DePaul Community,
If you're looking to join the KMG Board please click here for more information. This will be an exciting opportunity for all those who are pro-active and looking to add to their resume. Getting involved within KMG will also provide you a gateway to a new community of marketing professionals whose wisdom and skills far surpass expectations.
--Your Friendly KMG Board
Emerge 2012 Chicago: Rise to the Global Challenge – KMG Marketing Symposium
April 28th was the fourth Annual Marketing Symposium at Kelstadt Marketing Group, a symposium designed to bring to the marketing masses—i.e. marketing students, alumni (like me), and marketing professionals—an awareness of the current profitability and challenges of the global marketplace.
“Emerge 2012 Chicago: Rise to the Global Challenge,” included panel discussions such as “How to Be Sustainable in a Global Market” and “Marketing Across Cultures.” It also showcased a variety of speeches on marketing topics like “Growth through Focus” by Sanjay Khosia (EVP, Developing Markets, Kraft International), “Ocean Park Case Study: International Business in Asia” by Paul Pei (Ocean Park, Hong Kongby, and our personal favorite, “Free the Idea Monkey” by Mike Maddock (CEO, MAddock Douglas, Inc.).
As a sponsoring company of the Emerge KMG Symposium, our team from nuphorIQ had the opportunity to get some great insight into business growth and entrepreneurship from the master of entrepreneurship himself, Mr. Mike Maddock. Mike is an entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and keynote speaker, and the CEO and Founding Partner of Maddock Douglas, an internationally-recognized innovation agency that helps launch new service and business models and products.
Mike is a business world problem solver who calls himself the “Idea Monkey.” His presentation—a combination of engaging graphics, empowering quotes, and useful information wrapped in humor—left us with a lot of great ideas that we can’t wait to put into practice in our own workplace.
For example, Mike’s talk focused on the difference between “Idea Monkeys” and “Ring Leaders,” the two types of people that make a business run successfully. Ring leaders keep businesses and Idea Monkeys on track and focused on finding new ideas and better ways of making things happen within a country. Idea Monkeys are the innovators of the business world, the ones who come up with the good ideas.
Mike spoke about the importance of thinking outside of the box, about understanding that if you’re too close to a problem or issue or potential idea, you can’t possibly see beyond your own ideas. You must take a step back and think outside of the box, prioritizing when trying to expand on ideas, and making sure that everything is completely thought through before it’s implemented.
For anyone who’s interested in reading more about Mike’s ideas and theories for the workplace, he has a column on innovation in the Bloomberg Businessweek, and two books called Free the Idea Monkey and Brand New: How Great Brands Invent and Launch New Products, Services, and Business Models available in bookstores now.
Key Takeaways from the Idea Monkey’s Speech:
Idea Monkeys and Ring Leaders: successful organizations have at least one Ring Leader—someone who keeps Idea Monkeys and the business on track—and one Idea Monkey—someone who acts as the innovator.
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Cold calling...do some of you still get chills from early days in your career? Or maybe your current role involves this sort of lead-generation? Read up: inbound>outbound
As someone who has had to sell via cold-call, I cannot be more ecstatic to hear of another report that shows that there are more effective ways of selling via updated social media technology, blogs, SEO, etc. Calling on unsuspecting people can lead to an awkward conversation that seemingly does not influence the consumer to buy, and if handled poorly, will decimate any hope of future business. Trust me, I've been that guy.
Is this what type of front-line experience we want from our B2C businesses? I don't think so. Usually, less than qualified individuals are making these calls and rely on the referral process for business to close. So, the person that calls you at home as you're about to eat dinner, can't even truly help you. Tread carefully, Mr. Marketer.
In a problematic situation, there is always opportunity for change. Increasing SEO and social media presence...low cost solutions that lead to obtaining opportunities that are more prone to closing business. This isn't the end of lead-generation, but another signifier that times...they are a-changing.
By: Justin Cerone, KMG VP of Communications
Between the numerous online and offline channels Marketers currently have access to, and the actionable insights that now accompany both, opportunity is abound for us all. But with so much innovation, proliferation, and - in some cases - saturation, it's hard to know what to keep an eye on in 2012.
So, we decided to try and help you by highlighting 12 topics that we think will shape the industry in 2012.
What do you think the leading marketing topics in 2012 will be? Let us know in the comments below.
Everyone... Tim here.
In this holiday season, with good tidings, I thought this would be a great time to check in with our members, (off of school or a break from work... I hope) and to see what sort of feedback this season's worth of advertising campaigns is generating.
