First, a very warm welcome to the students in MKT 580 who likely spent time looking for this blog at a different web site, thanks to yours truly. Please accept my sincere apologies; do the stunning blue roses found in nature in Italy resolve our getting off on the wrong foot?I suspect most of you are more familiar with the joys of blogging than I, and I am looking forward to using this venue to share opinions and ideas. Please keep in mind that any reference to NASCAR and the 18 car will get you more points. (just kidding, but it will be lots of fun for me. More on this subject in the future.)
11 comments:
Apology accepted.
http://sicklecellblogger.blogspot.com/
The first night of class was intense, but I felt very engaged. IMC seems to have a lot to it - more than some of our previous classes, and I hope to stay on top of things. My team mates and I are looking forward to working together again, and seeing what we can accomplish for this class.
ONWARD!
I don't know if I should be commenting on the Word of Mouth article yet, but I found it pretty interesting. WOM, in my opinion, should be part of every IMC plan. In my technology paper for the last module, I wrote that I believe marketers are going to be more likely to support forums for interaction between people who use a certain product thus giving them the opportunity to engage each other. In my little world of school district communications, we've been using the concept of key communicators or influencer marketing for some time. Now school districts are looking at setting up blogs on their web sites. I totally see the value in this, but as a one-person office, it's a little scary to me because guess who would be responsible for it? New media is great, but for the time being, none of the old methods of communication are going away. Another thing to consider with WOM is the "telephone game" situation. A message that starts out pure and accurate is totally different after it's been repeated several times. That leaves marketers with much less control over their message. Okay...enough rambling for this week!
First off, I want to extend a sincere thank you to Susan, and my cohorts for helping me gain more clarification about the concept of IMC.
Tonight's class was energetic and engaging; the information shared, both from worksheet 1 and 2, will help me structure a more defined IMC Plan Outline for my Finesse Jeans brand.
The stakeholders' assignment was a useful method for thinking outside the box when considering every segment that the IMC has to address.
Brenda :)
I love this class so far! Probably because it incorporates many of the things I do at work everyday and I hope to be able to take what we learn in this class and be able to truly implement an IMC Plan for CGDST, especially for our upcoming 30th Anniversary Year in 2009. We had a nice article in the D&C today about the Rochester Rhinos visiting Camp Good Days on Tuesday...here is the link (I hope this works!) http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008807300351. Susan...you will enjoy this...today we took all of the campers to Watkins Glen International where they got to ride around the track with the drivers from the Trackmasters Club.
Looking forward to the remaining classes and the case study. PS: I told our staff that you all liked my corportae story...bonus points with the boss, so thank you!
~ Laura
I'm going to comment again, based on the WOMMA article. Word of mouth has been something that Roberts hasn't fully appreciated until recently, and even now, there is much to be done. I know that the undergrad admissions people are beginning a blogging network with several juniors and seniors, and sending notices via postcards and email out to prospective students in order to promote the idea and get kids involved. What I also see as a potential avenue for WOM for the college is for the Alumni Director (soon to be hired) to reach out to alumni and bring them into the fold. Allow them a forum to not only talk about their good experiences from days in college and beyond, but also discuss some of the things they see as needing to change. I believe that by reaching our alumni pool and asking them to participate in these types of things would facilitate our school getting more recognition by the target markets. The school often doesn't get much buzz locally or nationally, and only through various newspaper articles and snippets. Now is the time to begin rethinking how we get the word out to our target, and using the alumni who are willing to work with us in word of mouth marketing.
I too felt rather engaged in Tuesday night's class. There have been previous modules that we have taken in which the professor, in my opinion, did not make the best use of class time. I think my fellow cohorts might agree. I believe there is a time and place for breaking into small groups, but that working together as one group provides for a greater learning experience. After all, 12is a rather manageable number of people!
OK, now that I believe I can blog...
I'd like to share a link to today's D&C article on the Harris Unity XG-100 radio for the homeland security market. This radio will be shown for the first time next week at the APCO Trade Show and Exposition in Kansas City, and is significantly different from our other radio products because it is designed for federal, state and local public safety agencies (translation: not the military!) The article appears on the business page in today’s print version.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080801/BUSINESS/808010351/1001
Below is a link to the press release (from the Harris website) that went out over PR Newswire yesterday morning.
http://www.rfcomm.harris.com/news/view_pressrelease.asp?act=lookup&pr_id=2495
Our marketing communications department has been working diligently on what I think has been a good example of IMC focused on the announcement of one product. Beyond the press release, many coordinated tactics are being used (pre-show mailer, booth invites, hotel drops, attendee bag insert, email blasts, print and online advertising including bellyband around show issues, dedicated web page with unique URL, literature and tradeshow graphics) and I will be anxious to share the outcome of our efforts with the class—unless they fail, which of course they will not!
Hello
Well here I am finally blogging after XXXX time of trying to let google know that I "really" have an account. Do ya think that I might have been able to talk to a "live" customer service person? Why do that when google has millions of articles that I can READ and that will get me the right answer. Frustrated? YES! Tired? YES! Probably just the great week that I have had but now I am blogging and that is all that counts. I am sure you are saying "blah blah blah" by now Christy. :) That is of course if you took the time to read this.
I am very excited about our new IMC Class for several reasons: 1)this is now bringing everything we have learned thus far together, 2)this topic is very pertinent to my current assignment, 3)cohorts seem pretty engaged and excited and last but not least 4)my team is back together. :)
I actually brought up IMC quite a bit this week in some strategy planning meetings for next year. I am normally not involved in these meetings but my boss has been out for 2 weeks and yours truly gets to fill in. So what? Well I was excited that I was able to put my knowledge hat on and really throw in a lot of IMC lingo. I even brough my Percy book to the meetings (in my briefcase of course) as back up. :)I have become a geek. YIKES! The bottom line is that IMC is the hidden ingredient to the recipe and many times people forget that important ingredient. It is very easy to focus in on one area of marketing and forget to integrate the others and if you do.....you will be very unbalanced and your results will suffer because of it. Looking forward to the next class and hopefully I will get some ZZZZZ.
I thought our first IMC class went really well. The four hours went by considerably fast and I think that's because I was so captivated by the way IMC is a combination of all things we have learned so far. I NOW understand how it all fits together. For the first time in 9 months I wasn't eager to leave the classroom!
Having the IMC outline gives us structure and direction, whereas other modules have been sightly confusing and less informative. I think it is important for professors to give honest, helpful, and if necessary brutal feedback after we hand in our media plans, budgets, etc. I need direction! I feel like I am graded on my efforts, which is great! But, I need to know if I am on the right track!
Anywho. I look forward to learning more in this module. I am a little nervous about the amount group work, but if we all work together everything will be fine.
Rachel
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