The Chief Storyteller

Third Annual Top Marketing Trends Survey

The Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) and Anderson Analytics today issued the results of its Third Annual Survey of Top Marketing Trends. Anderson Analytics surveyed MENG's nearly 2000 senior marketing members, focusing on the top marketing concepts, buzz words, social media strategy, geographic / demographic considerations as well as the books and thought leaders that executive marketers look to for inspiration and growth opportunity.

Top Five Findings:

1. 66% of marketers are more optimistic about business opportunity in 2010; 28% view 2010 similarly to 2009 while only 6% are less optimistic about the outlook. Compared to last year's survey findings, marketers are:
a.   More likely to increase marketing budget;
b.   Less likely to reduce staff and more likely to hire incremental staff; and
c.   More likely to increase spending on innovation and R&D.

2. Social media remains hot with 70% of marketers planning new social media initiatives in 2010. Interestingly, social media, twitter and social networking ranked as the top "buzz words marketers are most tired of hearing."
a.   Regarding companies' presence on social media sites, large companies are more likely to have a presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and MySpace; smaller companies rely more on LinkedIn.

3. "Marketing ROI" moved from the third most important marketing concept in last year's survey to the number one spot in this year's survey, followed by "Customer Retention" and Brand Loyalty."
a.   "Mobile Marketing" and "Social Media" officially made the top-10 concept list for the first time this year.
b.   Of the 53 identified marketing concepts, "Developed Markets," "Multi-language," "Social Consciousness," "Offshoring" and "Long Tail" were viewed as the least important.

4. Overall marketing executives are more likely to rely on internal employees for their social media initiatives than any outside firms. Companies that are going outside for help with social media strategy and implementation are much more likely to look to social media consultants, and to a lesser degree interactive agencies, than to advertising agencies or public relations firms.

5. Not surprisingly, China was still ranked as the top geographic opportunity for growth, followed by India, Latin America and Brazil. And among the various target demographics, MENG members still feel that Boomers represent the best opportunity for customer targeting, followed by women and Hispanics. The overall importance of different demographics has not changed significantly since last year's survey. 

For a complete copy of survey results, visit MENG's online newsroom.

Welcome Duane Bailey as a Regular Contributor

Just a quick note...Duane Bailey has joined The Chief Storyteller. He will be a regular contributor to the blog as well as writing articles, newsletters, tip guides, etc.

We'll post a quick bio on Duane shortly...

"I Love You." Oops, I Didn't Mean That

Earlier today I called my wife and was greeted by an answering message. At the beep, I left my message and before hanging up said, "I love you."

Immediately following, I returned a call from my male friend "J." I was also greeted by an answering message. At the beep, I left my message and before hanging up said, "I love you." As I was about to press <Stop> on my mobile telephone, I realized what I just said. Laughing, I then left a postscript of "Oops, I didn't mean that."

Later in the day, "J" told me that he loved me too...

Ensure that You Have all of Your Domains Covered

With domain names quite inexpensive, I suggest that you purchase all of the related domains. Purchase the ones with different top level domains (TLD)s, spelling errors, and negative ones too. Examples follow. There are two reasons to do this: (1) Ensure that people can find you anywhere, anyhow and (2) Protect your organization from competitors, squatters, and potentially malicious individuals.

Different TLDs to think about: COM, NET, ORG, US, INFO, BIZ, and NAME. If you are interested in more global representation or perhaps intellectual property protection, consider other English-speaking TLDs such as UK, AU, and EU.

Spelling Errors: Consider the potential misspellings and buy those domains. For example, my main domain is www.TheChiefStoryteller.com. Common spelling errors include:
- www.thecheifstoryteller.com (e and i switched in Chief)
- www.thechiefstorytelllers.com (three "l"s)

Potential Errors: If someone remembers the domain incorrectly and he/she perhaps adds a letter or drops a word, I have it covered. Common errors include:
- www.thechiefstorytellers.com (added "s" for plural)
- www.chiefstoryteller.com (dropped "the")

Overall, there are currently 280 TLDs managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Trust that You'll Find Exactly What You Need

A received a link to an article from O Magazine, "When and How to Say "Enough!" It was not the title that grabbed my interest, it was the short description.

There are two ways of going through life: Gather everything in sight, just in case you need it. Or, trust that you'll find exactly what you need, just in time. Guess which one lets you really stop and smell the roses?

In particular, it was the sentence "trust that you'll find exactly what you need." This really resonated with me. I have been fortunate to be exposed to a wide variety of people, cultures, countries, and organizations. These experiences over the course of my lifetime have helped me understand, appreciate, and empathize with the human spirit and our collective journeys to improve our personal and professional lives. What I find ever fascinating is that people procrastinate to the point where no action will ever take place. I am a big fan of incremental change, incremental improvement.

