The blog is a place to express my concerns on issues driving teaching and research on integrated marketing communications (IMC) and public relations. Postings are an eclectic mix of published, quoted and original work. Topics include education, controversy, stakeholders, trends. Links and ideas are welcome.
Showing posts with label Integrated Marketing Communications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Integrated Marketing Communications. Show all posts
The international public relations (PR) consultancy sector grew bigger and stronger in 2010 and is expected to grow again in 2011, according to the latest World Report from the International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO). Digital and social media services are playing an increasingly important role as PR gains share against other marketing disciplines, though staffing remains a challenge. The consultancy industry saw moderate or double-digit growth in 2010 in a majority of the 24 countries surveyed.
The world’s two largest markets for public relations – the US and the UK – both rebounded from a five percent decline in fee income in 2009 to record a double-digit recovery in 2010. US consultancies posted an average 11% increase in overall fee revenue, while the UK saw a 13% increase. Both also saw improvements to profitability, the UK by an average of 30%.
Western European countries saw more modest growth or nearly unchanged conditions (from -1% to +3.5%), though the Nordics and Central and Eastern European countries fared better, with average growth ranging from 5% to 12% for the year. Brazil and Russia pushed ahead with 23% and 17% increases in revenues respectively, supported by strong economic expansion in their countries. Australia grew by approximately 10%, fuelled by the increasing internationalization of public relations activities. "International PR Sector in Good Health with Double Digit Growth in 2010." Web log post.Pria.com.au. Public Relations Institute of Australia, 30 May 2011. Web. 30 May 2011. .
The reknowned Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports in an updated study from 2009 to late 2010 that public relations (PR) will far outstrip "advertising/ promotions" in creating new managerial jobs. In fact, advertising-promotions management will decline -1.7 percent and fail to even replace the positions openned due to retirement. PR will grow 12.9%. More entry level and tactical jobs as "PR specialists" will grow 24%. A number of PR related jobs in writing will also grow (tech writers 18.2%, writers and authors 14.8%). The report will remind some readers of a popular book nearly a decade ago: Ries and Ries The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR in 2002.
The good news for communication professionals in PR and journalism in the first two decades of the 21st century is the growth of PR according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It may be surprising that even branding does not give advertising the lift some expected while corporate branding (reputation) and marketing PR for products and services branding will grow.
The negative 1.7%. means that growth in advertising and promotions management is projected to be zero from 2008 to 2018 and even jobs that exist will not be filled 100%. However, to put this BLS employment category of advertising, marketing, promotions, PR and sales management in perspective, the employment size of sales management will continue to be 6-7x that of PR and marketing management will be 3X that of PR. PR will continue to be 27% greater number of jobs than advertising and promotions and increase to 45% more by 2018. (T. Alan Lacey and Benjamin Wright Occupational Employment Projections to 2018)
For young professionals this does not mean that some of the skills and knowledge of advertising is dead but that the institution of advertising may be in decline. The same can be said for journalism. Some of the institutions of journalism may be dying but the values and skills of journalism may not be dead. In fact, the allignment of PR and journalism has long been a professional track for journalists using their gifted writing and communication skills. More on this in a future blog. At the Medill School I have offered and am planning classes to address this gap in employment and thinking. My graduate and undergraduate classes include topics in PR and marketing to cross train advetising students and journalism students. Also, remember that despite the lack of general opportunities in some fields there is always room for talented and well-educated and trained professionals in any field.
http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/faculty/imcfulltime.aspx?id=128377
http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Advertising-Rise-PR/dp/0060081988/denominatorbo-20
IMC (Advertising Department) used to send almost 100% of the graduates in the late 1980s and early 1990s to marcom agencies advertising, PR and direct marketing. When these firms were merged under holding companies they still hired out students in IMC but also hired MBAs for the corporate offices.
After teaching MBAs for over a decade I found that they would and could work in any industry doing almost anything. Look around your office or room and ask if you are willing to sell anything you see and work for a firm that sells it. The inclination may define an some of the 265,000 MBAs who graduate each year. There are two attactions to hiring IMC students: 1. they use communications as a primary and unique strategic advantage to conduct business. 2. they like to work in the communications industry (agencies, media, publishing).
