Archive | October, 2011

Marketing Automation Software Vendor List

We updated the popular Marketing Automation Software Vendor List. The last two years have been a turbulent period with mergers, take-overs, booming start-ups and quiet exits. This overview is our starting point of software vendors offering functionality related to Marketing Resource Management and Marketing Operations Management. From digital print solutions to full-on all-inclusive marketing systems, these vendors represent the wide range of Marketing Automation software available at the moment.

The list will be updated regularly. Software vendors who think they should be included in the list can of course contact us.

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Online Seminar: New Approaches to Maximize Your ROI

Tomorrow, 12pm ET (9am PT), MarketingProfs will host a free online event to help you get the most from your marketing mix and maximize ROI.

Marketing mix modeling has long been a reliable measurement for consumer packaged goods companies. Now, its proving to be a great planning and measurement tool that increases profits in many diverse B2B and B2C industries beyond its traditional use. By using historical sales and marketing data, companies employing marketing mix modeling can forecast how particular marketing tactics will impact future company revenue—and what can deliver the maximum ROI. But while such modeling provides invaluable insight, its also a big, complicated job.

Read More

The Rise of QR Codes (Literally)

Blue Marble, which integrates a dynamic QR code into the physical site, taking an aerial or satellite image from space and making it accessible in Google Earth and Google Maps. Scanning the QR code with a smartphone can lead to an array of possible content, according to Blue Marble: dynamic marketing programs, videos, digital coupons, you name it.

Blue Marble Read More

Measuring Marketing Impact

Businesses rely on solid marketing strategies to boost sales—yet the tools used to evaluate these strategies often provide misleading results, leaving managers with the inability to accurately measure how they can get the best bang for their marketing buck, according to an article by Dina Gerdeman. Find a shortened version of the article below.

Thomas J. Steenburgh, associate professor at Harvard Business School, has developed a new analytical tool that more accurately measures the effectiveness of various marketing efforts. Steenburgh and his co-authors Qiang Liu and Sachin Gupta believe that the model could help brand managers determine which marketing strategies work best to invest in. Read More

Kern 2011 Mid Year Marketing Trend Survey

Kern Organization has conducted a survey among 400 (all right, 394) US marketers and asked them about their top priorities at the moment. Some quick results:

In spite of the enormous buzz about social media in marketing at the moment, respondents are not very enthusiastic about using social media as a marketing tool. While they have adopted in descending order Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube as marketing channels, only 38 % thinks it important to integrate social media into their marketing operations, and only 23 % said they were satisfied with their social media efforts. Read More

The CMO as Change Agent

Most people don’t like change. It always has been – and it always will be – difficult.

But, as Seth Matlins points out in his post at Ad Age, refusing to change is typically even more problematic. “In marketing [...] the status quo is a slow death,” he writes. “It’s killing progress and stifling creativity and innovation. It’s the competition.” Read More

Fourteen Marketing Technology Organizational Models

The good news is that, at last, everyone agrees:

1. Marketing technology is now a major dimension of marketing. 2. The marketing department and the IT department must collaborate.

The challenge, however, is that beyond those two principles, there is a stunning diversity of opinions for how marketing technology should be managed and exactly what the new collaboration between marketing and IT should look like. Ive heard from many different companies that are addressing this in very different ways. Read More

Get Home Before Your Vegetables Do

Shopping without dropping. Tesco Korea came up with this interesting QR concept to make waiting more productive. We love it!

Small side step:

The mission (0:15) Could we become #1 without increasing the number of stores?

Sounds more like a question than a mission. Anyway, great idea!

Brand vs. Business Marketers: Is Your Vocabulary Getting in Your Way?

We wouldn’t be surprised if you said, „what brand vs. business metrics?!” Whats wrong with these people, brand and business work together, not as opposing forces. And you are correct; the brand represents the promise of your business. The challenge is the C-Suites perception that marketers whose key performance metrics are primarily brand-related such as measuring awareness, relevance, and interest, are not in touch with the business. Read More

The One Business Partnership You Need to Start Building Now

digital marketing requires a combination of different skill sets. For example, it needs time-honored CMO know-how blended together with innovative, hi-tech computer programming expertise. And now that this kind of cross-functional partnership is such a high priority, I need to ask you one thing:

When was the last time you had lunch with the CIO? Read More