The Wah Report

Integrated marketing communications, then and now

2009-11-11T09:43:00.001-07:00

I started my integrated marketing career in 1995 while attending one of only two graduate programs in the US that offered a masters in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). My options were the University of Colorado, Boulder or Northwestern. The University of Colorado program was led by Tom Duncan and Sandra Moriarty. Northwestern was being led by Don Shultz, both pioneers in the integrated marketing space. Being an outdoor guy, the obvious choice was the Boulder. What was unique about the program was that half of the classes were with the MBA students in the business school and half of the classes were in the journalism school. In 1995 the internet was in its infancy and we were all trying to figure out how to make it a viable marketing medium. The journalism school jumped on the internet trend and immediately developed classes and curriculum around it. I took all of the classes that I could, interactive design, programming, and theory. When I told people I was working on the “internet” it was like I was on another planet.

I wanted to compare my current marketing world to the lens that I saw marketing in 1995.

In graduate school in 1995 at the University of Colorado, the 10 principals surrounding IMC included:
1)Creating and nourishing relationships rather than just making transactions
2)Focusing on all stakeholders rather than just customers
3)Maintaining strategic consistency rather than independent brand messages
4)Generating purposeful interactivity rather than just a mass media monologue
5)Marketing a corporate mission/mission marketing rather than just product claims
6) Using zero-based marketing planning rather than just tweaking last year's plan
7) Using cross-functional rather than departmental planning and monitoring
8) Creating core competencies rather than just communication specialization and expertise
9) Building and managing databases to retain customers rather than just acquiring new customers
10) Using an integrated agency rather than a traditional, full-service agency

How do these ten 1995 principals apply to today’s marketing world?

1) Creating and nourishing relationships rather than just making transactions ¬
It is more important now more then ever to create and nourish relationships instead of focusing on transactions. We all know the high cost of acquiring new customers vs increasing share of wallet with existing customers and the importance of lifetime customer value. Add to this word of mouth and online conversations being the main source for product recommendations it is vital for companies to have great relationships with their customers and prospects.

2) Focusing on all stakeholders rather than just customers ¬
This key principal is still important in today’s marketing. A lot of marketers only focus on their customers and prospects and forget about other key influencers surrounding the success of their business. Employees, suppliers, investors, financial analysts, government regulators, media, bloggers, 3rd party review sites, and other influence groups can make or break the success of your company. For example, you may have the best restaurant in town, but if your reviews on Yelp are filled with complaints and bad reviews, Yelp and the reviewers own your brand and its success.

3) Maintaining strategic consistency rather than independent brand messages
Now more then ever, message consistency and branding are of utmost importance. Consumers are exposed to thousands of advertisements a day. If you are not sending a consistent message out regarding your brand, your brand will be lost in the clutter of these messages. All of your marketing efforts should revolve around your key messages. Don’t create these key messages in the board room, without any customer research. Monitor online conversations, analyze search engine data, perform primary and secondary research to see what consumers are really saying and how they are describing your product or service.

4) Generating purposeful interactivity rather than just a mass media monologue ¬
When I look back at this key principal it is almost like seeing into the future. Duncan and Moriarty describe this principal as “companies must put as much emphasis on receiving messages as they do on sending messages. The interactivity dimension of integrated marketing proposes that media can be used both to send messages efficiently and to receive and capture messages from customers (and other stakeholders) in order to create a long-term purposeful dialogue.”
They present a framework called the '5 R's of Purposeful Dialogue':
• Recourse: customers need to know that they have some recourse with the company if they are dissatisfied with the product or service.
If I have an issue with a customer I will Tweet about my complaint on Twitter or blog about it. If I don’t get a response from the company, then I feel they are not “listening”, I recently tweeted about a bad experience I had at Home Depot. I was immediately contacted by Home Depot via twitter and the problem was resolved in less then an hour.
• Recognition: personal recognition is very important to many customers and other stakeholders, and is key in moving them higher up the customer bonding framework with your brand.
Listening and responding to customer complaints and praise through online and offline methods can build lifetime customer value.
• Responsiveness: when a complaint is being made, a suggestion offered, or information being sought, it is critical for a company to be responsive to the individual.
In the 24/7 world we live in, we expect customer service and a company to respond in minutes rather then days.
• Respect: individuals from all stakeholder groups, not just customers, need to feel that they are respected by the company ¬
Respect and reputation is all a company has. What your key stakeholders say about your brand, is your brand.
• Reinforcement: people who have already purchased a product or service need to be reinforced that their decision to do so was a good one.

