Presentations

I was under the weather most of last week (as you may have noticed) and I didn't get a chance to blog, but I wanted to comment tonight as I thought last night's presentations were exceptionally well delivered. Everyone's presentation was interesting, well put together, and informative. I believe that we, as a class, are growing in our presentation skills as well as in our confidence to deliver a quality message to our peers. Great work, everyone!

Now on to the next... and I believe the end is in sight. :)

QR Codes @ Best Buy

Since our social media course, when I discovered what a QR code was, I've been paying more attention to them. The other day, I was in a Best Buy and noticed they had QR codes on the shelf tags for most of their electronics. What a great idea! Not only does this show they are "with the times" but I'm sure it also helps them save on employee costs. By utilizing QR codes, a prospective purchaser does not have to wait to talk to a sales associate, instead, they can simply scan the code. While I believe something like this works well in a store like Best Buy, where many shoppers are rather tech savy, it will be interesting to see how far this technology goes...will it eventually be commonplace in grocery stores?

Know your Audience: Today AND Tomorrow

Although I spent last week's class @ a conference in Miami "wining and dining" prospective clients, I must say I still learned a little :)
I had a great conversation with a real estate developer from the west coast. His company is currently designing neighborhoods for Southern California which will be developed over the next 20 years. He has been stirring up thought that their current target market is wrong. Instead of gaining insight from today's 30 something and designing housing on their wants as they are doing now, they should be looking at today's 10 year old. After all, this will be their target market in 20 years when the neighborhoods will be fully developed. Today's 10 year old, he said, has a whole new way of thinking than what the current 30 somethings cared about at their age. This will effect their buying decisions in the future. He insisted that they need to design from the future "30 somethings" perspective; not today's and they can begin to gain insight from them even at their current age.

I think he brings up a great point. Percy points out that when selecting a target market, you need to understand their lifestyle and psychographic profile. 30 somethings in twenty years certainly will have a different set of norms and social awareness than today's.

Overall: Its important for any company to plan for the future and understand what their target market will look like tomorrow. This is where innovation is born!

merging traditional and new media

I saw this article earlier today and I thought it fit in well with our discussion last weeks about traditional types of advertising and integrating them with new media: Super Bowl Ads

I though that this quote was great: "The public sentiment about sports and entertainment sponsorship has turned back into a positive light," said David Schwab, a VP at Octagon, an Interpublic Group of Cos. sports- and entertainment-marketing company. "The reach you get with the Super Bowl and the additional publicity and social-media play is unparalleled to anything in the market."

Personally, I like that companies are sticking with what they know works and using social media to back up their traditional advertising efforts. It's nice to see that some big names like GM and Pepsi are back to advertising on one of sports biggest platforms-The Super Bowl!

Advertisement that catches attention

Okay, I have to admit, I grew up in Canada, and despite the fact that I may be the first person to make a mocking remark about "my home and native land" there is still something about the land and the people that give me a pang that can be somewhat described as a mix of homesickness and pride that makes me miss and love the place at the same time. (Much like New Jersey natives I often hear myself saying "so-and-so's from Canada") I guess I do have a love of the old neighbourhood J Recently I have been seeing billboards for Molson Canadian with a bottle or can superimposed over an image of a wheat field or mountains with text saying "Made from Canada". I hate these billboards. For the past 12 years living on and off in the states I have heard so many mocking stories of how unintelligent Americans feel Canadians are (primarily because of how pleasant and polite Canadians are compared to Americans, oh, and I guess the accent), to me the first things I thought of when seeing these billboards were those stories, it is not proper English, it does not make much sense, what is a Canada? It is not a tangible entity.

While the billboards make me angry, there is a 1 minute commercial spot that counteracts the feelings from the billboard, Made From Canada, while using the same slogan. Somehow between the outdoor advertisement and a live action commercial there is a disconnect, where one leaves a person feeling disappointed in a "Canadian" brand (ask Canadians, most don't drink Molson) the other give a warm/fuzzy feeling.

