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Aaron Strout

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A Tale of Two CMO’s: A Sudden Turn of Events (Part III)

May 19, 2010 By Aaron Strout 1 Comment

Continuing on the blog series that I started a few weeks back titled, A Tale of Two CMO’s: A Study in Contrasts, the focus of this week’s installation was supposed to be on creating product “desire.” However, we’ve had a little bit of a turn of events as we find that our old school CMO, James Hossenpfeifer, has been asked by the board of directors at his company to step down at the end of the year. While the official word from James and the company is that this was a mutual decision, I’m going to direct most of today’s questions toward James and ask him to give us a little inside perspective on this turn of events.

———-

James, this news of you stepping as CMO at the end of the year came as a little bit of a surprise. Can you give us a little more insight beyond what was in the initial press release?

James: Ha ha, well, you know that they say that the average tenure of a CMO is only 23 months. Given my run of 14 years, I’d say that I’ve done okay. With that said, I know I’m not “off the record” on your blog but I will share just a little bit more insight as to how this all went down. The bottom line is that the times are a changing. And while my leadership in the marketing world has helped us grow our company into what it is today, my CEO and our board has been pushing harder for our collective style of leadership to change. Between some of the work that John Chambers has accomplished as CEO at CISCO and what A.G. Lafley had done at P&G;, the feeling was that our company should be more focused on open leadership and a flattening of the organization. There has also been a tremendous push to focus more on customer service and social media. Apparently, one of our board members read a book by your colleague, Joseph Jaffe, called Flip the Funnel and it’s got him all hot and bothered about the potential of using social media to better communicate and collaborate with customers. While I don’t disagree with this philosophy or direction, I am also in touch enough with my skills and capabilities to know that I was not the guy to lead us down this path. After a lot of discussion with my CEO and our board of directors, we decided that I would help us look for my successor during this transition.

Tessa: James, I guess I’m not sure whether or not to console you or congratulate you. While I applaud you for being self-aware enough to realize that you weren’t the right fit as the future CMO of your company, it’s sad to see someone with your skill set and knowledge base step down. This may sound a bit patronizing given how much more experience you have than me but I know a lot of people so let me know if you’d like some help finding your next opportunity.

———-
What will you look for in your replacement?

James: If you don’t mind, I’d like to respond to Tessa’s comment first. Tessa, thank you for the kind words and in this case, you can congratulate me. After many years of working too many hours and getting on too many planes, I think I’m going to take some time off and spend it with my wife in our second home. My company has taken good care of me so I don’t have to go back to work but I may think about writing a book or perhaps doing some consulting down the road. Who knows, I may even think about starting one of those blogs to share my experiences with some of the less experienced marketers out there. I know I can’t teach them much about new media but I can talk about some of the fundamentals of marketing that many digital marketers may have missed as they cut their teeth during the dot com days.
Getting back to your question, Aaron, I think my replacement will end up looking a lot like Tessa. I probably shouldn’t say that out loud because that will ruin any chance of me recruiting her but her new approach to marketing is exactly what our board is looking for. What I like about Tessa is that she hasn’t thrown the baby out with the bath water in her approach to generating awareness and purchase and intent for her company. She’s done a fantastic job in balancing traditional marketing tactics like direct marketing and advertising with some of the newer social techniques. By the way, I was really looking forward to what she was going to say about creating product desire in today’s installment. I guess my news pushed that off for at least another week or so.
Tessa: James, I am humbled that you think so highly of my approach to marketing. At the risk of turning this post into a gush fest, I’ll leave my response to that. I would, however, like to comment on something you said earlier. It’s funny that you mentioned the book Flip th
e Funnel as I just received a copy of it in the mail about a month or two ago. It’s sitting on my desk at work and I keep promising myself that I will read it on my next business trip. Aaron, I think it was someone from your office that sent it to me, wasn’t it? Hopefully I’ll check that one off the list soon.
———-
Could you give us a little more detail on your answer to that last question?

