FredericMartin - Blognotes 2.0

A Business Check-List for New Times

I've been thinking all I would be doing during those crisis times if I were running  a business.  I came up with this list focusing on marketing and sales management points. It' s a mix of own experiences, thoughts and readings. I will try to upgrade and enrich it with third parties articles and best cases later on. And some points I will detail in separate posts. I chose to concentrate especially on mid and long term action points: you shouldn't expect too much from your short term activities in those crisis times if your markets are really depressed; but it's highly important and the right time to prepare for better times and set ready to harvest later on. And it's not just about crisis and after-crisis times; it's about a new paradigm: not only the financial system has collapsed, but many other parameters have actually changed dramatically, driven by the global hyper connectivity and competitiveness, by the emerging power of the masses and by a new generation that has a stronger voice to denounce failing models and to claim new values and perspectives as a citizen, as a consumer and as a worker.  Therefore, It's important in those deep times to think on that new order and adapt your business practices accordingly.

Obama: the new school marketer

This excellent slideshow on Obama's social marketing campaign is a good source of inspiration for brand marketers.

Time for marketing changes. At last.

This 3-min. clip is a good summary of the marketing shift from the sixties up today. Unfortunately, many marketers are still not aware of such shifts (or don´t dare trying something new) and keep using the old recipes that don´t work anymore AT ALL. I´m scared when looking at all those book shelves in European shops and keep seeing the same old guys from the 90s or even 80s with edition number 10 of their old stuff. In hard times like we have today, it would be time that all those old marketers stop wasting all that money that keeps flowing massively into mass marketing. They should focus more on their user experience, have true & intensive conversations and CO-innovate.

A top 50 Marketing Blogs

 Evan Carmichael has an impressive top 50 marketing blogs across various categories. This is an extract of 9 top marketing bloggers. I follow three of those guys in my Netvibes portal: Seth Godin, ProBlogger and Robin Good. Excellent blogs indeed. [Click the picture to visit their blog].

Are you listening to all those conversations on you?

via Vizedu -  a pretty cool video on online reputation monitoring. Conversations on you, on your company and products might be running around. Listen to them before your reputation gets dead.

Rock the office: AC DC in Excel

via Marketing Digital.
AC DC has a very clever viral campaign. First ever video in an excel spreadsheet! What? Yes, they go through companies firewalls to reach maximum exposure.

New Management in the Digital World

Management 2.0

view presentation (tags: enterprise 2.0 web digital)

4 outstanding Management Books

I've read those 4 books recently. All of them are brilliant in their category. They describe new management practices for the 21st century. The Long Tail is about the digital economy and its brand new business models. Blue Ocean Strategy details how to leave the bloody red oceans of competition and instead create uncontested market spaces where the competition is irrelevant. Wikinomics is on the new collaborative management 2.0 inside companies and with their partners. Last but not least, Blog Marketing is on the new communication 2.0 inside companies and with customers by leveraging blogging platforms.

Marketing and Sales - 10+ key-things you might not be doing...*

 * ... and which you could start now by leveraging online resources:

1. Interact live with your customers / consumers individually
2. Lead an ongoing live conversation with your salesreps
3. Micro-manage each of your retail shops
4. Track your competitors in real time
5. Boost your market intelligence to stay ahead of your competitors
6. Bring your marketing creativity to the next level
7. Get your marketing & sales people work as one single & highly productive team
8. Know anytime any detail of your sales status and business environment
9. Outsource cheap and highly creative marketing ideas
10. Prepare a nice word of mouth for your new products
11. Expand your brand reach and market channels

(will be continued / your comments welcome)

In a next serie of posts, I will detail each of those points.

Is your marketing dpt confused about web2.0? Read this

    (via ShopTalk and HarvardBusinessOnline)  A new interesting publication on web 2.0 and its impacts on companies. In their own words: "Corporate executives are struggling with a new trend: people using online social technologies (blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, podcasts) to discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals. This groundswell is global, it's unstoppable, it affects every industry--and it's utterly foreign to the powerful companies running things now. When consumers you've never met are rating your company's products in public forums with which you have no experience or influence, your company is vulnerable. In Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester, Inc. explain how to turn this threat into an opportunity..."