Brand Consideration

According to Doug Checkeris, the CEO of MediaCOM North America, today’s consumers are more thoughtful about their purchases than they were prior to the recession—and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Although the economy is looking better, consumers have become more purchase savvy and will no longer settle for a quick decision. They are now trained buyers who want considerable product information before handing over the plastic. In this article, Checkeris goes on to say that consumers are turning to social media for their brand education.

Not only is it interesting that consumers are pursuing social media sites during brand consideration, but it’s worthwhile to note that today’s consumers are taking more time in the brand consideration stage. They are driven to be educated; they want facts; and if a brand doesn’t provide information when the customer wants it and where the customer is looking for it, that brand will likely lose out on the sale.

It's Difficult to Recover From Recalls

With our recent class discussion focusing on PR issues, Johnson and Johnson comes to mind as a company that's been through some large scale recalls, and subsequently PR issues lately. According to an article by the Associated Press, Johnson and Johnson has had eleven recent recalls ranging from medications, to contacts, to hip replacements. Probably their most detrimental recall was on April 30 and it included 136 million children and infants' medications. At this point, the CEO has said the focus is not on implementing a re-building trust media campaign, but rather on getting product back on the shelves. The media plan will follow once product is available again.

Although Johnson and Johnson has long been revered as a trust worthy company, they have a lot of work to do to re-gain the trust of their customers. It will be especially difficult for them because they are trying to capture the trust of an already extremely product sensitive population: parents of infants and children.

PR and Twitter

I enjoyed Greg Kamp's discussion of public relations in the last class. I particularly found it interesting that media reps are using Twitter as a primary means of finding news stories, a trend to which PR professionals are responding. I did a little more research on this subject, and today I found this article that reiterated not only this growing trend, but addressed the potential disaster that can strike a firm that doesn't respond to the social media/Twitter trend in a prompt manner.

Responding means not only utilizing the media, but also restructuring the entire organization to understand and compensate for major changes in day-to-day operations. This is an interesting and brief read that really drives home the realities of PR and social media.

Budget Season

Is anyone else in the throws of forecasting and budget season?? One thing that I really wish I had more training on was how to set-up a successful budget and budget tracking tools.

When I think back to undergrad I don't remember learning any-- and now in graduate school I think it would be really helpful to learn more ROI techniques along with budget training.

I know a lot of us are hoping to use our graduate degrees toward management positions in the future. I know that is one area that I could use more practice in.

Does anyone else use any great templates or understand seismic calculations, etc?

Hayley

Female Reports in Male locker rooms

Recently, the New York Jets owner issued an apology on behalf of his organization to report Ines Sainz for the harassing behavior of his players. When Sainz was conducting an interview with Jets QB Mark Sanchez, other players were hooting and making comments in the background. Sainz ignored the comments though they made her feel uncomfortable. Other female reports witnessed this behavior and reported it to the Jets' leadership.

I applaud the efforts of the owner in apologizing, however, isn't it a hazard of the job when it comes to males dominated sports. I mean if a woman is in the locker room for interviewing, there will be comments that will be made because you are in what is considered a "male domain." Unfortunately, it is common for events such as this to take place in locker rooms. However, it is the first time that a public comment has been made.

I can imagine the chaos that was taking place within the PR office and how they would handle the situation. Especially, when attitudes towards professional athletes have begun to take a turn into the negative. Organizations need to begin to take player conduct on and off the field more seriously before it causes them to spend unnecessary money in settling harassment lawsuits.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/13/new-york-jets-kicks-off-season-facing-harassment-claim/?hpt=C2

HARO

Thank you to Greg Kamp for the tip about HARO. HARO, or Help a Reporter Out, is a great source for public relations professionals. As Greg mentioned, once you sign up, HARO will email you three times a day with a listing of upcoming news articles, along with questions the writers are seeking. Businesses and individuals can then contact the reporters, explain why they should be considered sources, and they might receive some free publicity because of it.

