AMK Marketing Briefs

2008-11-05T17:40:00.000-08:00

Advertising

Dueling Brands Pick Up Where Politicians Leave Off

By STUART ELLIOTT

Published: November 3, 2008

ELECTION Day will bring an end to the negative political advertising that has inundated the country. But it will not mean an end to negative advertising.

An image from a response ad by Microsoft meant to counter a campaign from Apple that characterizes PCs as geeky.

Multimedia

Campbell Goes Negative

With a mode reminiscent of political ads, Campbell Soup, in a campaign for its Select Harvest line, attacks Progresso by name.

Dunkin’ Brands goes after Starbucks, promoting a Web site that features the results of a taste test that favored its coffee.

That is because marketers of consumer products, borrowing a page from the electoral playbook, are becoming more willing to run aggressive ads in which brands attack their competitors by name. A major reason for the growing popularity of such ads is the faltering economy, on the theory that when times are hard, you should hit your opponent harder.

More
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/business/media/04adco.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

What Marketers Can Learn From Obama's Campaign Change -- and Positioning -- You Can Believe in By Al Ries

2008-11-05T17:27:00.000-08:00

Nov. 4, 2008, will go down in history as the biggest day ever in the history of marketing.

Take a relatively unknown man. Younger than all of his opponents. Black. With a bad-sounding name. Consider his first opponent: the best-known woman in America, connected to one of the most successful politicians in history. Then consider his second opponent: a well-known war hero with a long, distinguished record as a U.S. senator.

Obama owns the 'change' idea in voters' minds.

Photo Credit: AP

It didn't matter. Barack Obama had a better marketing strategy than either of them. "Change.
MORE
http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=132237

Kraft Reformulates Oreo,Scores in China

2008-05-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

By JULIE JARGON
May 1, 2008

Unlike its iconic American counterpart, the Oreo sold in China is frequently long, thin, four-layered and coated in chocolate. But both kinds of cookies have one important thing in common: They are now best sellers.

The Oreo has long been the top-selling cookie in the U.S. market. But Kraft Foods Inc. had to reinvent the Oreo to make it sell well in the world's most populous nation. While Chinese Oreo sales represent a tiny fraction of Kraft's $37.2 billion in annual revenue, the cookie's journey in China exemplifies the kind of entrepreneurial transformation that Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld is trying to spread throughout the food giant.

Kraft, the world's second largest food company by revenue, reported a 13% drop in first-quarter net income Wednesday because of high commodity costs and increased spending on product research and marketing. Its international business, which now represents 40% of Kraft's revenue thanks to the company's recent acquisition of Groupe Danone's biscuits business, was a bright spot in the quarter, aided by the weak dollar. Kraft's profit in the European Union rose 48%, excluding special charges, and its profit in developing markets rose 57%.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120958152962857053.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Are you a manager or leader

2008-04-23T11:29:00.000-07:00

Marketing Definitions
Are you a manager or leader?

To find out, let's start with the Oxford English Dictionary:

Manager: 'A person controlling or administering a business.'

Leader: 'A person who causes others to go with him, by guiding and showing the way; guides by persuasion and argument.'

And a quote that provides a useful comparison:

"Leadership is often confused with other things, specifically management. As I see it, leadership revolves around vision, ideas, direction, and has more to do with inspiring people as to direction and goals than with day-to-day implementation. One can't lead unless one can leverage more than his own capabilities . . . You have to be capable of inspiring other people to do things without actually sitting on top of them with a checklist - that's management, not leadership."
John Sculley

Notice the difference in the words being used - controlling, sitting on top of someone, administering, as opposed to causes . . . . by guiding, showing the way, inspiring, direction, goals.

To focus this even more, let's look at a list of contrasting words that describe even more fully the differences between managers and leaders.

MANAGERS

administer

are a copy

maintain

systems/structure focus

control

short-term

how/when

bottom line

imitate

accept

good soldier

do things right

LEADERS

innovate

are an original

develop

people focus

trust

long-range

what/why

horizon

originate

challenge

own person

do the right thing

John Adair, a British leadership guru, continued to explore these distinctions by going back to the etymological roots of the two words.

