Marketing Rock Star - Elizabeth Pellegrin of CAMC

CAMC Chief Marketing Officer Elizabeth Pellegrin was our lunchtime marketing Rock Star. She spoke to the sold-out crowd at Next Generation Marketing in Charleston about a day in the life of a CMO and the high-level view of the fit for new marketing in the overall marketing mix. http://MarketingGenius.blogspot.com

More - Next Gen Marketing - Huntington, W. Va.

Justin Seibert in action, making a compelling point about customer engagement at Next Generation Marketing, an intensive, high-impact marketing workshop.

Next Generation Marketing Huntington

Jeff James engages the audience around new rules, new marketing. Our series continues tomorrow in Charleston, then later this month in Morgantown, West Virginia. We'll wrap up in Martinsburg on June 12. Thanks to everyone who attended today! Great to be in the learning space with you.

Next Generation Marketing

A few hours ago, we finished preparing for the Next Generation Marketing workshop. Tomorrow is our first stop on the roadshow. So it's off to Huntington, West Virginia, and the Pullman Plaza Hotel. Here are a few highlights from the content presentations:

• Sticky Stories
• Scandal
• Petroglyphs
• Archetypes
• Detractors
• Raving Fans
• Engagement

Sounds like something fun, doesn't it! Hey - if you use your imagination that list could be the storyline (chapter titles) from a Harry Potter novel (the one where he conquers the villains to the delight of everyone before winning the girl). Or not!

I am excited to learn from Jeff James, Justin Seibert and all of our guests. Plus, I can't wait to hear Snowshoe Mountain Resort CEO Bill Rock talk about marketing a mountaintop destination.

And we picked up some press over the weekend in the Charleston Daily Mail and Huntington Herald-Dispatch!

Several seats remain in Huntington but Charleston (on Wednesday, May 14) is almost full to capacity. Check out our nifty event info site and register before it's too late!

Brand Tags - You Must Check This Out!

It is very rare that we repost content from other blogs or point our readers to other Web sites. Our policy, by contrast, is to offer original thoughts, observations and perspectives. In the case of Brand Tags, we find one of those very worthy exceptions that's worth encouraging you to go see. The creator of Brand Tags is Noah Brier, a New York communication strategist and observer/reporter of media trends, especially those related to Web 2.0.

Most marketing professionals and those among the audience who are marketing enthusiasts are students of brands. If you are like me, you enjoy getting inside a brand and understanding the associated perceptions, the factors that influence and constitute a brand's position. Brand Tags is an extremely simple and well done tool that has been created to solicit and analyze such perceptions. It is a tool that I could see becoming widely adopted in the professional practice of brand development. Brand Tags is the proverbial "simple, elegant" solution.

Kudos to Noah and his team for creating this innovative, promising Web application! Go check it out and please post your thoughts in a comment here.

Ethical Void in Marketing?

A couple weeks ago I attended a presentation on ethics in business in Charleston, West Virginia. The presenter, a tenured professor from a respected local university, was commenting on how consumers are justified to expect honesty in corporate communications. Telling the truth was right and just and a mark of corporate integrity, he explained. Then, recognizing the need to clarify his statement, he paused to note the following exception: “Well, except for marketing and advertising. We all know that marketing communication is inherently full of lies.”

I almost fell out of my chair. What was plain to him was entirely troubling to me. He was inferring that marketing is devoid of ethics.

Maybe I should not have been so shocked. After all, Seth Godin, one of America’s most popular and respected marketing gurus, published a book entitled, All Marketers Are Liars. (And he’s a marketing guy!)

It troubles me that marketing is plainly perceived to be full of lies. How did we get to this point? More importantly, what can we do about it? Help me out with your thoughts and suggestions, my dear marketing geniuses.

A Sign of the Times and of a Smart Marketer

Likely, sales have been slowing for this jewelry retailer, as is the case for many retailers across America. Delfine's is an established, respected jewler in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. The just hung this banner a few days ago. The eight-foot wide vinly banner reads: "Long-term wife insurance."

I love two things about it:

1- Delfine's is doing something proactive; they're trying something new! And how many people would just cut the prices and not do anything to pull people in to the store?

2- They understand the benefit of what they are selling! When a man buys jewelry, he's not purchasing a gem set in precious metal. No, he is buying the insurance of keeping his wife happy. Does anyone remember our "Five Benefits" post from a couple years ago. It's worth a re-read. And the jewelry-buying husband certainly enjoys benefits #3 and #5 from my list. Maybe you do need to re-read the "Five Benefits!"

Regardless, I commend Delfine's for their witty "Wife Insurance" banner ad. And I am anxious, as always, to hear what the marketing genius community has to say!

New Animal Planet Logo

This is the new logo for the cable television network Animal Planet. The network is a favorite of my three-year-old son. We watch many of their interesting programs together. He likes the Meerkats and most of the monkey features (not surprising, and perhaps quite genetic, if you know me very well!). Some of the shows with the sharks and lions are "too scary." But that's not the point.


I am not too keen on the new design. What do you think of it? To my eye, it seems too cluttered, too busy. What's with the sideways "M"? At a quick glance, my eye sees "A PLANET" and something resembling an angular "3". Are they trying to imply that the planet has become too small for all the animals? That animals have become squeezed into our planet? Or is it just poor design?



And now here's their old logo. It still looks pretty good to me.

Which do you prefer?

Did they improve or detract from the brand identity?

Let us hear from all of our marketing and design geniuses out there!

A special thanks to our friend, Andy Malinoski, for pointing this out to us.