Loyalty programs, clubs, and communities surrounding brands reinforce purchase decisions. Nike’s running community, Mikeplus is a great example of how Nike is reinforcing its consumers experience with the brand by adding value through a running community.

5) Marketing a corporate mission rather than just product claims.¬ Marketing the mission helps put a credible human face on the company, which makes it more likely that stakeholders can develop a positive feeling of personal identity with the company.

This key principal today and when I began my marketing career, for most companies is an after thought. Does your company give a few dollars here, a few dollars there and not focus on one key mission that relates to your company? My graduate thesis was on Mission Marketing and I truly believe that you are wasting your philanthropic dollars by giving a little to a bunch of different causes. You should be focusing your philanthropic mission on leveraging your companies’ expertise. A mission defines and humanizes a company and should be considered a long-term differentiator.

6) Using zero-based planning rather than just tweaking last year's plan. ¬ Undertake an unbiased and objective strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis to identify strategic marketing initiatives each year, rather than simply extending the marketing initiatives of the previous budget cycle.
This principal should be updated to testing and learning constantly. What is great about today’s marketing is that it allows you to test and learn through real-time analytics. You can dial up and down what is working and what is not. If you are waiting until the end of the year to evaluate your marketing efforts, you are wasting your marketing dollars.

7) Using cross-functional rather than departmental planning and monitoring ¬ This seventh strategic driver of an IM approach requires involving many different individuals from across the corporation in the marketing function, not just those who happen to be in a silo labeled 'marketing'
Today everyone at your company is in marketing. Everyone from the CEO to the receptionist can set up a Twitter account, a facebook page, their own blog, and comment on other blogs.

8) Creating core competencies rather than just communication specialization and expertise. Understand customer behavior and understand the strengths and weaknesses of communications tools.

This is how the current Wikipedia entry describes IMC: Integrated Marketing Communications is a term used to describe a holistic approach to marketing communication. It aims to ensure consistency of message and the complementary use of media. The concept includes online and offline marketing channels. Online marketing channels include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, from search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click, affiliate, email, banner to latest web related channels for webinar, blog, micro-blogging, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are traditional print (newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relations, industry relations, billboard, radio, and television Most people believe this is what integrated marketing communications is.
It is important today to understand customer behavior and how they want to be reached. Some only want to be communicated on Twitter, some by email, some traditional means like radio, tv, print, etc.

9) Building and managing databases to retain customers rather than just acquiring new customers.

I have the opportunity to work with hundreds of clients every year and there are only a handful that truly have customer relationship management (CRM) databases. If you are not collecting demographic, psychographic, user-behavior and anything else you can learn about your customers then do you really know who your customer is? Did you know that customer Bill only wants to be communicated via email and that customer Jared only wants to be communicated to via Twitter?

10) Using an integrated agency rather than a traditional, full-service agency
This is a no-brainer. Did I mention that Risdall Marketing Group is an integrated agency?

VeloCross Pics From Frye

2009-11-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

Once a teammate, always a teammate

2009-11-08T19:44:00.002-07:00

Teammates old and new are family. And they are always there for you when you need them the most. You have not truly experienced bike racing until you really understand what a teammate is.

Today was Back To Shool Cross in Northfield. Mikey P and I rolled down together. We have been teammates on many different teams. This year we are both riding for different cyclocross teams. The course was pretty brutal. It had a steep climb that was painful in the 42x27, add to that a short course and we climbed it 12 times. There was also a board that most of us were bunny-hopping. I'm not the best at it, but made it over every time. I got the traditional good start and held back a little to see if that would help me from blowing after a few minutes....it didn't really help. Midway through the race Mikey P and I hooked up and took turns for the rest of the race. It was great having a "teammate" to share the work. 15mins left in the race I was popped, so Mikey P was kind enough to tow me around the rest of the race and keep us away from those chasing us down. Thanks again Mikey. I ended up 4th in 35+ and 9th overall.

