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.

Presentation Blog Entries for Wednesday, June 13

The following are the presentation entries for wednesday:

• The Infomercial Triumphant
  
• Mad Money with Jim Cramer - Booya!
  
• Don’t give too much away
  
• Ethics in International Advertising
  
• Howard Stern and the Satellite Wars
  
• Fáilte Ireland: Promoting a “New” Ireland in the 21st Century
  

chpts 15 - 17

have been added to webCafe.

Sitemeter one last time

I have previously provided instructions on creating an account with sitemeter so you can track your blog traffic. This is very useful as it allows you to see who is linking to your blog (from the referrer stats) and writing entries that link to your entries (assuming the author then clicks on the permalink he / she creates to your entry).

Since this type of entry (referencing a classmate's entry) is a required post for the course it reminded me that sitemeter makes sense so you can see quickly who is referencing your work. Not required, and I promise, the last reminder re: sitemeter.

Presentation Blog Entries for Monday, June 13

The following are the presentatioons for monday, June 13:

• The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid
  
• Marketing Logistics
  
• Supply Chain Management in DELL
  
• SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
  
• Channel diversifying in DVD rental market
  
• 
  

Additional Required Posts for Class

Just a gentle reminder of additional entries you are required to make on your blog, outside of those directly related to your topic area and your company project.

You are required to submit a minimum of two additional entries as indicated earlier, point 4:

Minimum of two posts referencing and commenting on posts from blogs and resources listed on this site to which you are subscribed (from the 'Marketing / Tech. Related Blogs' list preferred but not required). Your entries should also reference the appropriate concepts from the text (and cite the text page etc.) (Last day of class: Wednesday June 22)

These posts do not need to be related to your specific topic, nor your team company, but you are expected to relate the entry to the appropriate concept(s) from the text etc.

I also wanted to highlight one of the extra credit opportunities, as it also requires posting to your blog:

Extra credit 1: an extra 2% will be added to your grade for posts you create on your blog that reference other classmates posts and expand on these posts. These posts would include the ‘permalink’ of the post to which you are referencing. To receive full credit your post must be published within one week of the post to which you are referencing.

Note, much like your topic expert entries and team company entries, please label these entries appropriately so it will be easy for me to distinguish the 'purpose' of each of your entries.

Team Project Entries

Individual Topic Post
As noted earlier, your initial team project post, as the topic expert, is due by the end of day, wednesday, June 15. This post, approximately 300 words (very approximate), should cover the strategy for the company / product with respect to your individual topic. Each team member is expected to cover the same product if you have selected a product rather than the company as a whole (i.e. for Toyota, the Prius). Your entry should include relevant links to additional resources that support your analysis etc.

Team Post
Your team is responsible for one additional entry, published by the end of day, wednesday June 22. This entry should be on one team member's site (and other team members would create an entry that points to this entry). This entry should explore the overall marketing strategy for the same company / product. It should draw from the individual entries posted a week earlier, without simply repeating the content.

Some company teams have experts from the 4 Ps, global / market segmentation, and societal marketing. If that is the case, then all these issues should clearly be covered. A few teams do not have all these experts represented, this would somewhat limit the scope of the expectation of coverage on my part (however, as part of the current set of 'experts' you may well have coverage on some of the 'gaps' since each topic is not mutually exclusive to other topics). Each team should also include a competitive analysis as part of their coverage, which likely already falls within the product positioning aspect of the analysis etc. The team post should also be about 300 words (again, this is quite approximate) and should link to each of the expert posts from the previous week.

I hope this makes sense, please use the comments section if this is not the case.

quick reminder: first 'team' entry

your expert topic area post for your team is due, by the end of day, wednesday, june 15 (which is one week from today).

I will post more about the final team post over the course of the next couple of days, and will also make some time available, in class on monday, for you to meet as a team.

chpts 13 and 14

have been added to webCafe.

updated example questions

on webCafe with answers. cheers, alex

mid term help ?

and some help from a classmate who has created a study guide. I have not read it, and thus cannot endorse it, but am certainly happy to link to it for anyone who may be interested.

A few example questions

I have added a few example questions for the mid term to webCafe.