I was really excited about the idea of this website, but also somewhat skeptical. Would the reporters only be interested in national companies? Or maybe the queries would be so specific, St. Ann’s would never be able to participate. “Looking for one eyed males, ages 23-44, who enjoy jet skiing.” But lo and behold, this service is one that practically any company can use. This evening’s email had 59 queries, with articles that ranged from travel to business to high tech industries. And I even felt like some people I know personally could be sources for a few of the pieces. Like the one education post that made me think of a certain college I attend . . . .

But word to the wise, there are rules. One being that you can’t repost the queries on blogs. Sorry Susan! But you can forward the emails . . . .

Sign up today at www.helpareporter.com.

Public Safety Announcements

I was checking email the other day and I noticed a banner ad for CSXT railways, which services most of the Eastern United States and Canada. The ad itself made me curious as to what why CSXT would be posting an ad for railroad safety. I started looking into the number of crashes as of late. It does appear that worldwide 2010 has been a year fraught with accidents, many of them deadly. While in Rochester we may not notice trains too much other than, maybe, taking a tour of the old subway or watching the clock when we are stuck watching one slowly pass us by. Despite what may be considered our local ignorance, (if it’s not around me, it’s not important) trains do still crisscross the United States, and are mainstays of transportation across the globe. With 4+ billion people utilizing this method of transportation daily, accidents are bound to happen, and those accidents are likely to be fatal. CSXT has not had crash in the US in 5 years, and when they have had accidents they have not been deadly. Despite this fact they still need to keep awareness up, that the reason CSXT is having such a high level of safety, is due to the cooperation of the people who both use trains and are around them at any time. The ad itself was affective in that it grabbed attention, and made customers and non customers aware of some general safety. In doing some searches for this article I came across the CSXT site CSXT Advertisements showcasing many of their ads that are running right now about the benefits of trains. AND CSXT Safety which has all of their public safety announcements listed for workers, community, and riders.

"Crisis" Management Resource

PR guru Johnathen Bernstein defines a Crisis as "Any situation that is threatening or could threaten to harm people or property,seriously interrupt business, damage reputation and/or negatively impact share value."

Although I agree with Greg Kamp on his thoughts on what really should be considered a crisis (I.E. Shooting at a University), it is still important that a business should learn how to plan and manage situations that may potentially damage its brand in any way (I'm sure Greg feels the same way).

Check out Bernstein's website and blog where you'll fine tips and information on both types of "crisis". You can also subscribe to free monthly newsletters from his site!

B-A in the D&C!

In case any of you missed your classmate in Sunday's Business Section: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100905/GROUP01/9050317/-1/group01/A-leader-in-the-family-business

IMC Points by Paul Bush

Hi everyone- please read this brief informative article below by looking at this website:

http://www.adhub.com/columns/paul_bush_01.html

Interesting points by Paul Bush on the aspects of branding for the IMC scenario and
this happens to be one of my clients. He owns a very efficient ad agency that any
small businesses can afford in print or media- check it out and see what they have to offer.
The company name is Persuasive Communications and the website resources is the Ad Hub-
check those out when you have the chance and what was interesting last week, I was referred
to someone in Linked-In and that happens to be my fellow classmate from my junior college days!
Enjoy!

Campaign Backlash

I saw this article on a recent Nike ad campaign and thought I would share it: At West Virginians' request, Nike alters campaign exploiting deaths of West Virginians

This isn't a crisis but deals with a negative perception of one of their ad campaigns and how quickly they are willing to change the ad campaign because people spoke out against it. I though this was a good article to read following our recent PR class.
Enjoy,
Mike

IMC - What is that?

I am employed by a non-profit in the City of Rochester. After being there for over year, I have found the marketing communications to be fragmented. Each department is responsible for creating their own marketing materials (as long as the agency's logo is placed on the material). The major issue with this approach is that the individuals that are responsible for putting the materials together have little to no marketing experience. Communications are often overwhelmed with unnecessary wording and information. They are also not attractive enough to catch a potential clients' attention when at a community fair.

However, before we can begin to develop a functional and streamlined IMC plan, there needs to be a marketing manager hired to lead this function.