The 15 month degree is also a bit cheaper than some private school MBAs. All individuals considering graduate should seriously consider "running the numbers" or calculating the return on investment of the degree. You will need to search this blog site for help but also ask the schools 1. all direct costs (tuition, books, travel for classes) 2. housing costs in area as more or less costly than your current costs, 3. estimate loss of income from leaving work to return to school, not working while in school and how long it takes to find a job after graduation (a serious issue in this economy since it can be 6 months or more). What is the cost of borrowing and finally what will be the estimated increase in your salary based on earning a new degree (demand details here). Naturally you can add less economic factors like the value of pride of a graduate degree, meeting your life partner in school, taking time off from work, etc. But, please run the numbers to show that you are a business person with your own decisions.
However, at NU IMC students are educated and trained to be able to apply their in-depth knowledge of communications which is not taught in MBA prograsms to any type of company in B2B and B2C and NGOs and even government. They work in "marketing services", public relations, employee relations, branding (with some distinctions), investor relations, issues management and strategic planning and more.
While many MBAs are hired to work in brand management in consumer goods companies; IMC students are better suited to work on communications (rather than pricing, logistics and product issuues) of branding. There is some confusion in this hiring arena by HR professionals since MBAs may have taken only one or even no course on advertising and promotion, no courses on PR, media analysis and none on database customer analysis. Still, MBAs dominate the brand management hiring.
Of course, IMC students are just as entrepreneurial as as MBAs. They are able and willing to form their own companies (usually with a communications advantage). Search for IMC at Northwestern for a more comprehensive insight to the degree.http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/imc/default.aspx. If you want more information on the salaries, employers, careers of IMC students contact the school for details.
Office hours: Wednesdays or by appointment and before and after class c-caywood@northwestern.edu
3-101 McCormick Tribune Center
847 491-5011 Office phone. Or 847 4915011
Rachael Mersey Office hours: Wednesdays or by appointment and before and after class rdmersey@northwestern.edu
3-114 McCormick Tribune Center
Phone: 847-491-2196
II. Course Description, Goals and Objectives
From a very senior communications executive of a top branded company: “Let me offer up Walker’s Law: The greater the amount of communication, the less valuable bad communications and the more valuable good communications. Here’s how I got there. Today, many of us communicate essentially from the moment we wake up until we turn out the lights at night, sixteen hours or more. (If you include passive one-way communication, like radio and TV, that number goes even higher.) This is far more than our grandparents or their grandparents communicated. With sixteen hours of communications a day, only the good stuff cuts through the clutter and gets noticed.
The quickest way to the top in any organization is to be able to express your thoughts concisely and compellingly. Especially for those just starting out, it provides a way to set yourself apart and show your potential in a very tangible and noticeable way. I continually remind those on my team: “If this e-mail (or memo or presentation or elevator conversation) was the only thing a top executive had to judge you by, are you OK with that?” Often it is what they will be judged on. As a result I advise every professional, but particularly those starting out, to put communication at the top of the list of things to work on. Communication matters.”
Integrated Communications (Communication Skills and Persuasive Messages) is an IMC course designed to improve students’ skills in developing and delivering traditional and newer technological communications. The course emphasizes knowledge of the how communications can contribute to policy, and strategy. It also provides the rationale or explanation of why communications is needed or a particular tactic would be productive.
The course will improve your skills in writing for business, skills in oral presentation, interpersonal skills in business environments, and, when needed, persuasive messages. The course builds on the title of the degree and your personal orientation and commitment to communication. In the professionally competitive spirit on NU’s campus, we would like to say that our goal is to make you 20 percent better communicators than your peers enrolled in the Kellogg School of Management.
This course is designed to give you an overview of the role of communications for a wide range of stakeholders relevant to Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). We will address the “C” in IMC as a policy and strategic advantage for marketing and management leaders. The strategic elements are unique to communications. They include an audience based 4 step process from the international work of IMC faculty and consultants.
It also contains rich theoretical concepts that have been tested time and again to provide the argument why a particular strategy or tactic would be useful for solving organizational problems. Several strategic research and data tracking methods for communications will be introduced for your use to help you defend your recommendations. Most managers will not have the specific knowledge you will possess from this class and the IMC curriculum – you must be prepared to prove the value of your suggestions. You will learn that in this class.
