Happy Birthday, Mr. President

May20
2012 Leave a Comment Written by izzuljn

By Martin Kemp


It’s John F. Kennedy’s 45th birthday at Madison Square Garden on 19 May 1962. Only it’s not. His real birthday is ten days in the future. That compelling mass schmaltz that Americans do with an underlying, knowing absurdity saturates the event. After she has characteristically missed her cue on at least two occasions, the host Peter Lawford finally (and with inadvertent irony) introduces the “late Marilyn Monroe”.

In a glittering faux-nude dress tighter than her own skin and enveloped in a soft fur wrap, that most desirable of female bodies shuffles with exaggerated mini-steps towards the podium, like a penguin on speed. Her floss hair has long given up any pretence to organic life. She is unwrapped by Lawford and ups the sexual ante with mute lip squirming directed at the microphone, which she holds tenderly like a living member. Everything is comically kitsch yet irresistibly powerful.

“Happy Birthday to you…” The little girl’s voice haltingly rings out, quietening the raucous auditorium — a ghostly and troubling echo of a past innocence. The reality is a deadly cocktail of her own desperate desirability and the blood-sucking exploitation of the society that made her. A monstrous tiered cake, flaming with the requisite number of candles like a funeral pyre, is borne in on a stretcher, shoulder-high. Her death was to arrive at the age of 36 in a little over two month’s time.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“That” dress sold for $ 1.26 million dollars in 1999, exceeded by the white “air vent dress” which auctioned for mighty $ 5.6 million in 2011. From Billy Wilder’s Seven Year Itch in 1955, she wore this second iconic dress when with girly delight, pausing over a subway vent ostensibly to cool her “hot pants” (words cut from the final version of the film). The mock-innocent display of her assets, expensively insured, is a stylised act in which we all become complicit.

There are other truly iconic Hollywood stars of course. Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean stand at the head of the pack, yet they achieve under a third of the 90 million Google hits for Marilyn Monroe. On the other hand, she is nearly matched by Elvis Presley. Dying young and messily can provide a considerable posthumous boost in the quest for legendary status. All four stars have been “Warholed” in famous patches of pop colour, as was Jackie Kennedy, but it is Marilyn’s face that has really stuck. Taking his cue from a publicity shot issued in 1953, Warhol gives us her invitingly open lips so very red, hooded eyes that promise sensuous dreams and hair of kitsch gold that says I’m for sale. That’s all that is needed. Norma Jean Baker had become the mask called Marilyn Monroe.

Why has her image not only survived but blossomed in the half-century since her death? There is no set formula for the highest levels of iconicity, beyond the essential ingredient of inherent visual impact. We can, however, recognise an aura of contributory factors. The “affair” with JFK that meant more to her than the philandering and charismatic president, is crucial to her death and after-life. Her rise from the ill-used Norma Jean to Hollywood’s hottest property embodies the “American dream”.

She was lucky, and all icons need luck. She fell at the right time into the best possible directorial hands of Howard Hawks (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1953) and the great Billy Wilder (The Seven-Year Itch, 1955). Both had the vision and skill to consummate her love affair with the camera. Her marriages to a great baseball slugger and an archetypal American writer — the “Egghead and the Hourglass” — testify to the siren song of her unmatched sexuality and to her need to be possessed by powerful men.

Her lumpy descent into chemically-induced confusion elicits hopes that even the less powerful might be her ‘daddy’ (the name she called her first husband). There are the gaping lacunae in her well-documented life that allow legends to flood in: the lurid stories of relationships, not only with JFK but his brother Bobby, Marlon Brando, and Tony Curtis; the recurrent bouts of mental disturbance; and even her death. Suicide or murder? There were potentially powerful interests at work. The bigger the supposed conspiracy, the better it is for the icon.

As a teenager I totally missed out on the magnetism of Monroe. She seemed unreal, remote. I couldn’t enter the knowing game she was playing. I sought the sexy girl next door, even if Brigitte Bardot only barely fitted the bill of my fantasy. Encountering Monroe’s key films much later I became irresistibly drawn into the seductive complicity of her act and by a fascination with what she might be saying about who really lived behind the mask. I would like to have helped her, which is absurd.