Unfortunately, the person that was in the position was laid off recently. I firmly believe that the agency will not be able to maximize their impact and increase funding without the necessary marketing communication tools in place.

And that is how the cookie crumbles...............

ANNUAL CASE COMPETITION

Food for Thought: Did you know that the Simon Graduate Program participates in the 17th Annual Simon Case Competition ever spring? This marketing competition encourages creativity and analytics to solve real-world business and marketing problems for sponsors (Xerox, Constellation Brnads, Wegmans, etc).

Marketing students in graduate programs participate from all over the country. Examples of schools represented: Wake Forest, SUNY at Buffalo, University of Maryland, New York University, University of North Carolina, University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota, George Washington University, RIT, etc.

Top prize for the top three winning teams is $10,000.

How do we get involved?

Hayley

IMC and IBC- what is the difference?

PLEASE read both definitions below:

Integrated marketing communication is integration of all marketing tools, approaches, and resources within a company which maximizes impact on consumer mind and which results into maximum profit at minimum cost

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_marketing_communications

Integrated Brand Communications (IBC) – a holistic communications strategy that integrates all communications activities – such as public relations, advertising, investor relations, interactive or internal communications – to manage the company’s most precious asset – its brand. Since Integrated Brand Communications flows from Brand Value Management, it is central to the notion of managing brands to optimize value.

SOURCE: http://www.brandchannel.com/papers_review.asp?sp_id=650

Need we say that the both are very similar terms and does that mean IBC is slightly more tactical effort than IMC?

IMC is really the umbrella to coordinate the facts for the marketing mix with strategic plans at first, then

implement the materials. This can depend on the company's goals and it's situation to promote for the 

marketplace. What are your thoughts about this between the two? Would be interested to hear your comments-

thanks again- Bob Green

Clinique - Great Trial Promotions!

Talk about a company that has great promotions. When you’re on Clinique’s mailing list, every time you make an online purchase of a certain amount of money or more, you get to choose at least one “trial size” item for free. This is a great way to promote product testing without making any kind of monetary investment. If you don’t like the product, nothing lost, but if you do, it’s apt to become part of your next online purchase order. So as you go online to make your next purchase, including your new favorite product, you can choose another “trial” product. As this promotional cycle continues, your purchase order grows, and so does Clinique’s profit!

Promotion Genius

I have to give Banana Republic (BR) credit...they are pretty smart when it comes to promotions.
At first I thought the BR Luxe card was just another store credit card. I was seriously mistaken.
This weekend my fiancee got a notice in the mail stating that she, for the second year in a row, qualified for the Luxe card. Apparently, in order to qualify for the Luxe card you need to spend a certain amount at BR each year. I asked her what the perk was to having the card. She told me that along with free shipping for all online orders they send coupons in the mail very regularly.
I think this is a great promotion idea. Not only are they able to track what she is buying, knowing exactly what her tastes are, they send her coupons all of the time to keep her coming back for more. Additionally, they only send the coupons if the customer is spending enough in the store to qualify for the card resulting in a sales boost.
I think this is great on so many levels. It not only gets customers in the door but I'm sure it helps with sales forecasting, order quantities, seasonal tastes within certain regions and so on.
I think that what BR is doing with the Luxe card is great and that more stores should try and duplicate this promotion tactic.

Mike

Do Incentives Work All The Time?

I was most recently in the market for a new car and while browsing I stumbled upon an article a while back that spoke about car shoppers and whether or not incentives would entice them to purchase a vehicle. In a survey conducted by Kelly Blue Blook, over one-third of respondents plan to pay whole cost for a vehicle. Eighty-two percent of used car shoppers and fifty-one percent of new car shoppers said incentive offers "would have no effect on the timing of their next vehicle purchase".

I find this quite interesting given the fact that so many car manufacturers are really pushing incentives for business. Case in point I consider myself a Honda man. Out of all the cars that I have owned, they have been Honda's. I would consider myself brand loyal. However, Kia and Hyundai currently have an incentive in which they are offering a 10 year/100,000 mile warranty with any new car purchase. This incentive actually made me consider switching brands and really look at the Kia and Hyundai brand.

