Since graduating from college, I voraciously read a new marketing book every 10 days and in my library you’ll find several books by the father of modern day marketing Philip Kotler.

What I love about the guy is that even though his book Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, 13th ed., is the most widely used marketing book in graduate business schools worldwide he never rests on his success and still innovates and tinkers with his marketing theories and models of how marketing works.

I’m a big Philp Kotler fan.

Now, here comes Kotler again with his latest creation (co-written with Hermawan Kartajaya), Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit.

The central theme of the book is based on the simple values-based (not value) matrix above which demonstrates how marketing today has shifted from Product-Centric (Rational Marketing – 1.0 era – e.g., Volvo = safety), to Customer-Centric (Emotional Marketing – 2.0 era) to today’s Human-Centric (Spiritual Marketing – 3.0 era ).

Marketing 1.0 and 2.0 were about how a brands products and services would serve its customers.  Marketing 3.0 is about how a Brand connect with the human spirit of its customers who desire that they assume their fair share of social responsibility for issues that concern everyone (e.g., environment, hunger, poverty, human rights, health and well being etc.).

Brands that behave and conduct themselves properly with regard to the environment, general community at large and create real meaningful demonstrable value that aligns with the social good will be welcome and respected.  The media will promote caring companies which will influence buying behaviors.

Kotler posits that most marketers are stuck in the past. His new model for marketing treats customers not just as consumers, but as complex, multi-dimensional human beings – customers with complex human spirits who are active, engaged, anxious, informed, creative and have the ability to easily connect with others.

Marketing 3.0 addresses the complexity of the human spirit and S.C. Johnson is just one of the many brands Kotler cites as those who are creating products, services, and company cultures that lead, inspire, and reflect the values of their customers.

This recently released book is on my shopping list because I read Kotler’s Marketing 3.0 whitepaper here – kotler_marketing_3.0_values_driven_marketing – sure wish brands like BP could have read it and embraced its philosophy – make sure you do!

I’ve been a practicing (and far from perfect) Roman Catholic and Christian all my life, and for over 25 years, I’ve been a practicing (also far from perfect) marketing professional.

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a lot of brand positioning exercises and marketing audits as well as attending a weekly bible study. As I’m preparing to enter Holy Week and Easter – my favorite time of the year – my professional and personal life is colliding in an interesting way.

I’ve been thinking about Jesus’ ministry and his time on earth a lot lately. And, I’ve been thinking about him as a brand too. And, when I think of him as a brand, his radical and remarkable message and unique selling proposition is clearly one of unconditional love, tolerance and forgiveness – but, love is his foundational core message. And, he demonstrated his core message of love by living it out loud through his actions and by making the ultimate sacrifice.

I say radical and remarkable because if you closely study The Sermon on the Mount, you’ll see what I mean. C’mon…turning the other cheek is one heck of a radical concept! Even today!

When I try to stand outside of my faith and look at Christianity as a product,  it’s amazing that it has spread throughout the world and has welcomed 2 billion adherents without depending on large scale ad campaigns, social media and the like.

Christianity has spread because one person – Jesus – started it by speaking his message of truth, being authentic, transparent and following a singular focused devout message of pure unconditional love for everyone.

It’s a great lesson for all of us people of the world and marketers too.

Happy Easter to all of you.

P.S.: With all due respect, this post is not meant to be sacrilegious at all, but merely an essay in effective branding/messaging. Also, for those of you interested in religious marketing lessons, I came across this Blog – Church Marketing Sucks – and found it pretty interesting. The site’s goal as stated is to…“frustate, educate and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ.” Another interesting post is here, Jesus Is Not a Brand; Why it is dangerous to make evangelism another form of marketing, by Tyler Wigg Stevenson.

As a 50 percenter of Irish blood and a serial marketing professional, I thought I’d offer you dear reader, my 15 Marketing Lessons of St. Patrick’s Day to help you find your little pot ‘o gold at the end of a rainbow!

And, I’ll offer them quickly because I shouldn’t even be working today – St. Patrick’s Day is one of my many “high holy days” - and there’s a Guinness pint with my name of it at one of my favorite Pittsburgh Irish pubs (Paddy’s Pour House) and it’s getting warm! So here you go!