Martin Kemp is Emeritus Professor in the History of Art at Trinity College, Oxford. A renowned figure in the world of art, he is the author of Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon, The Oxford History of Western Art, Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man, Leonardo, and Seen | Unseen: Art, Science, and Intuition from Leonardo to the Hubble Telescope. He blogs at Martin Kemp’s This and That.

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Five Things You Can Do While MarketingProfs Is Down from a DDos Attack

May19
2012 Leave a Comment Written by izzuljn

MarketingProfs.com is being hobbled today because of a “denial of service” attack against our website service provider that has made it difficult for many of you to access our content. In other words, our site has been offline intermittently today. That’s been frustrating for all of us, and for many of you.

We’re working to resolve the issue, of course. Delivery of our daily newsletter, MarketingProfs Today, has been postponed to tomorrow, Saturday, May 19. Those of you who also subscribe to MarketingProfs This Week—our “best of” weekly edition—will receive it on Sunday, May 20, rather than tomorrow.

Until then, here are a few ideas on how you can get your fill of MarketingProfs even WITHOUT accessing the content on our website:

1. Vote in our Marketing Tug of War: Content v. Social Media. (Which is more effective? You decide!) While you’re on our Facebook page, you can spend some time connect with us and your fellow subscribers (and don’t forget to Like our page when you’re there!). We’re posting updates to Facebook as well as our Twitter feed, BTW.

2. Flip through our photos on Instagram. Check out the MarketingProfs Instagram feed here, or browse our latest photos from our Smart Marketers Tour touch down this past week in Miami. (Next up: Minneapolis on June 13!)

3. Check out our latest Slideshare presentation, 10 Ideas for Creating Visual Content, by our senior writer and this blog’s editor, Veronica Maria Jarski.

4. Read some of my favorite posts on the MarketingProfs blog. Since the blog isn’t affected by the DDoS attack (different server, yo), you can happily browse content over here. Some of my favorite posts of late have highlighted the 12 most annoying things about your website by Shelly Kramer, MarketingProfs’ own Dani Hagen’s take on what we can learn from Trader Joe’s, and why you should create content for the person who sits next to your prospect.

5. Listen to the MarketingProfs Marketing Smarts podcast. Subscribe or listen via iTunes. Hosted by Managing Editor Matthew T. Grant, the MarketingSmarts podcast is free, and the half-hour weekly show is a lively mix of fun and smart conversation.

So there you go. Thanks for your patience while we work through the issue and get back online as fast as we can. It’s not an overstatement when I say: Holy Toledo, we miss you!!

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9 Costly Things New Homeowners Don’t Prepare For

May19
2012 Leave a Comment Written by izzuljn
New homeowners

When you’re buying a new home (and that could be a new build or a used home that’s new to you) you are caught up in a whirlwind of things to do, people to see, papers to sign, and plans to make.

Most of all, you’re excited. And rightly so.

Then, moving day comes. Once all the boxes are unloaded, and the furniture is shoved roughly into the right rooms, you grab a coffee and take a breather. And that’s when it dawns on you. This is only just the beginning.

As a new homeowner, there are whole lists of things you need to take care of, and almost all of them cost money. Sometimes, a lot of money.

So, if you’re planning to buy a new home, have just signed the paperwork, or are moving in next week, this list is for you. And if you know someone who’s moving in, be a buddy and warn him or her as well.

Note: The figures next to the titles are rough guides based on an average sized U.S. home (2,700 sq. ft.) with a typical yard (1/5th of an acre), but obviously they could be much higher or lower depending on the size of your home, its location, and the condition it’s in.

1. Window Coverings and Treatments – Up to $ 2,000

“Oh, look at all the windows! It’s so bright, so spacious, the views are lovely!” Well, yes they are. But you don’t want people viewing you at night, or looking in whenever they want, so all those windows need coverings. If it’s a new home, you’re going to be spending hundreds (and probably thousands) of dollars on blinds, curtains, curtain rods, tie backs, valances, and shades (even more if you’re not too handy and have to have someone come and fit them for you). If it’s an old home, you may be fine for a year or two, but you’ll need to decide if you want to live with the old owner’s treatments or have your own. To offset the high costs, remember to look for deals on blinds and other window coverings long before you move in.

