Joe Tripodi, Sr VP and CMO of Allstate Insurance at the ANA conference:

• Working with vendors, not partners
• Getting devoured by the bureaucracy dragon
• Waiting for perfection
• Working on an island
• Getting caught in the headlights
• Chasing the "Holy Grail"
• Believing your own BS

I just got to read a brilliant article( Download mktgmanifesto.pdf ) by Mohanbir Sawhney on what ails marketing and how to fix it. If marketing professionals have to change the way he suggests, then as client and account managers, our language too has to change quickly.

Some key points to think about:

1. Move beyond traditional marketing communications – Understand the client's business from sales & service point of view and not just restrict ourselves to some old marketing communications and collaterals that one is responsible for.
2. Ask yourself everyday – “What’s the revenue difference I have brought to the client’s table with my initiatives?”. If you don’t, the clients will soon start asking you!
3. Shed the command and control mindset - Consumers are no more passive. So, bring into your campaigns a “connect and collaborate” mindset.
4. Have a first-hand view of customers. Visit them and talk to them frequently.
5. Focus on customer experience - Think TEM( Total Experience Management). Every piece of interaction needs an idea.
6. Marketing is about “hierarchy of effects” –  From awareness to changing perceptions to conversion to loyalty to advocacy.  Measure what you do at each stage.
7. ROE( Return of Effects) culture – I feel it’s more than ROI( as the article suggests), since some aspects of this business are also qualitative in nature. A mix of ROI and ROE would be most appropriate.
8. Use technology to drive efficiency into marketing operations.

I would love you to add a few of your thoughts to this manifesto. Looking forward to some interesting points on this topic.

For luxury brands, traditional advertising formats - Press, TVCs are falling into the  trap of  'Law of diminishing returns', I guess.

Target consumers are aware of the brand benefits  of these luxury  brands as they have been around for decades but are seeking to 'experience 'the difference rather than 'know' the difference. "Let me experience it first-hand " is what they seem to be telling the luxury brand marketers. Hotels, retail stores have this advantage, as there is a 'touch and feel' for this luxury experience. What does an established luxury automotive brand like Mercedes do?

Welcome to Mercedes Benz World. The Mercedes Benz World will become a premiere leisure destination as it houses a five star hotel & spa, a cafe & a restuarant,  exhibition & conference facilities,  kidszone and of course a retail showroom and service centre. It also has 2.5 Km circuits for test drives and also a 100 acre off road course!

Mercedes Benz World is coming-up in Brooklands, which has a historic  motor racing circuit and will be open next year.

It's a great idea.

The questions that came to my mind:

1. How does one work the ROI for such  marketing investments as returns don't justify quarterly expectations of analysts?
2. As we move into a new marketing world order of "experience extensions" not just "brand extensions", are alliances, franchising and affiliations with related categories better or does one have to build from scratch?

I went to the launch of the Harry Potter Book (Harry Potter & the Half -Blood Prince)   at Crossword, a leading bookstore,  in Mumbai. This was a brilliant case of PR, WOM, Event and experential marketing rolled into one. 

Crossword was buzzing with parents and kids. Kids were vying with one another to take their copy of the book. The enthusiasm, excitement and passion around the brand was visible all round the store. I met a parent who said his son was sending SMSs to him asking them to pick-up a copy of the book as most stores went out of stock!

Crossword,  opened early in the morning at 5.00 am in India!  Kids walked into the store to grab a first copy of the book with their parents, very early in the  morning. The mania hit all the cities across India - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, B'lore  and Calcutta. Bookstores started pre-booking orders a week in advance. Oxford bookstore had a Harry Potter party thrown for kids yesterday.  All bookstores had Quiz contests, magicians and tatoos right in the store. The Harry Potter merchandize was also selling in large numbers  in addition to the book that was being launched.

Today, Harry Potter as a brand is worth over a $ 1 billion globally. Books, films, games are a rage here in India too.

Over 100,000 copies got sold just on the day of the launch in India!

If brands have a story to tell, then consumers are willing spend time, get involved and build a world of fantasy around the them.

Does your brand have one?

Marketing, according to Dipak Jain, Dean of Kellogg School of Management has to move over  from 4Ps and focus on 3Cs - Convenience, Choice and Control as customer experience becomes the single important differentiator for brands.

I think this is an important shift that he is predicting for the entire marketing fraternity and their thinking. As more and more companies want to "own" the customer, we need to come-up with solutions across what I call as "spectrum of interactions" with the company.

Innovations will happen around how companies change the way interactions are done with their customers and make it easy for customers to take control. It's therefore not "product innovation" but "interaction innovation".

I had written yesterday about the fact that marketing managers must begin to work like product design managers.

Kotler's tips on marketing success seems to be suggesting a similar thing.  I quite liked the example of America's best selling imported beer. It's Corona. He cites this as an example of identifying your target and reaching them without coming on the radar. He talks about the fact that marketing is about being customer-centred and not product-centred. And finally, he is talking of designing the experience. He says, marketing "... is in the experience design business". A great quote for marketing's future.

In fact,  this article made me think of a term " Interaction Campaigns" for brands. We need to design interaction campaigns not just communication campaigns for brands!

There's no better way to build a brand than to get your customers involved and engaged. If they spend time with your brand, give them their ideas on what one could do, why will they even switch and go to another brand?

Levis encourages customers to write back if they have done interesting things with the brand and they put it up on their website.

What have customers done with your brand lately?