Lead is from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning a road, a way, a path. It's knowing what the next step is. Managing is from the Latin, manus, a hand. It's about handling, and is closely linked with the idea of machines and came to prominence in the 19th century, as engineers and accountants emerged to run what had previously been entrepreneurial businesses.

Adair goes on to make another distinction - managers can be appointed, leaders must be ratified in the hearts and the minds of those who work for them.

In a stable and highly structured environment it is managers who will excel. In dynamic environments - where change is rapid and there are few points of reference - it is leadership that is needed.

Look at the attributes in the two lists above, and ask yourself:

Which are most critical to achieving success, in the situation I am in?
How do I match up to them?

Welcome to the Outernet

2008-04-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

A little known billboard advertising giant plots its digital future.

By Richard Siklos, editor at large

The new face of advertising

(Fortune) -- Kevin Reilly Jr. chuckled when I described my ineptitude while recently trying to transfer photos onto a digital picture frame, which is supposed to display hundreds of rotating images. Let's just say that getting the digital frame to work is easier said than done, and I mentioned this to Reilly because he is attempting something similar on a vastly grander scale.

Reilly is the CEO of Lamar Advertising (LAMR), whose $3.5 billion market value is more than New York Times Company. But his company doesn't get a lot of ink, mostly because it operates in the least sexy quarter of the media whirl: billboards. While its two bigger rivals - Clear Channel (CCU, Fortune 500) and CBS Outdoor (CBS, Fortune 500) - are each linked to radio empires and tend to dominate big cities, Lamar has stuck to its original business and acquired more than 150,000 static billboards. It also puts posters on the sides of buses in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada.

A few years ago, Reilly and his colleagues had an epiphany: Unlike other forms of media, the basic business of building walls on stilts and selling ads on them wasn't under direct threat from the Internet. If anything, technology could help billboard operators like Lamar save money. By using digital technology and broadband connections, Lamar could stitch together a network in which a single ad could be displayed at multiple locations. And as prices for next-generation screens fell, Reilly figured, any billboard could be turned into a veritable Jumbotron: like my digital picture frame, multiple images can be rotated across the screen.

more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/06/news/companies/siklos_lamar.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008040707

Publicis, Dentsu CEOs share their visions of the ad agency of the future

2008-04-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

AAAA SmartBrief | 04/14/2008

Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy and Dentsu Chairman-CEO Tateo Mataki both agree the traditional agency model needs to be rethought, but disagree on the extent of the changes needed. Mataki, speaking at an ad industry conference, described a new model in which agencies and clients "share risks and rewards equally," while Levy believes the "magic tripod" of advertiser, agency and media owner is still viable. Advertising Age (04/09)

Naked tells truth about corporate advertising

2008-04-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

By Louise Story

NEW YORK: It takes a bit of courage, and perhaps a lot of ego, to tell large companies that their ad campaigns have been failing miserably.

But that's exactly what the advertising firm Naked claims to do regularly.

"We get up in front of a group of agencies and tell them, very nicely, that they have wasted tens of millions of dollars," said Ben Richards, senior strategist at Naked New York.

For that advice, of course, Naked hopes to earn a chunk of the supposedly wasted money. The company specializes in helping clients select the right balance of media for its message - shifting, perhaps, away from television and toward the Internet, or maybe in other directions.

Naked is one of the specialists in an emerging area in marketing called "communications planning," which tries to look beyond the 30-second spot to new ways to reach potential customers. The company, which got its start in 2000 in London and opened an office in New York two years ago, has in the last year signed up clients like Kimberly-Clark, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson.

more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/09/technology/naked.php

Olympic Torch Uproar Could Burn Lenovo

2008-04-22T16:31:00.000-07:00

Protests May Complicate PC Firm's Plan to Use
Beijing Games for Global Push

By JANE SPENCER
April 14, 2008; Page B1

Richard Gere, riot police and rotten eggs weren't part of Lenovo Group Ltd.'s plan.