We seek to:
1.Write fundamental and more advanced types of IMC messages and know the basic elements of each type.
2.Write clear, brief and accurate pieces of communication that employ correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, usage and context.
3.Edit our own writing for basic errors and correct them by using proper editing symbols.
4.Write and edit fast enough to be able to complete assignments under deadline pressure in a corporation, in the field, on the way to the meeting or on the podium.
5.Use Associated Press (AP) style as followed by businesses and other organizations.
6.Apply judgments to sets of facts and then synthesize those facts into openings that are concise and writing that is organized and coherent.
7.Know when to attribute information in order to avoid editorializing, and know how to handle attribution smoothly and quotations properly.
8.Gather facts and transfer them accurately.
9.The strategic process used by hundreds of businesses trained by the faculty gives the tactical methods above a means to be measured and rewarded. To evaluate the tactical activities above we will learn about general communications audits, digital database audits, readability studies and competitive message analysis software.
IV. Assignments / Projects
You will have many manageable assignments in this course. Assignments are due on the dates in the outline, but many of the assignments can be completed in the weekly lab with a writing teacher and coach supporting you. For all assignments, emphasis is on quality of writing and presentation. The intent is to constantly improve your skills.
The course imitates the standards of professional communicators and marketing communicators and researchers in corporations, agencies and consulting firms. This is not just a class but a simulation of your ability to produce communications clearly, accurately and quickly. Like the writing examinations corporations, consulting firms and agencies are administering to job applicants; we expect you to be able to write and speak intelligently about your field with grammatical and rhetorical precision.
Class participation
You should always be prepared to contribute to class discussions, demonstrating preparation by asking questions and by integrating the vocabulary and concepts from the readings into class comments. You will complete a self-evaluation for attendance and class participation at the mid-point with the help of Searle Teaching Center and at the end of the quarter. Your effective class comments may address questions raised by others, integrate material from this and other courses, draw on real-world experiences and observations, or pose new questions to the class. We encourage your thoughtful contribution from your reading, experience and inspired class discussion.
High-quality participation involves knowing when to speak and when to listen. Comments that are repetitive, disrespectful, or lacking sufficient foundation are discouraged. Students will have the opportunity to post relevant news articles via Twitter and to elaborate on their relevance in the class
Mid-term Subject Examination
There will be a one 90 minute mid-term exam in class. The exam will consist of several short essay questions about the readings and lectures. You will be given the reading before the exam and will be expected to apply the content from class to answer the questions. Some suggested topics will be part of the review session before the day of the examination.
Final Subject Examination
There will be a 110 minute final exam in class. The final exam will also consist of several short essay questions about the readings and lectures. You will be given the readings before the exam and will be expected to apply the content from class to answer the questions. Some suggested topics will be part of the review session before the day of the examination.
Final Editing Examination
You will also take a final editing examination in your final laboratory session. The exam will be your “post” editing exam to demonstrate your graded improvement from the class entry “pre” editing examination.
Peer and Personal Evaluation
Also, please note that you will be asked to complete a peer evaluation of each of your lab partners. In addition to quantitatively evaluating the contribution of each team member (including yourself), you will offer developmental feedback for each teammate as well. You and your peers will evaluate your own contributions to the progress and success of the class. The expectation is that you will share in the success of the class with your participation.
V. Evaluation
Grading:
There are four cases, 6 editing assignments, 2 oral assignments, two examinations on content (reading, lectures, panels, and cases), discussion, Twitter site usage, peer evaluation, pre and post editing examinations
All work in the course contributes to your final grade. This includes in-class assignments and lab homework, quizzes and examinations. In keeping with the proud Medill tradition, you must rewrite any assignment with a √- or a grade of C+ or below. Your grade on a rewrite will combine with the original grade for an average grade on the assignment. There is the tradition of a “Medill F” where you misspell the names of the people, company or product/service in the IMC work.
VI. Honesty, Plagiarism, and Cheating
This course follows the Northwestern University code of student conduct as described in the NU student handbook and the Medill code of ethics. Questions of academic dishonesty, cheating, plagiarism, and other violations, their terms and conditions are all listed in the Student Handbook. The Student Handbook outlines the contract between the student, the instructor, and the University. Please read this and familiarize yourself with the terms and conditions.
