The Art of Marketing (#TAOM) - Quotes that provoke ACTION

I get it.

You’re too busy to read a full recap of what the speakers had to say at the art of Marketing Chicago conference today.

So… here are 10 bite sized quotes that provoke action:  my notes and via Twitter #TAOM.

Why Marketers should be artists

1. "commodity is just a marketer that has given up"  - Seth Godin

2. "competence is no longer a scarce commodity" - Seth Godin   

What consumers want

3. "…we use our wealth to get weirder, we use wealth to be more like ourselves" -  Seth Godin

4. (pt 1) "Give a shit first, then maybe consumers will be interested in you”  

5. (pt 2) "..yes and they [customers] talk back now, we have to respect that via good cop marketing" – Gary Vaynerchuk

Leadership in 2012  

6. "lead with generosity, intimacy, candor and accountability" -  Keith Ferrazzi

7. It's Critical to shift from "Stumbling into intimacy" to a relationship strategy. Consider what are you ‘selling’ vs what people are ‘buying’ -  "Ask how can I serve you" - Keith Ferrazzi

8. "Do exactly what I tell you" is the 'Factory' model that no longer works – Seth Godin

Digital stuff…….  

 9. all a ‘bounce rate’ tells you is that "I came, I puked, and then left" - Avinash Kaushik

10. "do you work on a brand that has the right to be on the home page of your smart phone ?” -  Mitch Joel

P.S. Im saving @avinash’s salacious quotes for a deep dive post, and will leave you with the thought, that a book called: Puke.Boom.Orgasm.Awesome is in his destiny.

Billboard.com – how to refresh brand equity without alienating your consumers

As a music fan one of the sites I visit almost on a daily basis is billboard with core brand equity elements of the 'authority', and 'champion' of the music industry. It’s a great portal for sales and shipment data, charts, news, reviews and general music industry gossip. So on Saturday when I logged in – I was surprised to see a radical site redesign. Granted the old site was tired and driven by banner ad’s, but was easy to navigate and content rich.

A New Business Model

With focus on downloading music (via lala.com), I sense a change of business model – to actively generate user revenue and return visits vs. the ad driven model.

Is it the same brand?
I’m not sure that I like the new ‘MySpace’ feel which undermines the ‘authority’ brand value. The brand clearly needs to evolve and perhaps has succeeded - I have already opened a www.Lala.com account and downloaded music (by Alexi Murdoch).

Marketing works !

This could prove to be a classic marketing case study where a brand:
a) Reinvents itself by refreshing its equity - but not straying too far (simply by adding ‘first choice’) as an additional equity element
b) Ensures it understand how to engage and retain consumers
c) Drives the top and bottom line

Bravo to the marketing folks at Billboard.