Ice cream outside in Minnesota in November, loving the mild weather

2009-11-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

Check out the Flickr set from yesterday's VeloCX

2009-11-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28587395@N00/sets/72157622757433674/show/

Fridley Fall Back, Brought to you by the Crossniacs

2009-11-08T07:28:00.002-07:00

This is the course we put together for our race. Let me know what you think

VeloCross Report

2009-11-07T19:35:00.002-07:00

What a beautiful day. 60 degrees and sunny. I arrived early to catch the Midwest Single Speed Championships and saw Marco Lalonde put on a clinic and win by 1 min.

The course was twisty, turny and grassy. Pretty technical with 180s and grass to pavement sections.

My coach told me I needed to slow down my starts as he thinks I'm blowing up after I sprint as hard as I can to get into the top group. But today I had to go hard from the start. The start was critical because it went from pavement to a 180 to grass, so I knew I needed to be top 10 going into the 180. I got a good start and waited for my normal fade, but it didn't come today. I was able to stay on the gas the whole race. I was top 10 and stayed there all day. The course took many victims today. I saw a ton of people go down around corners and a few mechanicals. I knew I had to ride smart and not make any mistakes today, and I did. I was able to hand with the fast group today and ride wheels. I got into top 5 at one point and had to slow it back a little because I was about to blow. Dan Swanson caught me with 5 laps to go and I let him tow me around the course for 5 laps. I couldn't pull through, I just wanted to hang on. I told him the race was his and not to worry about me. With a 1/2 a lap to go I let up a little and let him go and rolled in 2nd in 35+ and 7th overall. My best race of the season so far.

My coach has taught me to train smarter and rest harder.

A great day on the cyclocross bike

2009-11-07T15:10:00.002-07:00

2nd in 35+, 7th overall

Sent from my iPhone

#velocx

2009-11-07T11:18:00.001-07:00

@mudandcowbells and @timfaia 35+ PRO style in the mud

2009-11-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

Crossniacs Cup Donates Bike Parts to Iraq, Linda Sone Beats the Men

2009-11-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

Great article about the Crossnaics in Cyclocross Magazine

5 Ways to Integrate Social Media in Your Marketing

2009-11-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

5 Ways to Integrate Social Media in Your Marketing

View more presentations from Jason Baer.

The Cyclocross Meeting

2009-11-04T06:37:00.001-07:00

The Torture Chamber

2009-11-04T05:09:00.001-07:00

Daylight Savings means early morning trainer rides

5 marketing megatrends

2009-11-02T07:56:00.003-07:00

Great post by Adam Kleinberg at iMedia.

1) Mass collaboration is powering the new economy
Companies are taking advantage of a new collaborative world to foster innovation and grow their enterprises.

2) Constant connectivity in an on-demand world
I'm wired almost every minute of every day and so are your customers and prospects. People expect you as a company to be "on" 24/7.

3) Globalization: Making the world a smaller place
Technology has made geography irrelevant. Businesses around the world are doing business with one another and will continue to do so.

4) Pervasive distrust in big corporations
The impending financial doom this country faced a year ago had a tremendous impact on consumer confidence in America, but even greater damage was done to consumer trust.

5) A global sense of urgency to fix the problems of a modern world
Being green is a minimum standard.

5 marketing megatrends you can't ignore

Images from the Lens of Frank Rowe From Red Barn

2009-11-02T06:40:00.001-07:00

Thanks Frank Rowe for all the great images

Fridley Fall Back, Brought to you by the Crossniacs

2009-11-01T17:58:00.002-07:00

Wow! I forgot how much work it is to put on a race. But it was awesome. My teammate, Bryan Butts scored by getting us the Fridley Middle School venue since he is a teacher there. We were there at 6:30 for set up. The course started on a cinder running track, then hit a pin-wheel of deal and then zig zag section, followed by some off camber in the trees to a fast grass section to a 5-pack (5 barriers in a row) to a barrier to runup down a hill and then zig zag up the hill and back down to a rideup for the few, but run up for most of us and then back to the cinder track. I was in charge of the hill and it was pure pain.

