Friday, October 29, 2010

Steve Jobs: The ultimate IMCer?

(A formal invitation for Steve Jobs to guest lecture at Medill IMC)

By Anne Mahoney

In a recent article featuring an interview with Jobs’ old boss at Apple, John Sculley, details about the mythical man had me reeling with pride. “He’s a total IMCer!” I thought as I read about Jobs’ focus on user experience before market share. It illuminated a vast difference between Apple and Japanese companies – and also IMC students and MBAs.

The article was especially timely as we had the opportunity last week to hear Jose Costa speak on the difference between IMC and MBA students. Costa is a Medill IMC grad and currently finishing up an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Among the more conspicuous degree comparisons, the one that had us students applauding was his slide featuring IMC as a Mac and MBA as a PC. Steve, did you hear that?

As IMC students, we are constantly urged to consider the question: “What business are you in?” Jobs was the only person, back in the 80s, to view the computer as a product for personal use. Guess he nailed that one.

We also learn that consumer data is extremely important, but the frustrating part about consumers is that they can rarely articulate exactly what it is they want or need. It is up to companies and mostly marketers to anticipate that need, and to create a product or messaging to satiate it. Jobs did exactly this, too, when he visualized the Macintosh, which was far outside the realm of what calculator users thought they needed.

The article highlights how the success of Apple is most definitely a result of Jobs’ emphasis on product design. Although Medill incorporates a rich and varied amount of elements crucial for integrated marketing into the program, Jobs also makes a great case for why design should be a topic more relevant at Medill. If we as marketers are able to influence the core of the user experience, what a person sees and feels, that will make us more successful in all other communication surrounding it.

So Steve, if you’re not too busy, feel free to stop by Evanston and teach us a thing or two about this design thing you’ve changed the world with. Lunch is on us.

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Anne Mahoney is the Social Media Director at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Integrated Marketing Communications graduate program at Northwestern University's Medill School. She can be reached at AnneMahoney2010@u.northwestern.edu.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The IMC link to entrepreneurship around the globe

By Susan Monahan

Every year, many students relocate from China to Evanston to attend the Medill IMC graduate program. They are in a unique position to apply their foundations in this emerging market culture to the IMC approach. One student has already shared this perspective with the world and received much-deserved notoriety.

Xiaojun Ni, IMC class of 2010, was honored at the 40th Annual St. Gallen Symposium in Switzerland this May. It is publicized as “the world’s leading platform for dialogue on key issues in management, the entrepreneurial environment and the interfaces between business, politics and civil society.” Xiaojun was recognized for a white paper she submitted for the event.

VIMC: Xiaojun, please tell us about the white paper that gained you access to the stage.

It’s titled “Free Entrepreneurship in China.” I cast my attention to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in China, who epitomize entrepreneurship and are the pillar of the Chinese economy. But their development is hindered by lack of capital, rigid regulation, an ambiguous legal system and cultural and social stereotypes. So I propose to facilitate the growth of SMEs through financial, political and managerial measures.

VIMC: What inspired you to write about entrepreneurship in China?

Entrepreneurship is vital to the Chinese economy. SMEs in China (most of which are in the private sector) compose 99% all the businesses. They contribute 60% of the GDP, absorb 75% of the suburban workforce and 90% of the migrant rural workers, and create 70% of the new jobs each year. It's like Chris Anderson's "Long Tail" theory: the vast sea of small beats the large. However, entrepreneurs face challenges in China, and I want to explore solutions to help them.

VIMC: Can you share with us some solutions you offer?

Yes! In short, I talked about introducing multiple and flexible financial channels, reforming policies and removing legal barriers, managing with innovation, shifting to high value-added industries, enhancing education and technology, and provoking a pro-entrepreneurship culture in society.

VIMC: What knowledge from your classes at IMC did you apply to your analysis?

