This roundtable discussion with about two dozen marketing executive leaders was so different from the one we had 18 months ago, I some times found myself wondering if it was even the same topic. Didn’t search pretty much used to be about links? There is without a doubt big, dramatic change in SEO – and more to come in the near future (including mobile, how the Google+/Facebook search engine war will play out, and more). Search today includes social media and personalization. Content matters more now than it ever did. In fact, the basics that still matter all relate to content. The most important thing we can do is to build quality, ORIGINAL content and get rid of the “crap.”

What did we want to discuss?
• How to integrate, especially with social.
• How to handle mobile, especially the user experience/U.I./U.X.
• Initial investment in SEO vs. ongoing support.
• UX for person vs. Bot – challenges and trade-offs?
• Resource allocation – where to spend the most time?
• Issues around localization/internationalization.
• How to catch up /stay current?
• What’s around the corner?
• Impact of B2B vs B2C environments
• Attacking diverse audiences

Questions, comments and facts I found interesting:

• What hasn’t changed: Sharing content is still important.Quality content is important.Still need to have crawl-able content, to use keyword targeting, fresh, etc.
Stick with the basics…sitemaps, URLs, no Flash, image descriptions, keyword focus.
• Ask yourself what questions Google quality raters are being asked.
• Find out what Panda is about.
• Ranking is a horrible way to measure your success on search.
• Why you should Ignore Facebook (well not really): Most search happens on Google, but Google doesn’t use Facebook, they use Plus. So you should have a presence there, even though nobody else is there.
• Did you know that 60% of your search results are personalized based on your online history – so even with the same search terms you and someone else will get different results.
• Do you know what your customers want to read about? Guest blog. Go after what your competitors are doing. Create “buzz” through creative content. Bait your customers, but don’t cross the line Do link building by creating relationships – use the phone, less is more. Use widgets, plugins, badge campaigns. Long lasting video content. Use news content. Make your content easy to tweet. Have a lot of hash tags. Leverage your own social network. Use your employees. Are you keeping track? Is your content improving? Is it personal, conversational, concise and current? Is it creating conversions?
• You Tube is the second largest search engine. It’s an opportunity to move up high in the search results. But it’s extremely hard to build well and to scale. Figure out how to get your audience to build video for you.
• Be aware that you get different search results when you search from your smart phone and your desktop PC.
• More traffic will come from mobile than from desktop PC’s by 2013.
• Make sure you nail “mobile.” Search engines are using mobile if you have a mobile optimized site.
• As tablets become more commonplace we need to optimize for tablets.
• SEO consultants can be insanely expensive but are totally worth it
• Get the “crap off your web site
• Metatags are out. Forget about them.
• It’s nice to have everything on one top-level domain. But if you’re in Spain, you want to see the Spanish site in your search result. They want to see their own country call-out. Google prefers an in-country domain and ideally an in-country server. Don’t just translate the keywords as they may not relevant in another language.
• Sharing content is still super important.
• Know who the influencers are and how to use them in creating content. You would be surprised how many of them will engage with you. FollowerWonk.com can help you find influencers.
• Link Building: Links matter, both in and out. Linkbait is worth doing. Don’t pay for links. Google doesn’t like it. Exchanging links is often crap, but be careful. Be a guest on another blog is good for you (links back to you). Helping other people build content is good for you. Social links are good, such as likes, etc. It sounds cheesey, but it can be valuable.Think about building “share” buttons like “twitter,” “facebook” and “plus” links on the bottom of your article. Make it easy to share. WordPress has about 50 different plug-ins to share.
• Old Vs New Tactics: See where your competitors are and go after those places.Create buzz with creative content and humor. There is a fine line, but people like to have fun.Call people to build links. Get three effective links with phone calls vs. 20 weak ones via email exchanges.Build quality profiles – encourage your leadership to use profiles. But be sure it’s authentic!Hot topics around info graphics.Use plug-ins, give people widgets and badge campaigns.Stay on top of gripes, complaints and compliments. Make it clear there’s a human behind your site.Use a corporate profile on Twitter for “corporate stuff.” But to build relationships, you’re going to have to use a real person – a genuine face/person.
• Basics of Getting Content Out There! Mobilize your user baseGet them to tweet their forum postsHashtags for every webinar, etc.Slideshare for every event (IRL and Webinars)Run FliptopGroups/Meetups.
• Get your audience to create your content.
• ROI compared to other marketing channels: Overall, compared to traditional methods for obtaining leads and publicity, is cost-effective. Two to six times better results than traditional PR or traditional advertising. It could become all-consuming. You have to put boundaries around the effort.

Questions Marketers in charge of SEO Need to Ask:
• How much SEO traffic do I really have? Break out every branded term in the way you perform in search. People use Google to find you rather than type in your web address.
• Is my site what I think it is about? What are the top terms used?
• Is my site authoritative? Go to Open Site Explorer to see how you rate.
• Is my site authoritative Part II? How many pages do the engines crawl in a week?
• How does my site’s authority stack up to competitors? How many domains are linking to my site? How many links? How authoritative are those linking to you?
• Are you a good/creative linkbuilder? Google will tell you how many links go to your site and how deeply they link.
• Was that a valuable link? How much traffic came from that referring site?
• Do I nail the long tail? Look at the volume of keywords that are bringing traffic to your site? Is it increasing over time.
• Do I nail the long tail Part II? How many sites are bringing traffic to you site? It should grow over time.

Favorite quote:

“Remember! A lot of people are social. A lot are not.”

Today my marketing executive roundtable discussed channel management. My former roundtable member Dan DeVries (currently the Founder/President of Wild Horse Strategies) came to guest visit and facilitated a great discussion shedding light on all the complexities involved in creating a channel management strategy that can really impact business – in a positive way. Here are some of the reflections from Dan in our debrief:

What were the most interesting themes you walked away with?
Managing your channels takes time and resources. This reminds me of a discussion that took place a year ago around social media. You can’t do this as a part time job.

Good discussion around marketing development funds. (MDF) How effective are they? How do you make sure they get used in the right way. (To drive new sales vs. adding to margins.) Are any of these funds getting to the sales or marketing teams that drive product sales?

You need to keep up with the competition. If they go direct in a territory – you may be forced to do the same.

What are the messages you heard around channel conflict?
You want to make sure that your channels feel like they are getting a fair deal. Even though you make more margin in an internet sale – a percentage of your customers want to engage with an actual person or partner company. (Rod’s example of on-line sales vs. talking to an agent.)

Each channel adds value in a certain way to customers they service.

You may have to get tough with your channels to enforce pricing agreements. (Doug’s example with an on-line channel.)

What do you think are the biggest challenges in channel management?
Getting mindshare from your channel. This is critical if you have indirect channels that carry multiple product lines.

Making sure that sales and marketing teams are in alignment.

Including a channel strategy in your initial product development plan.

Again – managing the channel takes time and personnel.

What surprised you?

Interesting discussion on how service companies might create channels. This could consist of a referral program for their partners or their clients.

Here are some of my favorite questions from this session:

How does the channel affect how you price products and what consumers are willing to pay? Dan provided a great example: What are you willing to pay for a beer if you bought it from a fancy hotel vs. if you bought it from the corner store? What is your answer?

Instead of asking what is best for the company (profit, growth etc), ask what is best for your customer.
Here are my favorite quotes:
“We have a blended approach to channel management – a start anywhere, end anywhere strategy.”
“We never want to have to advertise again. Advertising is the price you pay for a boring product!”
“If we forget to start with the customer, you have a distribution strategy that is limited and ‘you create a mandated divorce.’”
“When you move through an emerging trend, don’t forget how your customer got to you in the first place!”
“Know who your customer is before you write your channel strategy.”

Our discussion topic at last week’s marketing executive roundtable was around how to develop and market loyalty? One of the questions we asked ourselves was “What company are we as individuals loyal to and why.” Here is the list we came up with:

• Alaska Airlines: They are local, give good service, have a good loyalty program, and provide a consistently good product.
• Patagonia: Likes what they stand for and how they live up to their creed.
• Les Schwab Tires: Unbelievable service over time; they keep exceeding expectations.
• Nordstrom: You know that you’re always going to get quality, and if it’s not, you can take it back with no questions asked. They’re local. No surprises.
• Faucet Direct: Wife will go nowhere else. Gets selection, price, quality. Similar model to Zappos. So they wait for their faucets. Had a faucet no one else could find.
• Google: An early adopter; keeps it as his home page. Has never used other search engines. The approach to the portal (clean), innovation, the way the company is managed, quality of product.
• iPhone: Used to be loyal to Blackberry, but then was switched by his company to iPhone and loves it. But then read Steve Jobs’ book (guy is a jerk) and now the Apple brand is being tainted by his impressions of Jobs.
• Delta: Because of their loyalty program and length of time spent in the program.
• Costco: Price and quality in combination. But their involvement in the last election soured it.
• I-5 Signs: As a business person with limited budget, will often look at price first. But this company is responsive, delivers whole package, anticipates needs, is proactive, quality.
• Mod Pizza: Unique concept, up-and-comers, rooting for them to succeed, affordable price ($6.26 per), customize each order, lively, friendly, fast, fun brand.
• Volkswagon & Audi: Has owned these brands for decades and remembers how she was treated when she bought her first car as a single woman. How the big brand interacts with the local dealership and the service they provide.
• Bank of America: Would like to leave, but it’s so difficult to switch. Is “captive.”
• Winslow Drug: Stuck in the 50s, less selection, but local, “main street USA,” so he shops there.
• Town & Country Market: Nicknamed “T&C” on Bainbridge, unique items, locally owned and community oriented, wonderful service, produce is amazing, in sharp contrast to the Safeway. Costs more, but worth it.
• Visio: Perceived as a budget brand, bought a TV and a sound bar, and was floored by the service when she called. Introduced herself and said she was located in South Dakota. Told her to buy it from Amazon because it was competitively priced. Broke after 47 days (too late to return to Amazon). Had to call Visio back, and they replaced it for you for free, with free shipping. The process was so efficient and well managed. Could not have been more helpful.
• Outdoor Research: Give a lifetime guarantee, which is nice because she goes through a pair of gators every six months and they give her a new pair every year. They also support non-profits like Mountain Rescue.
• In & Out Burger: Always goes to eat there when in California. Good product, trusts them, delivers on their promise, efficient so don’t mind long line. The order is perfect. Reliable/consistency. Fixes a problem without issues and don’t make you feel bad for asking.
• Nordstrom: Took care of her. Needed to buy clothes for dinner in an hour and half, and they went nuts and took care of her (dresses, shoes, hosiery), all queued up for her when she went from department to department. Fixed a shoe order that didn’t arrive by over-nighting them.
• Amazon: Shopping since they opened. Take all the stress out of her life. Shops for her out of state family members. Have never messed anything up. Make helpful suggestions.
• Chevron: My dad used it and carried a card in his wallet for year, so I do too. So tradition, relationship built from childhood, trust/comfort.

We had some discussion around the difference between being a “captive” as opposed to a “loyal.” For example, one member executive talked about his dislike of the Bank of America Brand, yet he is not changing banks because it is “just too difficult to leave.”

Favorite Questions:• When your product is a commodity, does loyalty play a role? Or is it only price?
• For B2B, are there any ideas for measuring loyalty beyond customer satisfaction surveys?
• How do you motivate an organization to invest in a loyalty program when they’re in an industry that doesn’t have to worry about churn because there’s a high cost to switch?
• If you sell through distributors, how do you measure loyalty or develop loyalty programs for the end customer?
• How do you build an organized loyalty program out of word of mouth referrals?
• What can you put into place when your sales cycle is not closed-loop?
• Hesitated to do a survey, have good retention, other ideas for measuring loyalty for a service provider. Wants to find ways to dig a little deeper. Why do clients stay with them?
• How do you embed your services in such a way that it makes it difficult for a customer to leave?
• What opportunities might there be to work together with other brands in the “family/parent” group with their own loyalty programs? How to find synergies?
• Problem resolution is a huge opportunity, if you can nail it. How do you work with operations/support services to close any gaps in service level?
• How do you measure loyalty by segment because it can mean different things to different people: trust, product quality, service experience, etc.
• What are some loyalty ideas that used to work but don’t anymore, or that you tried and they flopped?
• How do you create consistency in your experience when you’re spread among regional sales teams in different parts of the country?

