THIS ISSUE INCLUDES: •  What's New? •  Going, Going … Gone! •  Resource Referral •  Lessons Learned •  Tips & Tricks •  Community Leaders •  Member Spotlight •  Community Stats •  Your Account Summary •  Success Story •  Special Thanks •  Last Laugh

Advertisement Need email marketing? Meet Emma. Take the 10-minute tour & discover email marketing's best-kept secret. Are there snacks on the tour? (Yes.)

WHAT'S NEW?

Dear Askers & Answerers,

There are no new features in place this week. Our industrious programmer/publisher is on vacation, recharging. But that doesn't mean we stopped THINKING about new features.

KHEinsiders, our brainstorming group for KHE development ideas, has discussed a wide variety of ideas ranging from publishing a library of tools and resources to adding a projects-for-hire classifieds section. But the subject that garnered the greatest traction over the last few days has been improving question quality. We're thinking about how to do this through a series of changes that would make it easier for new members to ask and close their questions.

If you have ever asked a question in KHE, please take a minute to think back on the experience. Was there a step that was unclear? Did you understand the process for closing your question? If not, do you understand it better now? Please reply to this email with any feedback you'd like to share. I would love to hear it.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Happy exchanging,

Val Frazee
Moderator, Know-How Exchange
MarketingProfs.com

GOING, GOING, GONE!

Here are KHE's 10 oldest questions. They're likely to close soon. Have an idea to offer? Better do it now!

1. Where can I find detailed, historical market/brand/image info for case study construction/analysis (MBA intern)
2. How do I determine the value of a sponsor?
3. How we organize marketing analysis if we are working in service sector?
4. Magazine Distribution
5. Salesforce Evaluation
6. Design Center Experience
7. Where do I go study Advertising?
8. When Customers say: I am Satisfied Already
9. Helping sales people get face to face meetings with CEOs
10. Does anyone have any idea on how to start an industry analysis on Sony Corporation with emphasis on the US market?

RESOURCE REFERRAL: 4MARKETEERS

Peter (helpUhire) wrote in to suggest this week's marketing resource: "4marketeers.com is an email list which provides listings of marketing jobs and seminars. When you register, you choose what type of information you want to see (what level jobs, what locations, etc.)."

More info: http://www.4marketeers.com/

LESSONS LEARNED: MPM PROGRAMS

Two weeks ago SteveB read a paper by the CMO Council about marketing performance measurement (MPM) programs and posed a question for our members. He wondered whether MPM programs have helped marketers increase their budgets. Here are some excerpts from that discussion.

• Nicolas: I believe that although you can measure from one year to the next and kind of set your own benchmarking - or use the industry's best in class - there are several factors that impact a campaign's success. Meaning that results will vary. The analysis of these factors' impact on the campaign is the difficult part. Last year your seminar generated X leads and Y clients for Z sales. This year results were XYZ minus 10! "Why?" will scream the CEO. Now go and explain that "Euro 2004" or any other factor had a negative impact on your campaign. ... I see Marketing Performance Measurement as an indicator of your 'area' of performance. It's like the Product Life Cycle or BCG Matrix: It helps you visualise a situation. But the day its results are applied one-to-one (i.e., -10% score in the MPM model this year = -10% budget for the campaign) performance of marketing activities will decrease significantly.



• SteveB: I like your point about "too strict a measurement" interfering with budgets for sound marketing and CEOs turning data around on marketers. It seems important that CEOs partner with marketing people in the early phases of MPM. After all, usually any measurement is a step in the right direction.



• Michele: The "boardroom divide" between finance and marketing is an age old conundrum - and until marketers learn to speak finance, and accountants learn to speak marketing the divide will not close. One or two points on the methodology - the respondents were self selected - so that chances are the findings are over inflated. ... For me the most important element of this paper is the implied need for universal standards and methods to enable industry benchmarking (like the GRI (www.gri.org) or GAP.) However, a word of caution: one does not want to get into the position where all a marketer does is report on metrics - resulting in no spare capacity to implement marketing strategies and tactics! Less is more - measure a few metrics well rather than many metrics badly!