When I made suggestions on "managing with innovation," I used examples of IMC in practice. One involved a Chinese girl, who posts make-up tutorial videos on Tudou.com (like China's YouTube). She became very popular. Gradually she discovered women had trouble choosing make-up brushes – they were either too expensive or low quality. So she found a manufacturer in Guangdong and launched her own brand of brushes. This is a typical "outside-in“ approach - discovering market opportunities and catering to unmet needs of consumers.

VIMC: You were honored at a reception with students of economics and business from around the globe. How did their marketing philosophies differ from the core principles of IMC?

Although the symposium focused on entrepreneurship, new companies, and brilliant ideas -- they revolve around a unifying theme: they are customer-focused and data-driven!

Christian von Koenigsegg, founder of Swedish car brand Koenigsegg, shared with me that he focuses on a niche market and only makes less than 20 cars a year. Each car is tailored to the customer's specific requirements.

Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce company (similar to Ebay), flourished with a sellers- to-buyers model, but took its business a step beyond by analyzing the Rakuten “super database:" segmenting users and cross-selling Rakuten e-banking, mobile, etc. It has the largest market share in Japan across all these sectors.

No matter the size or industry, companies are always finding a way to understand consumers first and then act, if it's a one-on-one relationship (that's easier) or mass market (that requires statistical and computing science).

VIMC: what are your plans for the future?

I’m open to going anywhere, and to positions other than (traditional) marketing, to gain broader business exposure. In the future, I might start my own business after being inspired by the forum.

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Susan Monahan is a blogger at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Integrated Marketing Communications graduate program at Northwestern University's Medill School. She can be reached at SusanMonahan2010@u.northwestern.edu.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Adventures in consumer insights: Decoding college undergrads

By Anne Mahoney

“Consumer insights” are easy to take for granted. They generally are subtle- sounding observations such as “men need to embrace a new definition of masculinity,” which Draftfcb did for Dockers. It may seem a trivial process on paper, yet unearthing and correctly predicting trends and behaviors takes finely tuned intuition and research. They make or break campaigns with big budgets at stake.

This summer, I received firsthand experience in the market research process through my residency program with iris worldwide, a marketing, advertising and experiential agency. My team, consisting of Katrina Greenwood, Susan Monahan, Megan O’Malley and myself, were tasked with understanding U.S. college students and developing a sustainable tool to track ongoing trends on campus. Our initial reaction, following the excitement: Gulp.

After meeting with our client sponsor in New York, we had ideas buzzing around our heads and seven weeks left to complete the project. The best advice we received was from Professor Michelle Weinberger, our consumer insights expert-in-residence, who said, “Don’t think – just start doing.” So we did.

In that time, we mapped out a four-stage process before it was time to “ship” the final product. We enlisted a bevy of research tactics, such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, ethnography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a survey taken by students at more than 60 U.S. colleges and universities. We combined that research with other published articles, weekly brainstorms and loads of ice cream from George’s, our unofficial headquarters.

The result was an identification of seven values that currently manifest themselves within college campuses paired with timeless tensions every college student encounters. The values, combined with technology, media usage and communications channels, can then be interpreted specific to consumer brands and transformed into marketing opportunities.

Our team had the opportunity to present to iris and its client, glacĂ©au, a Coca-Cola company that produces beverages such as Vitaminwater and smartwater. Brand managers even participated in a workshop where they put the values to work for their own brands, creating a number of potential campaigns in under an hour’s time.

Not only was it an incredibly rewarding experience, the residency project gave my team a real-world application of consumer insights and how they are critical to the IMC process. It’s now impossible to view a marketing message without also thinking, “What’s the insight there, and how’d they get it?”

Anne Mahoney is the Social Media Director at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Integrated Marketing Communications graduate program at Northwestern University’s Medill School. She received the “Most Questions Asked” award at youth summer camp, and is still unrelenting in asking “Why?” She can be reached at AnneMahoney2010@u.northwestern.edu.