McCombs Marketing Fellows @Kellogg's Marketing Conference

On January 22^nd, some of my fellow Marketing Fellows and I were fortunate enough to attend the Kellogg Marketing Conference (KMC) at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Thanks to the generous sponsorship by CCIMS, Alice, Kim, Meagan, Sarah, and I were among the more than 700 attendees to explore the bleeding edge marketing techniques that industry giants such as General Mills, Harley Davidson, Target, and Deloitte use to further our understanding of consumers and the future of marketing.

The day started with an inspirational story by Bill Rasmussen, the founder of ESPN. Though he humbly retold the story of ESPN’s birth, we gleaned that luck wasn’t the only ingredient in his success. Instead, Bill connected with major players from Budweiser to the NCAA to cable TV operators across the country in order to form a cohesive partnership that has resulted in one of the biggest brands around the world today. Casually, Bill remarked that ESPN’s brand leadership surpasses Coca-Cola and McDonald’s in some parts of the world. His ambition, salesmanship, and incredible dedication were what got ESPN off the ground, and in his words, “If you’re dreaming and it doesn’t cost anything, you may as well go all out.”

Break out panels throughout the KMC discussed Emerging Technologies, Ecosystem Marketing, Marketing Metrics, Multi-Channel Marketing, and Generational Marketing. The insightful day ended with an Executive Roundtable with names such as Anna Catalano, former Group VP Marketing for BP; Scott Freidheim, Executive Vice President operating and support businesses for Sears Holdings Corporation; and Betsy Holden, former Chief Executive Officer of Kraft and current Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company.

Here are some of the key points we discussed as a group during the plane ride home:

· Increasingly, consumers are shaping a brand’s reputation through online channels, where they are able to communicate with others at extraordinary speed. To keep up, companies need to be active because people are talking, whether or not the company is listening.

· Meaningful, strategic partnerships are long-term, provide services that further companies on both sides of partnership; it’s crucial to have advocates internally and externally.

· Understand that in the world of data, there are business problems, product problems, and consumer problems. The goal is to know the goal before digging through mountains of data.

· The roles of Chief Customer Officer or Chief Experience Officer are becoming more powerful each day because personalization is a great way to keep a brand relevant.

· Multi-Channel Marketing helps manage the risk across all channels much like diversifying a portfolio.

The Kellogg Marketing Conference injected fresh new concepts into our minds and many ideas for McCombs Marketing Fellows events in the future. Thanks again to CCIMS, and be on the look-out for more from us!

Jany Xu

The Year Ahead: 2011 Predictions for Marketers

Ad Age took the pulse of top executives in the major industry sectors to compile this preview:
The Year Ahead: 2011 Predictions for Marketers

Some highlights for executives to handle: Rising commodity costs, demands from Walmart and other big retailers to take over product shipping at the supplier's dock, high long-term unemployment leading to more frugal behavior among most consumers, changing digital marketing landscape due to the popularity of tablets like the iPad.

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Marketing to the Average Customer produces average results

http://blogs.hbr.org/tjan/2010/12/fallacy-of-the-average-custome.html

Article makes the case for segmenting all marketing campaigns.

Mistakes You Should Avoid!

Future leaders: Read and heed !!!
Interesting reading as you prepare to lead the marketing world!

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/news/companies/1012/gallery.business_dumbest_moments_2010.fortune/index.html

Travelers "Can't Live Without" Social Media?

A recent article from eMarketer highlights some huge areas of opportunity for the travel industry when it comes to social media marketing. Notably, "72.7% of US social network users accessed the sites at least daily while they were traveling. Young adults ages 25 to 34 checked social sites most often, with nearly a third using them multiple times an hour."

Check it out here: How Travelers Use Social Media - eMarketer

This semester I was part of a McCombs Plus Project and our group was tasked with developing a revenue-driving social media strategy for the Four Seasons Hotel Austin. Last week we presented our recommendations, so I still have this topic on the brain. If there was one key take-away from our research, it's that social media can be a very powerful marketing tool for the travel industry; for hotels in particular, nearly 87% of review users reported that online hotel reviews had a significant influence on their purchase.

With the latest tools such as Google Hotpot, Foursquare, and Gowalla gaining endless popularity, it seems that the social media/travel marriage is a lasting one that cannot, and should not, be ignored by marketers.

Welcome, we're glad to have you!

Thanks for stopping by the official blog of the CCIMS Marketing Fellows program.  On this page you can find the latest trends and tidbits about the marketing industry that have caught our attention and that we feel are interesting or useful for any current or potential marketer.

Marketing Fellows is a program for selected McCombs MBA students at the University of Texas at Austin who are commited to pursuing leadership in marketing. The program gives these students the opportunity to develop their marketing acumen and management skills through a combination of focused curriculum and consulting projects, serving to elevate the caliber of marketing students produced at McCombs and the reputation of the Marketing Department overall.   The program is student led and managed, with support from CCIMS and Marketing faculty.