Source - Brandweek, article "Car Shoppers Indifferent to Incentives?"

By Justin Blair

Integrate communication through Dance?!

After discussing advertising and promotion last week, I decided to share a great campaign that did work!

The T-Mobile "Dance" Integrated Campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi is a awesome example of a very interactive campaign. You have to check out this case study and watch the YouTube Video underneath (I'm on view number 4 and counting!).

This is a great example of a staged event that went viral...

-Danielle Gore

Sale, Sale, Sale!

I think Raymour & Flanigan has a sale every day. I could be wrong, but that’s my perception. It seems like every spot is about a promotion. Although promotions tend to peak my interest, when I hear of one at Raymour & Flanigan, I’m not even fazed—for two reasons.

First, the promotions are so common, they don’t spur me to action even if the store is offering something I could use. I just assume I’ll keep what I have for a while longer, and when I’m ready to buy, Raymour & Flanigan is bound to have another sale.

Second, because Raymour & Flanigan advertises their promotions so often, I am suspicious of their furniture’s quality. I know there's always a deal, but is there always good craftsmanship? There may be, but I'd be more likely to walk into the store if that was communicated more often.

It’s interesting that a tactic intended to increase immediate sales has the ability to postpone sales and detract from brand equity--at least for one segment of the population.

Salesman Clause

On reflecting on class last week something that sticks in my mind is the personal selling element of integrated marketing communications. Unfortunately I do not have documents I can share to give examples of this phenomenon. His name was Jim, he was a salesman that we began to call Salesman Clause. His way of selling to the client was to say yes. Yes to price reductions, waive requirements, offer any and every additional service we offered all at the price of a basic plan. He was our salesman in the mid-west territories and we would all gather in the administration department when he called in, giving the fantastic news that he had signed another client. A round of applause would ensue, and then the questions would begin. Finance would want to know the specifics of what he had offered, operations would want to know how accurate the information they were going to be getting was going to be, implementation would want to know what kind of ridiculous dates had been put on everything, that the company could never meet. Jim would always respond with an inarticulate answer, the CFO would give him an atta-boy and the conference call would end, on a high note for Jim and the CFO, everyone else scraping the bottom of the barrel. Then the paperwork would start to flow in, contracts that had horrible figures, insane due dates that we could never meet, and files that were so messy it would take a month to wade through the data just to get a simple enrollment file. Decisions had to be made as to what battles we wanted to fight, the CFO was no help because in his eyes Jim could do no wrong. Eventually, Jim decided to move on to a different company, making huge sales, with unachievable promises. Personal selling is a huge aspect of integrated marketing communications, but it has to be done right, within the regulations and rules to be affective.

British Airways

I just found this article online featuring British Airways. I got a few good ideas for our project from it so I thought I would share it with everyone.
Article

Enjoy,
Mike

A Great Social Media Discovery: Groupon

So I blogged about Groupon this week in my own blog, wnylocals.com. I'm not going to lie; part of my blog was an attempt to get referrals, because at Groupon, referrals = more Groupon dollars.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Groupon is a pretty clever marketing strategy that I wanted to share with the group, particularly those of you trying to market local businesses (ahem, BA). Essentially, you go to Groupon and indicate your city. Every day a new coupon for a local business is available to purchase at an enormous discount (50-60% off). For example, last week I bought a coupon to Thread that cost $15 for $30 worth of merchandise.

The beauty of it is the viral aspect. Groupon promises the business a minimum number of purchasers or the deal doesn't go through. There is a ticker on the site to show how many people have purchased, and once the minimum threshhold is met, the deal is a go. In addition, for every referral a person gets, she gets $10 Groupon dollars in her account. This prompts people to spread the site so they get money and so more deals are valid. I'm not sure what the requirements are for participating businesses, but it seems like a great way to create a spike in sales and spread the word about your business.

