BCA

By John Riley

This CM survey was based on a poll of 511 senior marketers by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, in conjunction with the American Marketing Association. Additional content from the World Advertising Research Center. 12 August 2009

Nearly two-thirds of US marketers are now using social media, and this channel is set to increase its share of total expenditures into double figures over the next five years according to a new study.

It found that 65.4% of companies are using social networks like Face Book as part of their efforts to connect with consumers.

This compared with 52.3% utilizing video- and photo-sharing sites like YouTube and Flicker, 50.9% writing corporate blogs, and 44.4% with a presence on services like Twitter.

Among the firms employing these tools, 81d% did so for “brand awareness and brand building”, with 55.8% hoping to “acquire new customers”, and 51.9% introducing new products via these portals.

While the typical marketer spent 3.5% of their budget on this medium over the last year, this is expected to rise to 6.1% in the next 12 months, and to 13.7% by 2013.

By contrast, ad spending through traditional media will fall by 7.9% for the year ending in August 2010, although online outlay will increase by 9.5% in this period.

Financial support for brand-building initiatives will also grow by 4.5%, with CRM expenditures climbing by 6.4%, and new product introductions posting an uptick of 9.3%.

In terms of consumer spending habits, 48% of contributors agreed purchase volumes will increase in the next 12 months, while 28.3% predicted overall sales would decline.

In terms of their spending priorities, 45.6% of respondents said they would focus on promoting existing products in current markets.

By contrast, 17.7% plan to push their present portfolio in new markets, 26.2% will launch new products in their present areas of operation, and 10.4% will introduce new products in new markets.

By John Riley

 When an employee raises this issue in a performance review, it’s usually not a surprise because the boss  is thinking the same thing about her career. But, for both the timing isn’t right. Faced with an uncertain economy, executives at companies  large and small have reduced staff and heaped more responsibilities on surviving managers at all levels, frequently without compensating them financially or with a new title. In the process, managers seek to cope by working longer and harder.

 However, there is a better way.  Deliver a performance the executive management  can’t ignore.

When that happens, you will break out of the pack and be on the fast track to promotion.

 What I am suggesting is that you concentrate on mastering four skills: organization and planning, communications, managing people and problem solving.  Working within the company culture and on work teams are two high profile venues management uses to evaluate managers effectiveness. So that’s where you need to showcase your skills. While other skills are important too, they aren’t nearly as likely to get you promoted as mastering these four.

 Company culture is an amalgam of many things. Most often, it is strongly reflective of the CEO and his or her vision and values. Cultural habits and norms are powerful reinforcements of the status quo so it is vitally important that you aware of and understand the culture.  That’s because, at one time or another , you will want to execute an idea or project and find out some aspect or element of the culture has become a barrier to your success.  To be effective, you have to know how to change or get around that barrier.

 Working on teams, particularly as team lead, demands great people skills. And here I would suggest you insist on receiving some training before taking on a team lead position. Conflict resolution is one ingredient of that training that is essential.  As team lead, there will be negotiation and discussion upwards, sideways and downward in the organizational chain which will give you the opportunity to show how to get things done through others among other things.

 Organization and planning is ever present in any manager’s job.  One of the fundamental precepts managers need to keep in mind is, what got our company here today, isn’t what will get us where we want to be in the future.  You have to overcome the fact that It’s always more comfortable to do what you’ve been doing than to change.

 Managers spend over 70% of their time communicating.  Unfortunately, the message we usually  hear is completely different than the one that was sent.  According to recent studies, approximately 90% of our understanding of personal communication comes from non-verbal things  such as body language. However, the biggest problem in communicating  is poor listening skills; active listening is considered a learned behavior.

 Companies that have success year after year characteristically have core values that remain fixed. These values play a vital role in managing people so know them well.  Motivating employees helps maintain and exceed performance levels. Whether by incentive programs or introducing new and more difficult tasks, the manager’s role is to make it happen.

 Problem solving and making decisions is at the core of a manager’s responsibilities.  Prioritize your problems first. You don’t want to react to a problem, you want to understand it. Then, if it’s a complex problem, break it down into parts and begin to deal with it one part at a time.  There are excellent analytical tools to help and you should know what they are.  If it’s a decision your boss has to make, take it to him, but with your recommendations on what should be done.  

 There are a variety of ways to master the four skills, i.e. books, community college courses, company training programs, or watching how other managers have progressed up the promotion ladder. Whatever avenue you choose, start now and then you can tell your boss, “Promote Me! I’m ready.”

By John Riley

Rapidly changing market conditions are nothing new to marketers, but now they are faced with a more ominous challenge: a long term shift in demographics.  The consequences between now and 2020 are that the United States will experience very minor growth in per household spending and after that spending on consumer products is expected to fall through 2050.

 This is the conclusion of the Nielsen Company in a report prepared under the direction of Doug Anderson, Senior Vice President, Research and Development.

 According to Mr. Anderson, “an aging population, a declining birth rate, and growing ethnic diversity will change the face and the spending behavior of consumers. Gaining share among population groups that most marketers do not reach today, older and ethnic consumers, will require shifts in focus, tactics and products.”

 He points out that since the 1970’s birth rates in the United States have been at least 40% lower than at the heights of the baby boom.  When a falling birth rate is combined with a very large generation like the Baby Boom, the effect is a gradual aging of the population. The number of persons who reach retirement age of 66 will increase by over 100,000 each year throughout the Baby Boom retirement years to 2030.

 “Aging populations place stress on an economy in two ways”, Mr. Anderson says.  “First, if the generation is sufficiently large, retirement can lower the size of the labor force lowering overall productivity.  Second, is the cost of caring for a large number of retirees.  Medicare and Medicaid will deplete their trust funds in about ten years and will be the largest component of all U. S. government spending by 2030. Additionally, many privately funded pension plans are underfunded.”