• Jett: I think it is certainly possible to develop methods of measurement. Extremely difficult, personalized and expensive, but possible. ... This is always a cause and effect relationship with every action. Given the complex nature of businesses in general, one will most likely have the most success by comparing and evaluating concurrent efforts in other departments which may or may not have an effect on a particular marketing tactic, plan or strategy. Is it a pain to have to finally submit a computation to justify your creative? Sure. Is it necessary? I believe so. Personally, I have not gone beyond the obvious and easy to measure aspects outlined in the article, but I am certainly willing to check it out in more detail. This is something I plan to follow.



• bobhogg: I'm a UK-based marketer, and the issue of the measurement of marketing effectiveness coupled with marketing's influence at board level, is a "hot topic" here. The Chartered Institute of Marketing (www.cim.co.uk) has been stimulating discussion on these issues recently. As a CIM member (and an examiner on its professional qualifications programme), I thought this link to a paper published by the CIM late last year might be of interest.



• kwinters: I think that measurement is something that "haunts" all marketing departments. Can it be measured? Surely there is a way. I agree with Jett, marketing is a cause effect game. I do something that either gives results or doesn't. I don't know of any universal marketing measurement instruments because of all of the variables. I do think that you will see more of this coming out in the future though. However, for any marketing measurement to be grasped by the business world, it will have to include the CFO - with profitabilty projections - because that is what marketing is about ... the bottom line.

Question: What Experiences Have You Had With MPM?

TIPS & TRICKS: THE FIRST 24 HOURS

Maybe today's the day you ran into the perfect question for KHE's experts. You grabbed a fresh cup of coffee and sat down to compose a compelling brief. You hit the button to post your question. Then you tried to turn your attention to your other work. But every time an alert came in, you HAD to click over to read the ideas. There's one. And another. And look at THAT one! You've never done this before, so you wonder, what happens next?

At this point, some new members get caught up in the excitement and rush to close their questions. But there's no reason to do that! We recommend leaving your question open for at least 24 hours - to give a wide variety of members (living in different time zones across the planet) a chance to login and participate.

Of course, that doesn't mean you can't post followup notes while you're waiting. In fact, I strongly encourage you to stay active in the conversation from the very beginning. That is - by far - the best way of insuring you receive advice that is applicable to your specific circumstances. Questions on this process? Please hit REPLY to this email and ask me.

Have a question? Ask the experts.

Post a brief synopsis below, and invite other members to offer their feedback.

My Question Title

COMMUNITY LEADERS

As of this week, these are our superstars! The Most Inquisitive are those who have asked the most questions. (Where there's a tie, we broke it based on number of points they offered for their questions.) The Most Expert are those with the highest number of Cumulative Points (given to them by question authors for offering helpful answers).

NOTE: These are our top members as of midday July 1, 2004

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: MEET JBTRON

Have you ever wondered what JBtron stands for? Jerald Berkowitz answers that question and many more in the wonderfully open Q&A that follows.

Where are you based?
I am based in Coral Gables, Florida.

What do you do in real-life?
I am the Vice President of Kelley Swofford Roy, Inc., an advertising, marketing and public relations firm. I am also the owner of Phase One Marketing, a strategic branding consultancy.

Tell us about your company.
Well, Kelley Swofford Roy is an agency that specializes in enhancing the image of a company, government entity, product or service. We are an integrated communications firm, and can expertly guide anyone through the complete processes IN-HOUSE, including market research. Phase One Marketing is a strategic branding consultancy, coming up with the ideas and graphics for new brand names, concepts, and the accompanying strategies to put new products or services over the top. The V Foundation for Cancer Research is one of my favorite brand identities. It was the only one I came up with on a piece of paper, right in front of the client, that became the final identity concept. If you ever watch The ESPY Awards on ESPN, the V Foundation is prominently displayed, as is my logo. It has even appeared on a retail tie collection as a fundraiser for the Foundation.

Explain your Community Name and why you selected it.
JB are my initials. "Tron" is the name of my favorite Disney movie - and the first movie to utilize computer-generated graphics. Additionally, the computer program "Tron," in the context of the movie, was a vigilante program that protected other programs from being gobbled up by the big, bad "MCP" - Master Control Program.