Check it out!

Erin

New United Airlines Logo

Hello and I just ran into this while doing research for the airlines and I was surprised to see that the new United Airlines logo was just redesigned after the merge with Continental Airlines recently. Check this article about this below from website:

http://culturemap.com/newsdetail/08-11-10-united-tweaks-logo-but-keeps-a-piece-of-continental/

This appears to me that this was a simple design solution to retain the similar brand and reinforcing the blue & gold Continental icon with simple bold  "UNITED" utilizing the same colors. The Continental name was too long and familiar blue & red "U" icon was scrapped. Please see two samples on website and that airplane photo. I wonder if the icons & name were explored because brand recognition is more effective together, not separated. The redesign of visual identity is an important tactic of marketing, not to mention under the IMC umbrella. Perhaps, there care be numerous ways to promote the "new looks" by PR, social media, website, newspapers & magazines, trade publications and more... this will have to be presented in an consistent manner to integrate most pieces but to reinforce the visual brand repeatedly for everyone. Design is very critical to make this effectively and simple"across the board." Don't you agree? 

Bob G  rgreen07@rochester.rr.com

IMC Plan on a Personal Level

As I reflected on last class, I began to think about how an IMC plan is very similar to a person’s character. When companies develop IMC plans, the purpose is to make sure all of their stakeholders are receiving consistent messages. It would not make any sense for a company to say they wanted to be known as the “health center” one day and the next day begin developing a line of ice cream. These two activities are completely contradictory.

Now, let’s take a look at consistency on a more personal level - a person’s character. A person’s morals and values, just like a company’s IMC plan, should remain consistent regardless of what situation they are put in. Overall, consistent communication and actions are really the keys to being successful in many aspects of life, both for people in their personal and professional lives, and for companies.

ATTENTION ROCHESTER PIZZA SHOPS: Getting on this blogger's good side is as important as your sauce

If your not aware by frequent trips to Mark's on our dinner breaks, I am huggggggge pizza fan (like most Americans).

In America, pizza shops are like gas stations...there seems to be one on every corner (yet you can never find a good slice when your really craving some of that cheesy goodness!).

For local shops, have you ever noticed there lack of online marketing? Most local shops use fliers and couponsin the back of the yellow pages as their form of promotion. However, one pizza guy, is changing the way some local shops are promoted or shall we say defamed.

The Rochester Pizza blog is changing the way some Rochestarians (inlcuding myself) find good local pizza. The "Pizza Guy" goes around to local pizza shops and rates their pizza in great detail (with pictures and letter grades). He will re-vist shops from time and time to check for consistency or lack there of.

With almost 4,000 followers, the pizza shops better make sure thay there sauce is not only consistence but their message from the Pizza Guy is too! Talk about word of mouth marketing at its best!

-Danielle Gore

All stakeholders count

About 20% of my companies clients (stakeholders) are located in the Gulf Coast region. Almost all of them took a serious hit from the oil spill. It's unfortunate to say but right now my company is in the process of realigning their marketing efforts and IMC plan to compensate for the financial blow we took when we lost these clients. My question is what should a company do when their target market suffers a blow like this? How do you stay consistent when a good deal of your clients are cut out of the picture or need special treatment? We talked about the importance of staying consistent with your message to stakeholders, what if staying consistent isn't an option anymore?

Mike

Internal Consistency for IMC Success

For some reason, I am logged in as WNYLocals, my profile for my personal blog, http://www.wnylocals.com/. I'm not sure how to switch it, so I'll sign my posts at the end until I figure it out.

I was intrigued by the concept that IMC requires both internal and external consistency to be completely successful. This means that internal newsletters, intranet, blogs, etc. should all reflect the company's brand to ensure that the brand stays rooted in employees' minds. How far does this extend? Should phone lists, memos, break room signage, bulletin boards, etc. all be based on the same brand elements? I can definitely see the importance of reinforcing the brand internally, but I wonder if it can be taken too far, or, if not taken far enough, if it loses its impact and simply confuses employees.

