This is normally the sort of thing that I’d just re-tweet, but I want to have a record of this so you know where to find the link when you need it.  Thanks to Mark Flavin for this post.

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If you are interested in hearing me speak about Out of Control Marketing (a.k.a. Marketing Public  Relations) you can listen to WDIY (88.1 FM in Bethlehem, PA) from 6:00-7:00 pm EST on December 17, 2009.  If you can’t tune in you can click here to listen on the web.

I’ll be giving a national webinar for the American Advertising Federation as a part of their “From the Source” series.  This will be held at 2 pm EST on January 27, 2010.  You can find out more or register by clicking here.

On Saint Patrick’s Day I will be the main speaker at Kutztown University's “Seeking Solutions” series.  The event runs from noon until 4:00PM EST.  Click here for details or here for a brochure.

I hope you can join me at one of these venues.

I've also posted my November 30th interview on internet radio KBZNZ's Sparks to Flame show below.
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If South Park had an evolutionary psychologist as a character it would be Geoffrey Miller, professor at the University of New Mexico, and author of Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior.  Miller uses his irreverent writing style to explain global consumer culture through the application of the science of human nature.  This is a particularly good book for marketers as it uses up-to-date science to explain why we, as humans, buy, and why we are often trapped by the allure of consumerism.  He bases his argument on the notion that our needs and wants are driven by a psychological (or perhaps biological) predisposition to behave in a manner that signals our physical and mental fitness, and thereby, increases our likelihood of finding mating opportunities and receiving social support from friends and family.

Marketers will find this approach satisfying as Miller points out that we have been relying on an outdated model for understanding what drives consumers to want and buy things-namely Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need.  Spent’s model suggests that humans display conspicuous waste, conspicuous precision, and conspicuous reputation to signal mating and social fitness. (You’ll have to read the book for specifics.) Fitness indicators manifest themselves through general intelligence and five personality factors.  (If you are familiar with the NEO Personality Inventory, you’ll recognize these factors.)   When applied to market segmentation, message creation, and media selection, it is my belief that marketers will find this approach more profitable and more socially responsible than the conventional “marketing as a business process” method.

From a literary point of view, most will find this book an easy read.  Miller’s writing is in the pop-intellectual style made fashionable by Gladwell, but the academician occasionally bleeds through.  He offers a fair amount of social commentary which is often arguable, but always well thought out and provocative.

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Take notice, the current philosophy of marketing is moving from the marketing concept where “customer is king” and shifting toward the interaction concept, where relationship is king, and the brand is owned by both the firm and the customer.  In this segment of PRI’s To the Best of Our Knowledge, author of New York Times Magazine’s column, “Consumed,” Rob Walker discusses how word-of-mouth can support or radically change the meaning of a brand.  This well illustrates how stories conveying reputation, relationship, experience, and symbolism define the value of a brand.

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The October 2009 issue of PR Week discussed the findings of its Social Media Survey for this year.  In addition to the fact that 37% of the 271 companies surveyed did not use any type of social media, I found it striking that there seemed to be no consistency of use among firms.  The tone of the article (Reality Check by Kimberly Maul, pp. 34-40) gave the impression that most firms are either waiting to see what happens (as if social media is a fad) or experimenting with a completely new reality.  The list of barrier to implementation found by the survey included lack of internal resources, lack of expertise, uncertainty about ROI, fear of negative customer reaction, and lack of global scale, to name a few.  The perception of these barriers leads marketers and executives to believe that there is a chasm between social media and the rest of marketing when, in fact, there is not.  What we know about marketing, we still know about marketing, and we can apply it to social media.  The model for understanding this is simple. Social media is like using PR for marketing purposes.  There is an audience that can be reached by using information intermediaries, which I refer to as connectors.  In PR the connectors are the mainstream media.  With social media the connectors are bloggers and others who feel a special connection to a brand or product category.  Both approaches are great because they come with tons of credibility, and are reasonably inexpensive to execute.  The downside, of course, is that we are giving control of our message to the connectors and risk negative interpretation.  Social media efforts are also more likely to draw direct comments from customers and prospective customers.  These comments are feared by some companies as company execs believe that negative commentary will have an adverse impact on the firm.  That’s surely possible, but these sorts of comments were being transmitted from person to person before social media was ever conceived.  The comments that arrive via social media are a blessing as they allow firms to respond to concerns (real or imagined) as they arise.