James: Sorry, I guess I got distracted. In terms of what I’m looking for in my replacement, I have five high level criteria in mind:
1) 15-20 years of brand marketing experience at a B2C company
2) impeccable communications skills — this is probably the most important item
3) a track record of creating successful marketing programs for a midsize to large company
4) an advanced understanding of how digital and social media work and can be applied to generate awareness, intent, desire and action aka purchase.
5) ideally, this person has experience working at a company that is extremely customer focused (like a Southwest Airlines).
Tessa: James, you might talk to Charlene Li from the Altimeter Group. She’s written a second book titled, Open Leadership and I know she has met with a ton of CMOs and CEOs to talk about this very topic. You might also work with Aaron to get some time scheduled with Joe Jaffe. I hear the two of them are doing a series of private dinners with senior level marketers where Joe talks a little bit some of the theses from the book.
———-
There have been several CMO changes just in the last few weeks with Jeff Hayzlett stepping down from Kodak, Joel Ewanick leaving Nissan to join GM among others?

James: Ironically, I think Jeff Hayzlett is leaving Kodak for the opposite reason that I’m stepping down. I know he’s done some amazing things at Kodak over his last four years and you want to talk about a guy that gets digital and social. In fact, thanks for the reminder because I may have to give Mr. Hayzlett a call to see if he has any interest in my job. Although I’ve heard he’s pretty darn busy with his new book so not sure if he’s really looking for his next gig yet. But back to your question, I mentioned earlier that CMOs are one of the shortest tenured C-level positions in the business. To that end, now more than ever we are facing unusual challenges like budgets that got reduced anywhere between 10-20% in last years’ downturn but with little to no reduction in our marketing outcomes. As CMOs, we are also being pushed to figure out alternatives to traditional marketing tactics as ad effectiveness continues to erode and the popularity of places like Facebook and Twitter continue to grow.
Tessa: Just to second what James is saying, it is a tough time to be a CMO. Not that I’m complaining because I love my job. For me, what seems to have helped me adapt to this ever changing world of marketing is to expand the network of people/companies that influence me. That doesn’t mean I try and read more or attend more events but rather that I look for ideas outside of some of the traditional marketing publications and conferences. In fact, I’m thinking about skipping this years DMA Conference and instead attending Blog World Expo. I know that sounds like a crazy idea but there are so many smart people including more and more brand representatives that show up for
these types of conferences. I know you’re next question will be how the hell I know about Blog World Expo? Twitter of course.
———-
Well, there we have it. While we didn’t learn how James or Tessa generate product desire through new or traditional marketing means, we did find out a little more about what’s required from the CMO of the future. Next week, I’ll try and get our two CMOs back on track and perhaps wrap up the series with a combined focus on desire AND action. In the meantime, keep those questions coming. [Dwight, sorry I couldn’t get to your question/comment from last week’s post about brand driving sales. One way or another, we’ll make sure to pin these two down].

I See You

April 23, 2010 By Aaron Strout 18 Comments

Seeing that today is yesterday was the day that the movie, Avatar, became available on DVD, I couldn’t help *borrow* one of the more critical lines from the movie. The phrase, “I see you” is an obvious nod to the indigenous people of North America who used the phrase to communicate a deeper acknowledgement of one another versus a throw away, “hi” or “how are ya” like we might use today. The bigger question one might ask is, where the hell is this post going?

Okay, I’m getting to that part…

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently with my colleague, Joseph Jaffe, presenting to clients and prospects about the power of social. Part of the presentation talks about what our company, Powered, can do to help companies get the most out of their social initiatives. The balance focuses on the premise of Joe’s most recent book, Flip the Funnel, where he talks about tapping into existing customers to gain new ones. In the book, Joe gives dozens of examples of companies and organizations using the new customer service which relies heavily on social media to operationalize and scale these activities.