1. Green Marketing Lesson One – Making Money. Always keep money (making it or saving it) front and center of any marketing campaign. If you know anything about the Irish (and I do growing up in a large extended family), the majority have experienced challenging economic times and know the value of a dollar. So, incorporating zero based budgeting into your marketing processes will help you become more creative and help you do a lot more for less. 

2. Green Marketing Lesson Two – Sustainability. These days when you hear brands talk about sustainability, it’s related to the environment, but the basic pure definition of sustainability is “the capacity to endure.” Using the same color in your marketing communications reinforces your brand, makes your marketing work harder for you and enables your marketing to endure.

3. Green Marketing Lesson Two – Color. Design and color can help you communicate a great deal. Red – hot, stop; Blue – cool. etc., Keep in mind that all colors also come in a great deal of shades so don’t be boring and predictable.  Green has about 50 unique shades.

4. Create Multi-Sensory Emotional Appeals (e.g., appeal to people’s five senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, smell). In a recent post about, “Marketing with Sound,” I discussed the awesome power of sound, but you should also consider all of the ways you can appeal to your customer’s five senses. St. Patrick’s Day appeals them all with color, strong visuals of parades, people having fun; taste of ethnic foods like corned beef and cabbage and drink (pints of Guinness and shots of Jameson) etc.,

5. Appeal to One’s Ethnic Heritage. There’s nothing wrong with appealing to people’s ethnic heritage – net, different strokes for different folks.  In fact, it’s a growing and popular strategy due to our mobile society, immigration, single parent households etc.

Some of this strategy’s keys to success include knowing your market well, being aware of unique cultural nuances, being respectful etc.  Disney’s Epcot Theme Park’s World Showcase is a great example of ethnic marketing, but Denny’s Restaurants’ recent Pancake promotion is not.

6. Be Inclusive with Your Marketing. As much of an Irish heritage appeal the holiday provides, St. Patrick’s Day is all-inclusive and welcomes everyone to celebrate – everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day!

7. Special Event/Thematic/Celebration/Holiday Marketing. Giving a unique thematic association to your marketing messages makes it easier for your customers to understand you and more immediately recognize you too. Tie-ing in to a major holiday celebration gives your promotion authenticity and a “reason why” you’re holding a sales event.

8. Limited Time Appeal. Having a hard date against a campaign creates urgency, excitement and traffic. Pretty obvious statement, but many marketers leave far too many campaigns without a clear end date and a sense of urgent appeal.

9. Spokesperson/figurehead/celebrity/image appeal. Having a Saint as your celebrity figurehead ain’t too shabby, but it’s the consistency of using the same appealing celebrity with a unique story is what works.

10. Iconic Marketing – Shamrock – brand, sell, profit. Mickey Mouse’s Ears, Ronald McDonald’s big red shoes, McDonald’s Arches and more.

Shamrocks do the same for today’s holiday – it’s the day’s badge of honor and identification. What’s your badge ID?

11. Rule of Threes. Legend has it that St. Patrick used the common Shamrock to teach the Celtic Pagans about the unique Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – 3 in 1 Godhead.

However, the “rule of three” symbolism in the good man’s teaching is relevant today as well because people’s minds are noisy and limited. Using the rule of three enables you to get them to remember you and buy-in a presentation or product mix selection. Small, medium, large; gold, silver, bronze; 3 bears; 3 blind mice; 3 Stooges (see more examples/proof here) – trust me – the rule of three rocks.

12. Be Positive. You won’t find a more positive group of people that the Irish. Despite all of their “Troubles” who else tells you that you can find a pot ‘o gold at the end of a rainbow? At Pittsburgh’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade this past Saturday, people throughout the day referred to the cold constant rain as nothing more, “a little Irish mist!”

13. Be Nice. You’d be hard pressed to find a nicer bunch of people than the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day too.

14. Have fun and don’t take yourself so seriously. In this age of “political correctness” the Irish are for the most part a happy and fun bunch and most Irish demeaning jokes bounce of them like water on a duck.

15. Plan Your Luck by Working Hard. In my opinion, “the luck of the Irish” is based on hard work – simple as that. You’ve probably heard the saying, the harder you work the luckier you get!” Well, its true. The majority of Irish are no strangers to hard work and I believe – all things being equal – people that work harder and smarter than their peers will meet with more profitable success in a shorter period of time.