Bloglines Subscriptions

Having processed some of the feedback from the survey I gave in class it struck me that some of you were not yet using your bloglines account effectively for the course. My hope (and intent) is that by subscribing to your classmates' blogs (esp. your team members and fellow topic experts) and one or two additional marketing-related resources (from the lists on the site here on the left) you will easily be able to keep up to date with the current conversations related to your topics, teams and marketing issues in general. This seems much more efficient than:

1. trying to check each blog individually from time-to-time to see if they have new information for you to read / digest / comment
   
2. trying to determine, once you have accessed a blog, whether you have already read the most recent content
   

Anyway, this is a gentle reminder, for those not yet fully subscribed to the class blogs and outside resources, that it is not too late to start to get used to this means of processing your news content on the internet and managing the class conversations.

Below are a few examples of well organized bloglines subscriptions from the class:

• Annamarie Horan
  
• Alex Husted
  
• Curt Fitchett
  
• David Gong
  
• Xinkai Kong
  
• Rajiv Shah
  

If anyone is willing to share their (positive) experience with their use of bloglines, please do so in the comments section.

Addendum: Internet Economics

As an addendum to our coverage on pricing (monday) we will also review some of the unique characteristics of Internet Economics.

Presentation Blog Entries for Monday, June 6

The following are the blog entries for the presentations for monday:

• David Gong: dynamic pricing
  
• Jenny Castellano: Battle for the King of Beers
  
• Rachel Barrett: Online Shoppers Not as Sophisticated as Believed
  
• Curt Fitchett: Making the Connexion
  
• Emil Carvalho: Pricing strategies the easyWay
  
• Lina Gomez: Choosing the Wrong Pricing Strategy Can Be a Costly Mistake
  

more on branding

I mentioned in class I would identify some additional web resources that focus on branding. The following article from Businessweek Aug 2004 (Cult Brands) highlights how loyalty to brands manifests when consumers now have more of a voice (nice intro. about Apple Computer and issues with the IPod battery life). The more intimate the relationship the company can build with its customers, the more likely they can identify and nurture those customers that are passionate about their brand. (Good to see Harley Davidson making strides in this survey also).

Forbes 2004 list of brands has no real surprises (What's In A Name?). It is extraordinary to note the values assigned to the brand equity of these leaders, which puts more emphasis on the importance of the brand for sure. A couple of the team companies are listed: P&G #1: $107.4 billion and Coca Cola #13 (behind Pepsi): $45.6 billion. Again Harley Davidson is listed ($15.7 billion).

catching up with class insights

some more nuggets from the class. Junko reports on some poor international advertising efforts while also providing us some direct insights into the successes of Nike in China.

Continuing the Nike theme, Tammy discusses Nike's decision to withdraw from the Sears' Stores, concerned with the potential impact on their brand equity as a result of Kmart's acquisition of Sears. Tammy also highlights the Labels for Education program of Campbell's Soup. Seeing for profit companies providing resources for schools has sometimes been seen as controversial, but this seems a win-win.

Xinkai poses a few questions about P&G's more creative marketing ideas and Winita begins her blogging 'experiment' by highlighting a new course offering at Wharton on 'Customer-Centricity' (sounds like a critical principle for successful business).

Keep blogging, keep subscribed via Bloglines!

labeling your 'project' posts

i am beginning to realize it may become increasingly difficult to correctly identify your posts that are directly related to your project work. Could you please label these posts by adding to the Title field something like:

Promotion Presentation Post: Then the regular title (replacing promotion w/ your topic)
Promotion Topic Post: Then the regular title (replacing promotion with your topic)

You can similarly label your team topic post:

Amazon and Promotion: Then the regular title etc.

in the spirit of transparency ...

here are the results of the survey you completed in class last night (THANKS)!

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: 2.04

2. I think the blog improves my opportunity to learn the class material
mean score: 2.92

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

4. I have found getting familiar with using bloglines suprisingly straightforward.
mean score: 2.26

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: 2.11

6. This class, thus far, has met my expectations in terms of what I am learning
mean score: 2.21

7. I would consider myself very comfortable with using new technology
mean score: 2.39

certainly need to digest the results to see what they really mean, but truly appreciate the feedback as it may well help 'tweak' planning going forward.

webCafe updated for Chpts. 11 - 12

The slides for next monday's class are now uploaded to webCafe.