The headline from Medill is: You cannot cheat in any way. It can cost you your graduate degree.
VII. Labs
Please attend your assigned lab. There isn’t space for extra students in the lab rooms. Unless you arrange to shift to another lab with another student and notify the instructor in advance, the instructor may give you a zero on your work that day.
VIII. Course Outline
The 10 Week 19 lecture/discussion classes would include the following topics:
1.Stakeholder Targeting and Mapping (1) (supported with video) Readings and theory related to: Eckhouse: Rhetoric and Competitive Advantage. Organization and Competitive Messages
·Mainstreaming: TV's ability to pull people to a common understanding of an issue.
What is freedom of speech for corporations? Politically oriented corporate messaging? How can we have a common understanding in a diverse nation? If it works in China should we use it in the U.S. and vice versa?”
·Technological determinism: Media communication and the technology it uses help shape the society in which we live.
What is the real effect of a wildly popular magazine in this age such as People Style Watch? What is our perception of our society? Is it the medium or the message again? How does any important issue, product or service become successful in a high tech age?
2.Applied Rhetorical Communications Theory in IMC and Journalism 1 Read Competitive Communications Eckhouse Classical Argument and Modern Business and articles on specified communication theory
·Uses and gratifications: People use media to fill personal and social needs.
Can the newer cable media go too far with Fox and MSNBC? Is this the new propaganda age?
·Agenda melding: People join groups by "melding" agendas.
What about Chinese on-line buying clubs for building commercial communities? Can we integrate business and society with common green agenda?
·Dissonance: When confronted by new information, people experience mental discomfort and they work to limit or reduce that discomfort.
3.Applied Communications Theory in IMC and Journalism 2 (see video for review) Eckhouse: Refutation Argument as Inquiry, Strategic Disposition,
·Parasocial relationships: People establish social relationships with media personalities.
Q scores with Fox, Good Morning America and micro channel hosts. What is the ROI value of “fame”? Is trustworthiness and branding related?
·Framing: To make sense of events, we categorize them.
“Progressive is the new liberal”. Who uses the term? The President’s talking about stakeholders. Who defines the context of business and society?
·Knowledge gap: The more information in the social system, the more the higher SES groups will gain in knowledge compared to those in lower SES groups.
Food deserts, environmental racism, hourly wages from non-union shops - What is sustainable for whom? And, who decides?
4.Applied Communications Theory in IMC and Journalism 3 Eckhouse: Ethics in Argument – Classical Fallacies, Managing Ethos – Argument and Credibility
·Adoption: Adopters pass through five steps--awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, adoption.
Is the old model too linear as some IMC experts claim? Isn’t adoption even more important in a widely growing technological, entrepreneurial and innovative economy?
·Cultivation: People who are heavy viewers of TV tend to believe that the "real" world is more similar to the world seen on TV than do light viewers.
What are the marketing and policy ethical issues? What about product alignment with the gullible or less cynical viewers (children, elderly, undereducated)?
·Symbolic Interaction: People give meaning to symbols and then those symbols control peoples' behavior.
Why aren’t graphics and imagery more important in IMC? What has happened to semiotics in the classroom and research programs of IMC?
5.Reputation Case Study in Communications, Paul Argenti book. Case brief and discussion.
§Two-step flow: Certain members of society are active consumers of media and become opinion leaders who influence others.
Does this include bloggers, tweeters, those who are linked or use retweet or Bitly or Tinyurl?
6.Executive Panel on the Role of Communications in Leadership - Best Communication Practices in IMC. Senior managers of communications who participated in design of this class.
7.Authentic Storytelling Structure and Delivery 1 (supported with video/lab)
·Spiral of silence: Public opinion consists of those opinions you can express in public w.o socially isolating yourself.
Will we be allowed to blog about work? Can we be too transparent?
8.Storytelling Structure and Delivery 2 (Presentation of best examples from lab practice)
·Social learning theory: Children learn behaviors by watching them, including watching them on TV.