 The report goes on to point out that as the Baby Boomers continue to age, and birth rates remain low, household sizes will decrease. Many aging Boomers will live alone or with one other person while the number of children per family will get smaller. When the most economically disadvantaged market segments are included, pressures on per capital spending will be like nothing the U.S. has experienced in modern times.

 Bottom line for marketers: growth will only come from increasing share against completion.

 The opportunity:  by 2025, over half of all families with children will be multi-cultural, but Marketers who can navigate diverse cultures, tastes and languages will succeed.

By John Riley

AT & T has confirmed they will add a $30 monthly charge to smartphone users for data services, in addition to their voice plan, starting September 1 when any customer purchases a smartphone. However the charge will not apply to existing smartphone customers until they purchase a new smartphone.

According to AT &T, smartphone users consume a higher amount of data services such as advanced e-mail and mobile Web applications. This results in fluctuating or unusually high monthly bills, but with the new monthly charge, it will stabilize those charges and bring about ‘greater customer satisfaction’.  AT & T says the vast majority of customers already subscribe to a data plan.

iPhone and BlackBerry users have long paid the $30 monthly data fee.  The new charge will not apply for regular feature phones, inlcuding QWERTY-enabled messaging phones.

By John Riley

 Up grading personnel skills should be among the top priorities of business managers if companies are to weather the significant structural and economic changes brought about by the near financial collapse. Intellectual skills have always been the ‘coin of the relm’ but never as important as they are today.

By John Riley

Over the past five years, I have had an opportnity to join a Company Board of Directors on three occasions. Usually, I have responded quickly and decisively in the negative. However, I reluctantly accepted the last offer because of friendship and now I want to be replaced.

Boards, as you know, have been under attack  by stock holders and the media almost consistently for several years. And you also know that nearly all companies pay directors to serve, but much more importantly, the companies need to provide Directors and Officers (D & O) Insurance, whose cost is usually in the stratosphere. Otherwise, the companies would find it much more difficult to recruit Board members.

In my situation, the companies were medium to small size and finding the money to pay for D & O insurance was a problem. So I declined their offers. In today’s environment, it would be foolhardy to serve without the protection of D & O liability insurance.

A person  assumes a level of responsibility for the organization (“duty of care”) when they become a Board member. This exposes him or her to claims of mismanagement  for not running or managing the company in an acceptable manner.

Two categories of claims are the most frequent: bodily injury (physical harm) and non-bodily injury.(such as mis-management of funds,  termination or discrimination)  Bodily injury accounts for the most claims, but they are not covered by D & O insurance. Non-bodily injury claims are.

My friend asked me to serve on her Board and I agreed to do so temporarily. She wanted to fill the slot with a family member, but she had already appointed two family members and there was no one else to turn to…except her consultant.  Now I am waiting for her to find someone to serve and then I will bow out. 

Ironically, there have not been a plethora of reported cases, but there have probably been cases settled out of court and others dropped. So when you are asked to serve on a Board, be sure that D & O insurance is present and accounted for.

 By John Riley

Each year, nearly 30,000 high school students from countries all over the world come to the United States  to study for one semester or one school year. With the fall semester soon to start, the students will begin arriving within the next three weeks and will need a host family to provide room and board while they are here.

Many students already have host families, however, a number of students are waiting to have their host families assigned. Foreign companies who recruit the students contract with American student exchange placement  organizations who then have the responsibility of arranging for school admissions and finding host families.  Many of these placement firms  also recruit American students who want to study abroad and then contract with foreign placement companies to arrange for schools and host families. 

STS Foundation(STSF) headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona,  is one of the leading student exchange organizations. This year they will place approximately 500 foreign students throughout the country, semester and annual,  from 32 countries.

Annual surveys taken by STSF point to three reasons why most families host:

1) the family has high school age kids and believe hosting would be a good social and learning experience for them.

2) it is an excellent way to learn about new cultures.

3) frequently, hosting leads to new life long friendships for the entire family

When a family agrees to host, they are interviewed in their home and asked for three references. After that, a background check is initiated. Then the family and the local STSF representative sit down and select a student. Good English skills are required for exchange students.

Students arrive in the United States with insurance and spending money for the duration of their stay.

The student exchange program is under the auspices of, and administered by, the U. S. Department of State.  Standards are developed and monitored by CSIET, an indepent and well established organization.

For families who have an interest in hosting a student, you can call Dave at STSF: 1-800-522-4678.   The STSF website is www.stsfoundation.org.

Two new business courses have been added to Paradise Valley Community College’s continuing (adult) education program in the fall. For more information or to register, call 602-787-6805.

How to Become a Successful Consultant

Consulting has become a big industry that offers opportunity in good times as well as bad. The Consultant program has five parts: 1) Self Examination, 2) Getting Started 3) Developing Strategies 4) Marketing Your Skills 5) Getting and Keeping Clients. The course includes interactive discussions between the instructor and students and a number of case histories.

Classes start Tuesday,  September 15th and continue the following four Tuesdays. The two hour sessions will run from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

Master Techniques of Successful Managers

Today’s managers are expected to possess a wide variety of skills. However, four basic skills are most important for advancement. This course will focus on those skills and the two business environments where management expects managers to apply those skills. This course will help managers and prospective managers master 1) organization and planning, 2) communications 3) problem solving and 4) managing people in  cultural and team work environments. Discussing case histories and utilizing a few analytical tools will be included. Cost: $89.00.

Classes start Tuesday, September 29 and will continue in the following five Tuesdays. The course will be conducted in six two-hour sessions from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm