We've Been Here Before

Raise your hand if you are devastated by last night's announcement from our favorite reality TV couple.

Now, raise your hand if you are surprised.

Really, you should be neither. Because this has all happened before. I kind of think that if you allow your life and your marriage to be run by a TV network and devoured by the ever-hungry American public, you are setting yourself up for failure. Celebrity does not treat a person kindly, and unfortunately people seem to need to learn this the hard way.

I think it's truly tragic that Jon & Kate's marriage has become a casualty of the reality TV craze -- not to mention the dollar signs they probably saw when they signed the contract. I do...nobody deserves this. But I hope somebody is telling them "I told you so."

Awesome article from the AP outlining other reality TV marriages that failed, to put it all in perspective (apologies for the pesky ads):

Reality romance cursed? Check out the track record

Happy Father's Day!

I have a quiet house right now. Shawn and Price are sleeping, it's overcast and looking like rain outside...so I'm sitting on the couch watching old movies and ignoring the mess of toys on the floor. This happens so rarely that I almost don't know what to do with myself!

They say it's Father's Day...but right now it kinda feels like Mother's Day! :)

Now - A Door In Every Room!

I pose this question to you, dear reader: why on earth would someone want to stay in a hotel that bills itself as "the worst hotel in the world"?

Well, if you're me -- and many 20-somethings backpacking through Amsterdam -- the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel is so honest about its seediness that it simply must be experienced. The genius here is that the hotel lowers its customers' expectations so dramatically that they aren't disappointed when they stay in a room with pictures of chairs on the walls - but no actual chairs.

And their marketing campaign is so humorous and innovative. Utterly brilliant, folks. Don't you want to say you stayed in the worst hotel in the world? If you do, then the marketing has succeeded.

MarketingProfs B2B Forum Takeaways, Vol. 2

mROI (Marketing Return on Investment): The goal is to optimize marketing spend for the short and long term in support of brand strategy by building a market model using valid, objective marketing metrics and analytics.

It's too easy to lose sight of the customer. Customer centricity is the key component to drive your strategic advantage.
- How does your customer process information?
- How does your customer make purchasing decisions (likely emotionally)?
- What are your customer's brand preferences?
- Where does your customer prefer to buy?

You must track your marketing activities. If you don't, how will you ever see trends and be able to craft or tweak your Marketing strategy?

BOOST your campaign: Brand, Objective, Offer, Sell, Track

Brand: consistently apply to all marketing design (this one is a no-brainer).
Your brand is your reputation, not your logo.
Make your brand different.

Objective:What are you trying to achieve?
Kinda have to know this before you can make any progress. Develop a plan, pencil in your goals (they are dynamic), know the customer, and run the numbers (thru a gap analysis).

Offer: There are 256 known merchandising offers. Are you using them?
Herschel Gordon Lewis' 7 copy motivators: fear, guilt, flattery, exclusivity, greed, anger, and salvation. Use as many of these in your copy as possible.
An offer is the solution to your customer's primary pain point.

Sell I must have been tweeting during this segment; I have no notes to offer!

TrackThis is the only way you'll ever know if you've truly met your objective.

This is but a taste of the information I'll take back to the trenches! I think I can start making some immediate changes when I get back. I'm also more aware of what I don't know, and I can't wait to start asking questions! This conference was exactly the kick in the arse my career needed.

MarketingProfs B2B Forum Takeaways, Vol. 1

One thing all good Marketers should do: compelling offers. Every speaker today tells me this is uber-important when getting in front of customers and prospects.

Behind social media, the buzzword of the day is integration. Both in the sense of marketing campaigns (incorporating multi-touch opportunities--print, web, social media, video), but also in the sense of Sales and Marketing aligning and working together. There is lots of opportunity in both arenas, and have the perfect project to start turning the tide: my 3rd quarter Consultant Campaign. Direct mail, e-mail, microsite/reg form, direct to our social network sites.

General lead gen and nurturing question: where does Marketing end and Sales begin?

I learned something new today: "Digital Body Language." Here you can use a prospect's online behavior (sites visited, e-mails opened, whitepapers downloaded, etc) to determine what would be relevant to them. Very cool!

Right now, Twitter's main capacity in B2B Marketing is as a listening tool. Check regularly to see what customers are saying and be proactive in protecting your brand. Hopefully somewhere down the road we can use it to talk to our customers.

That's all for now...check back later for an update!

Be Careful What You Wish For.

Ah, that term can be applied to so very many areas of life. More than once I've regretted not following that advice -- but that is a story best saved for a late Saturday night and a good bottle of riesling.

Have you been following the Jon & Kate Plus 8 saga? Man, I have. Their "scandalous behavior" and sensationalism around it has kept me riveted to USWeekly magazine. I mean, the show, which I've been watching since the beginning, is so wholesome. It portrays the lives of Jon and Kate Gosselin and their brood as so happy, so harmonious. Happy and doting parents, normal kids growing up in front of the camera. I understand now that the show is carefully scripted and sculpted to project that image. Behind the scenes, they're all regular folks with all the same problems you and I have...the only difference is that they're in the spotlight.

This Associated Press article really sums it all up nicely.

Seriously -- if you offer yourself up to the public, you can't expect that you will be treated differently.

It's refreshing to see something like this, because I have a tendency to take everything I see at face value. If Jon and Kate say life is groovy, and it appears to me that life is groovy, I accept that they're somehow better at life than I am. But then something like their infidelity scandal hits the press, and I'm shocked to learn that life isn't all that groovy in the Gosselin household. Wait, what? But the show...

Yeah. That's exactly it. The show, although they call it reality TV, doesn't necessarily depict reality. I often forget this.

Celebrity is a risk taken when signing a showbiz contract. And celebrity means you are watched, and you are judged -- and in order to maintain a positive image, you must behave. And you can't take anything you say or do back...once your adoring public makes a judgment, the damage is done. I personally think that would be a sucky way to live. Jon and Kate were fools if they thought they were somehow different. Their marriage may be the casualty in a war within the press, and that would be the ultimate tragedy -- especially with eight children.