The computer company's top designers spent 10 months holed up in its Beijing headquarters drafting looks for the official Olympic torch. The team studied ancient Chinese pottery to come up with the swirling clouds that circle the top of the torch, and painted its base a shade of red that matches the doors of the Forbidden City. Their work, meant to show off Lenovo's design prowess, beat out 300 others in a competition sponsored by the Beijing Olympic committee.

The Chinese firm designed the torch.

These days, the glow of that victory has dimmed. As the relay that brings the torch around the world from Greece to China turned into a duck-and-cover operation in several cities, it has raised questions about whether the estimated $100-million-plus Lenovo has invested in sponsoring the Games and related marketing will provide the kind of massive brand boost the company is counting on. Lenovo, the world's fourth-largest PC maker, is one of three companies that paid millions of extra dollars for the exclusive rights to sponsor the torch relay, along with Coca-Cola Co. and Samsung Group.

Executives say that while they were expecting some protests, they were caught off guard by the ferocity of the attacks on the torch by protesters angry over China's crackdown on unrest in Tibet and its support of the Sudanese regime leading persecutions in Darfur. Eggs were thrown in London. The torch was snuffed in Paris. And Mr. Gere, an actor who has long championed Tibet's cause, rallied protesters in San Francisco.

"The intensity of the protests has been very disappointing," says Deepak Advani, Lenovo's chief marketing officer. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. But when things get violent and physical and the protesters are coming after a torchbearer in a wheelchair -- I just didn't anticipate something like that happening."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120812614583111333.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Accenture Study: Viewers Disenchanted with Network TV

2008-04-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

Global Broadcast Consumer Survey: Network-TV Watchers Around Globe More Loyal to Content than to Any Branded Delivery System

John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/14/2008 1:29:00 PM

Network-TV watchers around the globe are more loyal to content than to any branded delivery system, but they are also becoming disenchanted with network TV in general, including ads, and more ready and willing to go somewhere else to get their video.

That's according to an inaugural Global Broadcast Consumer Survey of viewing preferences in eight countries that was released Monday by consulting firm Accenture.

"Today’s youth are more dissatisfied with the traditional television experience and increasingly excited by the availability of new choices,” Accenture executive David Wolf said in announcing the study.

Those findings, the study suggested, mean that viewers are ripe for being wooed to other delivery devices and platforms.

The study found that 83% of respondents expressed some discontent with watching "live" TV, which translated to broadcast or cable, while 41% of American TV watchers and 39% of Brits still watch at least eight shows per week. The study suggested that TV networks need to deliver content directly to viewers through new digital means or risk losing more of their audience.

For example, the study found that 46% of 18- to 24-year-olds watch some content on mobile devices -- a "wave" of change that networks must ride or be left behind, Accenture suggested.

“The under-35-year-old group is more likely to watch content on alternative devices, more likely to be familiar with on-demand TV, prefers watching content on-demand and is more willing to pay to download content,” Wolf said in a release.

The study suggested that the audience wasn't looking for promos or episodes tailored to short attention spans. Only 16% of respondents said they wanted program highlights or "shortened versions" of episodes.

They are looking for user-generated content, the study found, and more than one-third of them (37%) were willing to pay to download TV shows, with one-half of those preferring flat, monthly fees. One-third would rather not pay at all, saying that they were willing to watch ads in the shows.

The poll was conducted online with 1,000 people in each of the following six countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. In addition, phone polls of 500 people apiece were conducted in Mexico and Brazil.

The ages of the respondents varied due to polling differences in each country. In Europe, adults 16-54 were interviewed in Italy and Spain, and adults 16-64 in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. In the United States, it was adults 18-plus, while the phone survey in Brazil and Mexico was of adults 18-64.

Other key findings:

• Six out of 10 said they would enjoy watching some content on their PCs.

