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.

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 40^th 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.

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, glacéau, 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.

Content marketing: A win-win for customers and businesses

By Daniel Hindin

If a major tenet of integrated marketing communications is customer-centricity, a great way that marketers today are plying their trade is through content marketing.

Content marketing is all about sharing valuable information with potential and existing customers and clients. The information is usually shared for free, and many people take that knowledge and apply it to their lives or businesses without ever engaging in a transaction with the company offering the information.

What better way to form a bond with the public and put the customer first than giving away free, no-strings-attached information?

I’m spending my summer quarter away from Medill working at a communications agency in Chicago called Arment Dietrich, where I manage the globally respected blog Spin Sucks.

What I love about my work there is the unbelievable volume of positive interactions I have with our readers. A large portion of my job consists of procuring valuable content that I think our audience will enjoy and having fun with our readers in the comment section of our blog, through my personal Twitter account, on the company’s Facebook page and wherever else we might find each other.

As early as my first day on the job, I felt an outpouring of warmth from our community. And when I say “community,” I’m talking about both paying customers as well as readers who have never spent a dollar with our company and quite possibly never will.

It doesn’t bother us that most of our readers won’t become customers. We’re committed to providing what amounts to a free media channel focusing on marketing, social media and entrepreneurism for small- to medium-sized businesses. And that commitment will basically cost us the same amount whether 100 people are reading or 100,000 people are reading.

In July, more than 15,000 people visited Spin Sucks. If 14,900 of them never do business with us, we still end up with far more clients on our hands than an agency of our size could handle.

But beyond that, these 15,000 visitors are coming to our site because they want to be there. We’re not buying ads anywhere. We’re not bombarding them with mismatched messages as they go about their day. Our readers are self-selecting themselves as potential clients by simply being attracted by the information we’re providing.

So it’s a win-win situation. Our readers win because they benefit from our knowledge and experience from the comfort of their own home or office. We win because more people every day are learning about us and the services we provide.

By putting the customer first and not putting on the hard sell, through Spin Sucks and content marketing, Arment Dietrich is enjoying more success every day.

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Daniel Hindin is Managing Director of Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University’s Medill School. He also works as Community Manager of Arment Dietrich’s blog Spin Sucks and can be found tweeting at all hours of the day at www.twitter.com/danielhindin.

The heart and Seoul of mobile marketing

A sneak peek at our upcoming class trip to South Korea

By Megan O'Malley

Classic cartoons like “The Jetsons” had kids dreaming for decades about scooting around in space cars and having robot maids. Technology hasn’t evolved to that extreme yet, but South Korea is getting close—at least when it comes to mobile innovation.

South Korea is literally light years ahead of the United States in mobile technology. In fact, a number of Silicon Valley companies test their products in South Korea before launching them in the U.S. to get a glimpse of how they might work “in the future.”

As mobile marketing has become an essential part of brand strategy, the Medill IMC global trip group selected Seoul, South Korea, as a destination city this year, along with Shanghai and Tokyo.

This will be the first time that the IMC program visits Seoul. Students will get the chance to meet with IMC alumni at mobile tech giants such as Samsung and LG to see firsthand how Korea is guiding mobile’s future.

Students will witness mobile features that even the most app-abundant iPhone can’t do (sorry, Mr. Jobs). Just imagine having your phone function as a wallet, bus pass, student ID and just about anything else you have floating in your bag.

New mobile features include T-money, a prepaid smart card imbedded in Korean mobile SIM cards. Using T-money, a simple swipe of the phone will not only pay for your morning coffee but will also tell you how much human traffic you’ll face on the way to work. How’s that for a “smart” phone?

In less than a month, our IMC group will literally time warp to the mobile future. We’ll no doubt get a taste of mobile advancements, as well as some delicious dim sum. Oh, and we’ll be sure to say hi to Elroy and Astro for all you Jetsons fans back home.

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Megan O'Malley is a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University's Medill School. She can be reached at meganomalley2010@u.northwestern.edu.

Facebook introduces Groupon-esque application– but will consumers hit the ‘like’ button?

By Ashley Graves

When I moved to the Chicago area a little less than a year ago, one of my most useful finds was the website Groupon.com.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Groupon is a group discount website. It provides coupons on activities, restaurants and services—as long as enough people purchase the deal. Groupon enabled me to try new things in an unfamiliar city, with a cool discounted price.

Over the past year, couponing websites like Groupon have exploded. And for good reason — consumers still want to have fun experiences in the cities they live in despite a less-than-booming economy.

Last week, a new application for Facebook called Group Deals was introduced. Group Deals lets companies provide fans with a deal-a-day coupon for their products or services on their Facebook fan pages.

This new application (the first of what I bet will be many) has excellent potential for brands to provide concrete value for their Facebook fans and reinforce consumers’ liking or loyalty to a product or service.

As an added bonus, because friends frequently view a Facebook user’s activity, the ability for these deals to spread would greatly increase.

Word-of-mouth, the much sought after and hard to create integrated marketing tool, has huge potential here. Facebook’s public news feed will display purchase decisions made by a user to their close friends and family, people who care about their opinions and influence their decisions.

