Mario Sundar's Speakeasy

I hope some of you enjoyed my Daily Fix write-up on Doc Searls’ argument against marketing. My Daily Fix article had a fair amount of participation from the MarketingProfs community and for that I am thankful. While tracking similar arguments, I noticed that Doc Searls’ had responded to Hugh Macleod’ take on the same topic.

Here’s the gist. 5 points:

1. Doc was preaching to the choir:

Remember I’m writing this essay for Linux Journal. Our core readership is approximately 100% technical.

These people, on the whole, dislike and distrust marketing. When they look for products, they want unvarnished truth and facts, as fast and directly as possible. When they make products, they want those products to be as useful as possible.

2. Techies hate marketing:

Too often what they are told to make, by their own marketing organizations, turns out to be something that customers don’t want, or is off-base one way or another. There is general agreement among technology creators that many mistakes could be avoided if makers and users were in closer touch. But the “strategic” imperatives of marketing often get in the way. Because strategic stuff tends to be detached. In more ways than one.

3. Doc is confusing me:

In many companies it is not only bad form for the actual makers of technology to talk or relate with the actual users; it is also bad form for marketing to do the same. Because that’s sales’ job. Sales people are the ones who touch the customer. Not marketing. And certainly not engineers. The world has changed, but the bureaucratic templates haven’t.The engineers themselves are also conflicted. To a large degree, they like their isolation.

Yet nobody really is isolated. That’s the key point here. What do you do in a world where everybody is essentially zero distance from everybody else?

4. Doc is like the rest of us — marketers:

I’ll cop to being hyperbolic in the way I put some of the points I made in the piece.

5. Did I mention, Techies hate marketing:

But The System is either breaking or broken, by the fact that The Net removes distance. It obviates org charts. It makes many “strategic” decisions ludicrous when practical alternatives are beyond abundant, and inherently unmanageable.Too much of marketing still acts as if the Net isn’t there, or has not caused profound and utter disintermediation of what marketing did for decades. That’s why many techies hate it.

—
I believe the marketing community is united in its response to some of Doc’s comments and conclusions. I’m sure many progressive tech marketers (e.g. Tara Hunt, Jeremiah Owyang, etc…) believe that the marketing/pr/advertising landscape is radically metamorphosizing into one that Doc envisioned via the Cluetrain. However, I believe none of it obviates the need for Marketing esp. in today’s corporate world. You need marketing to be your voice to your customers and prospects because as Tara explains, in many cases your techies and the customer may be speaking different languages.

So, once again, “Thanks, Doc” for the Cluetrain. It IS changing the world of marketing.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Alrighty then, I got my first post uploaded on MarketingProfs. It’s a response to a recent Doc Searls article on Markets without Marketing or as I see it: The Future of Marketing.

To read my entire response to Doc, check out my first MarketingProfs article: Doc Searls hates Marketing?!

Five Blog posts of related interest:

1. The initial post by Scoble that drew my attention to the Doc Searls article

2. Does Scoble hate Marketing?!

3. Our very own Mack Collier’s response to Doc

4. Tara Hunt’s response to Doc’s article that echoes my marketing sentiments

5. Hugh Macleod’s response to Doc — along similar lines

Happy Reading!

I’ll soon be out with the first iDea interview w/ Jeremiah Owyang. Stay tuned…

Filed under: Uncategorized

It’s time to shine a spotlight on some exciting news happening in the backlot of the Viral Community. It’s a known fact that in the recent past, a few movie studios have been messing with their core target audiences (read bloggers) by shutting down a few fan blogger sites. The negative publicity generated by one such incident, has movie studios recalibrating their PR machines to giving Paramount (hint, hint) importance to movie bloggers.

Back to the Viral Community’s backlot: Chris Thilk from Movie Marketing Madness (MMM) who has been a good blogger friend of mine, received a call from Universal Studios regarding the release of the movie “Miami Vice”. Upon receipt of this info, our very own Mack, raised a clarion call to fellow bloggers to evangelize the movie via their respective blogs.

