Vol. 3 , No. 44     November 4, 2003

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Gerry McGovern
Develop a Five-Year Plan for Your Site

Let’s dispel a big myth—that the Internet is changing so fast, it is impossible to plan for. That is absolute rubbish.

Here's what is true: Web sites change the way an organization communicates with its staff, customers, investors and the general public. A change in communication is a major shift for the organization. And to effectively implement such a change will take time. You need a five-year plan for your Web site.

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Tamara Halbritter and Hank Stroll
SWOT Team: How Do You Pitch Quality?

This week, we seek your valuable advice for the current dilemma: How do you pitch quality over products that smell like a rush job and look and act cheap? How do you promote the best use of quality when a cost-driven solution takes less time?

Also, read your answers to last week's dilemma: what's the best way to promote high-quality products that require some investment of time and dollars?

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Kristine Kirby Webster
Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Kristine recently took her Saab in for service at the local dealer. A few weeks later, a survey arrived from Saab USA asking for a few minutes of her time to hear how she had felt about the recent service and about Saab in general. She filled it in, sent it back, and the whole time she thought, “They aren’t learning anything from me here.”

Why? Because they weren’t asking the right questions.

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A Note to Readers

The Real Thing

As a good friend of mine says, emotions almost always override intellect.

Perhaps no one would agree with him more than the new breed of marketers who are applying the methods of the neurology lab to the issues of the advertising world.

Calling themselves “neuromarketers,” this new… well, brand of marketers is intrigued with marketing as a practical application of psychology. They answer questions like, “If Pepsi tastes better than Coke, why is Coke the homecoming queen?”

And they dis other traditional marketing research techniques—like consumer focus groups—as a colossal waste of time.

What’s more, they find specific (read: measurable) activity in the brain to back up their assertions. Like: Coke rules because it has done a better job with its branding. And: focus groups are useless because participants tell you what they think you want to hear, not what they really think.

All of this is measured in an area of the brain called the medial prefrontal cortex, which scientists say governs high-level cognitive thinking, with a precision that some marketers find useful.

Read more about the concept of neuromarketing in Clive Thompson’s recent New York Times article, “There's a Sucker Born in Every Medial Prefrontal Cortex.” And let me know your thoughts.

As always, your feedback is both welcome and encouraged.

Until next week,

Ann Handley
ann@marketingprofs.com
MarketingProfs.com

Last Issue's Top 5

Branding Top 5

Roy Young
Making Marketing Matter: Building Its Brand (Part 1)

Just as marketers are experts in building and managing the products and service brands of their organizations, marketers should manage marketing as a brand asset of the organization.

So what is required to manage marketing as a brand asset of the organization?

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Amy Gahran
What Is RSS, and Why Should You Care?

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary (or Really Simple Syndication, take your pick). In a nutshell, RSS is a new way for people who publish content online to notify people interested in that content whenever fresh content is made available online.

So what's the big deal? Here are the basics.

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Dan Lazar
How To Avoid an Employee Power Play

While empowering employees is key to retaining them, surrendering too much may come back to bite you. Heed the warning signs and keep equilibrium in your business.

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Nick Wreden
Between the Pages of Angel Customers and Demon Customers

How many companies call themselves “customer-centric” while failing to see issues through customers’ eyes?

Larry Selden and Geoffrey Colvin argue in their book, "Angel Customers & Demon Customers," that any company that claims it’s customer-centric is “an outright fraud” unless it can pass a three-part test.

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Contact

Publisher:Allen Weiss
amw@MarketingProfs.com

Content: Ann Handley
ann@MarketingProfs.com

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