I’m thankful to Kenneth Weiss for sharing a chapter from his book Slightware - The Next Great Threat to Brands through a brand strategy forum on LinkedIn.  I took a quick read through the chapter and was intrigued enough to do some follow-up reading on Kenneth’s site.  His book serves to not only put a name and face on the challenges (and misuse) brands face in a digital world, but also to remind marketers about fundamentals in customer engagement.  Slightware is best defined in the following excerpt:

Brand building is fundamentally changing from a one-way transmission through media and marketing to a two-way transaction powered by software.  Once again, the initial step of brands into this new era of technology will not go well. Brand and software will not be entwined gracefully. Done poorly, digital experiences will be slightly “off brand.” Done very badly, the brand will be slighted. This is the age of Slightware.

We’ve blogged about and done client work around the area of online brand engagement.  There’s so much to be said about this area and yet there are so many examples of major brands stumbling their way through it.  At its heart, it comes down to whether marketers are thinking of (and executing) their online presence as a campaign or a conversation.  Weiss does a great job summarizing this point in the visualization below:

So, as marketers in a new era of customer engagement (and customer power), we need to at times honestly evaluate our efforts and ask the question of whether we’re talking at, to, or with our customers.  Often, that simple exercise helps assess the need to switch tactics or re-allocate resources.

I encourage you to check out Weiss’s work and examples of Slightware.  Really good food for thought.  Do any of his examples seem familiar to you…either as a marketer or as a customer??

Take a look at a recent press release with findings from our recently released study; The Marketing Performance Advantage.

We partnered with Chadwick Martin Bailey on a survey of 400 companies to explore links between performance and specific marketing management best practices.

Top-line findings included:

• B2B companies and mid-sized firms were both three times as likely as other companies to have no measurement system in place
• 44% of B2B firms report limited or no marketing measurement, twice as many as their B2C counterparts
• Around half of all mid-sized companies reported that they were finding the improving the performance of marketing initiatives a “huge challenge” - twice as many as their larger brethren
• One of the biggest challenges? “lack of data” according to 40%

Let’s face it; within too many companies, there is a divide between the sales and marketing efforts that inhibits top performance and dampens business results. Whether the divide is a hairline fracture that largely exists below the surface or is a chasm that contains outright hostility, achieving better alignment and teamwork between these two functions can yield immediate business results. But achieving the best business results means getting the entire organization aligned around goals, strategies and tactics.

Join founding firm partner, Mark Carr, for a discussion with Sales & Marketing Executives International (SMEI) that explores:

• Why the sales and marketing divide exists
• Some best practices for bridging the divide
• How to develop a culture of teamwork versus animosity

When?  4:00-5:00EST

For more information, please click here

Click here to register

CMG Partners hits the road again for an upcoming event hosted by the Fairfield County Chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA).  This event continues the discussion outlined in the results of a recent research study we jointly conducted with Chadwick Martin Bailey, titled The Marketing Performance Advantage.

We’ll be exploring how organizations approach marketing performance management, including:

• Five best practices of top performing marketing organizations
• Practical examples of tackling tough measurement and performance issues
• How to overcome common barriers to enhanced marketing effectiveness

Please join us on Wednesday October 14th at the Courtyard Marriott in Norwalk, CT from 6:00-9:00PM.

Email to RSVP

For more information, please click here

J. Mark Carr, Partner at CMG Partners, will lead a webinar tomorrow (9/15) for Sales & Marketing Executives International (SMEI) at 4:00PM EST. 

The webinar introduces the concept of adding a “5th P” centered on the customer purchase process into the 4 P’s of go-to-market planning, outlines the key elements of the process view and then uses several case examples of how the use of this added dimension has improved the marketing and sales planning process. 

Participants will learn:

• What the Fifth P is and how it can help sales and marketing to develop more effective strategies
• The warning signs that point to the need for a company to re-visit the Fifth P
• How to apply the Fifth P in sales and marketing planning, including the key questions that Fifth P asks of the other 4 Ps
• Examples of how companies applied the Fifth P, and how it helped re-frame go-to-market strategies

Click here to register

For more information, please click here

I recently stumbled across a Wall Street Journal article with a word so fun to say that I haven’t been able to shake it.  Glamping or “Glamorous Camping” is a new microtrend of budget-conscious vacationers looking for an outdoors experience without the rocks digging into your back while sleeping or the swiss-cheese tarp dripping rain all over your make-shift kitchen.  Don’t be confused, it’s not simply about bringing the Ritz outside, it’s more of a formalized step forward from drive-up car camping.

So, who cares about a silly trend like glamping?  For me, the interest is not necessarily in the details of the opportunity, but rather the overriding inference that, even in a recession, there are plenty of growth opportunities (and budding new markets).  Trends like the increase in revenue for outdoor equipment retailers are sending a clear signal about the U.S. tourism market.  “Outdoor equipment store REI reports sales of family tents are up by 20%.”

As marketers, we’ve all learned how to sharpen our positioning and get creative about our message during a time when Americans care less about consuming and more about surviving…think “shopportunities” and “staycations“.  The WSJ article also points out the opportunity for family-oriented hotel chains to diversify their offerings for economically challenged family travelers.  Anyway you slice it, glamping offers opportunities for the consumer, retailers, travel websites, hotel chains, park operators, and more.

