely as possible to the DOD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process and the DISA Security Technical Implementation Guides“.

For those wondering if their data can be made secure in “the cloud”, I guess, well the USA Department of Defense thinks it works.  I count on them to keep me and my family secure, I will trust that it can be done.  And soon, as fast as 24 hours.

What do you think?

Baseline Magazine slideshow showcasing 2010 CIO priorities.  Among them, cost cutting and revenue generation —– revenue generation?

CIO Priorities for 2010

Baseline Magazine is an excellent magazine for ALL management not just CIOs.  Just my .02.

What did they miss?   What were you surprised by?  Which ones should not have been in the top 10?

Baseline Magazine has a slide show that offers some pretty compelling reasons why Solr perhaps offers a great alternative for full text search on your internal sites and databases.  “Smarter Search with Solr“  It is open source for one and has been used successfully with CNET and other sites which are named.

What do you think?  Would you rather pay license fees?

What made you think about switching or implementing this?  From a managerial standpoint, is this something you may direct your IT team to look into?  Why?

Ok, so I am not teaching a marketing class at the current time, I still think that a reminder once in a while about the importance of brand and brand building is a good thing. 

Branding is a consideration in New Product Management, often might even be a criteria in new concept screening.

The article “Five Letter words is key to Marketing Success” is what prompted my thoughts of branding.

So, how important is brand?  How much should it (brand fit, brand extension)be a part of new product concept criteria?

A slideshow on the Baseline website entitled “Facebook Sinks Job Applicants” mpoints out that we need to be careful about what we are “publishing”.  From the posting ” According to research conducted by CareerBuilder, social networking poses a serious threat to job seekers who have posted inappropriate information about themselves. With so many IT workers taking advantage of sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter these days, tech geeks need to keep future interviewers in mind before bragging about their beer pong champion status or posting crazy pictures.”

What do you think?

Thank you to Mike for suggesting this video and topic.

The 18 minute video entitled “The Surprising Science of Motivation“  is a presentation regarding motivation; intrinsic vs. extrinsic .  Daniel Pink shares, in the format of a lawyer presenting a case — that “carrot and stick” does not work!  Rather, “Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose” are the way to get things done in business.

What do you think?  Did you enjoy the presentation?