I for one, consider this a great example of stirring the blogosphere to raise some awareness about movie marketing best practices (a la “Snakes on a Blog“). I wish Chris the very best in utilizing this opportunity to propel forward his standing as a movie marketing guru. I also can’t wait to read Chris’ review of the movie and who knows, this blog post has actually made me want to check out Miami Vice.

Sometimes, it’s good to be bad!

Filed under: Uncategorized

Well, we knew this was going to happen, but the speed with which it’s happening is surprising even to me (Full Disclosure: my current agency dabbles in corporate podcast production).

Some of you may have read my earlier post where I predicted the future of customer references gravitating towards multi-media and this analyst report is further proof that the transformation is actually taking place. For those of you from Corporate America, I’d recommend reading the entire FREE report. But for the time-strapped among you, below are the five facts I found encouraging & useful to all corporate marketers.

1. Podcast usage gains momentum

Duh! moment, but “hear” are the numbers. 53% – Have experimented with podcasts in varying levels

Among those 53%, 41% claim to have listened to more than one podcasts and is the fastest growing segment. What interested me the most was the fact that 32% of those who listen to podcasts have seen a “significant increase” in podcast usage over the past 6 months.

2. Preferred choice for listening – Computers NOT iPods!

I have written about the ambiguity caused by the term “podcasting”. I’ve seen that in effect while talking to corporate marketers as well. Everyone mistakes podcasts as being suitable only for their iPods or mp3 players but it is now proven that:

68% – listen to podcasts on their computers
32% – listen to podcasts on iPods/mp3 players

3. Majority listening to technology-specific topics

Of those who listen to podcasts regularly, 72% are listeners on technology-specific topics. Of course, that’d have to be true since the survey was conducted among business/IT professionals. But, the fact remains that they ARE listening to tech-relevant podcasts.

4. White papers are podcast-friendly

Paul Dunay, Director of Global Field Marketing for BearingPoint (his blog) had experimented with utilizing podcasts to increase white paper downloads and had met with considerable success. This McCann report further validates that.

Here’s why?:

60% – would rather have white papers delivered as podcasts

5. If you want me to listen, better make it worth my while!

If you are in the business of creating content you better create podcasts that are hear-worthy. I hear this all the time: first from Scoble and now from this report, which proves that “among “frequent listeners”, 57% reported there aren’t enough podcasts of interest at this point”.

And remember: If you don’t make it interesting, nobody will listen. As always, CONTENT rules!

(Source: Emerging Media Series: The Influence of Podcasts on B2B Technology Purchase Decisions Analyst Report by KnowledgeStorm and Universal McCann via Dana Gardner’s Blog)

Filed under: Uncategorized

iDea Interview Series questions. Last Call.

Many of the regular readers of the blog may recall the iDea series that I announced a month ago. For the uninitiated, iDea is a concept series of interviews I’ve conceived as a bridge between bloggers (marketing and tech). It’s essentially a set of 10 questions culled from many bloggers that I’d pose to a marketing influencer. The resulting interview will be podcast on the blog the following Monday. I’ll be conducting the first interview this weekend, with Jeremiah Owyang – web strategist and author of the “Web Strategist” blog.

I’d like to thank every blogger who’s been kind enough to send in their questions. I’d also like to make one last call for those who are still interested in participating in iDea. I’ll surely be highlighting the blogs of those who’re sending in questions, since after all, iDea is all about the community.

Here’s a sampling of questions:

What should companies blog about? Only the company and its products or more broadly? How to measure the return of those initiatives?

Send your questions to vjmario@yahoo.com under the following format:
1. Question/s
2. Blogger
3. Blog

Jeremiah just returned from an invigorating Internet Strategies Symposium where he discussed Internet Marketing Strategies. He is currently in Oregon for the Webvisions conference. Seems like he’s all set to field any question of yours.

Future.
Moving forward, once the iDea Series audience reaches a critical mass, it may be ripe for LIVE multi-user podcasting! What do you say, Tracy? As I said, let the marketing iDeas explode.

Filed under: Uncategorized