Confident your child is safe watching a friendly game of baseball, you leave the room. When you return, your eight-year-old son is ogling a half-naked model caressing a light beer.Even with parental controls for TV and the Web, provocative ads are still finding their ways into our children’s consciousness. You breathed a deep sigh of relief when Joe Camel retired. Nevertheless, your daughter wants to know if you take the little purple pill.
Every month, the Boston Marketing Club brings the Greater Boston marketing community together to discuss a hot topic in a relaxed and social atmosphere. Join us at this month’s Boston Marketing Club for a lively discussion about the lurid and insidious messages molding our children’s minds. After we introduce the topic, our Connectors will poll you for your opinions. We’ll discuss questions such as:Have ads become more shocking, or is our moral compass broken?
Should we increase federal regulation of advertising?
What are my responsibilities, as a parent and a marketer?Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2008Time: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Free appetizers, cash bar.
Contact Information:
American Marketing Association - Boston
411 Waverley Oaks Road
Suite 331 B
Waltham, MA 02452
Phone: 781-647-7555
E-mail: theoffice@amaboston.org Join our LinkedIn Group
As I’m working on a marketing plan for a client, it strikes me how these five words can strike fear and doubt into so many executives - “How do you define yourselves?”
It is a painfully simple question, but the answer is so important.
Many hours can be spent on this question.In workshops, when I ask this question, the initial answer client’s give is often the most honest.Someone in the room inevitably blurts out the answer, and I write it down.Then someone else inevitably adds that the first definition is too limiting, and provides a different definition.Often a much broader one.
To give an example, I once worked at a very large company where the executive in charge decided how to define our business.His definition was the equivalent of defining a bakery as a “flour, water and eggs mixed together and baked for 12 minutes” business.Much easier to say, “We are a bakery.” His answer created confusion.Customers wondered what we were talking about.
Why all of the confusion?Many people, and companies, want to appear to be more than they are.They get caught up in internal thinking, strategic thinking and politics.
For lack of a clear definition, companies broaden their definition to a higher level in an attempt to cast a larger net.As with my example, this only ensures that no one will have any idea what they are speaking about.
So is this a complex question?It does need to be.Customers are looking for a simple answer.They are tired of trying to sort out what companies actually do versus what their Web site says.Give them a break - give them the simple answer.Save the complexities for internal documents.
One obvious question lies in waiting - how do you define yourself, or your business?If you are using more than ten words to define yourself, then you should do some editing.Write back to me and tell me your definition.
A few days ago, I was contacted by an experienced sports marketing professional that is relocating to Boston. She told me that she was recently at the Mid-Atlantic Leadership Retreat being held in Baltimore. These retreats are an opportunity for several chapters within a region to come together to share ideas and best practices.
At the retreat, the conference leader promoted the AMABoston.org as the best chapter Website and referred to it as a model to be followed. There are 78 chapters internationally. The chapters in attendance were Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Richmond and Central Virginia.
Learning about the unofficial accolades through word-of-mouth was a great honor and although we still have a lot more we want to do with our Internet presence, my only hope is that our members are getting as much value from our site as possible. We really appreciate the efforts of everyone who continues to contribute to it’s success on a daily and weekly basis.
Even with such a complement from the international association, we are actually working right now on a redesign for the interface of our site. Aloft Group is the agency we selected for the redesign and we are looking forward to what’s next!
In related news, Boston will enjoy the honor of hosting the 2009 Northeastern Leadership Retreat next fall. Chapters are expected to attend from Providence, Hartford, Albany, Rochester, Montreal and Toronto. We will welcome them to our city and hope to show them a wicked good time!
On February 13th, Pedro Laboy, Senior Partner at Tocquigny, an Adweek Top-25 Interactive agency, and Author of Brand Nexus, gave a keynote presentation on what every marketer should know about Digital Marketing.
Pedro Laboy’s Presentation “Best Practices in Digital Marketing” is now available in the Resources section of the AMA Boston Website.
Check Out the Instant Replay
They made you cheer, sneer, or reach for the clicker: The 20 biggest ads of 2008! We’ll show them to you, and our pollsters, the CONNECTORs*, will ask you questions like:
Which one made you shush your friend?
Did the ad make the brand more sticky?
Or did it land the sponsor on your “no-call” list?
Your opinion matters! Let us know: creative genius… or colossal bust?
We’ve Found a Better Way to Network
Tired of the same old routine? Grab a nametag, shake some hands, drop a few business cards? Get ready for something completely different! Join us at the February Boston Marketing Club Networking Event!
Until then, here are some links we think you’ll enjoy:
We are now seeking great candidates for board of director positions. If you are a rock star in marketing (or want to be one), then click here to learn more.
Each year, the AMA nominating committee identifies and selects candidates with stature in the marketing profession and the ability to provide the volunteer leadership that is essential to the AMA. Nominations are carefully considered by the nominating committee, and a final slate is submitted for approval to the board of directors. If you would like to be considered as a nominee, raise your hand and let us know.