2. Landscaping and Groundskeeping – Up to $ 30,000

Walking around new neighborhoods, you see all sorts of beautiful landscapes. And often, on new builds, the landscaping at the front of the house is included in the price. Hurray! Oh, but then there’s the back. And there, almost always, you’re on your own. Depending on the size of the yard and the HOA rules and restrictions, you could be looking at $ 10,000 – $ 30,000 worth of landscaping materials and labor. Want a deck or a patio? That’s even more money. And then you may need sprinklers, irrigation, and other services. If you move into an old home, that’s no guarantee of a great yard. Many foreclosed homes may have been left vacant for a long time, and a once attractive yard could be a wreck, if it was even finished in the first place. So, do your homework. See if you can hustle the homebuilder for a finished back yard too, or ask the seller to drop the price to cover landscaping. If it’s foreclosed, a short sale, or some other kind of repo, guess what? Yep, you’re on your own. Time to dig into the savings.

3. Major Appliances – Up to $ 10,000

New home builds usually include a dishwasher, microwave, and stove, with the option of a fridge/freezer, washer, and dryer. They are basic, unless you opt for the upgrades in your contract, but if you do, they could add a chunk to your monthly mortgage payment. If you buy a used home, you may not have any appliances included, especially on a repossession, short sale, or foreclosure. You could always hunt around on Craigslist for used appliances, but they won’t come with a warranty. So figure on spending a nice chunk of change when the time comes to upgrade.

4. HOA Fees – Up to $ 700 a Month

Many new homes come with a Home Owners Association, and most used homes have HOAs as well. In theory, they’re a sound idea. They are their to keep the neighborhood looking great, and deal with trash collection, playgrounds, community pools, street lighting, common areas, snow removal, and so on. Of course, in practice many people hate the HOA because they extend their reach far beyond what most people consider fair. They can tell you what colors you can and can’t paint your house, what type of blinds and window treatments are allowed, what you can and can’t put in your yard, and the list goes on. Oh, and it costs you. A typical HOA can run $ 100 a month. Some are just a few hundred a year, while in the higher-end neighborhoods, you may not see much change out of $ 1,000 every month! Did you see that one coming? Before you buy, make sure you know what the HOA dues are, but remember, they can go up annually and you have little say in the matter.

5. Furniture – Up to $ 20,000

That’s a very rough estimate. Clearly your particular tastes can range from Ikea to custom-built furniture, but what you need to know is that most homeowners completely underestimate the amount of furniture they’ll need. This is especially true when moving into a bigger home. You may now have two areas for relaxing, a living room and family room. You could also have a den, a library, a nook or study, extra bedrooms, guest rooms, or even a game room. Depending on what you’re moving into, you could have a very empty-looking house that needs to be filled. Get ready to go shopping.

6. Insurance – Up to $ 2,000 Annually

There are a few different types of insurance you need to have when buying a home. First, you must have homeowners insurance. The average cost of this is around $ 700 annually, but this again varies by state. If you live in a duplex or other type of connected building, the insurance may be covered in your HOA dues or your monthly escrow. You should also have contents insurance, based on the value of your possessions. You could, of course, skip this payment. But if tragedy does strike, you could lose everything.

7. Property Tax – Up to $ 10,000  

When it comes to property tax, a lot of people get sticker shock a year after they move into a new construction. The reason for this is simple; the taxes are based on the empty lot the home was built on. But a year later, the assessors come around and put a new valuation on the lot, which now has a beautiful home sitting on it. Many people see their initial tax payment double, or even triple, in just one year. You can also face much higher taxes based on the particular school district you live in. And of course, taxes vary greatly by state. The average property taxes paid in New Jersey are almost $ 8,000, as opposed to $ 2,000 in Colorado.