How consistent does a company need to be internally?

As an aside, I am not a fan of NASCAR. I prefer NHL.

Erin Caldwell

How many stakeholders?!

Taking the time to write down all of a company’s stakeholders was really eye opening. When all of them are on the same page, it shows how many individuals, organizations and companies are truly impacted by one entity—and there were many more than I had expected. It is almost overwhelming to think of all the people who, in some way, depend on the sustainability of St. Ann’s Community. Although the significant number and variety of stakeholders makes an IMC plan more complicated from a marketing standpoint, I am grateful that I’m not in the finance department, struggling to balance all these stakeholders’ needs in the wake of New York State budget cuts!

Listing all the stakeholders seems like a simple and easy exercise, but as I quickly learned, when you attempt to make an exhaustive list in a short amount of time, it is very easy to overlook a stakeholder or two. This further underscores how important it is for a marketer to understand the intricate workings of a company or organization, and to take the time to create a thorough marketing plan. Since Tuesday’s class, a few more stakeholders have come to my mind, and it will be interesting to see how long the list will grow as I learn more about the different departmental operations within the 1,100-employee organization.

What do they think of us?

I found it amusing this week, after we had talked about what stakeholders think about the organization I came face to face with two examples of what feedback can say about an organization. One particular incident I was on a call with a current client, the data they had sent to me was not the information that was needed to be input and I was trying to find out what had gone wrong and to get the correct data. The client on the other end of the line laughed and said "I'm so glad we use you to take care of this…you do the work I would hate to do, and you do it so well" While this may not have meant more money for the company, it was positive feedback to know that the client is happy with what we do. Another bit of feedback came from a different end of the spectrum, we supply information to a debit card printing company who then creates the cards and sends them directly to our participants. Much like our organization they rely on the accuracy of the information sent from us to do their jobs. Every month the printing company runs a report that tells them how many cards have been sent back due to bad information per client. Since we have started using this printing firm 3 years ago we have had the least amount of returns. Once again, these aren't huge victories or money making pieces of information, but it is positive feedback from two different stakeholder groups, clients because they utilize our programs and want to maintain their contracts, and the printing firm because part of their success is based on ours.

The Growth of Foursquare

Recently, I came across an article (click here)that discusses Foursquare's relationship with Facebook. Foursquare is a geo-location sharing application. Foursquare allows customers to interact with business by checking-in to unlock codes that represent coupons.

In the article the CEO discusses how is it a bit challenging to compete with larger social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter Foursquare is based upon five components: check-ins, place, game mechanics, tips and leaderboards. Foursquare provides a mobile environment for health competition while encouraging user to explore their respective cities.

Foursquare has recently partnered with Facebook for the Facebook Places app on the website. At one point Facebook offered to $125 million to acquire Foursquare and the company declined. The CEO Dennis Crowley prefers to have the flexibility of having a smaller company because he can hire staff that he believes will contribute to company's success.

I think that it is admirable that they refused Facebook's offer. In the current economy, fear would say to sell but those that are truly success must take risks. I believe that the risk they have taken will prove to be very profitable.

Welcome to IMC and our Blog

Let's start off on the right foot: in the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you right out of the gate that I am a NASCAR enthusiast. Here is a photo of me before departing for my 95+ mile an hour ride in the pace car at the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen this past Sunday:

I hope you will share with me the things you love . . . or don't really love . . . as you apply your blogging savvy in the coming weeks.

Contact me any time with questions or comments at 594.6904 or at sullivan_susan@roberts.edu.

Susan

National Council of Teachers of English - Homepage

National Council of Teachers of English - Homepage

Leadership Breakfast Series Continues

The attendance at our quarterly Leadership Breakfasts has grown three times since our introductory breakfast two years ago. On March 5, Lauren Dixon, Founder and CEO of Dixon Schwabl Advertising, will deliver the presentation and set the tone for a morning of buzz around workplace excellence and why leaders make it a priority. Please view the invitation and join us -- and our network of Rochester community professionals!