We had a good showing with 150+ riders and my teammates were awesome and helped a ton with setup, registration, and tear down.

I even got the opportunity to race it. I got a great start and then like an idiot crashed in the pinwheel. The pinwheel was on a baseball diamond so it was soft and sandy. I got up quick and hopefully didn't screw anyone up. Doug Swanson put on a clinic and destroyed the field, Adam Bergman broke his collar bone on the 5-pack.

The 5-pack was also my idea and the official looked at my funny when he saw it, but I insisted it be included. Our goal for the course was to cater to those who have bike skills cross skills. The strong without skills suffered today.

Back to my race. I got into the 3rd group and Smither's bridged up and the race was on. We took turns pulling and got into a small group. There were 3 of us going into the last lap and I didn't want it to go into a sprint, so I sprinted into the 5 pack as fast as I could and new it was do or die time. I needed to nail the 5-pack and hopefully get a gap because I went into a lot faster then the other 2 guys. It worked. I opened a small gap and held it to the finish. I ended up 4th in 35+ and 10th overall.

We also collected bike parts to send to the soldiers in Iraq. One our Crossniacs teammates in OR, is sending them over.

All in all a good day and I hope everyone enjoyed the race. Big thanks to my wife Peggy for helping all day.

Red Barn Race

2009-10-31T20:24:00.002-06:00

I've done well at this race and have the medals to prove it... but today I gave it all I had and ended up 12th overall and 5th in 35+. I got an awesome start and was sitting in 3rd and then didn't have the legs to keep that pace going and guys started coming around. Midway through the race my legs came around and I got into a group of about 6. Mikey P and I were doing all the work so I was a little concerned that we were going to tow these guys around most of the day. With 3 laps to go we caught Jake out in no-mans-land and he had good legs. With 1 lap to go I attacked through the start/finish line and only Jake went with me. We got away from our group and I rolled in just behind Jake. I need to pull a whole race together.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T08:40:00.000-06:00

Tubular Repair by TireAlert

2009-10-30T07:47:00.002-06:00

Mud and Cowbells turned me on to TireAlert last year. Tubular tires run anywhere from $50-$150. I use those in the range of $100 by Dugast. Yes $100/tire for cyclocross tires is ridiculous. But if you have the wrong tires for a race, you will suck and hate every minute of the race. Tire selection is key to cyclocross. Before I discovered mud tires for muddy races I used to hate muddy races. Now that I have added them to my quiver of tires, I love the muddy races. I'm running Dugast Rhinos this year as my mud tires and they shed mud and grip like crazy.

My 2nd race on the Rhinos I flatted them and the hole in the tube was beyond repair. So as I was taking them off after being mounted the Belgian way (glue and tubular tape) the base tape on the tubular started coming off. So with 2 rides a blown tube and the base tape coming off, that equals $50/ride on these tires. Plus they have been aquasealed, stretched, etc...

How do you throw all that work and love away? You don't. I sent them to TireAlert and Ron over there replaced the tube with a butal tube and replaced the tubular tape all for only $16.50.

I highly recommend sending your tubulars to Ron at TireAlert.

Dear Santa

2009-10-29T17:35:00.001-06:00

How Google Social Search works

2009-10-26T21:23:00.000-06:00

Church

2009-10-26T16:11:00.001-06:00

A good day

2009-10-25T19:34:00.005-06:00

Today was truly crossy. Mud, twistie and technical. Usually not my favorite kind of course, but I was on today. I think my issue with these types of courses in the past have been tire choice. Ever since I got the Dugast Rhinos it's night and day when the conditions get nasty. They give me the confidence, traction and shed mud like nothing else.

I think yesterday's mishap with the flat made me fresh today. I ended up 2nd in 35+, 6th overall

Pics from Yore Momm and Robbie Halvorson

Today was a good day. 2nd in 35+

2009-10-25T15:17:00.001-06:00

The Dugast Rhinos were awesome in the mud. Thanks Lazer Helmets for
the swag