12 Books - Author Led Business Book Group discussion

This is our official discussion thread for our December 2013 book.

Jacob,

Really looking forward to this month's book. I read this book when it came out and I really liked it. This will give me a chance to read it again---more deeply---through interacting with Mitch Joel and 12booksclub members.

Mitch and club members,

What is your definition of Marketing?

What do companies mean by having a relationship with customers? I find it little creepy since they want relationship for one thing: Get me to buy more of their product, more often, for more money (definiton of Sergio Zyman, former CMO of Coca Cola).

What I want from a company is not a relationship but their ability to solve my problem cheaper, better, faster, and smarter.

From my experience, most companies don't do this well and spend lot of marketing money on customer acquisition and not on customer retention.

I agree about your points about customer acquisition vs retention.

As to a definition I don't know that I've ever heard one. If someone asked for my definition I might say "The art of communicating one's purpose to an audience of people who share the same purpose or interest."

I suppose that the idea of the word Brand or Branding is by definition about a relationship if we define relationship as a set of ideas or feelings we have about someone or something.

Jacob,

The reason I asked for the definition is that every marketing expert has his own definition. Also, the definition seems to be changing since marketing is treading more into sales.

I think marketing's job is to sell a story; sales' job is to personalize the story so that the customer buys the story.

I don't think I have a relationship with any companies I do business with. I do lot of business with Amazon and Costco because of price and convenience but I don't think I have a relationship with them. I am just a customer number to them. Unless they customize something specific to my unique needs and wants, then I would consider that a relationship.

Jacob,

Another thought on relationship. Not sure if you agree with me on this but we are a hyper transactional in everything we do, from purchase, doing business and even our personal life. All of the companies that are doing well depend on lots of transactiona taking place, such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, etc. Internet and mobile technologies have facilitated this so the way we approach things have to be very transactional.

When I think of relationship I think of it as along term thing. The time horizons in everything we do are so short such as news, politics, business, jobs, movies, sports etc., such that there is no time to develop a relationship from both companies' side as well as consumers' side.

Mitch and club members,

Would like to get your thought on this.

I was reading this short blog on the Gartner's web site titled: "The End of Marketing Campaign" by Jake Sorofman, Research Director.

http://ht.ly/ry7HW

He says the whole idea of running a marketing campaign is becoming less important, and in its place it is being replaced by something he calls continuous storytelling.

He writes:
These stories, of course, may be organized around themes that vaguely resemble the campaigns of yore. But rather than focusing on driving short term gains in units shipped, they’ll focus on driving lifetime value, loyalty and advocacy."

This to me means that everyone essentially will have to become a marketer.

This is not unlike what Dan Pink mentions in his book, "To Sell is Human," where he cites a company called Atlassian that did over $100 million in business without a single salesperson.

When he asked the CEO how this is possible, the CEO said that everyone in the company is a salesperson.

It seems like we are all becoming everything, especially in a small company but I think large company too. Pink refers to this as elasticity.

Jay wrote: "Jacob,

Another thought on relationship. Not sure if you agree with me on this but we are a hyper transactional in everything we do, from purchase, doing business and even our personal life. All ..."

Your point about transactional businesses are valid. I suppose it comes down to how you use the word "relationship." I have a relationship with Google, Amazon, Nike, and Apple if you define relationship as "feelings between two entities."

I also think that relationships can develop when companies become utilities in life. I love the section of the book that talks about Utility Marketing. The example of Charmin and of Amazon with their phone apps is perfect.

Businesses need to take a step back and ask themselves "What kind of content, functionality, or tools would our target market find valuable that, coming from us, would be considered credible and of worth?"

Jay wrote: "Mitch and club members,

Would like to get your thought on this.

I was reading this short blog on the Gartner's web site titled: "The End of Marketing Campaign" by Jake Sorofman, Research Director..."

Agreed and great reference to Pink's book. Also reminded me of the chapter about storytelling in "Made to Stick" by the Heath brothers.

Where is Mitch?

On page 47, he writes the following:
"And once you provide true value, consumers will see no reason to even look at your competitors."

I think customers are always looking today. This may have been true in the past with lack of information, but not today. A company has to keep on providing better value than their competitors.

Today with technology we are all publishers, then is that also true with marketing and sales? Is sales and marketing being subsumed by technology? I think so. What you all think?

Another point. We always heard consultancy like Gartner put people, process and technology in that order with 50/30/20 split. I think today this has flipped to technology, process and people. I just don't think people are that important today like they were in the past. We don't want to admit this but all indications seem to confirm this every day.

Any thoughts on this?

I was reflecting on that idea this morning. I was listening to the chapter in the book that refers to Klout and how we are not only publishers but we are also measured as any other publisher. It makes sense to me.

I'm not sure what the current split is today but the old 50/30/20 is for sure off. It has changed but I would still hope that we value people as our greatest assets...

You will be interested in reading this. I read an interesting blog written by Robert Sutton, a Professor at Stanford, that got me thinking.

http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblo...

I now have to tell people that I do these in the following order:
1) Write
2) Market
3) Sell

I never kind of viewed it that way before reading this post.

Thoughts?

Jay wrote: "You will be interested in reading this. I read an interesting blog written by Robert Sutton, a Professor at Stanford, that got me thinking.

http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblo......"

I like it. I'd have to think through what I do to decide on the order but the list would entail: reading, writing, and teaching.

I forgot about reading since I consider it like breathing; I do it to live. I don't do much teaching but would like to. Teaching is very hard. I consider teaching as one of the most important skill today, even more important than selling.

Have a Happy New Year!