The Changing Face of Marketing

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What is the future of the marketing department? How should that department be set up and designed? What new skills do marketers need?

Lois Kelley, founder of Foghound, and Larry Weber, founder of the W2 Group, consider those questions. 

Links to Learn from

Lois and Larry, online

For more information about their business activities, check out these sites.
Foghound
Communication strategy
W2 Group
A global marketing services company

The Role of the Marketer

Three things

According to Larry, here's what marketing is all about these days
  • Aggregating customers and potential customers
  • Branding via social media and dialogue with your constituents
  • Leveraging the influence of new media

C, E, I, E, I, O

Larry's theory

Weber walked through a thought experiment in which he recounted the historic development of the positions of CEO, CFO, COO, CTO, CIO, and CMO:

"Every time a part of the business gets seriously screwed up, we throw a C in front of it and say, 'You figure it out!'"

One Quote of Note

What Weber said

"We've tricked ourselves into thinking that we're an industry. PR and advertising is not an industry. We work in media and entertainment. PR and advertising just wraps around that.

"I tried to change public relations once and failed. Let's just leave it PR."

10 Questions

A la Inside the Actor's Studio

The session ended with a lightning round of questions from Lois to Larry.
  • Favorite marketing word: Engagement
  • Least favorite marketing word: Advertising
  • What turns you on?: Change
  • What turns you off?: CEOs
  • Favorite curse word: Sucks
  • What sound or noise do marketers make that you love?: More marketers go to porn sites than any other group, so I won't go there.
  • What sound do you hate?: I hate the overanalytic sounds.
  • What profession can help people become better marketers?: Gourmet cooks
  • What profession should marketers never, ever try?: Law
  • When marketers get to the pearly gates, what are the first words they hear?: You're at the wrong gate.

One Book Worth a Look

Check out this test

Larry's book might flesh out some of the ideas he shared during the talk
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