Yesterday I saw a number of high ranking CMOs discuss a host of hot marketing topics at the 2007 CMO Leadership Forum. While nary a speaker raised the notion of “doing well by doing good” many of the programs discussed fall into one or more categories of Marketing for Good. Here are a few highlights:
•Barnes and Noble was a pioneer in creating engaging retail brand experiences that according to their CMO, David Gitow, allow readers “to commune with literature” at their leisure. When challenged by an audience member that some people loiter for hours and never buy anything, Mr. Gitow ably defended Barnes and Noble’s engagement practice by noting how often he hears people say “I love Barnes and Noble” and that this kind of reverance is essentially money in the bank. Barnes and Noble has become a destination not just a book store, a place where parents take their kids, friends meet for coffee and others can just slip away into fantasy land.
•Russ Klein, President, Global Marketing, Strategy and Innovation at Burger King delivered one of the more inspiring presentations, demonstrating the rewards of serious risk taking. Recapping much of BK’s recent marketing activities from The King to Subservient Chicken, XBox games to the Whopperettes, Mr. Klein set up his presentation by noting that four years ago BK was known but unloved. (Side note: He made the case that “Have it Your Way” was an early salvo in the user-generated movement that has become the go to strategy of the last few years.) As a result of all their various efforts to entertain, engage, and occasionally offend, BK has become a beloved brand among their core 16-25 year-old target. Concurrent with all this clever marketing activity, BK enhanced its product offerings to the point that new products accounted for 18% of sales last year. They also made strides to improve their service quality. The bottom line: sales are up 20% and BK is loved by some (a lot of middle aged marketers shook their heads in contempt at Crispin’s brilliant but not for everyone BK work!). Seems like being “loved” goes straight to the bottom line.
•Allen Olivo of Yahoo showed several of the ways Yahoo is engaging a number of communities or “tribes” via its various web properties and marketing activities. He showed a great little video of how users of Flickr, Yahoo Groups and Yahoo Answers had had life changing experiences via their interactions with these sites. For example, one woman founded a group for parents of children with club feet and learned of a non-surgical way to help her child. Olivo also showed a very entertaining consumer-generated video by hard core Shakira fans.•Deirdre Bigley of IBM walked us through IBM’s new venture into “branded journalism”. She showed us one of the works in progress which was a compelling video about the Real Time Crime Center IBM helped create for the NYPD. Her main point was that a good story like this could be re-purposed for any media (TV, online, presentations, print, etc.), and that IBM could shine without being the star. She noted that this type of branded content was not unlike the early days of television when sponsors created content like “soap operas” to carry their product messages. (While I think this approach won’t work for every client–it could certainly work for IBM given the amazing number of real human interest stories they are involved in from the RTCC to the Genome project.)
Before I close, I want to double-back to some of the operating principles Russ Klein threw out:
•Perfection is the enemy of good;
•Fail fast, succeed fast;
•Shed your skin frequently;
•Favor the provocative over the pleasant.
None of these are the prevailing wisdom of marketing and perhaps that it is exactly why Burger King is succeeding. Marketing for Good, with all its inherent virtue, is meaningless if the execution doesn’t cut through. Challenging convention and seeking innovative ways to connect with the target are fundamental to the cause.