Got to run, my pint is getting warm.

Slan (Gaelic for “farewell for now”)!

In an earlier post, I reported that it was great to see the Gen Y kids driving the tremendous outpouring of financial support for Haiti relief via texting.

I’m happy to report that the American Red Cross “Text ‘Haiti’ to 90999″ campaign has raised $24 million to date. See the DMNews story here.

Think about this campaign for a moment. It has achieved some amazing accomplishments – in a short period of time – since this devastating earthquake hit Haiti just last week on January 12th:

• $24 million has been raised via $10 individual donations to help the Haitian people – 1/5th of the amount the American Red Cross has raised to date – breaking all records by a huge  margin.  Reference note: After Hurricane Katrina – a mere 4.5 years ago – the ARC only received $120,000 via texting – and Katrina occurred on American soil!
• The ARC has built a valuable mobile text database for future marketing communications and financial appeal efforts
• The ARC’s core donor base skews older and texting gave the Gen Y folks an easy, quick and convenient channel to offer their support (marketing lesson – treat different people differently)
• The campaign execution of  the ARC and its mobile firm partner mGive was flawless – amazing too – considering the fact that they started to work on the texting campaign the evening of the earthquake
• The viral goodwill spread of the “Text ‘HAITI’ to 90999″ campaign in Social Media channels such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter (100K tweets/retweets)

Today is a special day of remembrance for me because I’ve admired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ever since I was a young boy.

King’s life’s work was to create a formidable movement of change and progress on the issue of civil rights in America – which he most certainly accomplished. In fact, his legacy has expanded to encompass not only the advancement of civil rights, but human rights throughout the world.

Dr. King and others in the Civil Rights Movement taught me a lot about living my Christian faith and American patriotism out loud, and both taught me lessons about marketing a meaningful cause.

First and foremost, their brand message was true, right and good – they operated from a solid foundation of truth and righteousness.

From having a spot-on brand message – equal rights – the Civil Rights movement created support (buy-in) of their cause with personal, touching, motivating and powerful storytelling imagery such as:

• Segregation signs at water fountains, rest rooms, restaurants and hotels
• Elderly women in their Sunday best being turned back from voting
• Rosa Parks sitting in front of a white man on a bus and then being fingerprinted
• White firemen turning high pressure water hoses on the old and young alike
• White policemen leading German Shepherd attack dogs through black crowds
• Innocent black children being escorted by soldiers on their way to school
• Unarmed, peaceful marchers getting viciously beaten by armed police
• Disgusting Ku Klux Klan marches, and burning crosses
• Rampant black church burnings and bombings

There are certainly more, but I’m sure you get the picture.

All of these powerful images of factual accounts and experiences combined, provided a motivating case for drastic and immediate change.

Certainly, many images were created, but more often than not these images were created and spread virally because they were true, authentic and emotional which makes for a far more reaching impact.

The positioning message was a simple one of good vs. evil.

Dr. King persuaded, motivated and modeled the movement after Gandhi’s peaceful marches and protests with dignity and discipline. These non violent marches were impactful, but as impressive…if not more so…was the way in which he communicated his brand’s message of civil and racial injustice.

Two things I’ve always remembered in marketing are:

1. People don’t join causes…people join people with causes and
2. People typically buy first on emotion, then justify with facts

These two marketing maxims certainly apply to the Civil Rights Movement.

Do yourself a HUGE favor and listen carefully to Dr. King’s entire, “I Have a Dream” speech. The “Dream” speech is a masterpiece and it’s amazing how quiet the audience is throughout it too.

Here is a list of 10 Communication Tips from Dr. King that I picked up from his speech (see if you can pick them up and agree with them; and see if you can discover a few more):

1. The perfect imagery setting of speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial
2. The use of simple, small, easy to understand common words
3. The impact of the repetitive nature of select phrases (e.g., “now is the the time,” “we are not satisfied,” “I have a dream,” “let freedom ring,” “free at last”)
4. The effect of name personalization (e.g., my friends, you, me, we etc.)
5. The effect of location personalization (e.g., he lists key towns and cities where many of the members of his audience live)
6. The clarity of his speech – perfect annunciation and diction
7. The passionate nature of his voice – how can you motivate people if you’re not
8. The perfect pacing and changes in speech patterns (e.g., high, low, quick, slow)
9. The use of short phrases and sentences to drive home memorable key points
10. The fact that he used notes sparingly because he spoke from personal experience, believed in his message and thus knew it by heart – teleprompter be damned

Much is made about President O’Bama’s communication skills, but he’s far from being the skilled orator of Dr. King. The president has the Internet, a ton of communication consultants and speechwriters and his infamous TELEPROMPTER (which he uses entirely too much as a crutch). Dr. King had none of the tools that the President has at his disposal, but created such an amazing, impressive long lasting presence.