Favorite Suggestion:• Get people to say out loud that they recommend you. People love being asked for their opinion. Once their loyalty has been publicly declared they become more compelled to tell other people.

Favorite Resource Recommendation:Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. One of his experiments had to do with self-reinforcing behaviors. If you can get them to say it, they commit to it. People like to be asked for their opinion, and if you tell a friend to buy a Volvo, then you’re committed to buying a Volvo too. Those who are surveyed will actually buy more.

We had a lot of great discussion around Measurement and Loyalty Programs. What works and what doesn’t?When all was said and done, the over-riding theme we all took away from this roundtable was one of “trust, consistency, reliable service.”

Last week the focus of my HR Executive Forum roundtable was inward on ourselves, something we do too rarely …seems we still feel guilty and consider it a luxury to care for ourselves. We had great disucssions around a number of different topics ranging from how we keep current in our profession, what we think is on the horizon for HR and what our job utopias look like. Interestingly, and perhaps sadly, only a handful of us had actual Personal Development Plans, but on the other hand more than half of our participants actually feel they are in – or close to – their own personal utopia in current positions. Job utopia, what does that mean for HR executives? Here are some of thte things this gorup of executives came up with:

• I am cared for as a human being. People want to be here.
• There is respect throughout the organization. I am respected.
• I am challenged
• I am working across businesses – up, down and out.
• My opinion is sought out
• I can make a difference in the lives of employees
• I have a budget allowing me to respond to needs and be proactive
• The environment is not corrupt
• Everybody is treated fairly
• We get to be creative.

My favorite quotes from this session:
• You can love a company, but It cannot love you back.
• Are you outgrowing your company or is it outgrowing you?
• It is all about making choices. Fire employees with love.
• Do you want to grow up or grow out in your organization?
• How do you stop selling so hard and start asking powerful questions?
• In order to be successful as an HR executive you have to be curious about the business.
• Judge Judy gets to speak to people the way I wish I could. Plus, she makes a lot more money than I do.
• We are stuck in a mode of “business as usual” while reality is that innovators are the ones succeeding in .
• HR needs to be the department of yes, not the department of no.

This last point resonated with me. How many of you have worked in HR departments’ where what you do seems to be governed by a belief that it is your job to be the department of “no” and you are in essence placed in a “policing” role? Reminds me of a video clip someone sent to me a while ago (thank you Ashley….that one was good). Here is the link: NoNoNo

This morning as I was putting away the file from my recent Marketing Executive Roundtable on “the Role of Marketing in Product Development” I found myself browsing some rough notes and remembering how interesting the discussion was . A range of topics was discussed. Below I have highlighted some things that resonated with me:

Core questions we need to ask ourselves:

1. Does the end user want it? Are we solving a need?
2. Can we make/provide?
3. Can we make money from it?
4. Will the distribution channel drive it?

Where do we get good ideas for products?

• Marketing should be the conduit for ideas coming from the inside or outside. Marketing can play a key role in setting up a structure and framework for idea generation.
• You can get ideas from customers and prospects, partners, sales staff, analyst/research community, futurists. The real challenge is to come up with a way to prioritize and rank. The hidden gems are actually your employees – tap into them at all levels.
• Some of the great ideas we have seen, the solution has been there all along, but noone thought about the problem. For example, brake lights on cars are more visible when placed higher up. The solution was there all along yet this problem was not solved until many years into automobile production.
• You have to develop a culture that is not silo’d. You have to get employees out of their cubicles and interacting with customers (at Google employees are required to spend some time focusing on stuff not work related).

Why do new products fail? Here are some of the things our group of executives touched on:

• Sales channels do not exist
• The timing of the launch is off
• It is not a prioritized and focused initiative
• A problem is not solved
• The business model is not practical
• Not all the right questions are asked (for example: would you buy this product again, would you refer it to someone else, would you give up what you are using now for this product?)
• You don’t have the refining process built into the development – qualitative, judgment, reading between the lines
• The pricing structure is not right.

Favorite quotes

“You have to start by asking – will the idea solve a problem? If it does, is someone willing to pay for it?”
“Don’t send your developers out alone. You may end up with a lot of cool features that do not meet a business need.”
“You can depict product development in a lot of different ways: arrows, circles, funnels and so forth. Ultimately they all do the same thing.”
“You may have the right product but that won’t do you much good if you don’t have the right channels to get there.”
“This particular product would not have seen the light of day if marketing had been in charge.”

Favorite story

You have to be careful when you bring products to international markets. For example, Nutrasweet didn’t pay attention to the fact that in iAsian markets sugar is believed to be good for you. Interestingly, Nutrasweet ended up successfully going into the Asian market anyway, not as envisioned, but as an ingredient in a soft drink.

Last week I met with a group of HR executives to discuss issues around organizational design in their respective companies. It was an interesting session and, as you might have guessed, we came out of it with a clear sense that there are no “one size fits all” solutions out there. How we structure ourselves is governed by a variety of drivers ranging from alignment with business objectives, the industry, history, ownership, maturity, growth strategy, the economy of specific markets, budget and revenue constraints, leadership characteristics and more. The most important thing is to keep questioning structure at the leadership level. Is it still working? Is it right? What’s changing?

Here are some of my favorite quotes and suggestions from this session:
• “We are truly a global business. We don’t drop things from a Helo and tell people to implement. ‘People would ‘walk’”
• “We don’t have this stuff around structure figured out yet. It is evolving. The answer for you really depends on where your company is at and what you are trying to achieve at a particular point in time.”
• “Our org model is how we win and how we differentiate ourselves from our competitors. Our focus is on local depth and global breadth.”
• “Have your leadership read “The Starfish and the Spider” to anchor their discussion around structure and org design. When you cut tentacles off the starfish they grow back but the starfish model is complex. Once you have chopped the head off the spider it is DEAD. What’s appropriate for your company? Here are some of the questions you can address to your leadership team:

1) Are we a starfish, a spider or something in between?
2) What are we doing to maximize the value from our structure?
3) What type of structure do our competitors have?
4) What organizational structure should we have to compete most effectively?

Here is a link if you want some more info on this model:
http://ugnchicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Starfish-and-Spider-Ori-Brafman-Summary.pdf

• “One of the ways we moved our global HR organization forward was by engaging everybody in a benchmarking project to establish Best HR Practices for our company. Each region was asked to rate themselves against benchmarks in all aspects of HR. Yes, some recalibration was required, but ultimately this process allowed everybody to see where their own strengths and weaknesses were as well as those of others. By building the whole project around “what can we learn from each other” people started seeking others out across regions and across the globe to access best practices.”
• “Managing HR in a decentralized model can be very challenging. The onus on corporate HR becomes one of using influentials skills. It requires real relationship building to get people talking and sharing across the world. I have to be collaborative, not directive and help them see the value of sharing?”

This group engaged in interesting discussions on a number of different topics as well. For example,
• How do we best integrate HR when we operate in many different countries where the cultures and values are significantly different?
• To what degree does your talent drive your structure?
• Is your structure leading to culture or vice versa? Or both?

Recently marketing executive roundtable met to discuss social media and social engagement. The one most interesting shift we all noticed immediately from the discussion we had two years ago is that one of our top questions is no longer “how do we get started” but more along the lines of “how do we dig deeper and come up with a fit for our company.” I definitely sensed a lot less push-back and less discussion around how to control social media this time around. The focus was much more on how do we keep up, jump a bit deeper, and customize solutions that work for our organization, culture, industry and circumstances? We are still also tackling issues around value and measurement, just like KPIs (key performance indicators) and ROI were key topics of discussion two years ago. It is not a surprise we are dealing with this question in light of the phenomenal numbers we are dealing with. Face book is in essence the third largest company on the planet with 600 million users.