As such, Martha Beck's (author) concluding comments tie the article up into a nice little bow.

I know that if they'd reroute a few simple brain habits, their lives would improve almost effortlessly. The transformation wouldn't take much work—no need to exhume childhood traumas or hook up an antidepressant IV. We'd just throw the neurological toggle switch that exchanges fight-or-flight mode (the sympathetic nervous system) for rest-and-relaxation mode (the parasympathetic nervous system). Most animals experience this switch in response to environmental conditions. We humans possess an unparalleled ability to create it with our thoughts.

What incremental actions and activities can you do to improve your messaging, communication, customer service, and so on?

Twitter Over Capacity -- Uh Oh!

i would not have thought that Twitter would be over capacity. With some technology background, I think that it is one of two reasons

a) Twitter is becoming more successful than planned and they need more technology to keep up with the demand
b) Twitter has put a maximum on the number of Tweets for financial and/or technology reasons

In any case, it was up and running a few seconds later.

It is something to be mindful of if you are planning on a marketing or communication campaign. If you are using a service provider (e.g., Twitter), can you count on its reliability?

Top 10 Controversial Video Games According to Yahoo!

Yahoo! News recently included a short article on the Top 10 Controversial Video Games. Being someone who has played various video games since a child, I immediately clicked on the link. It is interesting to note why each of the games was deemed controversial--why the game received the publicity that it did, why it angered some, and how some companies overlooked very important research issues that could easily avoided the problems. Note that some of the games in this article are quite controversial so be forewarned if you click on the links.

Here are a two highlights:

Mortal Kombat 1992:
"This legendary fighting game series hasn't always enjoyed flawless victories. Though its slick graphics and instantly iconic characters made it a breakout hit, its sheer brutality and chilling "Fatalities" made it an easy target for anti-violence crusaders. Eventually, the game was brought before Congress in hearings that led to the creation of the body that puts age certificates on games to this day, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)."

Deathrace 1976:
Inspired by the cult film Death Race 2000, this 1976 coin-op challenged players to run down humanoid "gremlins" while avoiding tombstones left in their wake. While its graphics seem primitive by today's standards, it was labeled "sick" by countless media outlets, earning it the title of the world's first controversial video game.

International Women's Day

Celebrate on March 8 worldwide, today is International Women's Day. 2009 marks the 98th celebration.

Until I was in Ukraine this past week, I realized that I did not understand fully the importance of International Women's Day (IWD). In Ukraine it is a national holiday. On Friday last week, businesses were closing early and flower and candy sales shot through the roof.

From the IWD website, "IWD is now an official holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother's Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers...So make a difference, think globally and act locally! Make everyday International Women's Day. Do your bit to ensure that the future for girls is bright, equal, safe and rewarding.

With today's world ever-shrinking and appreciation for other people, genders, races, backgrounds, etc. growing, perhaps we won't ever need a holiday like this...

Additional Resources

- International Women's Day site
- Facebook group
- Google blog search results
- Events listed by country

- "4 great talks for International Women's Day" from TED

- History on Wikipedia
- Reuter's official IWD Twitter site
- Yahoo picture search

Unconfirmed Report that Twitter to Begin Charging Brands for Commercial Use

Marketing Magazine out of the United Kingdom recently reported that Twitter is about to start charging for commercial use. The article lacks details and specificity. In a way, we knew that this was coming. The old days of the dot-commers spending more money than they were making without checks and balances is long gone.

The article cites Co-founder Biz Stone as saying that they "would not charge individual users."

If you have any more information on this, please let us know.

Global Graduate Business School Rankings from the Financial Times

About a month ago the Financial Times published its annual Global MBA Rankings for 2009.

Here are the top 10:

1  University of Pennsylvania: Wharton, Pennsylvania, United States
1  London Business School, London, United Kingdom
3  Harvard Business School (HBS), Massachusetts, United States
4  Columbia Business School, New York, United States
5  Insead, Fontainebleau Cedex, France
6  Stanford University Graduate School of Business, California, United States
6  IE Business School, Madrid, Spain
8  Ceibs (China Europe International Business School), Shanghai, China
9  MIT: Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts, United States
10 New York University (NYU): Leonard N. Stern, New York, United States

Within the rankings, you will find data on salary, salary increase/decrease from 2008, employment change from 2008, and average 3-year rank.

On each of the individual school pages, you will find data on Rankings at a glance, Alumni career progress, Diversity, and Idea generation (about the faculty), and other information provided by each school.

The Financial Times also has a main business education website that has current news.