The President and all of us can learn a great deal about tolerance, patriotism and doing the right thing from Dr. King AND we can all learn a great deal about how to be a Marketing Rock Star too!

Happy Birthday and Rest in Peace Dr. King.

If you think young people these days are inconsiderate, selfish, concerned with only themselves and wear their “pants on the ground“…think again.

Soon after the devastating Haiti earthquake hit, @RedCross tweeted: “You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts in #haiti.”

Kudos to the Red Cross marketing folks for being prepared (excellent online disaster newsroom) and recognizing the fundraising opportunity available to them in this terrible time of crisis.

And, much more kudos to the kids that drove this “texting bus” because they’re the ones credited with leading this Red Cross effort which has raised over $10 million for the cause since this record breaking mobile fundraiser was launched last Tuesday.

This is a great example of using technology to build rather than destroy.

Watch text marketing grow from this effort and put in on your list of things to test for your business too!

P.S.: Here is a list of 8 ways you can help Haiti by texting:

1. Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross
2. Text HAITI to 25383 to donate $5 to International Rescue Committee
3. Text HAITI to 45678 to donate $5 to the Salvation Army in Canada
4. Text HAITI to 20222 to donate $10 through the Clinton Foundation
5. Text HAITI to 864833 to donate $5 to The United Way
6. Text CERF to 90999 to donate $5 to The United Nations Foundation
7. Text DISASTER to 90999 to donate $10 to Compassion International
8. Text RELIEF to 30644 (to connect with Catholic Relief Services who will instruct you how to donate money with your credit card)

…the 9th way to help is to pray.

Years ago, I became a disciple of Stephen Covey’s teachings in 7 Habits of Highly Successful People.

In his Blog, Dr. Covey reveals that if he had to choose one habit that’s more important that all of the rest – recognizing that all of the habits are inter-related -  he would choose being proactive since it serves as the foundation of his entire philosophy.

I agree, but then again, how can you possibly disagree with the Master?

“Begin with the end in mind” is based on the principle that all things
are created twice. There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical
or second creation to all things.” ~ Stephen R. Covey

One thing, however I’d add is that people do not place enough time/emphasis/thought/work on the second step which is Beginning with an End in Mind.

And, most people do not think big enough!

For example, when crafting your marketing plans, how big and how detailed are your plans?

I’ll bet you have an acquisition, new business plan. I’d also bet you lack a strong retention, winback, lead generation and nurturing plan.  Plus, I’ll bet your marketing measurement plan is weak.

Ok then. Let’s say you’re a restaurant marketer.  Based on your stated comp sales increase, do you know all of the combined metrics you need to hit to realize your goals?  Do you know how many transactions you need per hour, per day to achieve your goals? Do you know what your different daypart sales and transaction goals are? Do you have specific plans to reach each one?

Heck, I even believe using the step, Beginning with an End in Mind could be a great step to ending wars!

Here’s my POV with a brief backgrounder.

• When I turned 16, gasoline was about $1.50 a gallon and gas lines were crazy long in the 1970′s
• I’m just coming off a 30 year high school class reunion
• I’m increasingly troubled about our U.S. economy and throughout the world, sick about the government bailouts of the auto industry and others, and sad about the state of poverty, hunger, hatred and troubles throughout the world
• I’m heartbroken about the recent Ft. Hood tragedy
• Veteran’s Day was yesterday

Recognizing that oil (or lack thereof) is a chief cause of wars my thought is this, “If we had strong, visionary political leadership 30 years ago would we be in the state we’re in today”

Here’s what we should have done 30 years ago and what we should do now.