Here are some other questions that surfaced, ranging from high level strategic to tactics:

• How can social media drive relationships with senior executives?
• How do you convince your CEO that Twitter is worthwhile when the topics that are tweeted the most are people engaging in fun and entertainment?
• What are the best practices for reviewing “official” posts? How do we generate content efficiently?
• How much should you be spending?
• How do you take a more targeted approach to identifying and prioritizing user groups?
• How effective is a Facebook page for B2B vs. “subscribed” electronic newsletters and/or white papers?
• How do you reach out to your prospects, key partners and strategic accounts, and at what stage in the process?
• How do you get internal staff to really engage – not just inside the marketing function?
• What kind of businesses lend themselves to content naturally? For what kinds of businesses is it more difficult to build a case for social media? Is there actually a community around what your company does? If so, it’s easier to justify/see value in social media. Without it, we are dealing with a much harder proposition. Communities cannot be forced, they are grown, not “built,” and must center around natural and common interests. And, if you happen to be in an industry where you have a natural community, don’t forget that the whole idea is to market to that community and monetize, or there is really no point in building the community.
• How do we more effectively integrate social media into customer service (inbound), particularly in dealing with complaints?
• From a broader perspective, how do we successfully integrate social media into digital marketing strategies and SEO?
• What is the value of social media in industries where regulations prohibit certain communication within the open forum that is social media?
• What are the social network trends? Aren’t we seeing more vertical networks developing along affiliations, like for graphic designers? Will we continue to see more tools that are about building evangelists such as Foursquare and Google Places?

Here are some of the social media applications the group discussed outside of the BIG FOUR: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube:

• Foursquare, GoWalla (check into locations)
• Quora (more like Q&A for tech industry – good quality answers voted on my users)
• Digg, Deliciio.us (social networks for bookmarks – liking pages = tremendous traffic for visitors to your site and SEO results)
• Bebo (like Facebook, an aggregator)
• Xing (Linkedin for Germany)
• Myspace

It is still a bit of a “wild west” out there! Some other tools roundtable members shared positive things about were Swix and Netvibes. Swix is a simple way to track KPIs. It has a small monthly charge and tracks your followers and engagement across social networks. This tool in essence aggregates your followers and level of engagement over time. It measures RSS subscribers on blogs, how many people like your Facebook page, new visitors, etc.

So, where are marketing executive at on the hype cycle of social media? The peak of inflated expectations? Are we in the trough of disillusionment? Have we climbed out of the slope of enlightenment? The answers from this group of executives varied, but the majority does not appear to have reached the plateau of productivity – at least not yet! On the other hand, while two years ago, few had any resources dedicated to social media. We’re now taking it seriously and professionally with money, staffing and time dedicated to it. Here are some of the results from an informal survey we did of ourselves:

• Budgets are trending up with the average budget around 5%.
• Only about half of us have an official policy on social media.
• Almost 70% of us say that social media is a valuable source of leads/customers.
• Around 70% of us use Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. From an SEO value, we believe that Linkedin is the best network.
• Customer acquisition is mixed, with most of us not sure what the customer impact really is on most of the social media sites. You likely need to send out trackable offers to acquire new customers, like a contest or coupon.
• 55% of us use blogs. The more you update it, the better the traffic is, by a factor of 5-10. Update 2-3 times a week. Doesn’t have to be long…200 to 300 words. Keep it authentic!
• A blog is one of the top ways to improve SEO results.
• You must keep refreshing your website to support SEO results.

Is our group reflective of how other marketing executives perceive the changing social media landscape? Do you have answers to any of the questions we raised? Chime in!

In my years as an HR executive (before I started my own practice in the mid-90s) it seemed to me that performance management trends tended to swing back and forth on a pendulum – coupling and de-coupling pay with performance, focus on results and goals vs focus on behaviors and competencies, purely developmental models and so forth. Last week I met with a group of about twenty HR executives in my HR Executive Forum group to discuss what the changing landscape looks like right now. The themes I heard in our discussion were not necessarily what I expected. While competency based performance management was all the rage in the 90’s, it appears companies are all over the map right now. Some are coupling pay with performance, some are de-coupling and taking a pure developmental approach. Some are focused on only goals and results, others on competencies. Yet others are multi-dimensional. For those coupling performance with pay, the emphasis is more on the bonus element of compensation and less on base pay and merit pay. The ONE THEME I came away with is that companies are increasingly customizing how performance management is integrated (perhaps facilitated by the emergence of newer and better online tools). The type of industry, the type of culture, linkage to key market drivers, demographics of work force (for example Gen Y vs baby-boomers) are more importantly shaping what type of approach a company is taking.