Has anything hooked you in? You absolutely HAVE to buy something now? What has entertained you? What would you like to see more of? How have ads impacted your day-to-day holiday hustle-and-bustle?
Have you noticed any faux-pas or problems? Maybe one campaign has annoyed you to the point of never buying the product again? Has there been any campaigns that have completely altered the way you do your holiday shopping?
We want to know about it!
Please send your feedback to kellstadtmarketinggroup@gmail.com to have your story posted on our blog!
Have a wonderful holiday season!
- Tim
On November 4th, KMG held the “How to Position Yourself to Find a Job in 2012 – A Marketing Perspective” panel and networking event. The event was well attended and I hope you got as much out of it as I did. I’d like to extend a sincere thank you to all attendees, as well as to our very engaging panelists: Addie Braun (Google), Lynn Hazan (Lynn Hazan & Associates) and Don Scheibenreif (Gartner).
For those of you that missed the event, here are a few key takeaways:
- Stephanie
The other day, I was taking a mind break and noticed my two teenage nieces rapidly posting messages on each other’s Facebook pages. My oldest niece, Coley, is a freshman at Penn State and her sister, Gabrielle, is in high school. Both of whom are very close and in constant communication regardless of distance, which seems to mean less and less these days thanks to technology.
On this day, Coley was trying to study for a math test. However, she was distracted by Facebook, Twitter, her cell phone and any other social media device or application. She actually posted a message on her Facebook page stating that she was going to completely disconnect herself so that she could concentrate. No more than five minutes had past, she had posted a funny picture of Gabrielle’s face on a turkey. It made me laugh out loud, but more importantly it made me think how things are so different from when I was a teenager. Constant distractions, shortened attention spans and the need for instant gratification, this is the new norm with the next generation. The next generation that is shaping how we buy products, how we use social media and how we use devices to stay connected.
I called up my sister a couple days later to share my observation between her two girls and how I found it funny, but a bit concerning as well. She then told me a story how Coley recently got into trouble and her punishment was having her cell phone disconnected. To my sister’s surprise, Coley was absolutely crushed, cried uncontrollably and could not fathom living another day without some sort of connection to the virtual world via her cell phone.
I started to realize that as a Marketer, our industry needs to look at this new generation and use their cues to shape marketing techniques. We need to become as innovative and adaptive as our target audience, if not more so. We need to be forward thinking and not assume that what worked in the past will work in the future. If we don’t try to keep up with the next generation, we will be left in the dust.
-Lora Brennan, VP of Strategic Opportunities, KMG MBA Candidate, 2012
The first time I visited the DePaul bookstore, I decided to browse the “Business” section. I had no idea what I was looking for, but as fate would have it, I stumbled across an absolute gem that helped immensely in shaping the way I pursue success.
The Ten Commandments for Business Failure is not your typical book on how to climb the ladder and make your mark in the C-Suite. When asked to give a keynote address at a large convention, Donald Keough, at that time President and COO of The Coca-Cola Company, suffered from severe writerʼs block. The “secrets of success” had been reported ad nauseam. He soon came to realize was that he simply couldnʼt conjure up alist of ways to guarantee success.
“So when I was asked to talk about how to win, my response was I couldnʼt do that. What I could do, however, was to talk about how to lose and I offered a guarantee that anyone who followed my formula would be a highly successful loser.”
In the book, Keough shares ten “commandments” (presented as actions, thoughts, or attitudes) that will guarantee failure if not addressed when identified. Through the book, he offers vignettes that brilliantly illustrate each commandment. Memorably, Keough recounts his experience as one of the “dumbest executives in American business history” at the introduction of New Coke.
Keoughʼs Ten Commandments for Business Failure are:
This book has had a profound impact on my development as a future executive and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great read. While I would never suggest that all of “the answers” can be found in a book, The Ten Commandments for Business Failure does an incredible job invoking deep thought concerning how best to approach business (and life) decisions. Be on the lookout for Donʼs 11th commandment, which isfeatured in the bookʼs final chapter. It applies to all ages, but as a “millennial,” I find it to be an especially important lesson for my generation. I wonʼt give it away, but Iʼll leave you with a quote in the final chapter by Keoughʼs good friend Warren Buffet, “I tapdance to work every day.”
