in the spirit of transparency: part 2

here are the results of the second survey you completed in class, along with the earlier results from the wednesday June 1 survey and my quick comments. Feel free to add your thoughts / comments to the 'comments' section.

all questions were on the following scale:

Totally Agree (1) Totally Disagree (6)

1. I have found getting familiar with developing my blog surprisingly straightforward
mean score:
June 1: 2.04
June 22: 2.125
Shift: .085

My brief Interpretation:
Little change here. Once people get over the learning curve, setting the blog up is OK. Wrestling with HTML is tough for a few people. Its important to have good, clear, step-by-step instructions.

2. I think the blog (and project)improves my opportunity to learn the class material
mean score:
June 1: 2.92
June 22: 2.375
Shift: .545

My brief Interpretation:
A nice improvement here. Probably attributed to the greater use of the blog and completion of the project.

3. I have found getting familiar with using bloglines to keep uptodate with my classmates' blogs and other resources useful
mean score:
June 1: 2.66
June 22: 1.75
Shift: .91

My brief interpretation:
It strikes me that once people started using bloglines they really began to see its value to manage content generated by the class (and outside resources). Also worth noting that later in the course the blogs were generating more content therefore this process will be more effective to keep up.

4. I have found getting familiar with using bloglines suprisingly straightforward.
mean score:
June 1: 2.26
June 22: 2.125
Shift: .135

My brief Interpretation:
Small shift, likely attributed to those who only began using bloglines later in the course.

5. I understand the value of the blog and bloglines relationship and its value to sharing insights with my classmates for this class
mean score:
June 1: 2.11
June 22: 1.8125
Shift: .2975

My brief Interpretation:
A decent and important improvement. It seems once people are familiar with both blogging and subscribing via a news reader then they can see the value of the shared content for the class etc.

6. This class (thus far) has met my expectations in terms of what I am learning
mean score:
June 1: 2.21
June 22: 2.31
Shift: .1

My brief Interpretation:
Small shift, in the wrong direction! Some comments suggest the design of the course needs to be further adjusted to the six week format and better integration is needed between the content exchanged via the blog project and the inclass materials / tests (note the second survey came directly after the final).

7. I would consider myself very comfortable with using new technology
mean score:
June 1: 2.3
June 22: 2.22
Shift -.17

My brief Interpretation:
The additional three weeks has made the class a notch more comfortable with technology!

Final Study Guide

thanks Brandon!

Team Posts for the Final Project

As the team posts are published, I will list them here.

• Amazon.com Offers "Earth's Biggest Selection"
  
• Procter & Gamble Group Team Post Final Project
  
• Toyota Prius Group Team Post
  
• Final Dell Group Post
  
• Wal-mart Summary
  
• Coca-Cola's marketing policy
  

book deal!

I have one copy of "Blink" provided to me by your classmate Rajiv (who recently received two copies). I will give this copy to someone tomorrow night after the final, if only I could figure out a fair means to determine who to give it to. Feel free to post to the comments section if you think there is a simple way to do this. Of course if you are interested in the book, you can post that in the comments too. (I referred to the book when discussing unintentional descrimination in the automobile industry 'sales system')

Example Questions for the Final

I posted a few example questions for the final.

Team Post Clarifications

A few things that I need to clarify for your final team post:

• approximately 300 words (please try to stick close to this) for the entire entry (not for each part of the entry)
  
• no need to reference the chapter / pages from the book etc.
  
• due date is end of day thursday (i.e. friday 4:30 am I should be able to find the posts on one of your team member's blogs with posts from the other members referencing this post)
  

Wiki World

I thought it was necessary to add some additional insight re: wikis as a follow up from last night. The editing we performed for the MBA section of the wikipedia is at Wiki: MBA. I will continue to edit this page as I think it makes sense to participate in turning this into a useful resource. If I put my clear admit 'hat' on it may make sense to sponsor a similar type of resource and open it up to the applicant community to contribute their experiences and insights. (The community clearly learns as it goes through the application process, the key is to capture that learning effectively so the community can help each other etc.)

Its important to note that there are many other types of wiki options (other than wikipedia). One I have been looking at is jotspot, which I found on Diva Marketing.

Wikis have many potential applications. They can be useful to allow a community to build a knowledge base (again, customers are talking to each other now, this can help capture that conversation); companies may also be interested in using wikis to manage customer service (internally customer service reps. can add to a wiki as new issues arise and how these are resolved; externally the company could then choose to make this available directly to customers). Note wikis can be open to the public to contribute (like the wikipedia above) or closed to certain authors (company employees etc.) Wikis can reside on the web or behind a corporate firewall.

Someone asked last night about their potential for abuse. For sure there is a risk, and in certain instances those risks manifest in abuse. I have linked a couple of articles about wikis on the bottom left column of the blog. Clearly the LA Times had a decent idea for a wiki application, but it seems this was a little before its time ?

Do you have any ideas for a decent wiki application ?

More on Cluetrain

As a follow up to our brief Cluetrain pitch in class on wednesday Raj blogs about Open Source Marketing. The manifesto is actually pretty interesting reading and marries the open source philosophy with transparency in marketing and all the new tools available to both customers (to engage in conversations) and marketers (to listen and learn etc.)