The only potential drawback is for items that someone might not want their Facebook friends to see they have purchased. Do you really want your mom to see that you’ve bought five bar coupons in a week? Or for that cute guy you met last weekend to know you’re planning to attend a six-week diet bootcamp?

By connecting the purchase of a deal directly to a Facebook application, brands will be better able to track the value of their Facebook fan page (an issue still hotly up for debate). The potential to calculate a rough return on investment from social media might have some doubters in the marketing world singing a different tune.

Will Group Deals on Facebook be a win-win for consumers and brands alike?

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Ashley Graves is the Editorial Director at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University’s Medill School. She is hoping that her favorite clothing retailers will decide to use Group Deals. She can be reached at AshleyGraves2010@u.northwestern.edu.

How honest is Chicago? Honest Tea uses marketing campaign to find out

By Susan Monahan

More than a decade ago, Honest Tea was a pioneer for organic bottled teas with no artificial sweeteners. It was a small player in a new category. Back then, it was easy to stay true to its self-proclaimed “quirky independent streak.”

Today, Honest Tea has plenty of competition. Its differentiators, organic ingredients, aren't so different anymore. And, it’s under pressure to appeal to a larger consumer base, as Coca-Cola recently acquired a stake in Honest Tea.

Last week, at locations like the Chicago Board of Trade, Honest Tea left unmanned carts of its drinks with signs requesting that people drop $1 into a jar in exchange for a bottle -- “on the honor code.” Chicago-area news media are buzzing about the results. Only 78% of the takers paid up.

NBC Chicago.com

This twist on sampling began in New York City last April, at the height of the political crackdown on financial corporations. Ad agency SS+K led the Honesty Store street campaign with signs reading, “Yes Mr. President, let’s bring Honest Tea to Wall Street.” In that city, 89% of passers-by paid for their bottles. Bloggers and the social media landscape generated countless more impressions from the debates it sparked. An integrated campaign was born from the ground up.

But, how are these one-off tests working as a customer acquisition strategy?

Where many sampling campaigns rely on sponsorship of sporting events or concerts that draw the product’s target consumers, Honest Tea worked alone to capitalize on a mass-culture opportunity. This allowed potential customers to first taste the tea while connecting with its unique brand DNA.

It’s more than word play. Moving beyond the common pure ingredients, Honest Tea’s message seems to be about trust. Drinkers may carry the bottle with a sense of integrity. (Especially if they actually paid for it!) This creates an experience more powerful than a TV ad or a testimonial.

The street effort may be sublime, but have Honest Tea in-store sales gone up?

“We’re still waiting on results,” said Alex Mailman at SS+K. “But safe to say that the Honest Store has stirred a real conversation around the country, about honest behavior and about each city's self image. And despite some disappointment in a couple of cities about not being first, customers appreciate the trust that Honest Tea has shown in them.”

What do you think about the impact of sampling events and the possibility of mass appeal?

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Susan Monahan is a blogger at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University's Medill School. She regrets that the Honesty Store never made it up to Northwestern. Susan can be reached at SusanMonahan2010@u.northwestern.edu

Gorillas and gazelles: GNC lacks muscle behind segmentation strategy

By Kevin Byrne

I’m not a bodybuilder. At 6’3” and 175 pounds, I’m more gazelle than gorilla. My workouts involve runs along Lake Michigan more often than bench presses at the gym. However, while in the midst of marathon training, I do rely on protein shakes and amino acid powders to help with endurance and recovery.

The trouble is that GNC (General Nutrition Centers) doesn’t seem to understand the difference between the muscle heads and me. They know I’m a customer but they don’t try to determine why. They don’t seem to know what to do with me.

The online experience with the brand is the worst. I receive daily emails touting the latest and greatest in the world of vitamins and supplements designed to inflate me to Incredible Hulk proportions. Meanwhile, the Yahoo Mail banner ads, in a feeble attempt to be targeted, show more of the same. Along with the online confusion, the retail stores offer little guidance as to where different types of customers might find their preferred products.

GNC has the information; that’s the frustrating part. They offer a loyalty card and track online and offline purchases. The data is there, they just need to use it. With a little analysis, distinct groups would most likely start to emerge: the organic, yoga-types with their homeopathic remedies, the dieters looking for the newest fads in weight-loss, and maybe even the lean, mean marathoners.

By defining better segments, GNC could target their consumers with more efficiency and grace. They may even choose to use overlay demographics or at least ask a few questions about users’ interests and goals. Current customers would feel more included and be better informed of products designed to help them achieve their objectives. As word of this new approach spreads, GNC’s image may evolve to be more inclusive of individuals who might currently feel out of place at this type of store.

It’s all about segments. You’ve got to separate the gazelles from the gorillas and market accordingly. All customers are not the same, so don’t treat them that way.

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Kevin Byrne is a graduate student in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University's Medill School. He enjoys his constant carbo-loading while he trains for his fourth marathon. He can reached at KevinByrne2010@u.northwestern.edu.