1. Take a 10-20-30 year view (begin with and end in mind)
2. Project the cost of an average war – see here the cost of wars since 2001 – and recognize that if our dependence on oil doesn’t change, we’d always be battling one and never as safe as we would hope to be.
3. Take a mere percentage of the average cost of one war and give it to GM, Ford, Chrysler (among other manufacturer’s who produce oil required products and services) and incentivize them to produce a car that runs on corn oil etc., (something we Americans make and have a ton of capacity).
4. From the increased sales, profits we realize and government defense spending savings we earn, invest it all back into our economy and into domestic and global aid initiatives.

Certainly there’s a lot more to this strategy, but it clearly demonstrates how beginning with an end in mind can lead to powerful strategies, tactics, effective use of resources and accomplishing amazing things!

P.S.: Make sure you take into account key projections in your marketing planning.  Check out the trade offs my hometown of Pittsburgh has made since the Iraqi war started. We could certainly use the $508 million. More importantly we’d certainly welcome the priceless happiness of not losing one local man or woman in another senseless war. Wouldn’t you?

I’m looking forward to reading New Packaging Design by Janice Kirkpatrick (Laurence King, 192 pages, $35) after checking out its reference in Fast Company magazine today and the fact that German agency Jung von Matt’s shopping bag design for Stop n’ Grow (a German product that helps people to stop biting their nails and sucking their thumbs/fingers) made the cut in its list of 12 of the World’s Coolest Packaging Designs, I’m sure it’s a good one.

With the holiday shopping season right around the corner, how many of you are “brown bagging” it?

Even if you don’t compete in the retail sector, can you improve how you package your “Brand You” brand, your Web site, your presentations, proposals, invoices and general emails?

Packaging serves to preserve, protect, promote and it’s even expected to be kind to the environment – does yours?

These days packaging should WOW people too!

In your marketing planning process for 2010, look for inspiring design examples everywhere and work on ways to create WOW designs throughout your organization. I assure you that you’ll separate yourself from common brown baggers.

To get you started, here are several more creative shopping bag designs that are sure to inspire you!

P.S.: Here’s another great idea by JVM to communicate the need for dental insurance in bowling alleys…BRILLIANT! This example proves that a great idea can transcend language differences and still communicate a core message.

This effort by the Charter for Compassion is a fantastic demonstration of the strength Social Media and I hope and pray their good work succeeds. What an uplifting example of the power of marketing, of the Internet and of individual concerned people. I love the fact that you can view the video in multiple languages.

To quote their YouTube site, "The Charter brings together the voices of people from all religions. It seeks to remind the world that while all faiths are not the same, they all share the core principle of compassion and the Golden Rule.The Charter will change the tenor of the conversation around religion. It will be a clarion call to the world."

It's an excellent example of social media marketing at its finest and kudos to Director Jesse Dylan and Producers Priscilla Cohen, Theresa "Sparky" Pomeroy!

I’m sick! We’re #7! Not something you want to have printed on a T-Shirt.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the USA and what we attempt to stand for, but know we are not even close to performing at our full potential.

Certainly we need better leadership, but it all starts with the individual – you, me etc.,

Or, to quote my man Gandhi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world!"

Germany is viewed as the best overall "brand," receiving
the highest ranking of the 50 nations measured.

Here’s the Top 10

1. Germany
2. France
3. United Kingdom
4.
Canada
5. Japan
6. Italy
7. United States
8. Switzerland
9.
Australia
10. Sweden

This article states that, the index is based on a survey in which respondents from
across 20 major developed and developing countries are asked to rate their
agreement with statements about each nation. The statements cover six
categories: Exports, Governance, Culture, People, Tourism and
Immigration/Investment.

"The NBI is a report card for countries, measuring the
world’s perception of each nation as if it were a public brand," explains Simon
Anholt, NBI founder, in a statement. "Within the top 10 most positively
perceived countries, the ranking reveals a strong correlation between a nation’s
overall brand and its economic status."

Familiarity-wise, the U.S. comes out on top: a majority,
(91%) have at least some knowledge of the U.S. in general, which can be a
double-edged sword. For example, in the Governance aspect, which measures a
nation’s responsible behavior in the international arena as well as how well it
governs itself, the U.S. ranks No. 22, "the lowest of all Western democracies,
Zhao says.

SO MUCH FOR BRAND AWARENESS!

Brand image doesn’t change overnight, but you better be working on it day and night!