So while I’ll probably stick with my old grease-covered Coleman grill and not-so-spacious steamy tent, I’ll be keeping my eye on the development of the glamping market and the moves of well-poised participants.  Because more now than ever, I continually press myself and our clients to be highly focused on the age old question “What’s next?”

The Association of International Product Marketing and Management (AIPMM) announces two CMG Partners Webinars in September:

September 10, 2009
The Lessons of Launch
12:00PM EST
Register Here

September 24, 2009
The Fifth P:  The Buying Process
12:00PM EST
Register Here

J. Mark Carr, Partner at CMG Partners, will deliver both webinars. 

We hope you can join!

Did you ever say to yourself or someone else, “Be careful what you say online…it lasts forever.”?  I know I have.  Even this seemingly conventional blog post will outsurvive me and my children!  It will be around long after I die and will be find-able, search-able, index-able for years and years to come.  I’m not trying to inflate my importance - it’s just a fact.  But, there’s more to this notion of permancancy than just an eternal blog posting, and it has brought about a new term…”Foreverism”.

Trendwatching.com recently published their June 2009 trend briefing where they define “Foreverism”:

I know…this concept doesn’t seem new, but stringing these societal trends into the overriding concept of “Foreverism” is.  This definition draws an obvious contrast to the primal consumer benefits so many business models, products, and marketers have been targeting for a long time:  instant gratification, right now, immediacy, use it and lose it, etc.  In many ways, this trend is a departure from the days of trying to do as much as possible for as little as possible in the shortest amount of time possible.  So, let’s take a step out of the ethereal for a moment.  Now…Forever…these are vague terms.  How are consumers and businesses actually demonstrating their propensity for “foreverism”?  Trendwatcher.com demonstrates “foreverism” by pointing to examples like online identities, perpetual beta, modular product platform design, and online conversations.

As marketers and business leaders, “Foreverism” provides both challenges and opportunities.  There’s the opportunity to build brands with hopefully longer life spans.  But, what happens when the brand needs to evolve or shift dramatically?  The online brand presence can become a burden that may require a new brand name or more significant (and costly) modifications. While people usually have short attention spans, the Internet now unfortunately has the power to remind people about past events, conversations, misteps, and positioning.  Just like the warning I discussed earlier in a personal context, the effect is even stronger for companies and brands.

So, there’s a lot at play here.  Have consumers moved passed the necessity to have their needs met instantly and seamlessly?  Do they desire some type of permanency?  Something they can theoretically create, own, and interact with into eternity?  I think it’s a trend worth noting.  There will probably always be a need for “now” in the minds of consumers.  But, in the age of unlimited calling, lifetime warranties, and immortal online identities, perhaps “foreverism” is well on its way. 

What ways can you think of that companies and marketers can embrace and demonstrate this trend?

Many brands talk the talk, spending millions to create compelling marketing campaigns but only a select few actually walk the walk by activating a consistent brand experience that fulfills their brand platform throughout the customer experience.

Hosted by the Business Marketing Assocation (BMA) of Boston, Mark Carr, partner at CMG Partners will present Activate your Company’s Brand next Thursday, June 18th at the Hilton Garden Inn Waltham.

If you’re interested in attending or would like more information, click here

You can sign up to receive invitations to our future events, or you can sign up for our general mailing list which automatically signs you up for our quarterly newsletter as well as event announcements.

They say step number one is admitting you have a problem.  Brand stewards have big questions stirring in their heads sometimes:  “where are people talking about us?”, “how big of a bang am I getting on this program?”, “am I actually generating the level of buzz I need to create awareness for my brand?”.  So, of course, consultants like us love to try and answer that question.  In an article we wrote on product launch, we give our take on the old saying “it’s a mixture of art and science”:

The tools used in the product launch process, such as market sizing and market research methodologies, alpha and beta frameworks, launch checklists, etc., are “the science”,  whereas, deciding on which tools to apply and how to apply them, is “the art”. 

Well, when it comes to the science of monitoring web presence and social media impact, I must admit my addiction to Trendrr.  I haven’t been using it long, but so far I’ve found it incredibly useful for gauging the play certain terms, brands, companies, and people are having on the web.  For any given topic, you can get everything from the number of matching Twitter posts per hour to the number of Google searches conducted.  The best part is you can create your own data sets which will be captured and synthesized for you.  This is particularly useful if the term(s) you’re searching for are too obscure or not mainstream enough for Google trends.  You can also easily compare sets of data by using the Trendrr sketchpad, a spiffy feature that allows you to mashup multiple data sources into one easy-to-read graph.

Of course, measuring online brand reputation is not all about quantity .  Quality, tone, passion, and other factors can be just as important as prominence.  For a great list of free social media monitoring tools, I’d recommend starting with Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim’s 8 Essential Free Social Media Monitoring Tools.

So, while measuring and assessing brand reputation on the web can be an all-consuming exercise, simple free tools like Trendrr can be a great place to start!