Mobile marketing developments enhance brand experience

By Johnny Schroepfer

Mobile and emerging technology have historically had more hype than actual adoption or implementation within marketing campaigns, but with the proliferation of mobile devices and digitization, the mobile channel is slowly becoming a necessity rather than a novelty. From an integrated marketing perspective, here’s a look at some developmental areas of mobile and their impact.

Traditional & Mobile Integration in Marketing

Mobile devices can be an extension of the brand experience which connects the end user with the brand messaging. Mobile is often an overlooked or undervalued channel of communication but in reality, it’s one of the most personal forms of communication in this digital world. When campaigns are successfully crafted and executed, the channel that connects the end user with the message has the power to change both brand perception and consumer behavior. With that said, we will continue to see more brands create mobile campaigns or initiatives that complement traditional marketing channels while allocating a significant amount of their advertising budget towards mobile and emerging technologies.

Advertising

The recent launch of the Apple iAd platform will only further prove this point that there will continue to be a major marketing shift. The iAd platform allows developers to create beautiful and rich advertising executions that are less disruptive and reach the consumer at the intersection of emotion and interactivity. In addition to this innovative approach, the developers will retain 60% of revenues, which have already shown signs of success.

Payment

Payment will be another key developing area in mobile. Allowing consumers to easily pay for various products and services on-the-go will benefit both parties. Apples iTunes payment system is a great example of quick, convenient one-click purchasing. Additional examples of up-and-coming payment models include Jack Dorsey's recent startup, Square, which allows consumers to pay and receive payments through their iPhone or iPad. While these payment models will continue to help the mobile space evolve, privacy concerns are still a very hot topic. The recent news of Apple iTunes accounts being hacked will require companies to provide a "reason to believe" and reassure consumers that their information is secure.

Location

I wrote a post on location-based services a few months ago for Vitamin IMC about the opportunity for small businesses to take advantage of understanding consumer insights and needs. Over the past few months there have been several developments and location-based services which have proven that they're more than a fad. Brands that take the time to understand and develop services based around GPS locations can provide personal messages and incentives to highly-segmented groups thus creating relevant content and messaging for consumers who are looking for it.

All of the above, when used strategically in an integrative marketing campaign, will help provide a flawless user experience for consumers. We will continue to see significant developments in mobile and more brands pursing its highly-targeted and relevant services as a complement to their traditional marketing efforts.

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Johnny Schroepfer is the strategy and content director at Vitamin IMC and is a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University's Medill School. He can be reached at johnnyschroepfer@u.northwestern.edu.

Dear Netflix: A love story

A humorous take on customer lifetime value from the perspective of an IMC student

Dear Netflix,

You need to move on. Seriously. Don’t you get it? We didn’t end in a bang or a whimper because there was nothing to end. We were never even together! And now you’re sending me letters again. Come on. Pull yourself together.

Our fling in the summer of 2008 was just that: A fling. It didn’t mean anything to me. I don’t want to be callous but you offered me a free trial, my friends said you were great, so I took you up on the offer. No obligations, no strings attached. I threw a few movies in my queue, you sent me the first DVD, and I devoured as many as possible over the course of the next 30 days. I have to admit, it was great. I can see why you’re ranked number one in customer satisfaction. But I wasn’t looking for anything long-term. I got my free trial and, to be honest, that’s all I wanted.

Now, you come groveling back with your “Try Netflix again for FREE today” letters every few months. Do you forget what happened last time? I watched unlimited DVDs for a month, used $16.99 worth of your services, and then I dumped you. Now you’re back for more? Are you hoping that I’m a changed man? Maybe I suddenly have more money that I can spend on a membership? Sorry Netflix, you’re out of luck; I’m even poorer than before. It’s called grad school.

I don’t understand why you want me so bad. Am I really worth the investment? If you got to know me, I don’t think you’d be willing to spend so much. Let’s look at this logically. You mailed the letter to me so you obviously know where I live. Did you take a look at my zip code? Did you even bother to ask PRIZM or Personix about me? I can’t imagine they spoke too highly of Uptown; we’re not exactly big spenders. And what about my queue? I left it empty. I didn’t send any mixed signals; it was a clean break. And did you happen to notice my partner already has a subscription? We’re covered with all the movies we need. But now you’re back after a couple of years apart. Netflix, the odds are stacked against us. The Markov chain is written on the wall. My probability of purchase? Zero. It’s not going to happen.

I know I’ve been harsh, but don’t give up; your loss leader approach is bound to work on someone. Even though you couldn’t retain me, there’s some other guy out there whose present value of future cash flows is worth your initial investment. Sure, I defected, but stick to your retention model, listen to behavioral cues and you’ll be fine.

It hurts me to say it, but my lifetime value is zero. You’ll be better off once you realize that. But, if you don’t mind, I’ll take you up on that second free trial. No hard feelings, right?

A poor investment as always,

Kevin

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Kevin Byrne is a graduate student in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University's Medill School. He loves free stuff but just can't commit. He can be reached at KevinByrne2010@u.northwestern.edu.