What balance should IMC put into the system? What greater damage can advertising do to marketing? Can advertising refocus its power? Doesn’t transparent PR gain in stature?
9.MARCOM Case Studies in Communications, Argenti, Brief and discussion
·Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM): Persuasive messages can be processed using either the central (recipient is motivated) or peripheral routes (recipient is not motivated).
Voting compares to which purchases? Is digital buying central? How do we process increasing numbers of messages, over increasing numbers of channels?
10. Midterm Examination on readings and lectures to-date
11. Advanced Writing and Editing 1 (supported with video/lab) Eckhouse: Managing Ethos: Conciseness; Word Choice, Syntax, Punctuation, Grammar.
AP Manual of Style and Dunsky Chapters 1-4
12. Advanced Writing and Editing 2 (corporate standards for employment)
AP Manual of Style and Dunsky Chapters 5 to conclusion
13. Communication Metrics 1, How communications is measured, Eckhouse: Electronic Ethos - Computer Revision,
14. Communication Metrics 2, Simple to sophisticated metrics Kellogg Advertising and Media, Caywood and Diermeier Chapters
15. Media Presentation Practice and Theory (supported with video/lab)
·Agenda setting: The media don't tell people what to think; they tell them what to think about.
Who is setting the industrial policy level agenda? What about extreme cable as product endorsers. Does it make sense?
16. Media Case Studies in Communications, Argenti
17. Global and Cross Cultural Communications
·Cross-cultural Theory and experiences
18. Global/Cross Cultural Case Studies in Communications, Argenti
19. Executive Panel on the Role of Global Communications in Leadership
20. Comprehensive Final Examination
Communication Coaching and Labs 10 sessions
Lab sessions for coaching and editing, rewriting would be held weekly for 1.5 hours in groups of around 18 students. The five sessions would meet from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in a dedicated writing lab.
Writing and Editing 6 assignments from IMC field: The assignments would depend on your background education, experience and testing with your peers. It would continue to include advertising, public relations, direct marketing and general business assignments. All work would be evaluated on progress in performance.
Oral Communications Delivery 4 assignments: Each student will prepare two 2-3 minute presentations that will be videoed and critiqued. Some will be presented to the entire student body.
The following are insights from experts on the need for communications in the education and training of young professionals.
From a graduate business professor teaching MBAs in marketing:
Strategically, I believe you still have the old dilemma that you addressed early in your career at Medill. Can P.R. ever be true to itself if it is part of marketing? This debate was resolved twenty years ago—P.R. is part of marketing. My view and nearly every time there is a major P.R. issue or marketing driving dissemination of information there have been problems for P.R. Marketing ultimately is responsible to the company. No matter how much we talk about customer voice being represented by marketing, in the final analysis the company is paying marketing and it “HEARS THE VOICE” it wants to hear.
However, P.R. although paid by a client has the greater mission of correctly disseminating information as it is known.
“Let me offer up Walker’s Law: The greater the amount of communication, the less valuable bad communications and the more valuable good communications. Here’s how I got there. Today, many of us communicate essentially from the moment we wake up until we turn out the lights at night, sixteen hours or more. (If you include passive one-way communication, like radio and TV, that number goes even higher.) This is far more than our grandparents or their grandparents communicated. With sixteen hours of communications a day, only the good stuff cuts through the clutter and gets noticed.
The quickest way to the top in any organization is to be able to express your thoughts concisely and compellingly. Especially for those just starting out, it provides a way to set yourself apart and show your potential in a very tangible and noticeable way. I continually remind those on my team: “If this e-mail (or memo or presentation or elevator conversation) was the only thing a top executive had to judge you by, are you OK with that?” Often it is what they will be judged on. As a result I advise every professional, but particularly those starting out, to put communication at the top of the list of things to work on. Communication matters.” (from a very senior executive in our business).
Global Brands from China
10/1/2009 - Part of TCBN's Global Brands Series
Professor Caywood teaches integrated marketing communications at the Medill School at Northwestern University. He is also a speaker at the Global Brands Summit 2009. He has taught Chinese foreign students in his classroom and traveled to China to speak to business professionals abroad. The Global Brand Summit takes place this year in Chicago on October 20-21, 2009, and in addition to Professor Caywood, will feature many notable speakers, including marketing expert Philip Kotler and Sina.com's Cao Guo Wei.