8. Utilities – Up to $ 400 Monthly

Again, if you live in the Playboy mansion that figure will be greater. And in a new one-bedroom apartment, much less. But on average, when moving into a new home, you will see utility bills in the hundreds of dollars. This can be quite a shock, especially if you were formerly in a small apartment or even living with your parents. And what’s worse, depending on when you move in, you could really get a wake-up call. Bills in the summer months can come with higher rates, so you may budget based on the winter bills, only to be unprepared for summer. The best thing you can do to prepare is ask the utility companies for the history of the property, if it’s used. If it’s new, ask neighbors who have already moved in what they’re paying. If you’re first on the block…good luck!

9. Repairs and Maintenance – Who Knows!

I saved the worst till last. One of the biggest unknown expenses of owning a home is the repairs and maintenance costs that can hit you out of nowhere. If you were formerly renting, that was all taken care of. Now it’s all on you. If the boiler blows up, you pay. If the roof leaks, you pay. If strong winds blow your fence down, you pay. If vandals put rocks through your windows, you pay.

Basically, you pay. And these bills can be steep. You’ll soon find out that hourly labor costs for plumbers, electricians, and builders are usually a lot more than the hourly wage you get paid. There are standard call-out charges, which you pay before they even look at the problem. It can be a nightmare. You can, of course, buy insurance to cover appliances, boilers, A/C units, and so on, but there are deductibles to pay. And like any insurance, the small print can really bite you.

Are you a new homeowner? Did a situation or expense recently pop up that you were not planning for? Let us know.

This article was made possible by the support and inspiration of Genworth Financial, a S&P 500 insurance company with more than $ 100 billion in assets. Check out Genworth’s website for more information on their mortgage insurance and reverse mortgages products.

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Ghost hunting: Research memories of Tessa Verney Wheeler

May18
2012 Leave a Comment Written by izzuljn

By Lydia Carr


The path of the biographer is littered with terrors. Few, to be fair, match the risks listed on the fieldwork forms put out by various Institutes of Archaeology, those exhaustive documents intended to pinpoint every potential danger (and indemnify the sponsoring department against paying for more than a reasonable number of snakebite treatments). But as I’ve often said, biographic research, at least regarding twentieth-century subjects, resembles nothing as much as the first five minutes of a Doctor Who episode, or the last five pages of a M.R. James story. You know the type of thing; the lonely academic (writer, archaeologist, explorer) in a dim library (cave, alien spaceship, church) looking over the crabbed and dusty manuscript (letters, runic inscription, half-ruined tomb), unaware that all the time the creepy unknown is just… about… to… pounce!

And then the Doctor comes upon the mangled remains of my corpse, says “Oh no. Not — THEM!” or words to that effect, and you get the theme music.

The research for Tessa Verney Wheeler: Women and Archaeology Before World War II, was fairly typical of the process. My subject was primarily active between 1922 and 1936 (when she died), and along with her husband Mortimer Wheeler excavated several extraordinarily interesting Roman and prehistoric archaeological sites in England and Wales. Being of a sanguine temper, I evolved a simple research methodology of showing up at the various museums associated with those sites, asking politely for the Verney Wheeler materials. Then, when I received my inevitable initial answer (always very nicely) that they were sorry to say there was nothing relating to Verney Wheeler in stock, I even more politely asked if I could just have a personal look for them. And just as inevitably, I would poke and prod through dusty wine boxes and disintegrating milk crates, until I came upon a cache of letters and notebooks in Verney Wheeler’s neat, distinctive hand. Because there always was something of Verney Wheeler’s there. Cataloguers had either not been interested enough to note material, or had filed it under Mortimer Wheeler instead — a fair metaphor for Verney Wheeler’s career.

Tessa Verney Wheeler excavating at Lydney Park in the 1920s (courtesy of Lord Bledisloe). Copyright Rt. Hon. Lord Viscount Bledisloe.

Time at the National Museum of Wales morphed from three days to two weeks, once I found the notebooks for three sites (including the Caerleon amphitheatre), a really terrific book of Wheeler-related newspaper clippings by some long-dead press service, and three years of personal and professional letters. The Somerset county archives in Taunton, allegedly uninteresting, produced a very long, very useful unpublished memoir by Wheeler henchman William Wedlake. I could only afford one trip to see it, and read frantically from the moment the doors opened to the second I was cast out into the night, as staff enthusiastically copied relevant chapters for me at top speed (with occasional references to railway timetables and encouraging shouts in my direction). The Verulamium Museum cast up, quite at random: a bill for distempering a London bathroom, a sweet letter typed by Verney Wheeler’s father-in-law, and snapshots and letters from the tent city of students who excavated the Roman town.

Actual locations were just as odd. The basement flat near Victoria, anathematized by contemporaries as dark and dingy, emerged — even in water-stained abandonment — as light and airy by modern standards (although its decaying prewar plumbing was a little scary despite that distempering). The Dorchester County Museum turned out to be keeping its archives in a deconsecrated church on the High Street, a building quite deserted apart from myself and the mice. It was another lightning trip, one week to read, copy, and remember everything related to the great 1930s excavation of Maiden Castle (barring a single afternoon off at Lyme Regis, where the shingle reflected shadowy dinosaurs). I don’t, incidentally, recommend exploring deconsecrated Dorset churches alone at dusk. If you fancy a short break from working over photographs and want to stretch your legs by checking to see what’s on the second floor, it only ensures that you discover where they are keeping the really creepy old folk costumes (the ones with the giant glass eyes and an implication of Tim Burton out of Thomas Hardy). Morris dancers are no preparation for finding those at the top of a ladder. But I did get an excellent recipe for treacle tart from the teashop around the corner, so it was probably worth the palpitations.

Tessa Verney Wheeler excavating at Lydney Park in the 1920s (courtesy of Lord Bledisloe). Copyright Rt. Hon. Lord Viscount Bledisloe.

In writing a biography of a dead subject one is, in the end, deliberately chasing a ghost, but hopefully a benign one. The Roman temple at Lydney Park, most beautiful of all the Wheeler sites, looks over the Wye valley from its isolating hilltop, and it is the place where Verney Wheeler seemed closest at hand. I hope she is there, not in her little Roman brick tomb in St. Albans — pleasant as it is. The temple’s medicinal streams still run rusty-red with iron ore, and the entrances to the sub-Roman and prehistoric mining tunnels gape shyly behind green undergrowth. The azalea gorge that was just planted in Verney Wheeler’s day is almost tropical now, and the great trees of the park rear up over descendents of the same deer her husband drew boyishly into the corner of the excavation report’s site map. It is a fittingly remote resting place for this strange, elusive little woman, who gave so much to others while keeping her own soul hidden away.

Lydia Carr was born in New York City in 1980, and took her D.Phil at Oxford in 2008. She is the author of Tessa Verney Wheeler: Women and Archaeology Before World War Two. She is currently Assistant Editor at the Chicago History Museum and in her spare time, she writes light, bright mystery novels set in the 1920s.

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Keynote: Three Future Trends of Social Business (Slides)

May17
2012 Leave a Comment Written by izzuljn

I’m presenting here at Webcom in Montreal, sharing the State and Future of Social BUsiness.

In fact, I think the Cluetrain as we know it, while right for many years, needs modification to represent how the social web is changing. I took the first three theses of the mainfesto and translated it to represent how I see advertising integrating with social as well as optimization and Social Performance software.

The three trends that I see impacting the social business space include (but are not limited to):

  • Trend 1: Corporate Websites Reborn. I assert that corporate websites as we know them will be defunct, instead they will dynamically assemble content on the fly, making every page dynamic based on social data.
  • Trend 2: Social Becomes Automated: Bots among us? Sort of. We’re already seeing the rise of Social Performance Software emerge, and this will enable brands to quickly respond (yet there are risks)
  • Trend 3: To be Heard, You Will Pay: With every brand using social networks promoting their latest product, the space is getting saturated, as a result, social networks will monetize by making content visible, via ads.

I recently completed a research report covering Trend 2: Learn about the Social Media Management System space, and my upcoming report on the integration of Paid, Owned, and Earned, will publish in June.   A lot of this focus is on the customer interactions, but for a complete view, also see Charlene Li’s report on internal enterprise social networks and my research on how companies are organizing internally, to understand how companies are trying to ‘catch up’ internally.

The slides are embedded below

The State and Future of Social Business

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Should Your Marketing Message Require Reading Between the Lines?

May17
2012 Leave a Comment Written by izzuljn

Years ago, the political philosopher Leo Strauss wrote an essay entitled, “Persecution and the Art of Writing,” in which he advocated reading some philosophers “between the lines.” For a host of reasons, the philosopher felt that the truth he had to speak could only be spoken surreptitiously or “by means of brief indication.”

Of course, one can run into a lot of trouble scholastically when arguing that a philosopher meant to say something other than what he explicitly stated. I mean, how are you supposed to prove that?

Strauss insists that a “between the lines” reading is at least plausible if you find cases where the thinker has subtly contradicted orthodox beliefs (or the ruling beliefs of the time) and is absolutely necessary when you find “explicit evidence” (such as correspondence or journal entries) indicating that the philosopher has chosen to express his views in this esoteric manner.

Why am I bringing up Strauss? I was thinking a lot about secret messages when I read The Go-Giver, by Bob Burg and John David Mann, in preparation for Bob’s appearance as a guest on our podcast, Marketing Smarts. (If you’d like to hear my entire interview with Bob, you may do so here.)

The book is a business parable about a young everyman, Joe, who finds himself in a jam at work and seeks the advice of an older gentleman, Pindar, who teaches him “The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.” Joe puts the laws into practice and finds the success he was seeking.

On the surface, the message of the book is fairly straightforward: If you focus on how providing value for others and serving them, then you will ultimately succeed in business and in life. The idea that those lessons are not just business lessons but also life lessons is highlighted towards the end of the book when a character tells Joe, “The point is not what you do. Not what you accomplish. It’s who you are.” [Emphasis in original.]

What made me wonder if there might be something beneath this surface, however, were Pindar’s repeated admonitions that, “Appearances can be deceiving… In fact, they nearly always are.” He tells Joe that in their first meeting, repeats it when they meet the character Ernesto (here replacing “In fact” with “Truth is”), and then towards the end when he says, “Just to keep things interesting, things are always a bit the opposite of what they seem.”

Believing this sentiment to be a strong indication that we should read the book between the lines, I asked Burg about it. He laughed, saying that there was no secret message, just the simple but profound truth of what leads to success.

Not satisfied with that answer (I’m somewhat paranoid by nature—studying German philosophy will do that to you!) I asked Burg if the secret message might have something to do with his political beliefs. His beliefs are not a secret; he states in his bio, “Bob is an advocate, supporter and defender of the Free Enterprise system, believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve.” (That last part is a paraphrase of The Go-Giver’s “Law of Compensation,” which states, “Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.”) However, his book is not overtly political in any way.

While Burg didn’t go so far as to say that I had uncovered a “secret message,” he did point out the laws of success described by John and himself “would not hold true within a communist system.” We also spent the last segment of the interview discussing the portrayal of the wealthy in the mass media (“Society as it is makes money the enemy,” he said) and the proper role of government in a society distinguished by “free minds and free markets.”

Have you read The Go-Giver? Did you uncover any secret messages?

More importantly, do you think it is effective to create interest in your products or your brand by suggesting that “there’s more to it than meets the eye”?

(Photo courtesy of Bigstock: Young Man Reading)

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SEAU HOME BURGLARY: Police Investigating Break-in

May16
2012 Leave a Comment Written by izzuljn

Seau Home BurglaryBoy, it doesn’t get much lower than this.

Just weeks after former NFL star Junior Seau committed suicide, his home was burglarized after the robber gained entry through a doggy door in his garage.

The incident happened last week and a bicycle worth about $ 500 was stolen. The burglary happened at about 2 p.m. on May 7 at Seau’s home, according to Oceanside police Lt. Leonard Mata.

The burglar went through several cabinets in the garage and stole a bike that belonged to a friend of the late NFL star.

