Marketing 2.0

The Top Ten Reasons Why PR Doesn't Work

Great article here on Guy Kawasaki's blog, courtesy of Margie Fisher, on why PR campaigns often fail. Many clients do not understand the distinction between PR and advertising. With advertising you buy media placement, you construct your message and control the distribution. PR doesn't work that way. The message can be far more credible when reported by a media outlet but in return the client must cede a measure of control over the process.
Link: How to Change the World: The Top Ten Reasons Why PR Doesn't Work.

Dell hooks up with Wal-Mart

This is a major development in channel marketing. After years of succeeding with its innovative direct sales model, Dell is now opening up a retail channel. Their first partner is none other than the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart. In case you missed it, Dell has slipped from its perch as North America's market leader and has started to fall further behind the new leader, HP.

Will this new strategy work and what does it signal? Computers are in the late maturity phase of their life cycle. When products become commodities the typical strategy is to open up a very broad distribution channel for maximum customer convenience. Other than Apple, there's not much product differentiation going on so distribution and pricing become paramount. In this sense, Dell's move is strategically sound. I think that customers were increasingly unwilling to transact over the phone or the Internet when they had lots of options at the local mall, from well-priced HP units at stores like Best Buy to the fashionable products sold through the Apple boutiques. Dell got lost somewhere in the middle.

With this change Dell is focusing its future clearly on the consumer segment of the market. They can pretty much kiss the enterprise market goodbye. What IT chief is going to trust her company's core business system to products sold at the local Wal-Mart? By choosing Wal-Mart Dell gets exposure to a large client base including those late adopters who are finally getting around to buying a home computer. The price they pay for this exposure is in brand image, especially in the corporate market.

Link: TheStar.com - Business - Dell hooks up with Wal-Mart.

How hybrids took over Hollywood

Want more proof that PR is becoming a primary promotional strategy? Here's an article from CNN that details how Toyota used product placement through a nonprofit organization to get many prominent Hollywood celebrities to drive their Prius hybrid.
Link: How hybrids took over Hollywood - May 28, 2007.

Richard Edelman - "We Are Gaining Market Share"

Here's a good article for my students who are graduating and looking for their first job. The PR field is growing much faster than advertising right now. Edelman shares his observations on  why there are better opportunities in PR.
Link: Richard Edelman - 6 A.M.: We Are Gaining Market Share.

Shift Happens » SlideShare

Take a look at this slideshow titled Shift Happens. It recently won an award in the World's Best Presentation contest (whatever that is). At any rate, you will find some surprising statistics here that relate to global changes and especially the technology advances that are rapidly accelerating. Here's just a sample to whet your appetite:

• The top 25% of Chinese population with the highest IQ exceeds the total population of North America
• If MySpace were a country it would be the 11th most populous in the world
• Predictions are that supercomputers will exceed the computational ability of the human brain by 2013

Link: Shift Happens » SlideShare.

Back on track

My blog has been dormant for the past few months simply because I've been too busy with my teaching to post. I use separate blogs for each of my courses at Ithaca College and the maintenance involved in this practice is quite substantial. Combined with teaching three new courses this semester, I just haven't had time for anything else. I do wish that TypePad would offer the feature of posting simultaneously to several blogs. It would make my life so much easier. At any rate, I look forward to posting new content in the weeks ahead as this semester is thankfully now over. Hooray!