Interview Transcript
TCBN: Hello and welcome to The China Business Network, I’m Michael McCune and joining me today is Professor Clarke Caywood. Professor Caywood teaches integrated marketing communications at the Medill School at Northwestern University. He is also founder of the US-China Brand Group and chair of the newly established IMCA or Integrated Marketing Communications Association.
The association is organizing the 2009 Global Brand Summit with a special emphasis on the expansion of US and China businesses into each other’s markets.
Professor Caywood, thank you for joining us today.
CAYWOOD: I’m glad to be with you.
TCBN: Now I understand that early in your career you were pretty focused on public policy and politics. When did you have a change of tact that China became more of a professional involvement for yourself?
CAYWOOD: Well as an academic the opportunity to work with the Chinese universities has just grown phenomenally over the last decade really because of – it is almost hard to stop curiosity about American business because of the changes in Chinese policies.
But my first jobs were working for political leaders in Wisconsin. I will say that given the temperament in some parts of the country, they these were men and women who were never indicted nor nearly indicted. They were all very good people. And I helped them run trade missions to China as well as Japan, South America, and other locations when the idea was to see what Wisconsin could offer to the world in terms of trade, and what the world could offer back in exchange.
So that also piques your curiosity when you realize that the economic world does not just revolve around the Midwest or any kind of narrow band of geography.
TCBN: Well you mentioned the academic exchanges. The opportunities have proliferated over the years. There have been a lot of not just academic exchanges, but student groups coming from China to Medill if I am not mistaken.
CAYWOOD: We’ve had a tremendous growth in this area. Maybe due to myself, I suspect a little bit because I travel all over China to speak to college groups as well as executive groups. And another colleague of mine, Don Schultz, who speaks in China extensively as well.
Our message that we both share in terms of IMC, and in my case doing a fair amount of work on crisis management, seems to resonate very well with Chinese guests.
But, as you know, Chinese, the best Chinese students, have been coming to America for 40 years, 35 years, at the very least. Because when I was professor at Northwestern as well as a student (excuse me, at Wisconsin, I apologize) we had many engineering students, science students, directly from China, mainland China-as well as Taiwan.
So this is a long tradition, but at our program recently here in Illinois at Northwestern, we’ve had almost half of our students, in some years more than half of our students, are PRC or Taiwanese.
TCBN: You know, it is interesting that you mentioned what the main focus of early students was, particularly in the hard sciences, and trying to build skill sets either for pursuing opportunities here or back in China. People would have normally thought perhaps in China that marketing was more art than science, but in today’s more sophisticated integrated world, there is a skill set that needs to be learned in order to really get the most out of marketing programs. Do you see this appreciated by the student coming from China?
CAYWOOD: I think that is a great insight. One of the advantages we’ve found with our Chinese students is the discipline of learning to work with statistics and mathematics.
And while this is kind of a well known weakness of the American educational model (although we all as individuals in our own families try to correct this as much as we can) we’ve done some good work in the United States with trying to get young woman in America more mathematically inclined and so forth over the last ten or twenty years, but clearly these young men and women who come here have scored exceptionally well in this area.
And our form of marketing, an integrated marketing communication form, requires a very deep understanding of databases. We track a lot of data about the customer as well as other experts, opinion leaders, the media, and journalists such as yourself, trying to find what thought leaders are saying about a product or a service or a brand of a company.
So that led us to develop more refined kinds of courses that make the students know something that their bosses don’t know, and of course that is reason enough to hire them because bosses want the newest knowledge and I think that’s what we’re providing.
TCBN: And with this conference that you’ve come to put on, really you’re not as much focused on students it seems, as well as looking more broadly at the professional awareness that needs to be facilitated with regard to integrated marketing communications. Can you tell me, what was the genesis of this conference?
CAYWOOD: Yes. Absolutely. Well you know, I am always selling my students. That is my reason for being and my career. But it’s clear to us from travelling all over, and from a seminar series that we did about three years ago with myself, a colleague from Kellogg, and a former of governor of Wisconsin. We all went to China as a team and we presented a branding seminar across several cities in China and my colleague from Kellogg spoke on his specialty which is more product brand at the microlevel, my work has been at the corporate brand, the reputation of the company, the holding company, so we call that corporate brand, and the governor spoke about national branding or province branding.