If you think getting involved is a good idea, but you want to start with something simple, then click here.
The International office of the American Marketing Association has redefined the word “marketing,” to reflect its broader role in society.
The new definition reads: “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”
The previous definition stated: “Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.”
Wikipedia defines the term this way: “Marketing is a societal process that is needed to discern consumers’ wants; focusing on a product/service to those wants, and to mould the consumers towards the products/services.”
Some very interesting differences between the definitions. The AMA revisits the definition for marketing every five years in a disciplined effort to reflect on the state of the marketing field. How would you define marketing?
Join us for an evening at Hult International Business School, in Cambridge, MA with Pedro Laboy, Senior Partner of Tocquigny who will speak with us about the “Best Practices in Digital Marketing.”
In today’s fragmenting media world, every organization needs a comprehensive business strategy that embraces digital marketing. For most marketers, however, it is difficult to keep up with the latest trends and best practices in digital marketing. This presentation will concisely cover latest trends and proven best practices in the following areas:
Interactive Media
Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization
E-mail and E-newsletter Marketing
Banner Advertising
Mobile Marketing
Website Usability
Landing Pages
Web 2.0
Special Offer:
Be sure to bring your business card for a special raffle of two 1-hour consulting sessions with Pedro. The next morning, Pedro will spend a FREE hour with each winner to discuss any specific topic or Digital Marketing concern you have for your business. Pedro will also give posters on “The Best Practices” to the first 20 members that register online for the event.
About Pedro Laboy: In addition to managing overall operations for Tocquigny, Pedro Laboy oversees the agency’s client services, analytics, media and digital marketing practices. Over his 20 year career he has held similar positions at companies such as Landor Associates/Y&R, G2/Grey Global Group, and ACA Technologies. Prior to entering the marketing field, Pedro worked as an economist and statistician for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pedro offers a wealth of marketing and metrics expertise. His experience and education allows him to straddle both the worlds of marketing and finance. He received an MA in International Economics from George Mason University as well as an MBA in finance from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees in Paris, France. He has published articles and presented at major marketing conferences on the topics of marketing strategy, marketing metrics, digital marketing and emerging media, value-based marketing, and branding. Pedro is a member of the Marketing Metrics Council, the American Marketing Association, the Zyman Institute of Brand Science, and the Association of Financial Professionals.
About Tocquigny:
As part agency and part measurement consultancy, Tocquigny helps blue chip companies increase the predictability of marketing success and minimize the risk of marketing investment. Tocquigny provides tools to collect and analyze the right information, the expertise to turn that data into insights, along with the processes and creativity to convert those insights into improved marketing performance. Tocquigny has a 27-year history and is listed as one of the nation’s Top B2B Agencies and Top 25 Interactive Agencies in the nation by B-to-B Magazine and ADWEEK, respectively.
Event Sponsor:
Event Schedule:
February 13th – Dinner meeting
Drinks and Appetizers – 6:00 to 7:00pm
Keynote Speaker – 7:00 to 8:00pm
Q&A 8:00 to 8:30pm
Last Saturday, the Boston Chapter of the American Marketing Association hosted an “all volunteer Mid-Year Retreat” at the Molecular office in Watertown, MA. After a brief board meeting, our day began with a team building iprov exercise lead by Andrew Aylesworth, Associate Professor of Marketing and Director MS in Marketing Analytics of Bentley College.
Dr. Aylesworth began the session by teaching us the 5 rules of improv and led us through a series of warm-up exercises, which I’m sure that if you were anywhere near the building, you would have probably heard us shouting. It was terrific for team building and quite a lot of fun.
After a lunch catered by Panera, the entire body of AMA Boston volunteers came together to review our progress and discuss our goals for the remainder of the fiscal year. The idea behind our annual Mid-Year Retreat is a check-in point designed to refresh the goals we set at the annual weekend Planning Retreat, which is held at the Inn at East Hill Farm, located at the foot of Mt. Monadnock in Troy, NH. Our planning session in NH is a weekend get away full of brainstorming, team building, mountain climbing and… karaoke.
As always, it was great to get together in the same room with dozens of energetic marketing professionals and to hear so many new ideas flowing up through our chapter !
We are already planning our annual weekend retreat in NH. If you have good ideas and would like to get involved in the AMA Boston marketing community, please contact the volunteer committee.
On behalf of the Board of Directors and all the volunteers of the Boston Chapter of the American Marketing Association, I would like to thank Molecular for providing the use of their office in Watertown for our Mid-Year Retreat. It was a terrific team building all-day event and we would like to express our gratitude for their generosity… a special thanks to Amy Quigley and Annette Goldberg for setting it up for us.
On February 13th, Pedro Laboy, Senior Partner at Tocquigny, an Adweek Top-25 Interactive agency, and Author of Brand Nexus, gave a keynote presentation on what every marketer should know about Digital Marketing.
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