The bike was described as a beach cruiser and was listed as gray in color with chrome fenders and a black seat, Mata said.

The burglars gained entry via the garage, but didn’t enter any other part if the house. Mata explained that it looked as if nothing else was taken.

Ne of the despicable act spread quickly through the neighborhood.

“I just think it’s horrible someone would even break into someone’s house after a tragedy like that,” said Terra Ramirez.

“It’s just pretty sick and disgusting, actually,” she said.

Neighbors explained that they never had any previous problems with break-ins.

“I’ve lived here three years just up the beach and I don’t really feel like I have to lock my doors or my back door and I never really had a problem,” said neighbor Art Choate.

Police have yet to make any arrests in connection with the Seau home burglary.

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Obama: Campaigner-in-Chief

May16
2012 Leave a Comment Written by izzuljn

By Elvin Lim


Barack Obama proved this week that his understanding of public opinion and how timing can be used to massage the media’s storyline is head-and-shoulders above any campaigner we have known in modern history. Mitt Romney cannot begin to overestimate the gap between what Obama enacts by intuition and what he can barely perform by imitation.

On last Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Joe Biden came out in support of same-sex marriage, an alleged gaffe that precipitated Obama’s announcement this week that his own thinking on the issue has evolved to the same effect. This then allowed Obama to tout his new position to the Hollywood crowd from whom he was raising $ 15 million on Thursday evening (that’s $ 13k per second of speech). Next morning, Obama wakes up to a story breaking about Mitt Romney bullying a presumptively gay classmate while in high school. Romney, for his part, is going to deliver the Commencement address at Liberty University this weekend to appeal to Christian conservatives. It is, believe it not, exactly in sync with the temporal frame and media storyline the Obama campaign has quite consciously created.

President Barack Obama addresses Indiana residents during a town halll style meeting at Concord High School February 9, 2009 in Elkhart, Indiana.

What a way to launch the Obama re-election campaign. The campaign opens with one message: this is the Obama Democrats voted for in 2008. Who would have thought that the politics of Hope would actually make a come-back after three years of compromises and disillusion? Hope is what excites young people, and with it, it will not be the record Obama will be running on, but an America liberals can be proud of. Because this is a state-by-state race to 270, Obama understands that the youth vote matters in North Carolina, Iowa, and Colorado — states that offer him an alternate route to victory other than the traditional way of Florida and Ohio.

The political dexterity of the Obama campaign in responding to changes on the ground can be seen in how they have turned the culture wars against Republicans. In 2004, the Bush administration used the culture war to rally the conservative base on the same-sex marriage issue, when a dozen or so states put constitutional amendments to define traditional marriage on the ballot. Today, Barack Obama is hoisting with that petard. Same-sex marriage is a losing issue for Republicans because while a majority of Republicans oppose same-sex marriage, a super-majority of Democrats support same-sex marriage. Culture wars are waged because their effect is asymmetric, and this time, it is benefiting the Democrats. Republicans cannot in good faith argue that the culture war is a distraction from real economic issues that Americans ought to be talking about because they were the first to wage it.

In just two electoral cycles since 2004, the Republican candidate who ought to be spending his time talking about the lackluster economy is being forced to address allegations about his actions as a high school kid. If there is a science to politics, Team Obama obviously understands its laws and equations.

Elvin Lim is Associate Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-Intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com and his column on politics appears here each week.

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The Future of Branding: Three Brand-Management Lessons From Silicon Valley

May15
2012 Leave a Comment Written by izzuljn

A guest blog post by Jens Lundgaard of Brandworkz.

I have recently been in Silicon Valley and San Francisco meeting with a variety of CMOs and marketing directors, as well as many branding and marketing agencies.

Silicon Valley is incredibly dynamic and forward-thinking when it comes to software and technology across every industry sector. One of our own clients, Varian, is located there. They are at the forefront of life sciences, pioneering breakthrough proton-therapy equipment for cancer patients that enables 3-D targeting of tumors coupled with software-assisted dosage regulation.