Perhaps the advent of books such as Samuel Culbert’s “Get Rid of Performance Review!” has resulted in a more critical analysis of how well performance management systems work and forcing questions such as: Are we doing performance management just because that is what we have always done (institutionalization)? The executives in this meeting generally agreed that performance management in the past has often not worked well, but we continue to need some way of documenting personnel decisions. We all agreed that the focus should be on performanace management as an ongoing process, with continuous feedback, but in reality this objective is not met as we typically do a poor job of holding managers who are ill prepared to give feedback accountable. And, attempts to go to the “blank page” approach have backfired, with recent examples of employees becoming more dissatisfied with that approach than when they were actually receiving annual reviews – “a sense of having no idea of where they are at.”

Interesting ideas were floated. What if we only do performance reviews with managers and focus on holding them accountable for providing continuous feedback as a key accountability criteria. This would require that we also make the investment in providing necessary resources for success –training, coaching and more? Another idea which resonated strongly had to do with making the whole process owned jointly by employees and managers – with several companies having successfully shifted in this direction.

In the end, the group agreed that the success of a performance management system goes back to being very clear about what you are trying to accomplish with it during the design. Companies need to ask critical questions and continue to customize and break out of the institutional box they have lived in for so long. We need to become more creative! One HR executive gave a thought-provoking example of how they are using their performance management system to reinforce her organization’s express goal of having the process be about transparency and creating employee involvement/engagement. A critical element of their model (in addition to both goal and competency based dimensions) is the idea of “differentiators,” what sets an employee apart from others, what is his/her “personal brand.”

I’d be interested in hearing from other HR executives if some of the thinking we had in our roundtable session resonates? Are we becoming more customized in our approach? Do you see any other clear trends?

What’s Happening in the Market? We are seeing a definite shift in how people consume. People are spending less time reading, listening to the radio or watching TV/video. Mobile is engaging and helps us find consumers in a more personal way. People are accessing weather reports, ESPN, news sources and lots more via mobile:
• 29% search info in the bathroom
• 21% during dinner
• 11% during business meetings
• 5% in bed

The mobile market is growing at an exponential rate and has huge potential in the US. While it took radio 38 years to reach 50mm consumers it has taken mobile 2.5 years. Right now we only have 19% smart phone penetration while total mobile phone penetration is 94%. Smart phones are only 1 in 4 phones today, but there is a huge number of consumers who want one! Mobile makes sense for marketers because consumers have it on them all the time. It is personal and immediate and can connect existing media campaigns to the consumer by exploiting opportunities that don’t exist with traditional advertising (right now mobile advertising is only 2% of ad market in the US but it is growing 60% annually). Mobile is really enhancing the classic marketing model (moving from attention to interest to action) by adding “search” (Google, quick response codes etc) and “share” (mobile SMS and mobile e-mail on social level) to the steps marketers can take to take consumers through the process. Ultimately this is all about convergence: how we will be able to draw content and become educated consumers leveraging mobile and how marketers are able to tap into this by drawing us in and engaging with us. The companies that are most successful moving into “mobile marketing” are the ones that leverage the ability to engage and be interactive.

What are we interested in right now? How do you get started and develop a meaningful strategy? How do we get into the game if we are a small company with a limited budget – trying it on a smaller scale? What’s possible based on what we have seen in Europe and Japan? What are the resources we can turn to?

What are some interesting campaign examples?• Sony music is encouraging people to download movies…”JuJu Pair Movie” where one person downloads half the movie and another downloads the second half so you watch it together – engagement!
• AXE “Chocoman Hunter” where you collect response codes…like a treasure hunt where you have to collect codes from your friends’ phones too. It’s more of a game, and not just an ad.

How intrusive will mobile be?
Are we going to be bombarded with text messages when we visit the mall? If you’re in a browsing experience, you may see a GPS-directed ad, but you’re not going to get a text message unless you’ve opted in. Companies are developing opt-in programs where folks can sign up for special offers. Or radio stations may run a contest sponsored by, for example, a mortgage company and that allows the mortgage company to gather prospects for SMS campaigns.

What will experience of the consumer look like?
Your receive a happy hour ad for the bar around the corner or get a message/offer from the restaurant down the block. You will scan a QR code on a billboard. Scan your phone (NFC = Near Field Commerce) to pay for your train ride (like the Japanese). Use your phone like a credit card or security badge you scan (there is an iPhone app that allows you to swipe a credit card on your phone for a merchant to process payments). Remember how we were able to donate to Haiti by texting a number – ended up on our phone bill? In Norway you can buy coke on a vending machine or pay for your McDonald’s burger by using your cell phone. Mobile flight check-in and boarding passes are becoming more common. TV Shopping – you can now buy from “As Seen on TV” on your phone with a code from the infomercial. Trade Shows & Events – - mobile provides opportunities for exhibitors to get the attention of attendees and to stand out before, during and after the event. We will likely give up our landlines, We may give up cable. We may get rid of radios and other personal electronics equipment. We may be able to give up our homebased internet. We may be able to get rid of our plastic credit/debit cards.

This is amazing and it is happening very fast. Don’t get left behind!!!!

When my marketing executive group met last week we all agreed that re-branding is like painting a wall. If we don’t prep the wall first we will without a doubt get into a heap of trouble downstream. In fact a key reason so many re-branding efforts fail is because too little attention is paid to setting objectives and developing and establishing measurable criteria for success/failure at the outset. A major challenge for marketing lies in gaining the necessary organizational understanding of what a re-branding effort involves. Often we get our start becuse someone suddenly makes a knee-jerk decision: “go do it!” If you have a CEO that thinks that he essence of re-branding is getting a new logo, you are in trouble. And, misconceptions about branding isn’t limited to individuals inside your company. What about the agency you hire that promptly develops five logos and asks you which one you like. On the other hand, there can be a huge benefit to having a third party participate in the process, as they can provide a more objective view of your brand.The process needs to start with answering s simple question: Why are you wanting to re-brand and what are you trying to say?

The catalysts for re-branding initiatives in our current or past companies varied quite a lot. For example:

a) A client survey showed us we are a “Mercedes” but look like a “Ford.” Some serious dial-up was needed!
b) We were acquired.
c) New product introductions demanded re-branding.
d) We wanted to leverage one of our strong brands to get into a new market.
e) Re-branding was the result of regulatory change.
f) Re-branding was the result of competitive developments.

Regardless of what the catalysts were, it was agreed that an effective re-branding strategy must include certain steps:

1) Research the Industry. Find out what the industry trends are and pay attention to what the life stage of your company is (early adaptation, fully engaged, or at the end of mature life).
2) Research the competition. Hone in on the vital few. Who are they? How are they positioning themselves? Develop a competitive map.Why are they winning? Where are your greatest opportunities?
3) Gain stakeholder insight. Listen to all key stakeholders whether they are customers/clients, employees, vendors, community/industry leaders. Use a variety of tools for listening. Find out what your differentiators are and how you can stand apart .
4) Develop a plan for roll-out. Figure out if you are aiming to do the rollout all at once or migrate over time. How will you track success/failure? How do you integrate the re-branding effort into the fabric of your company?

Ask these questions:
1. What are the differentiators?
2. What’s changing in your industry?
3. What makes you superior? What’s most important?
4. What is your competitor’s greatest weakness?
5. What are you not getting? What are the unmet needs? And, do you want to be the first to meet those needs?
6. What do you see leaders in the future doing? What brand position best anticipates this future?

We all concluded that going back to the basic in re-branding is essential. It doesn”t have to be boring. There are some steps you absolutely cannot cheat on, or you WILL run into trouble during roll-out.