Working with Today’s Customers Focus of July 25 Economic Perspectives

Renowned business consultants Chip Bell and John Patterson will discuss their latest book, Wired and Dangerous: How Your Customers Have Changed and What to Do About It on the July 25 edition of Economic Perspectives on KAZI 88.7 FM at 5:30 p.m. CT. Chip and John have provided consulting or training to a number of major corporations including Allstate Insurance, Bank of America, GE, and McDonalds.

Book Review: Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan

By Tim Chamberlain

This book’s subtitle is “What every business can learn from the most iconic band in history,” and anyone from a marketing executive to a starting entrepreneur will find something to help change the way they think about marketing their business.

Scott and Halligan note in the introduction that “the Grateful Dead is one huge case study in contrarian marketing.” Contrary is a good way to describe the strategies of the Grateful Dead, as nearly everything they did went against standard operating procedure, both in terms of the music industry and in terms of established business practice in general.

For those unfamiliar with the band, the Grateful Dead formed in 1965 in San Francisco, and continues to play in various lineups today. Their musical style was complimented by their long, improvisational concerts, which were a long way from the rehearsed sets that most bands still use today. The band also has a long history of connecting directly with their fans, and the fans responded with fervent dedication to the band and its music. The most fervent of these fans followed the band from town to town across the country and became known as “Deadheads.” This book takes a look at the savvy, but authentic ways the band connected with their fans, and how these strategies can work today.

The Grateful Dead were pioneering social media before such a term was invented. The band reached out to its core audience (Deadheads, in this case) and truly made them part of the experience, which only increased their following. Even without the technologies we have today, the band was able to connect with their fans (and the fans with each other), and build a huge brand in the process. They did things that no other band did, such as concentrating on touring instead of album sales, encouraging fans to record shows and trade tapes, and partnering with parking lot entrepreneurs instead of running them off. Though it may seem unlikely at first glance, Scott and Halligan demonstrate how the strategies of the world’s most successful jam band can differentiate anyone’s product from its competition.

The authors make their aim clear when they write that “Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead will show you how to think and market like the band, which is to think and market differently from your competition.” Each of the chapters examines an aspect of exactly how they marketed differently, and how these strategies can work in today’s businesses. Scott and Halligan acknowledge the chapters as free-standing units to be read in any order, a nod to the band’s freewheeling style. Each has a focus on a particular element of the Grateful Dead’s marketing strategy and how these translate to the modern business world. Included at the end of each chapter is a helpful “Rock On” section that gives tips and ideas on how to put these lessons into action.

Scott and Halligan, both already established in the marketing world, hit it off right away when they discovered a shared love for the Grateful Dead during their first meeting. Halligan is the CEO and co-founder (with Dharmesh Shah) of HubSpot, a marketing company focused on inbound marketing tools, such as targeting search engine results pages and measuring the effectiveness of those tools. Scott is an online marketing strategist and professional speaker that has written five marketing books to date, most notably The New Rules of Marketing and PR which he has also turned into a one-day seminar.

Listen to Interview with Rob Adams About How to Confirm a Market Opportunity Really Exists for Your Product or Service

Listen to my 26 minute interview with Rob Adams, author of If You Build It Will They Come? Three Steps to Test and Validate Any Market Opportunity, from the June 7 edition of Economic Perspectives by clicking here: Rob Adams Interview.

In his book Adams explains how to quickly gather information on competitors, directly interview members of your target market, and figure out what the market really wants to buy, versus what customers say they want.

Adams is an active investor, author, consultant, and on the faculty of the Management Department at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business, where he teaches in the MBA program and is the Director of the Global Moot Corp Program.

Prior to his appointment at the University of Texas, Adams founded Tejas Venture Partners, the second venture fund he has started. Previously he was the founder of AV Labs, a successful early stage venture fund allied with Austin Ventures, starting it after being a partner with TL Ventures.  Before entering the venture business, he was a technology executive.

Marketing, Management, and Keeping Job Focus of Economic Pespectives and KAZI Book Review

Economic Perspectives Guests: Jack Trout and Michelle Frith

March 22, 5:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. CST

Listen live at KAZI 88.7 FM in Austin or live online at kazifm.org.

Jack Trout, coauthor, Repositioning

Thirty years ago, Jack Trout and Al Ries published their classic bestseller, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind—a book that revolutionized the world of marketing. But times have changed. Competition is fiercer. Consumers are savvier. Communications are faster. And once-successful companies are in crisis mode.

Repositioning shows you how to adapt, compete—and succeed—in today’s overcrowded marketplace. Global marketing expert Jack Trout has retooled his most effective positioning strategies—providing a must-have arsenal of proven marketing techniques specifically redesigned for our current climate. With Repositioning, you can conquer the “3 Cs” of business: Competition, Change, and Crisis . . .

1. BEAT THE COMPETITION: Challenge your rivals, differentiate your product, increase your value, and stand out in the crowd.
2. CHANGE WITH THE TIMES: Use the latest technologies, communications, and multimedia resources to connect with your consumers.
3. MANAGE A CRISIS: Cope with everything from profi t losses and rising costs to bad press and PR nightmares.

Jack Trout is president of Trout & Partners, a worldwide marketing firm with headquarters in Connecticut and offices in 13 countries. With Al Ries, he coauthored the marketing classic Positioning and the bestsellers Marketing Warfare and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. Trout’s books have been translated into 16 languages, including the BusinessWeek bestseller The New Positioning.

Michelle Frith, City of Austin Small Business Development Program

On the second segment of Economic Perspectives Michelle Frith of the City of Austin Small Business Development Program will discuss Getting Connected, a small business resource Expo being held on March 23, 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the Palmer Event Center, 900 Barton Springs Rd.  Exhibitors will include non-profit organizations, government programs and agencies, area chambers of commerce, and community development corporations whose mission is to help business owners succeed.

KAZI Book Review Guests (2 segments): David Axson and Larry Myler

March 21, 12:30 p.m. – 1 p.m. CST

Listen live at KAZI 88.7 FM in Austin or live online at kazifm.org.

David Axson, author, The Management Mythbuster

A humorous review of current management practice with a very serious message, The Management Mythbuster makes an entertaining case for questioning much of the conventional wisdom that pervades the corporate world today.

Through contrarian and provocative points of view, real world examples and deep analysis, author and management thought leader David Axson offers over a dozen short, pithy commentaries on the important issues in management today:

• Short chapters on popular management practices, theories, tools and behaviors
• A humorous review of current management practice, with an underlying serious message
• The fallacies of conventional management wisdom revealed and refuted
• Exposes the fallacies of standard management thinking

David A.J. Axson, author of Best Practices in Planning and Performance Management (Wiley), is President of the Sonax Group, a business advisory firm. He is a former head of corporate planning at Bank of America and was a cofounder of The Hackett Group. He is a sought-after speaker and writer on business strategy and management and is widely regarded as a thought leader in the industry.

Larry Myler, author, Indispensible by Monday

When trying to move ahead or even just keep a job, there are actions that would be of great advantage to any employee and there are strategies that are just plain stupid. Interestingly enough, the stupid strategies are used twice as frequently in corporate America. Indispensable By Monday goes beyond conventional wisdom to reveal and impart the skills and behaviors that any employee at any level of any organization can implement to bring substantial dollars to the company.

Author Larry Myler and organizational performance consulting firm VitalSmarts asked 1,800 corporate leaders to identify the bottom-line behaviors that would make employees essential to their organizations. Now, Myler distills what he learned for every employee and employer. Indispensable By Monday outlines the profit-producing behaviors that distinguish workers who add value from those who don’t, such as reducing company costs, increasing income, improving key processes, bringing back lost customers and more.

Larry Myler is the CEO of More or Less, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in profit enhancement through employee engagement. Previously, Larry was president of VitalSmarts, serving from 1992 to 2001. Myler, who holds an MBA (international emphasis), is a serial entrepreneur with six startups under his belt. Over the course of his thirty-year career, he has helped others improve their businesses by consulting and training for leadership teams and employees in the areas of interpersonal communication, profit enhancement, organizational efficiency, survey research, and more. Past clients include companies such as AT&T, Shell Oil, Lockheed Martin, and Ford Motor Company.

Using Existing Customers to Gain New Ones Focus of March 7 Interview

Listen to the interview with Joseph Jaffe, author of Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones, from his guest appearance on KAZI Book Review on Sunday, March 7, by clicking here: Joseph Jaffe Interview.

Using his new “flipped funnel” model, together with a set of new rules of customer service and a customer referral and activation process, the book focuses on how to transform existing customers into salespeople for your company.  In addition, Jaffe explains how to best introduce and combine both digital and social media tools to boost your loyalty arsenal, deploy “influencer marketing” and implement word-of-mouth strategies that inspire your loyal, opinionated, and most vocal customers to become credible, persuasive, and influential endorsers of your products and services.

Jaffe is Chief Interruptor of Powered, a full-service social media agency that plans, builds and activates measurable and enduring experiences between brands, their customers and their online communities.  He is also the author of “Life After The 30-Second Spot: Energize Your Brand With A Bold Mix Of Alternatives To Traditional Advertising” and “Join the Conversation: How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue and Partnership.”

Previously, Jaffe founded and ran a strategic consulting practice called crayon, which was recently acquired by Powered. crayon’s clients included The Coca-Cola Company, Panasonic, Kraft Foods and H&R Block.  Jaffe is a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School, as well as the Society for New Communications Research.

Building a Marketing Plan Focus of February 21 KAZI Book Review

A great marketing plan identifies where an organization is, where it wants to be, and how it will get there. Most companies think they already have such a plan-but often they really have only a budget, a sales goal, or an excuse.

What’s the solution? According to Paul Kurnit and Steve Lance, it’s not about copying someone else’s cookie-cutter plan, or retreading your own plan from years past. There’s a far more effective option: harnessing the company’s own internal brain trust to create something fresh and perfectly tailored. Kurnit and Lance, the authors of The Little Blue Book of Marketing: Build a Killer Plan in Less Than a Day, will be the February 21 guests on KAZI Book Review, 12:30 p.m. – 1 p.m. central time on KAZI 88.7 FM.  Listen live online at kazifm.org.

The authors show how to maximize collaboration among all key players in marketing, R&D, research, sales, financial, legal, and senior management. When everyone combines their knowledge, the critical elements become clear, including brand positioning, target audience, and competitive strategy.

Paul Kurnit and Steve Lance are the founders of PS Insights, a consulting firm that helps businesses foster team building and dynamic growth.  Kurnit has created marketing plans for a wide range of companies including Hasbro, Proctor & Gamble, and American Express.  Lance, the coauthor of The Little Blue Book of Advertising, is a thirty-year veteran of advertising and marketing and an award-winning copywriter and creative director.  He is also the former creative director of the television network NBC.