This is prior to the Olympics, and so we had a great audience for this message. They seemed to realize increasingly, the Chinese business leaders, that they could build all three aspects of their brand, including how can they build a reputation - being a brand that is respected in China and can be respectable all over the world.
So that led us to look at branding more closely and this conference will specialize on all three levels of that branding, where we’ll talk about all three levels of branding, and we think the timing is right to help grow out of this economic doldrums were in.
TCBN: So when you look at the attendees at this conference coming up and you think about what skill sets there trying to buttress, or knowledge there trying to augment, when coming here are they all coming from almost the same angle, because we all have the same channels just maybe with different maturation and usage, or are there really sort of skill sets that pose challenges for one group as opposed to the other.
CAYWOOD: Well I think they’ll all know what these are. These are men and women who are operating at very high levels, for example one of our keynote speakers is the chairman, or CEO, of Sina.com So we’re talking about very sophisticated business men and women who are leaders in finance as well as manufacturing.
But the Chinese will teach us something about how to build longer-term relationships, and how to manage those, and perhaps not to be quite so paranoid about the quarter-to-quarter performance that our stock market insists on. I think that American businessmen can learn a lot and to their advantage.
But I believe the Chinese are coming also to hear our business leaders. We have Phil Kotler who is the premiere marketing professor in the world. There is something called the Kotler Award which is a major Chinese marketing award in China. Phil is a colleague here at Northwestern and his name is just known everywhere.
So I know they are attracted by Phil’s knowledge. We’re bringing people from many of the top agencies and top corporations. So that is a good exchange,
And for some reasons I doubt it, and sometimes I think maybe we need to keep growing rapidly too. American education is considered superior to other educational models in the rest world. And so they are quite often interested in what the new thinking is here in the States. So as long as we still have that advantage we’ll celebrate it and we’ll make sure we put extra effort into improving our knowledge on important topics.
TCBN: Well we certainly look forward to the outcomes of the conference, and I look forward to attending myself. And I understand that both Phil, who you just mentioned is one of the featured speakers along with Cao Guo Wei, the CEO of Sina Coproation - and a long list of esteemed professionals from both sides of the ocean. So it seems like you’ve pulled together fertile ground for good conversation and insight.
CAYWOOD: I’m as anxious to attend this conference as I hope my guests and invitees are because I know I’ll gain a great deal from it, and it will give me many examples that I can use when I travel back to China and when I teach class. I know business men and women here in the United States and in China that will attend will find great examples of best practices and will build new business relationships and friendships.
TCBN: I’ve been speaking today with Professor Clarke Caywood from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Integrated Marketing Communications.
As the Chair of the IMCA, he is chairing the 2009 Global Brand Summit which will take place in Chicago October 20-21 of this year.
Thank you very much for joining us today Clarke.
CAYWOOD: Thank you.
Monday, June 22, 2009
For my readers who have sponsored individual residencies for the 11 week summer program at NU's IMC graduate program for over 22 years (and donated over $2.2 million based upon the sponsorship of my IMC PR students). Also for alumni to comment on the change from individual to team projects for the summers.