- Alan Brooks, VP of Membership
Tuesday—it was just another day, same old routine for me. There was a business event after the long work day, so a strong pick-me-up was a necessity. I headed to Starbucks en route. The liquid energy would ensure complete alertness and some sort of muscle twitch due to my low caffeine tolerance.
The person at the Starbucks greeted me (with a smile) and asked for my order. While handing me a piping hot cup of coffee, they asked if there was anything else that I needed and told me to have a great rest of my day. Another employee even commented on how well my blue and red tie coordinated with my blue shirt! Now, I was re-caffeinated, rejuvenated, and ready for what could have been a highly fruitful business event (keep reading).
When I arrived at the venue, the security guard greeted me and asked where I was headed. I briefly told him the name of the business meeting and he gave me meticulous, step-by-step directions. I thanked him and in return, he smiled and stated, “You’re most certainly welcome!” Cheerfully confident, I headed to the business meeting. In fact, I was so sure in where I was going; I stopped to explain to other attendees how to get there. When I turned the corner, as the polite security guard had mentioned, I noticed that there was an elevator (which was full and cramped) and a massive staircase. So, I decided to take the stairs, knowing that a little exercise might be good after consuming my caffeine kick. Had I known what I was about to attend, I would not have exerted such physical effort.
I scaled the mountain of stairs leading me to the conference room. As I approached, there were two people: one was behind the table and the other off to the side on a cell phone. Numerous name tags in disarray, a sweating cup of what seemed to be Pepsi and various food scraps on scattered plates were my first caught my eye. Awkward silence greeted me as I approached the two hostesses (The type of silence when you get on the elevator with a giant crowd of people.) There was no “hello,” “welcome,” or any other nicety. In fact, neither of these people even had name tags on. Instead, I opened and asked if this was the business event that I had registered for. Unfortunately for me, they responded with the affirmative. At the very least, it did make me feel good knowing that I was at the correct event. When they asked if I had indeed signed up, I showed a printed copy of my registration and after shuffling through name tags on the table; my name was nowhere to be found.
“Not to worry,” they said, as they took someone else’s name off the table (which they might still be on their way to the event since I was early) and asked that I write my name on the back.
Really??? Needless to say, I thought that this was rather peculiar. As they say, people make impressions in the first minute or so. What kind of impression do you think I had?
I decided to move onto the room where the event would be held and it turned out to be not very good… as expected.
When looking back on this day, I recall both the cheerful Starbucks employee and helpful security guard. Despite who I was (most likely the 1,000th person they interacted with throughout the day), they both were very courteous and helpful (which led to a great experience). However, the people most likely to garnish their outward appearances, candors and personalities to increase success at the event were woefully unprepared and rudely unreceptive.
In the end, it was very tough for me to change my opinion on how this business event might be. The event could have shown me the surefire way of solving the world’s economic problems, the exact route to the fountain of youth, or played the missing minutes at Watergate. Didn’t matter. I would have thought it to be worse than watching a live appendectomy. All due to the shoddy execution.
The lessons learned here are the following:
Overall, when you host an event, the marketing never stops. You still need to have a positive connection with the attendee so that they are excited to attend and register for future events. These are the little things that go a long way.
Jeff Long
Out in Hollywood, seemingly, everyone is waiting for this huge break onto the silver screen. The waiter that serves you at any restaurant, the woman who serves you coffee at the local coffee shop, the guy that wipes the dead bugs off the windshield of your car at a stoplight…they’re all looking for some producer to come by and take their readily available screenplay to the big show.
Here in Chicago, are we any different? Oddly enough, I feel like we, as Chicagoans, are highly motivated, determined individuals. We don’t tolerate laziness, except in politics or on the Bears’ offensive line. But, I do find that when you ask someone whether or not they find his or herself in a job or a career a mixed answer is what you will find.
How can we remedy such a problem? In Marketing, it’s sometimes who you know that can get you to the top, and at other times, superior skill and creativity will reign supreme. Also, what is the most effective way to network to make the switch? Or what skills can I hone in on to show that I have the abilities needed to add value?
KMG has been answering these questions for many young marketing professionals through DePaul and other Chicagoland connections. For me, I have improved my skills and created a much larger network of connections in direct result of being associated with this group.
The main messages of my blogs pertain to self branding and the ability to network. If you’re reading this, you’re already taking the necessary steps to your career change because you’re open to new ideas and people. Participate in our events, network and take some enjoyment out of the group that is here to serve you. KMG will enrich your life.
Continue down the path…I’m sure a producer will come along soon to read your script. Make it a good one.