• 46% preferred to watch sports and news “live”; 23% said they would like to watch dramas and sitcoms on-demand.

• TV commercials were the biggest complaint, with 64% saying it is what they most disliked about "live" TV. Next in the most-disliked category was "not being able to ‘rewind’” (40%) and "not being able to watch programs at the viewer’s convenience" (38%). Viewers were not particularly worried about "troublesome or unappealing" content (14% disliked that most), followed by -- attention Slingbox -- being unable to watch TV away from home (8%); ability to interact with the content (7%); "or to rate programs" (7%).

Global Ad Trends 2007

2008-04-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

Branding of the Year

From rock band Radiohead's pay-what-you-want scheme to Facebook's advertising fiasco, it was a crazy year in ad-land

Helen Walters

For our round-up of marketing in 2007, we challenged creative directors from agencies in four locations around the world to tell us what branding made the biggest impact in their regions in 2007. Our panel featured Johnny Vulkan, co-founder and partner at New York City agency, Anomaly; Simon Waterfall, co-founder of digital agency Poke and president of British advertising and design organization D&AD; Jonathan Kneebone, co-founder of Sydney creative collective, the Glue Society; and Sheungyan Lo, executive creative director, northeast Asia, JWT.

Their answers and selections of specific pieces of work are remarkable in their diversity — yet there are some clear common threads. For one thing, 2007 wasn't exactly a stellar year for Mad Ave (and its global equivalents). But there were some stand-out moments, and all agreed that while it's not entirely clear where the industry is headed, it'll be one hell of a journey. Here take a look at some of their picks:

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/12/1219_ad_roundup/index_01.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index

A Year for Quick Hits and Fast Flops as Campaigns Broke New Ground

2008-04-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

Advertising

By STUART ELLIOTT

Published: December 17, 2007

THEY say the older you get, the faster the years seem to go by. But you could be the president of the “Gossip Girl” fan club or the newest cast member of “High School Musical 3” and still believe that time’s flight is on fast-forward.

The reason? The quickening pace of change in advertising, which influences so much of commerce and culture. In 2007, the velocity picked up as more marketers, agencies and media owners forsook the tried-and-true in favor of new ways to reach elusive consumers.

Not everyone trying to think differently hit a home run. (After the Mitchell report, even home runs are suspect.) Here is a recap of eight high and low points, in alphabetical order.

Why eight? Given the forecasts for the economy next year, eight could be the new 10.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/business/media/17adcol.html?ref=media

Doritos Ad: Live the Flavor

2008-04-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

http://video.on.nytimes.com/index.jsp?fr_story=344b4b4ef3b2857f767d30a2c1ce7dcae3861219

What is Creativity

2008-04-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

Marketing Definitions
Creativity

The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that creativity is: 'The ability to create'. Fantastic! The Heritage Illustrated Dictionary is a little more helpful: 'Characterized by originality and expressiveness, imaginative'. So we can start to see some of the characteristics of creativity.

Here are some much more interesting quotes:

"Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction".
Picasso

My interpretation of this quote is that we need to break down our barriers to creativity: preconceptions, fears, being trapped by 'rules', being unwilling to be frivolous or foolish and play with ideas that may take us to a solution.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Einstein

This quote suggests some of the 'ingredients': imaginative thinking is most important (in Einstein's view!) but there is a need for knowledge too.

And we came across this great quote:

"Creativity is knowledge times imagination times evaluation. And I say 'times' because if either knowledge, imagination or evaluation is missing then there would be no creativity."
David C. Morrison

This really works well, because it suggests that creativity, and being creative, is a kind of process:

•	First, you have to be knowledgeable about the subject. Fill yourself with understanding.
•	Second, use imaginative or creative thinking to generate ideas
•	Third, and finally, take time to evaluate

We have more information on brainstorming in our 'Creative Thinking' section that provides one approach to undertaking this creative process.

And finally, a further quote from David C. Morrison:

"Also looking on to what innovation is, innovation is knowledge times imagination times evaluation times action. Because my belief is without action there is no innovation or no applied creativity."