So, as we enter the holiday season I’d like you to consider following my calendar:

November 26: Be thankful for those who make comments about our firms, brands, products, services, and people through social media.

Sometime between December 21, the Winter Solstice, and the end of the year (pick the holiday that suits you the best), give the gift of social media to your 2010 marketing plan. Yes, you need to have a marketing plan and social media should be something you look at strategically, not as an experiment. (Email me if you want help with this.)

On January 1, resolve to make your marketing public relations and social media functions one and the same, and use them as your chief brand building, and communicating strategies for at least the next five years. 

Have a peaceful and happy holiday season.

Best,

Gaetan
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Here’s my video talk to the Small Business Council of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce on November 20.  Just the basics on PR and social media. (Thanks to the Greater Lehigh Valley Ad Club for setting this up.) HZ2B9CJF844N
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It has long been my belief that positioning a firm’s executives and knowledge workers as experts in the eyes of media and the company’s stakeholders is one of the most effective ways to promote a brand, product, or service.  It has been my experience that too few firms take advantage of this opportunity.   To venture a guess, I will say that the reason for this lack of enthusiasm for expert-based promotion is ignorance of this type of promotion or the insecurity marketers feel about this type of activity.  It is with a fair amount of certainty that I claim the reason for both the former and latter stem from the fact that colleges and universities don’t teach this within their business and marketing curriculum, and that marketing firms and advertising agencies largely ignore this approach to marketing.  Fortunately, there is someone out there with his eye on the ball, Ken Lizotte, author of The Expert’s Edge (McGraw-Hill, 2008).

Lizotte’s book is a well written guide to turning garden variety experts into “thought leaders.”  The foundation of his philosophy is based on his five pillars of thought leadership: publishing (articles & book); public speaking; conducting research (he calls it “fresh thinking”); leveraging the internet; and using the media.  The book’s primary audience consists of consultants, small business owners, and people interested in creating a “personal brand,” and for those of you who fall into one of these categories, this book is a must read.  I also want to suggest that The Expert’s Edge is a great resource for marketers in companies of any size.   Lizotte’s tactics for turning oneself into a thought leader can, with a little ingenuity, be used by marketers for transforming their firm’s executives and knowledge workers into thought leaders.

Oh, and for you college professors teaching marketing or PR, this book makes a great complement to many texts.  I can recommend it specifically to those using Marketing Public Relations as supplemental reading for chapters 11 and 12-especially for graduate level courses.
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Thanks to Sales and Marketing Magazine for posting an excerpt of Marketing Public Relations.
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As marketers, we are always looking for ways to define our audience.  Armies of market researchers conduct surveys, observe behavior, and sift through artifacts of commercial life to discover what makes a particular group of people tick.  Or, more importantly, what makes them buy.  We are in an interesting time in that the generation coming of age today, the Millennials, has been imbued in brand culture and immersed in social media.  While this may give some parents pause, it is an opportunity to observe these savvy and social consumers in action, and to record and study their journey from young adulthood to their rise to dominance in business and culture.

In attempt to harness this tremendous potential, Edward Boches, Chief Social Media Officer at Mullen, has launched “The Next Great Generation,” or TNGG.   This ambitious project aims to get Millennials to share their thoughts regarding life, work, brands, technology, environment, money, faith, sex, and love, while giving other generations a chance to listen, learn, and even ask questions about them.

If you fall into the Millennial age group, I implore you to check this out and get involved.  If you teach or work with Millennials get this information into their hands and encourage them to participate.

TNGG’s website is linked here, and you can followe the conversation on Twitter using the hash tag #tngg.  Spread the word.
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Tribal Video 11/09/2009
 
There are a handful of high profile business and marketing people who capture the essence of Marketing Public Relations.  Seth Godin is one of those people.  This video is one of a handful of videos of Seth that will make you think about what we do.  I suggest that connecting with “tribes” is what MPR is all about.  He also discusses how tribes create stories about a company or product and spread them.  This is the MPR notion of creating “brand authors.”  Bravo Seth.  Enjoy the video all.
Here's another.
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