1.Consider Alternative models to teach from a think tank (e.g. opposition strategy research (White House), opposition research (all political campaigns) de-positioning plans (Silicone Valley)). 2.We might give the students an intensive true creative agency or creative unit experience and assignment to broaden our work in IMC. 3.We might send the teams into the SBU level for some period of time to really understand the business. 4.Perhaps some teams ought to work on a project that really challenges them: heavy communications where communications is not their strength or heavy numbers where numbers are their weakness - to bolster their education. 5. Not-for-Profit projects often give you access to higher officials and greater impact - though we used to waive fees 6. The new University President could benefit from an IMC review. 7. Students might master industry software and then offer a "shoot out" or competition at the end of summer 8. Students might work on a project and then work with J. students to use editorial research method to understand j. risks. 9. Students might work on a national competition in marketing, business, - several are available though timing is an issue. 10. Students might work with engineering students or Transportation Center students on doctoral level or technical projects needing marketing communications or communications. 11. Rather than using a four step model or one of the other strategic models; the students should concentrate on only one very, very deep facet of a project. 12. Students should operate as a skunk works mirror team for any number of agencies or company projects. Rapid work would be demanded. 13. On a number of the projects the students can be organized to develop a. IMC literature searches, b. global IMC lit. searches, c. database libraries, d. software libraries and tests, e. theory-tool inventories of the IMC program, f. more 14. Conduct transparent research that is written to be presented at academic and industry seminars by the students for greater awareness 15. Publish the work on a PDF or printed format as an exercise and follow-up to the presentation. 16. Revamp all the ideas above for publication, presentation in China or other relevant countries
Some ideas for readers to comment upon - a course at Northwestern on Business Lessons from Politics Using the 2007-2008 U.S. Presidential Campaigns: Title: IMC Lessons from Politics and Policy – 2007-2009 Marketers and communicators are more aware than ever of the impact of IMC on the 2008 Presidential election and the continued communications by the White House (Whitehouse.gov). Some experts say the Obama campaign stands as the most outstanding strategic marketing and communications plan and program in history. What are the examples and evidence of the campaign’s success? What are the lessons from 2007 to 2009 that business leaders, not-for-profit leaders and political managers will need to know for achieving fundraising, volunteer or corporate social responsibility goals? The bar has been raised for client and professional expectations on IMC marketing plans and continuous campaigns. Parts of the dozen books already published on the campaign, along with research supporting the campaign decisions document the value of new marketing strategies. The class will work with political and policy business and political campaign experts to analyze the campaign with lessons for IMC practitioners in mind. The course will also provide insight to the role of government and business working on common issues and policies that will dominate the conversations between business and government over the next 3-8 years. The course planning committee includes a former Governor, an IMC graduate who is a political consultant, other communications professionals who work on campaigns and business accounts and the professor with several years of campaign and public office experience along with research and public commentary experience for the media. Possible Readings Barack, Inc.: Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign by Barry Libert and Rick Faulk (Hardcover - Jan 15, 2009) Buy new: $19.99 $13.59 (84) How Obama Won by Earl Ofari Hutchinson (Paperback - Dec 18, 2008 $13.95 Campaign Advertising and American Democracy by Michael M. Franz, Paul B. Freedman, Kenneth M. Goldstein, and Travis N. Ridout (Paperback - Nov 28, 2007) Campaigning for Hearts and Minds: How Emotional Appeals in Political Ads Work (Studies in Communication, Media, and Public Opinion) by Ted Brader (Paperback - Jan 1, 2006) (3) The SAGE Handbook of Political Advertising by Dr. Lynda Lee Kaid and Christina Holtz-Bacha (Hardcover - Jun 14, 2006) “Campaigns and Elections: Politics” campaign industry publication. E.g. “Case Study-Integrating Old and New Media June 2009. oTheLivingRoomCandidate.com (compilation of 58 years of political broadcast advertising and web ads, Whitehouse.gov, www.barackobama.com ( organizing for America). Other consulting sites, directories, sources from industry and the web. Industry and academic research articles from the instructor. Optional: Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth by Ben Rigby and Rock the Vote (Paperback - April 25, 2008)
Suggested Topics for lectures, research topics, speakers and discussion: Chronology of the 2007-2008 Presidential Campaign: How Presidential Political Planning Works IMC in Campaigns: A short history of campaign communications Controversy about political advertising and communications: First Amendment Threats and Protection Does political communication work? How much does it cost? Social Media Applications in the Democrat 2008 Primaries Traditional Campaigns – Hillary Clinton New Politics Campaign – Barack Obama Where were the Republicans? Is the 2008 Campaign an Aberration? Measuring Political Campaigns – During the Campaign and Controversy Changing strategies and tactics mid-stream based on instant polls and analytics Staying the course – Theory of Leadership Political and Corporate Corruption Lessons from Campaigns for Business The CEO as a public figure and the public corporation Mobilizing voter consumers (VC) old and new school Does Negative Political Advertising and Campaigning Work? Should Business Use it? Campaign Transparency Self-correcting campaigns Does political financing of business = business financing of politics?