What’s for Dinner? The Pollster Wants to Know

2008-04-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

By KIM SEVERSON

Published: April 16, 2008

IF there’s butter and white wine in your refrigerator and Fig Newtons in the cookie jar, you’re likely to vote for Hillary Clinton. Prefer olive oil, Bear Naked granola and a latte to go? You probably like Barack Obama, too.

A CHICKEN IN EVERY POT Supporters of Barack Obama prefer Bear Naked cereal. Hillary Clinton’s fans like GoLean. For John McCain’s supporters, Fiber One is favored.

And if you’re leaning toward John McCain, it’s all about kicking back with a bourbon and a stuffed crust pizza while you watch the Democrats fight it out next week in Pennsylvania.

If what we eat says a lot about who we are, it also says something about how we might vote.

Although precincts and polls are being parsed, the political advisers to the presidential candidates are also looking closely at consumer behavior, including how people eat, as a way to scavenge for votes. The practice is called microtargeting, as much political discipline as buzzword. The idea is that in the brand-driven United States, what we buy and how we spend our free time is a good predictor of our politics.

Political strategists slice and dice the electorate into small segments, starting with traditional demographics like age and income, then mixing consumer information like whether you prefer casinos or cruises, hunting or cooking, a Prius or a pickup.

Once they find small groups of like-minded people, campaigns can efficiently send customized phone, e-mail or direct mail messages to potential supporters, avoiding inefficient one-size-fits-all mailings. Pockets of support that might have gone unnoticed can be ferreted out.

“This is essentially the way Williams-Sonoma knows which of its catalogs to send you,” said Christopher Mann of MSHC Partners, a political communications firm, which has used microtargeting to help dozens of successful candidates, including Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

Although gender, religion and other basic personal data are much more valuable for pollsters, information about eating — along with travel and hobbies — are in the second tier of data used to predict how someone might vote, he said.

So, for example, Mr. Mann knows that someone who subscribes to lots of gourmet cooking magazines is more likely to be a Democrat or at least more open to progressive causes. That can help a campaign decide if it’s worth spending money courting that person’s vote.

Although Karl Rove was not the first to use microtargeting in a campaign, he brought it to new levels of sophistication and prominence, dividing swing voters into groups like “tax and terrorism moderates.” The strategy helped send George Bush back to the White House in 2004. Matthew Dowd, the former chief strategist for President Bush who is now a political commentator for ABC, helped orchestrate that effort. The Bush team studied food preferences, among dozens of other traits, as a shortcut to finding independents who might lean Republican, he said.

For example, Dr Pepper is a Republican soda. Pepsi-Cola and Sprite are Democratic. So are most clear liquors, like gin and vodka, along with white wine and Evian water. Republicans skew toward brown liquors like bourbon or scotch, red wine and Fiji water.

When it comes to fried chicken, he said, Democrats prefer Popeyes and Republicans Chick-fil-A.

“Anything organic or more Whole Foods-y skews more Democratic,” Mr. Dowd said.

But consumer information has to be studied in context.

“I don’t know how much you can use food or drink alone to determine how they will vote,” he said. “You can’t have a candidate with a Pepsi-Cola and Pizza Hut box and think that’s going to win an election for you.”

Jeff Navin, managing director of American Environics, a progressive research and strategy firm, agrees.

“Knowing that your base drinks gin doesn’t give you a clear idea on how to communicate with them effectively on issues,” he said. “But if you take it a level deeper and say, are there psychological drivers that will help understand the values behind the behavior, you can speak to those values and persuade voters.”

Mr. Navin offers an example from his firm’s ongoing survey that periodically asks 1,800 people in-depth questions about their lives. In last summer’s polling, the latest available, Mrs. Clinton scored high among voters who also had favorable views of McDonalds, Wal-Mart and Starbucks.

That led his team to conclude that Clinton supporters put a high value on national brands. Although the landscape in the Democratic race has shifted since the poll was conducted, Mr. Navin said, back then the name Clinton was the most popular national Democratic brand.

