Mike

She’s got a gig in a play up the street and had stopped by the restaurant for dinner. Afterward, she shared this from her Twitter account…

Guy Niel, Post390′s GM, picked up the thread on HootSuite, and the restaurant responded with this:

She said something nice in return, this time with a link to Post390′s Twitter account:

And the restaurant responded:

The whole thing took an hour. By morning, Post390′s banana cream pie was in the Boston Globe, and in New York Magazine popular food blog, Grub Street Boston.

There’s so much to be learned about how marketing has changed from this silly little exchange.

First, the spark that ignited this whole episode was banana cream pie worth talking about.  We say this all the time… but your product is your marketing. If it’s not good enough to inspire advocacy, measured by the creation of net promoters, you need to focus on that first. If it is, your marketing should flow organically from that.

Second, listening is no longer optional. There’s a conversation happening on the web that you care about. It might be about you. It’s probably about at least one of your competitors. It’s definitely about the problem your product solves, or you wouldn’t be selling enough of it to care.

Finally, the power of digital media lay in it’s potential to create scalable intimacy. A conversation between a local brand and a genuine celebrity took place in real-time last night, in front of the 90,000 people that followed both. That was inconceivable 10 years ago, but it’s how smart people do digital today.

Kudos to the good folks at Post390 for embracing this model so fully in such a short time. You guys earned what happened last night and this morning, and I’ll be stopping by for some banana cream pie myself a little later today.

There is a constant conversation taking place between marketers, strategists, creatives, and brands about the differences between branding for B2B and branding for B2C. There is the debate about color palette. (When in doubt, go blue!) What colors feel safe? What tone feels “business-y”? Is it okay to be serious and be clever?

To us, the truth lies in answering a question different from whether you’re a B2B company or a B2C company, but rather one that focuses on the individuals comprising the Bs and the Cs. Chris has often been heard remarking about the “magic consumer transition” that we sometimes believe takes place while commuting from home to work. The underlying consideration there is whether we truly do think that a CEO thinks or responds differently to words and visuals whether he’s behind a mahogany desk or taking a call from his (or her) deck on a sunny Saturday.

Focus for a moment on social media and the effect it’s had on the formality of our communication. There are no longer ivory towers or hallowed halls, and the businesses who continue to subscribe to this method of engagement (or lack of) are quickly losing share. As people we value warmth and competency as much in our business interactions as we do in our more colloquial, consumer lives. You may be drawn to the stability of specific bank, insurance company, or institution, but your experience is determined by the individuals you encounter within that organization, whether it be a teller, mortgage broker, financial planner, teacher, professor, or administrator. Individually they may present as buttoned-up business people, but behind the pleats and tweeds they are human beings who have a significant impact on the image and engagement of a brand.

Increasingly, we find that consumer loyalty and advocacy is built upon the relationships to individuals within an organization. Restaurants provide good food and a charming ambiance, but it’s the chef who stops by or the bar tender who chats with you while you wait for your dinner date who create that experience. There is no aspect of big M marketing that isn’t influenced by the blurred line between B and C. The way you position, message, and iterate product should focus on the one thing we all share: being human. Creating value for customers– both in communication and product– hinges upon understanding human nature above the nature of business.

There is no debate as to whether the rules are more stringent when you cross into B2B, but it has less to do with how people make decisions and more to do with red tape and legal constraints. The brand emerges when you find the humanity within your audience and then craft a story that appeals to them and passes the “business appropriate” test. It’s then the job of the organization to empower employees to embrace this balance and create experiences that are at once true to the brand and relevant to the customer.

Anecdotally, I live around the corner from one of the finest hotel chains in the world, the Taj. The brand stands for luxury and unparalleled experience. And while for guests this manifests in exquisite amenities and superb customer service, it’s adapted to meet the needs of the friends and neighbors of the hotel, as well. There’s no caviar offered as I pass by, but on a rainy day the staff is always ready with an umbrella, or a bottle of water when I jog by after working out. And this morning, after trying fruitlessly to hail a cab, it was a ride to work in their car service. So while I may not have the opportunity to lay my head upon those delightful pillows, or experience the luxury of tubs the size of my apartment, the luxury is tailored for me by a staff who knows my life and does everything they can to make it that much more luxurious.