What kinds of KHE questions do you enjoy most?
"Branding" is my life, and that's where I have the most fun. Just ask Jett and some of my site peers. They send me questions on a bunch of topics for offline consideration. The "Advertising/PR" section is also great, as are the "Strategy" and "Metrics/ROI" sections. And I like checking "Others" because the questions are very entertaining. Also, I enjoy answering the questions that have very few answers for two reasons: the topics are usually topics I know about, and the points you earn are sometimes higher than mainstream questions because of a LACK of participation. If I don't know anything about the question, I spend the time to learn the topic and get to the point where I THINK I can answer it. That keeps my mind churning on new ideas and topics all the time.

Describe a specific KHE discussion you learned something from.
Well, the one time I've ASKED a question proved to be very interesting. I asked about Website Feasibility Studies, and the response was truly gratifying because it led to direct recommendations for my clients (after a bit of additional researching). I always tell my kids to "Learn Something KEWL In School" every day, and, I guess I like doing that for myself as well. Learning never stops.

What is your favorite marketing book? Why?
Reis & Trout's "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind." It was the first, real-world road map to the brand development skills I now utilize every day on behalf of my clients. Ivy league education aside, this was one of my favorite books of all time. The examples of the brands described in the book were really classics in the branding community. The updates have proven useful as well. BY THE WAY, AN ASIDE: SO MUCH has been written about "branding" in the past few years, and the definition, as it has come to be known, is so far removed from when I first started in Branding as a business, that I feel like publishing a book called "Branding: It AIN'T What It Used To Be!" These days, its use in industry jargon is much closer in meaning to "Brand Awareness" than it is to "Branding." I wish people would take the time to use the "awareness" when appropriate.

What professional organizations do you belong to?
My job at KSR makes me a professional networker for business development. I also utilize Marketing Sherpa, another online resource, but KHE is more my style. I am a Trustee Member of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, and a member of SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management.

How did you get started in marketing?
I've been a marketer for over twenty years. I got started right after my commitment to becoming a full-time actor in New York City. Sounds logical, right? One of my acting colleagues referred me to a temp job at The Michael Peters Group, and I became an appointment setter for their global branding consultancy. After a few months, it became clear to them and to me that my passion for brand development was stronger than my desire to act, so they offered me a job as their development manager. I learned from some of the best in the business - including Barbara Long (the inventor of Perrier flavors) and Simon Williams (president, last time I looked, at Sterling Design in NYC) - both of whom I worked with at The Michael Peters Group. They REALLY turned my head around about brand development and about "painting blue sky" for clients. I've been hooked ever since.

Did you study marketing in college?
I studied sociology at The University of Pennsylvania, but took a lot of courses at Wharton, concentrating on marketing and advertising. The combination proved to be a winning strategy, because it married the heavily theoretical yet field-study-related sociologic discipline with the practicality of business. I also studied sociology with Professor Harold Bershady, one of Talcott Parson's associates. It was the basis for some great theoretical learning. But real-world, hands-on experience has been the BEST learning ground.

What have you learned from a mentor?
Bruce Montgomery was the Director of the Penn Glee Club when I was at school, and he taught me, "Never live life like a pass/fail course." So, I haven't.

What is your next career objective?
To grow Phase One Marketing into a full-service, full-time brand consultancy.

Do you have a favorite gadget/tool that helps you do your job?
My memory. I have a steel-trap for details, which has helped me in business numerous times. I was once participating in a brainstorming session for naming a new product from L'Oreal. The moderator said, "Anyone know any scientific terms?" I then proceeded to name - actually SING - all the elements on the Periodic Table, courtesy of "The Elements Song," by Tom Lehrer, which was a bit I had recently performed at a New York City revue a few weeks prior.

Describe one of your non-marketing hobbies or interests.
I am an avid singer, songwriter and guitar player. I have five guitars and still "play out" in the greater South Florida area. I also scuba dive when I can.