Get the Right Butts in Your Seats

2008-04-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

Some Tips for Interviewing

Posted by Jennifer Patterson on 04.17.08

Jennifer Patterson

I was talking to my brother the other day, and he was dreading having to hire someone for an open position.

"I hate interviewing. I never know what to ask," he grumbled. He's in Treasury, but it's really not so different in advertising (wardrobe aside). A lot of people don't enjoy or feel effective at interviewing. Despite this, it's a hugely important skill to a small company.

We all know that one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch and never is this more true than at a small agency. At big agencies in big cities, the two-year revolving door is more manageable. There's always someone exiting another agency and wanting to enter yours. But small agencies are often not in the ad meccas. For us, it's less a revolving door than a mini floodgate that opens. There's a quick one-way rush out and then the riverbed is dry. And you're often left with a substantial hole not just in your workforce, but in your culture.

So I wanted to share a quick list of a few things we've learned along the way about hiring:

Meet people all the time. In an ideal world, all these meetings would insure you a roster of potential new players just in that moment of need. But timing is generally not so easy. The real value of meeting people all the time is to keep your interviewer game up. One of my best friends from college told me once how her parents had met and married after only four months. Her mother had said, in defense of her hastiness: "You spend your whole life figuring out who NOT to marry." This is like interviewing. Meet people to know who's not for you. Trust me, there are plenty of them out there.

more http://adage.com/smallagency/post?article_id=126466

Help Taglines Regain Lost Glory

2008-04-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

Why Creating Strong Slogans Is a Marketer's Most Important Job

By Steve Cone

Published: April 14, 2008

What's MIA in today's marketing messages? Powerful taglines, or what I call "powerlines" -- those words that are well-chosen and have the power to awe, inspire, motivate, alienate, subjugate and, in a marketing context, change the buying habits of consumers.

Viva great taglines: Practically every adult in America knows this tagline and can instantly repeat it if asked: "Las Vegas: What happens here stays here."

Taglines today are a forgotten part of marketing planning. When they are employed, they generally mean nothing or are relegated to small, unreadable type. Moreover, companies change taglines every year or two and sometimes within a given year. Nothing could be more harmful to your brand and your business.

Below are questions I am frequently asked about why creating powerful taglines is so essential and how to do it --as well as my answers.

more : http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=126290

Advertisers: Men Are Not Idiots

2008-04-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

Bashing Fathers and Husbands Isn't the Right Way for Marketers to Sell Products

By Glenn Sacks and Richard Smaglick

Published: April 14, 2008

The way the advertising industry portrays men has drawn increasing scrutiny in both the trade press and the mainstream media. Defenders of the status quo -- in which men are depicted as irresponsible fathers and lazy, foolish husbands -- are starting to feel outnumbered. It's an understandable feeling.

Fair Portrayal: AT&T's touching father-daughter ad 'Monkey' is an example of a father-positive spot.

In 2005, Bob Jeffery, chairman of JWT, said his agency had committed itself to developing "smart, positive portrayals of the modern man." Meanwhile, anti-male ads have been criticized by, among others: Marian Salzman, chief marketing officer of Porter Novelli; Mark Tungate, author of "Branded Male: Marketing to Men"; syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, whose weekly columns appear in 300 newspapers; TV host Bill Maher; CBS News anchor Charles Osgood; nationally syndicated radio-talk-show host Laura Schlessinger; syndicated columnist Jacey Eckhart; Chicago Tribune columnist Ross Werland; law professor/author and blogger Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit; Christine B. Whelan, author of "Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women"; and major-market-talk-show hosts Al Rantel, Mike McConnell, Ron Smith and Joe Elliott.

The evidence is clear: "Man as idiot" isn't going over very well these days.

more : http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=126292

Market Leadership

2008-04-18T11:37:00.001-07:00

Market Leadership

There are three ways that marketers traditionally think about market leadership:

• Market share (volume)
• Market share (value)
• Profitability

So if you have the largest market share by volume, you can claim to be a market leader. Same with value. Of all these, we think that being most profitable is also the most significant of these traditional measures of market leadership. (There is no point selling without making money!).