The reason I bring this all up is that I’ve had the good fortune of interacting with several companies recently that have “surprised and delighted” me. According to chapter six of Joe’s book, It’s Time to Flip the Funnel, these “surprise and delight” moments align with the stages of the “flipped” funnel  — A.D.I.A. For those not yet familiar with Jaffe-nese, A.D.I.A. stands for:

  • Acknowledgement
  • Dialogue
  • Incentivization
  • Activation
While I’m not 100% where each of these experiences fall in the four phases of the “flipped funnel,” (maybe Joe will head on over and help me out on this one), I can tell you that I feel a deeper connection with each brand AND I have gone out of my way to evangelize on their behalf. What’s important to note is that I’m evangelizing not because they gave me something but because they did something good and unexpected. In each case, I’ve been completely transparent about what I’ve received and if there was any monetary value associated.

—————–

iPadio
Several weeks ago, I needed to do 5 minute clip for my friends at AdVerve. The audio had to be clean and crisp so wasn’t a 100% convinced I could accomplish this goal through my computer or using my normal phone recording device. When I turned to Twitter (thank you Bryan Person, a friend and fellow podcaster), a few folks validated that iPadio was a good solution. Between my tweets about them, a mention on my weekly Quick’n’Dirty podcast show and several podcasts on their platform, they opted to make me their “featured guest of the week.” Needless to say, I was ecstatic. And guess what, no money changed hands.
Sonos
This is an interesting story. A few months ago, my sister-in-law and her husband gave us a Sonos (a wireless multi-room music system) as a house warming gift. Ironically, you actually need to have a wired connection with the first “box” you buy to be able to create an ethernet in your house/apartment. Not knowing this and having the disadvantage of a cable modem that was not near my stereo/speakers kind of ruined my excitement around my new Sonos device. I shared this disappointment with my friend, Jim Storer, who has a Sonos system himself and helped me deduce that I could remedy the problem with a $99 hardware solution.
Without saying a word publicly, I got this public tweet from Thomas Meyer — the man who runs social at Sonos. Within minutes, we had connected via e-mail and Thomas let me know that he would be sending me the $99 piece of hardware after noting, I’m bummed we weren’t able to educate you properly on the need for the first wire. Wow! I told Thomas that I would be happy to tweet/blog about his kind gesture and his response via e-mail was, I never ask or expect anything.  I’m simply in the business of trying to make people happy – either with music – or by solving problems they are having listening to their music.  What happens from there is up to you the consumer.  Let’s first work on making you a happy Sonos customer. I’m happy to let you know Thomas that this is definitely a case of mission accomplished!
Starbucks

I’ve already tweeted about this and I wrote an e-mail that sums up the story so I’m going to share that e-mail below. Last I heard, this e-mail had been forwarded to the head of Starbucks in the southeast and southwest regions of the US. So pleased I was able to return the favor the smart/kind gesture on the part of Tasha, the manager at the Starbucks where this took place…

Laura, 

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Aaron Strout and I have been a loyal Starbucks customer for the last 10+ years. The reason I’m writing to you is to share some exciting activity that happened yesterday as a result of your smart, friendly and innovative staff led by Tasha at your Bee Cave location:

12400 West Highway 71
Bee Cave, TX 78738-6517

My job is focused on all things social media (my company helps big brands like HP, H&R; Block and Kodak think about how to incorporate “social” into their marketing plans). As a result, I spend a lot of time using social media sites/tools, one of which is location-based service, FourSquare. The reason I mention this is that my lovely wife, Melanie, has worked hard to try and understand what I do on a day-to-day basis at my job so she’s started using some of the same social media sites/tools that I have.

Recently, Melanie started using FourSquare which allows people to checkin to venues like Starbucks (or a restaurant, business or park). For users that regularly check into locations, there is a “mayor” title that can be awarded to them on the site which is more for bragging rights than anything else. Well, Melanie just won the title of “mayor” at the 12400 West Highway location a
nd shared this excitement with your staff (I had been the previous mayor so Melanie alerted Tasha and the staff that she was working hard to wrest the title from me). Well, your staff took Melanie’s excitement about her mayorship (a demonstration of her loyalty to this particular Starbucks) and decided to award her the “customer of the month” (see the picture below). This of course THRILLED Melanie so when she told me, I couldn’t help but share this with my “networks” which happen to be about 15,000 people strong.