Related articles

• Which Is The Best Business Model For Your Startup – B2B Or B2C? (entrepreneurs-journey.com)
• Why does B2B customer experience get the short shrift? (customerthink.com)

The specifics can be found here.

If the opportunity is a fit for you, please apply. If not, help us out and send along the job description link to the three most qualified candidates you know.

Thanks for your help!

Let us know what you think, and what you’d like to see more of.

1. How do you define ‘influence’ and ‘influencers’? Can influence really be measured?
2. How much time, attention and money should companies spend relative to marketing to influencers?
3. What are the specific tactics companies can use to reach influencers?
4. Which tactics used to influence customers, partners and prospects should (and/or should NOT) be used to influence influencers? Where do Influencer and Social strategies intersect – and where do they diverge?
5. Tell us about some success stories – and some failures.

Here’s a recording, you can grab the podcast at the link.

Focus Marketing Roundtable: Influencer Marketing – The Key To Social ROI? by miketrap

Related articles

• Worth the read: Identifying Influencers on Twitter (cuene.com)
• Content Marketing Case Study: Eloqua $2.5m Sales Boost With Grande Guides (pr.typepad.com)
• Social Media – Influence, Importance and Identification (visibletechnologies.com)

Before trying to duplicate their tips and tricks in your organization, Marketers must recognize that successful content marketing requires a mental shift, including how you think of budgeting. For example, in order to be successful in this new world, Marketers must think in terms of:

• - Ongoing programs, not campaigns.
• - Objectively valuable content, not copy.
• - A content strategy, not channels like Facebook or Twitter.
• - MPDs, not budget dollars.

MPDs are the number of minutes per day that stakeholders are investing or participating in content marketing. Ironically, many Marketers are solely focused externally on their customers’ “engagement” while internally they only think in terms of a budget number.

At Holland-Mark, we think in terms of MPDs because changing behavior is both the most difficult part of any new process, and the key to long-term success. We have found that stakeholders investing as few as 15 MPDs can create a successful content marketing program. While securing a budget for the next year will ensure activity, a mental and behavioral shift is required to:

• - Take advantage of expertise across the organization.
• - Infuse your culture with the external reality.
• - Make content marketing a core competency.

The best part about using MPDs as currency in your organization is that as stakeholders get more comfortable participating, they will deliver more content, interactions, and value in that same amount of time. This allows your program to grow without asking for more.

Leave the budget conversations for the media buyers; success in content marketing is measured in MPDs.

Related articles

• Popular social media expert C.C. Chapman to share social media tips with Ottawa business community (techvibes.com)
• Kristina Halvorson, Content Strategy (conversationagent.com)
• Content Marketing More Effective Than Traditional Advertising (eon.businesswire.com)

If you didn’t know, before he was our content hub advocate, Mike was part of the venture-funded mobile content pioneer m-Qube. He’ll be applying this experience, as well as our current mobile perspective, to the “Beyond Mobile Barriers” panel.

The panel will explore mobile as a critical part of media planning strategies and discuss features such as rich media, applications, geo-location, and hyperlocal that allow brands and establishments to interact with mobile users in new and useful ways. Mike’s panel includes mobile leaders Dan Olschwang of Jumptap, Andrew Paradise at AisleBuyer, and Ben Smith of Dunkin’ Brands. Whether you Check In or are checked out, it should be interesting to see how mobile is changing the media landscape.

While you are at it, check out the rest of Media Innovation Day, learn about some of the most important up-and-coming trends in marketing and media, and recognize the people who take innovative media planning to a new level. Check out the schedule and register here.

It got us thinking — along with our friends and colleagues at MITX — that there had to be a way to stage a meeting of the marketing minds that would go beyond talk.  And so, between cocktails and panels and whiteboards, FutureM was born.  Slated for October 4-8th, FutureM is a week-long collaborative conference on the vision for marketing in Massachusetts through an intersection of people and ideas and inspiration.  It’s a chance to hear about the latest in marketing, technology, and design– together.  And if the thought of nonstop keynotes scares you as much as it scares us, fear not: FutureM includes panels, roundtables, summits, parties, meet-ups, and more, because the best ideas rarely get created around a podium.  We can’t wait.  Check out the rumblings of the future here.

In the meantime, we wanted to share the opportunity to be a part of FutureM.  If you have a topic, technology, team, or even a question that can help define what’s next for marketing, submit an event idea.  So get creative and join us at the future here.

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