Marketing 2.0

Virtual Classrooms, Actual Education

This article from the March issue of Inc. magazine gives a good overview of e-learning and its application in both the business and academic realms. With new technologies such as weblogs, delivering training via the Internet has never been easier, especially for small businesses.

Inc.com | Virtual Classrooms, Actual Education

It's A Blog World After All

Blogs were once the domain of angst-ridden teens and doomed presidential candidates. But the likes of Verizon, IBM, Microsoft, and Dr. Pepper are all climbing on the blogwagon. Turns out, Web logs are a nifty knowledge-management tool. And companies also see them as a promising medium for advertising (naturally).

Fast Company | It's A Blog World After All

The Guerra Scale

Tim Guerra and Dan Heffernan have developed a scale to quantify the range of content that can be used in online education. They use a familiar 1-10 scale with 1 representing reading text on a screen (e.g. PDF document), to more interactive and complex simulations, right up to 10 which is a virtual reality environment. Moving up the scale requires much more development time, skill and interaction.

I liked their examples drawn from a sales training curriculum. Their experience illustrates how e-learning can be applied in a sales environment. In some cases, the PDF file is really the most convenient format for the reps to access. In other cases, where skill-building and coaching are essential, the authors developed some nice sales simulations - essentially role plays that can include coaching tips from star performers.

Guerra Scale

Fast Forward - How Google Is Revolutionizing the Ad Game

Many companies, both large and small, are trying to increase their profiles on search engines. Google is the 600 lb. gorilla of search engines right now. So how do you get your company to show up on the first page or two when someone searches your product category? Simple - you pay for it.

Google offers a program for advertisers to buy links in prominent spaces and pay on a click-through basis. This article from Fortune discusses the service and also offers comments from users.

Fortune.com - Fast Forward - How Google Is Revolutionizing the Ad Game

Online Marketing: An Overview

Here are some good tips from Ars Technica for online marketing. Three methods are highlighted - viral markekting, paid search and affiliate sales. Internet technology has changed marketing in some very fundamental ways. Here's an opportunity to learn some techniques from an industry expert.
Ars Technica: Online Marketing: An Overview -- Page 1 (3/2004)

Customised training around need and motivation is e-learning's key

If you have been disappointed with a corporate e-learning initiative or if you are considering a major investment, you should read this article out of Australia. It emphasizes the importance of blended solutions that include collaboration, traditional instructor-led training and online resources and simulations. Beware the programs that are completely asynchronous and available for learners to complete at their own pace. Key point - "The universities learned 400 years ago there has to be a semester and an exam at the end," he says. "Otherwise people never do it. The endless e-learning semester has been a huge failure."
Customised training around need and motivation is e-learning's key - InTraining - smh.com.au

Supporting enterprise knowledge management with weblogs: A weblog services roadmap

Here is an excellent presentation given by Michael Angeles on the use of grass-roots tools such as weblogs and wikis in supporting knowledge management in an organizational setting.
urlgreyhot : Supporting enterprise knowledge management with weblogs: A weblog services roadmap

Cleaning Up Brand Clutter

Have you stood in a supermarket aisle recently, totally overwhelmed with brand choices and unable to find the one you were looking for? Have you ever picked up a cold six-pack to enjoy with the basketball game, got home and discovered that you bought Corona Light instead of regular Corona because the damn packaging looked the same? (This one actually happened to me). If so, you've been the victim of brand proliferation that is absolutely out of control.

Somewhere along the line, marketers bought into the notions of brand extension, mass customization, have it your way, blah, blah, blah and went crazy with line extensions. In some cases, stagnant unit sales may have driven them to develop alternate variations of a brand in hopes of stimulating sales. The trouble is, extensions usually end up dividing the same pie into smaller pieces rather than making the pie any bigger.

Peter Seeley is a consultant who advocates cleaning up brand clutter and simplifying things. Fast Company published an article on Seeley and his book. Though it dates back to 1991, the article and book are even more relevant today because marketers obviously aren't following Seeley's advice. Give it a read and clean out your brand closet.

Fast Company | Cleaning Up Brand Clutter

The Ultimate Whiteboard

As we become ever more sophisticated with our communication technologies, we look to software tools to facilitate or improve upon basic interpersonal communication. While online collaboration is fine for connecting geographically dispersed workers, many studies have shown the richness of face-to-face communication for solving problems and generating new concepts.

Remember the whiteboard? Just a few years ago it was considered the ultimate facilitator of group process and teamwork. Today, you often find people clicking away on their laptops during meetings.

IBM recently held a symposium on the co-evolution of business technologies. The results were captured by Eileen Clegg on a whiteboard using a technique referred to as "visual journalism."

Take a moment to view the rich images she generated. As the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words." I wonder how many convoluted corporate strategy briefs or marketing plans could be neatly summarized with one of these diagrams.

IBM Research | Almaden Research Center | Coevolution Symposium 2003

Environmental Design

Good architecture and interior design can create spaces that foster collaboration, learning and creativity. The noted industrial design firm, IDEO worked on a project at the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning. This link will take you to the project site.

I enjoyed navigating this site because it is well designed — simple yet articulate. If you work with web sites, you should appreciate the visual structure that IDEO used here.

If you are involved in organizational communications, there are lots of interesting ideas for structuring the workplace to support your strategic objectives.

ideo.com :: Case Studies :: Stanford Center for Interactive Learning