I think the combination of learning the traditional marketing rules and concepts (ala Kotler) and being exposed to the new tools available now on the internet (blogs / RSS / technorati / wikis etc.) should be solid preparation for the disruptive shifts that are occuring as a result of the internet. These shifts clearly impact how businesses can communicate with their customers, develop and nurture their brands etc. Its a very exciting time to be involved in the field of marketing.

Blog Presentations for Monday

Here they are:

• Enlightened Marketing?
  
• McDonald's going global
  
• Winners and Losers of a Marketing Shift
  
• Global Marketing - Chery Automobile Company
  
• The "Safer" Cigarette
  
• The Right Passage to India
  
• Consumerism and Environmentalism – Illustration on BP
  

Identifying your blog in other search engines

One of the options for extra credit was to identify your blog in a search engine. Some of you have e-mailed me this information (the search result URL). To make things a little easier (for me) could you instead post a blog entry that includes the search result URL (hyperlinking to the search result).

Make-Up for Test

As I noted on wednesday evening, a few of you may prefer to do a 'make-up' assignment to replace either your mid-term or final exam grade (you can only replace one). In order for this make-up option to work you must score at least 50% on the exam (i.e. you cannot decide not to sit the final exam, this wednesday).

The make-up assignment is to take your team company's marketing strategy (as reported by your final group work assignment) and compare the strategy with two other team company strategies. You should highlight the key differences and the rationale for those differences. You should cite the text where appropriate, and link to both the appropriate team company blog entries you are contrasting and other relevant resources. This assignment should be approximately 300 words. Clearly the assignment cannot begin until thursday (although preliminary research may be appropriate) and needs to be completed by mid-day on sunday (so i can get the grades in for monday).

Blog Requirement Checklist

The following should serve as a brief checklist of requirements as you begin to conclude (or begin) your (blog) work for this course.

Individual Blog Work

1. Intro post 1
   
2. Intro post 2
   
3. Topic post 1
   
4. Topic post 2
   
5. Topic post 3 (one of the 3 topic posts is also the presentation post)
   
6. Post 1 referencing and commenting on post from blogs listed on a site to which you are subscribed (from Marketing/Tech Related Blogs list) with permalinks to those blog entries.
   
7. Post 2 (same instructions as item 6 above)
   
8. Weekly blog post (minimum; can include the posts above)
   
9. 6 comments (minimum) on team members' or fellow topic members' blog postings.
   
10. Respond regularly on your blog to comments posted by others
    

Team Blog Work

1. Topic post for assigned company (done individually by the team topic expert)
   
   
   
   1. Should reflect company’s approach/strategy for your assigned topic
      
   2. Can include your recommendations for the company’s future focus for that topic
      
   
   
2. Company's overall marketing strategy with recommendations
   
   
   
   1. Should be posted to one team member's blog with permalinks to all other team members' blog postings relevant to their topics for that company (and other related resources that are relevant).
      
   2. All other team members should then do a brief post directing the reader to the central blog posting on the company via that blog entry's permalink.
      
   
   

Your blog (template) must also include links to your team members' blogs, your fellow topic experts and other resources to which you have referenced in your blog posts etc. (how to add content to your template).

Your bloglines account should include subscriptions to all the resources which you link to from your blog (i.e. your team members' blogs, your topic expert blogs and other tech / marketing resources (which have RSS feeds).

Original link for the project work.

First Group Posts

Amazon.com

• Barrett: Pricing
  
• Husted: Promotion
  
• Leinweber: Place
  
• Gowans: Product
  
• Shah: Segmentation / Global
  

Coca Cola

• Grachev: Product
  
• Castellano: Price
  
• Mac Moran: Place
  
• Ionescu: Promotion
  
• Sheharyar: Global
  
• Khanna: Society
  

Dell

• Hepp: Product
  
• Carvalho: Price
  
• Merhai: Place
  
• Jordan: Promotion
  
• Weinheimer: Global
  
• Lai: Society
  

Procter and Gamble

• Horan: Product
  
• Fitchett: Price
  
• Nalluri: Place
  
• Kong: Promotion
  
• White: Society
  
• 
  

Toyota (Prius)

• Huang: Product
  
• Gomez: Price
  
• Park: Place
  
• Krause: Promotion
  
• Wilson: Segmentation
  
• Flesser: Society
  

Wal Mart

• Husted: Product
  
• Gong: Pricing
  
• Lee: Place
  
• Lally: Promotion
  
• 
  
• 
  

Cluetrain and Martha Stewart

As discussed in last night's class, here is the web-site for the Cluetrain Manifesto.

We also wondered who else Sirius was bringing to their line-up. On my way home last night it was noted on my '80s' channel that Martha Stewart was joining them soon to launch her own channel! The article notes the numbers of subscribers:

For Sirius, the deal with Stewart is the most recent effort to ramp up its programming to compete with its much larger rival in the emerging satellite radio business, XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. Earlier this month, XM reported that it had 3.8 million subscribers, while Sirius' most recent subscriber count was 1.2 million.