The reason Tasha, Melanie and I thought that you might care is that you received A LOT of positive feedback from some leading bloggers, Twitterers and Facebook users. I’ve added a couple of links to the blogs/FB updates and the Tweets below. Of particular note, one of the leading marketing Bloggers in the world, Lee Odden, and director of social media at Ernst & Young, Ken Burbary, weighed in on this activity. I also had a request from the person that leads social at a large retailer with a request to include the picture of Melanie’s “customer of the month” sign in a presentation she’s giving next month.

blog

Facebook

Twitter activity captured as an image bellow, if you want to see live links, you can go here


 

[NOTE, THE TWEETPHOTO LINK THAT
IS CITED IN THE TWEETS BELOW IS THE PICTURE ABOVE]


So, this was a long-winded way of saying, congratulations and thank you and your team for doing the right thing. As I mentioned, I spend a lot of time in this space so seeing smart companies like Starbucks empower their stores to do things like this are very exciting to say the least.

Best,
Aaron

Roku
A much shorter story here but equally rewarding. A few weeks ago, I heard some folks talking about the latest Roku player — an inexpensive device that lets one stream Netflix, Pandora, Flickr and most importantly, MLB.tv. As an avid Red Sox fan living outside of New England, I simply can’t live without watching and listening to my hometown heroes during the summer. Last year, I used the kludge approach of plugging my laptop into my tv using a cable. It worked but the quality wasn’t great and it was a pain anytime we wanted to watch. This year, I was determined to make it simple enough so that at the click of a button, I could stream MLB games into my living room with ease [as a side note, using Roku and MLB.tv, one can not only stream games to one’s tv but can also watch games from the beginning, starting with a certain inning or even archives of past games].

My story here is the fact that after talking up Roku once I decided to buy the player, I found out that their MLB.tv interface wouldn’t actually be ready until mid-April. Granted, this isn’t a problem for an ordinary person but as an avid fan, I couldn’t bear the idea of being without the Sox for 10+ days. So, I tweeted to @RokuPlayer on Twitter and let them know that I was a little disappointed with the fact that I couldn’t use my player yet for the very reason that I purchased it for. The solution? An invite into their private beta so that I could start enjoying MLB.tv through Roku sooner than the general public. Yes, one might argue that Roku should have just made sure that their MLB.tv interface was ready for everyone out of the gate but at least they were willing to help out someone that demonstrated that they cared. This is a case of no money changing hands but the simple invite into a beta program returned me to “avid fan” status.

Cirque du Soleil
Last October at Blog World Expo, I met Jess Berlin, the head of social for Cirque du Soleil. While I didn’t get a chance to spend a ton of time talking with her, I was pleased and impressed when she showed up for a panel I moderated with Reem Abeidoh, Lucretia Pruitt, Micah Baldwin and Jesse Stay (and trust me, I know she was there for them, not me, but I was impressed none-the-less). Following that event, Jess and I stayed in touch via Twitter and before she could say, “Bob’s your uncle,” I had her signed up as a guest on the Quick’n’dirty podcast show.

Jess of course was a fantastic guest and interestingly, one of the things we talked about on the show was how she — on behalf of Cirque — reaches out to influencers to get them to experience their shows. Chris Brogan did a nice write up on this post Blog World Expo 2008 which I think epitomizes the approach. Fast forward a couple of months and Jess is telling both Jennifer and I that she would like to give us tickets to Cirque in SF (for Jennifer) and Austin (for me). Needless to say, the offer was with no strings attached but I can happily say, I loved the show (Alegria). It was exciting, breathtaking, visually stimulating and no animals were harmed!

—————–

So what’s the moral of the story? Companies need to do a better job “seeing” their customers. This doesn’t need to include money. However, it does mean taking a little more time to get to know, acknowledge, interact with and incentivize their customers. When done correctly, this results in activation which equals referrals, evangelism and great word of mouth in general.

Are you “seeing” your customers?

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