But there are far more interesting ways of thinking about leadership. Here are some definitions:

"Leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less."
John C Maxwell
21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

And our favorite:

"The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers."
Peter Drucker
The Leader of the Future

A beautiful definition, and put that way, any company can be a market leader. You don't have to be the biggest or the most profitable, you simply have to have followers. What is required to have followers? In his book 'Offensive Marketing' (subtitled 'How to make competitors followers'), Hugh Davidson says: "… it involves aiming to innovate every major new development in a market, from the humdrum accomplishment of being first in with a new larger size, to the heady success of breaking through with a totally new product or service."

Looked at this way, market leadership does not require huge financial or material resources. It requires human capital, ideas, innovation, and determination. The resources lie within yourself if you choose to lead your market.

2008-04-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

Cable&Wireless Jamaica to invest US$5 million in 150 retail outlets

In a move aimed at significantly enhancing its retail presence, Cable & Wireless Jamaica (CWJ) is investing US$5 million over the next 12 months to roll out some 150 full-service retail outlets across the island.

"We have a very agressive strategy to increase our retail presence by opening new stores and improving our existing outlets to make sure that we have access to every consumer in every parish," said CWJ chief commercial officer, Mariano Doble, at Wednesday's opening of one of the outlets on Half Way Tree Road in Kingston.

Branded "Lifestyle Stores", CWJ is opening 50 new retail outlets and renovating 100 existing dealer locations, whose product offering, Doble says, will encompass the traditional fixed line phones and mobile handsets, to include a full range of gadgets and electronic devices. Three other stores were launched on Wednesday in New Kingston, Ocho Rios and in the Half Way Tree Transport centre, and another 16 will be unveild by the end of April.

more . www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business

Are CMOs to Blame When Their Budgets Get Cut?

2008-04-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Video Report From the Ad Age CMO Roundtable

By Hoag Levins

Published: March 24, 2008

A CMO Video Roundtable asks if CMOs are to blame when their budgets get cut.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The tendency of many companies to cut marketing budgets in tight times is largely the fault of marketing officers, said Liberty Mutual Group Senior VP Steve Sullivan. He said too many CMOs fail to make their case effectively or establish the minimum internal disciplines and systems essential to successful marketing. His remarks were part of an Ad Age CMO Roundtable exploring, among other things, whether marketing should be viewed as a cost or a dynamic daily necessity that drives long-term business growth. Also taking part in the session were Microsoft VP Jeff Bell, Virgin Mobile CMO Bob Stohrer, ANA President Bob Liodice and Ad Age editors Jonah Bloom and Jennifer Rooney.

More : http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=125892

AMK Marketing Briefs

Dueling Brands Pick Up Where Politicians Leave Off

By STUART ELLIOTT

Multimedia

Dunkin' Teases Starbucks

Campbell Goes Negative

What Marketers Can Learn From Obama's Campaign Change -- and Positioning -- You Can Believe in By Al Ries

Kraft Reformulates Oreo,Scores in China

Are you a manager or leader

Welcome to the Outernet

A little known billboard advertising giant plots its digital future.

Publicis, Dentsu CEOs share their visions of the ad agency of the future

Naked tells truth about corporate advertising

Olympic Torch Uproar Could Burn Lenovo

Accenture Study: Viewers Disenchanted with Network TV

Global Broadcast Consumer Survey: Network-TV Watchers Around Globe More Loyal to Content than to Any Branded Delivery System

John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/14/2008 1:29:00 PM

Global Ad Trends 2007

From rock band Radiohead's pay-what-you-want scheme to Facebook's advertising fiasco, it was a crazy year in ad-land

A Year for Quick Hits and Fast Flops as Campaigns Broke New Ground

Doritos Ad: Live the Flavor

What is Creativity

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