John Caslione to speak at NYAMA on 4/14

A reminder that Philip Kotler’s co-author of Chaotics, John Caslione, will be speaking at the NYAMA on Wednesday evening, 4/14.

In the book Kotler and Caslione see that the world has undergone some fundamental changes.  As the recession recedes, it will not be back to business-as-usual.  The circumstances have changed.  Consumers have changed.  And it appears that the world economy as a whole is increasingly volatile.

Well, if it isn’t business as usual, then we have to reinvent marketing.  Which is why John is part of the New Thinker series that the NYAMA is featuring this year.

You can sign up at the NYAMA website.   And if you use VERSE in the promo code section, you’ll save $20 (non-members only).  This offer is only for readers of this blog (okay, you can pass it along to a friend…)

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Phil Kotler’s co-author John Caslione to speak in NYC on 4/14

I’m delighted to say that John Caslione, co-author (with Philip Kotler) of Chaotics will be speaking in NYC on Wednesday, 4/14.

The book itself provides a solid framework for handling the current economic turbulence.  Kotler and Caslione suggest that the major upheaval that we are going through is not the only turbulence for business.  Even as the economy recovers companies will find it necessary to reinvent how they market since the old tried-and-true methods won’t work as well in the future as they did in the past.

That’s actually quite a remarkable statement to hear from Philip Kotler.  Here’s the fellow who has literally written the textbook, or rather textbooks, on marketing and he’s saying that what was taught about the past may not apply in the future.  He never stops looking for ways to evolve and improve marketing.

John is a very dynamic and entertaining speaker so I highly recommend this event.

And just for you there is a special $20 discount if you use the code: VERSE when you sign up!

Okay, you can pass the code along to your friends…

Philip Kotler on reinventing marketing

Looking forward to 2010!

Some marketing thoughts about the year to come.  This is from the book CHAOTICS by Philip Kotler and John Caslione.

“Great marketers don’t just rebound from crises.  They build the internal capacity to expect the unexpected. They continuously reinvent business models and marketing strategies during chaotic times so that they can adapt quickly as circumstances in the marketplace change.

Today, the typical company operates a marketing system that has emerged from years of trial and error. It has developed policies, strategies, and tactics for using marketing research, pricing, the sales force, advertising, promotions, trade shows, and other marketing tools. These practices are likely to persist because they deliver a feeling of safety and predictability.  They worked in the past and are assumed to work in the future.

There is, however, one problem.  The world keeps changing.

…

“These developments put a company at a strategic inflection point: Either the company continues with the same strategy or recognizes the need for a new one.  Clearly,the company needs to revisit and revise its marketing policies and tools.  If it doesn’t, the new environment will punish the company — maybe to the point of failure.”

2010 will be the year for reinventing marketing.   It is an exciting time to be in marketing!

Happy New Year’s!

Chaotics: the case for marketing in a downturn

Here’s today’s interesting quote from “Chaotics” written by Philip Kotler and John Caslione.  This is from the chapter “Management’s Wrong Responses to Turbulence”:

Reducing Marketing, Brand, and New Product Development Expenses

When it comes time to make cuts, marketing always seems to get the first swipe, and new product development the second.  This is always a mistake because it destroys market share and innovation.

The knee-jerk reaction from most companies is to cut marketing.  When you cut marketing, you are leaving room for your competitors to get their message out in the forefront and to gain greater market share as yours slips away. (pages 55-56)

That was written in late 2008 or early 2009.  Here we are nearly a year later.  Marketing has been cut dramatically.  Advertising expenditures are plummeting — more for some media than others — and media prices are falling.  Consumer demand is down.  The only real pick-up in the economy has come from the government stimulus package.

It is still too early to see if those companies who made the biggest cuts suffered more than their competitors.  We know this has been true in past recessions.  I’ve seen some data in some categories that supports the hypothesis.

This does not mean that marketing should not be cut at all — just that the degree and strategy of the cuts need to be well planned.

It is the relative difference in the cuts that is most important.  If everyone cuts spending by 10%, then there is no comparative advantage.  If one company cuts marketing in half and a competitor stops entirely, then the comparative advantage is great.

Cutting marketing that is effective (and not all marketing is effective) becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because it leads to declines in sales.  Declines in sales then become the justification for further cuts in marketing.  It becomes part of the “Downward Spiral of Doom” as James Kilts calls it.

Kotler and Caslione say, “Marketing is muscle, not fat.”

In the current economy, we all want a little more muscle…

Are we in the Rollercoaster Age?

There’s the Age of Aquarius

The Great Depression

The Disco 70s

So what do we call this age?  I nominate “The Rollercoaster Age”.

Why?  This is the age of balloons and busts, bubbles and crashes.  What goes up drops down in free fall.  When we seem headed into the wall of $4/gallon of gas, it twists down below $2.  The senate race in Minnesota is still undecided 8 months after the election.  

Greenspan calls it the Age of Turbulence.  He also coined the phrase Irrational Exuberance.  Philip Kotler and John Caslione call it Chaotics.

To me, the sheer unpredictability from one day to the next, from one moment until the next, is more like a roller coaster than anything else.  That seems like an appropriate metaphor to brand this time in history.  It is gravity defying, with 360 degree loops, sheer drops and sudden reversals.

So welcome to the Rollercoaster Age.

Fun fact: the world’s fastest rollercoaster is at Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ.  Ironic that Six Flags should declare bankruptcy during the Rollercoaster Age.

What is a Chaotics?

One of the wonderful things about Philip Kotler is that he never gets stuck in the past.  His openness to new ideas and new ways of thinking about marketing are remarkable.  Most of us learn one way in our 20s and stick to it for the rest of our lives.  Not Phil.  His curiosity about the world is undiminished.

Evidence of this is in his new book — co-written with John Caslione.  I love the title of this book.  “Chaotics”

 

Cover of Kotler/Caslione's new book

The book is being published in the next couple of weeks.  Very timely, given the current flat-tire economy.  It’s a book that everyone senior manager should read through.  

It doesn’t have the answers to all of the problems companies are facing.  Instead it gives a thoughtful framework for getting to the answers that are right for your company.