What is the value KHE provides to you personally?
It provides me a strategic resource to tap into the pulse of the marketing and communications industries that would normally take thousands of dollars and countless hours to establish through traditional networking. PLUS, let's face it, Miami is a tertiary media market, so staying in touch with my New York contacts and, indeed, the entire KHE network, keeps me that much more VITAL on what's going on OUTSIDE South Florida.

Do you have any advice for new members of KHE?
Yes: Please, please, please take the time to think your questions through and select the proper forum section to post them to. Make sure they are informative enough for those of us who can help to ACTUALLY HELP. The cryptic nature of some of the posted questions keeps us handcuffed by the desired confidentiality of the situation. Also: Just posting is not enough. Visit OFTEN and watch the progress of your replies. Sometimes a bit more info is needed and WE WILL TELL YOU THAT if you need to hear it! We're not BASHFUL in here and we value everyone's time in KHE. After all, we're not getting paid for doing THIS! Answer the queries so you can keep those who are interested in helping INTERESTED IN HELPING!

COMMUNITY STATS

Active Unique Participants (to date): 1,812
Closed Questions (to date): 1,816
Currently Open Questions: 125
Total Responses (to date): 13,380
Avg Responses/Question in 1st 24 hours: 4.62  
Subscribers to this newsletter: 7,466

YOUR ACCOUNT SUMMARY

These numbers come directly from YOUR profile. Question Points tells you how many points you have available for asking questions in the forum. Expert Points indicates your standing in the community based on answers you have posted. Visit this FAQ, if you want to know more.

Question Points: %%PointsBalance%%
Expert Points: %%PointsCum%%

Click here to buy more Question Points

SUCCESS STORY

I love to hear stories like Alison's (aka uktea_mv). Her KHE experience is exactly what we were striving for when we came together to form this community.

"I stumbled across MarketingProfs, and the Know-How Exchange, quite by accident. I was at the beginning of a business venture and had a question I needed the answer to. I was reluctant to draw attention to myself, or the fact that I maybe didn't know all that I should, and needed to ask the question in the first place. I rather thought I'd ask my question, and there would be an embarrassing silence, while people wondered - who let her in? Instead, it drew quick and intelligent responses from a variety of experts whose answers all had bearing on my position. Advice was offered in a friendly manner and was accompanied by good wishes for future success. As well as being informative and educational it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. My business launch is on course, and I've even managed to enlist some help from Jett himself! Couldn't have a better start!"

The Question: What Percentage of Catalogues Distribute

SPECIAL THANKS

Thank you, Peter(helpUhire), JBtron and uktea_mv for providing content for this newsletter. And thanks to all the following community members who have emailed or posted suggestions, technical reports or questions in the last week. Your feedback and energy drives this community's development. We couldn't do it without you!

Michele, Peter (helpUhire), Jett, Vevolution, SRyan, mbarber, jcmedinave, tjh, Jim Deveau/Catalyst, ASVP/ChrisB, Nicolas, kwinters, JBtron, mudoold, Lazor, bthiel, Manj, xb8f, cindymcc, mbanmims, kryan, BIBI, RickHamilton, Deremiah, *CPE, bwarn, terristerling, amandavega, ozdesign, Cyndy , Cyndy , tweety, virago, brendonMoSa

LAST LAUGH

This space is dedicated to something funny I find posted in our forum. Anytime you see something that makes you smile, please don't hesitate to email me the URL.

It was gerardodada's answer to this question that made me smile ... maybe because I was thinking the same thing.

Funny answers: Was Corona Available in Texas in the Fifties?

Forum Feedback: The Know-How Exchange is awfully young. So we're still refining how things work. We have a gigantic list of action items, and your feedback helps us prioritize it. So please feel free to reply to this email with any suggestions. Thanks, in advance, for your time!

Advertising Information: Please send email to val@marketingprofs.com

Subscription Information: To UNSUBSCRIBE from Know-How News, go here and change your email subscription.

Privacy notice: MarketingProfs.com does not sell or exchange email addresses or any personal contact information provided during the registration process, unless explicitly approved by the user. All email distributions are managed and controlled by MarketingProfs.com.

MarketingProfs | 419 N. Larchmont  |  #42 |  Los Angeles, Calif. |  90004