All this innovative thinking is rubbing off on some marketers and agencies there. And it has highlighted in my mind what the main drivers of a strong brand strategy and good brand management will be in the coming years.

1. User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX)

Brands need to rethink where and how they interact with their consumers. Digital user experiences are rapidly taking over traditional brand touch points as the most important interfaces for brands with their customers.

Take banking, for example. I interact more often with my bank through its iPhone app and various personal and business Web applications than I do through the bank’s physical or paper-based touch points.

When my bank recently released a new version of its iPhone app with a massively improved UI/UX, which, by the way, is also very on-brand in terms of look and feel, my estimation of the bank went up—by more than it would have through any other brand- or marketing-related activity the bank could have undertaken.

What does this mean if you are a brand owner?

Before embarking on any brand or re-brand exercise, ask your existing customers—and potential ones—what the most important touch points with your organization are likely to be for them. Then rank them in terms of which ones will contribute the most to consumer satisfaction and which will attract potential customers most effectively.

Then decide if…

a.) you should go with a “traditional” branding agency that is strong on general positioning and creative—and then have a separate digital agency interpreting this output for your digital UX and UI
b.) digital user experiences are so important to your customers that this justifies choosing an agency that has UX as a core competency—but also understands and can develop a brand positioning

What does this mean if you are a branding agency?

If you don’t already have a strong digital UX and UI capability or you aren’t in the process of developing it, you need to start—now.

Many brand owners are already putting that capability at the top of the list when choosing a branding agency. These agencies will sooner rather than later become the agencies of record (or in UK terms, lead agency) because they are also picking up the traditional branding work, such as positioning, identity, communications, stationery, signage, brochures, and other marketing materials.

2. Analytics

Analytics is becoming even more integral to good brand management. With an effective digital asset management system, businesses will soon be able to track where and how brand assets are being used online and their effectiveness and relevance.

In the case of material with a limited lifespan, such as specific campaigns, videos, or images, businesses can track where these are, so they can be replaced when appropriate. This is vital in the digital space where the interaction between brand and consumers is two-way.

If you are a brand owner, ask yourself the following questions.

  • When your images and videos are used on third-party sites, should these be available from your brand-management site, so you can track their popularity and use, and change them if they become out of date?
  • If you allow consumers or third parties to download your brand images and videos, can you track where they are used?

3. Differentiated Positioning and Visual Style

What I have also learned is that, while advances in technology are changing the face of brand management, a differentiated positioning and supporting visual style remain as important as ever—if not more so.

Most product categories are immensely crowded. Competition is now not just from your own country but from the whole world; consumers are switching their spending to the Internet.

To build a successful brand and business, you must have a product or service that is highly relevant to your target market and that you can differentiate from your competitors’ products or services. In addition, you must communicate this clearly and consistently, both visually and through your messaging in every communications channel you use.

Jens Lundgaard is founder and CEO of Brandworkz. He has been developing cloud-based brand and digital asset management technology since the 1990s for such companies as Eurostar, Bupa, and Sony Ericsson.

(Photo courtesy of Bigstock: Future)

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What the Evolution of Marketing Automation Looks Like [Infographic]

May15
2012 Leave a Comment Written by izzuljn

A guest post by Irv Shapiro of Ifbyphone.

The term “marketing automation” often conjures up images of people waiting on hold or receiving out-of-office responses. However, smart business owners know that marketing automation equals measured results.

The term “marketing automation” includes lead management, Web analytics, email marketing, voice-based measurement, inbound marketing, and social media. And marketing automation contains a wealth of opportunities for businesses to…

  • Measure ROI and lead quality
  • Streamline the leads-to-sales process
  • Enhance user interaction with brands

How important is marketing automation to business? B2B marketers spent about $ 325 million on marketing automation in 2011—a 50% increase over 2010.

In the following infographic, voice-based marketing automation leader Ifbyphone offers a look at marketing automation in 2012.

As CEO and CTO of Ifbyphone, Irv Shapiro is responsible for overall business strategy and corporate leadership. His business success has earned him several awards including as inductee status with the “Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame” and as gold winner in the Executive of the Year category for the Best in Biz Awards.

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