Marketing Extraordinaire-Chris Brogan

When it comes to blogging about marketing, Chris Brogan’s self-titled blog [chrisbrogan.com] is a very entertaining and interesting one to read. With eleven years of experience in the social media and marketing industry under his belt, he is a consultant to fortune 500 companies, a co-author, and a columnist in at Entrepreneur Magazine, my favorite! He blogs about several different topics ranging from tips and tools to reviews of different companies and their strategies.

In his blog titled Dream a Disney Dream , Chris Brogan shares his experience of the launching of Disney Dream cruise line. It is interesting how he incorporates links into his post and the text “Disney Dream” leads straight to the cruise line homepage. A lot of the landing pages of the links posted on his blog lead to informational homepages and help the reader learn more about what he is talking about.

When adults talk about Disney and cruise ships, many probably think they are infested with hyperactive, annoying children running around uncontrollably. Surprisingly, Brogan shares:

This ship wasn’t just for the young and the young at heart. It was also a pretty exciting place for a grown-up, too.

I like that he used the turn “grown-up” instead of adult. It makes his writing informal and inviting. I feel grown-up is usually a term used by children or adults when they are trying to teach kids a lesson. Since it comes off as informal language, it really matches the topic and goes with the Disney theme! It is also awesome how he manages to write about an academic subject and makes it interesting and fun to read. I did not want to stop reading his post but unfortunately, the cruise had to end sometime.

Although you can tell a lot about a bloggers persona through their writing, I must admit my favorite part about his Disney Cruise review post was the video of him on the water slide. It shows he really wants to relate to his followers and connect with them on another level. He seems cordial and it is almost as if he wishes we were there with him along for the ride. After reading his descriptive post, I hope I end up having a phenomenal vivid dream of me on the glorious ship sliding down the wicked water slide!

In another post of his, titled Managing Social Presence, Chris Brogan talks about the Hootsuite application and its different functions and tools. He says:

If you look at the graphic to the left, it lets you post messages and read messages from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, FourSquare and elsewhere. It also lets you cook up searches in Twitter search, plus a few other things.

I love the informality of his writing and how he incorporates the phrase “lets you cook up searches.” He makes it sound like searching is an art or witchcraft. He surprisingly manages to write as though he is having a cool conversation about a simple online social media application!

When writing about social presence management needs, he uses lists and adds side comments in closed parenthesis. The lists also compliment his informal writing style and are an effective way for him to quickly share his opinions and suggestions. Usually when I think of a list, a never ending boring grocery list comes in mind but when I was reading his list I wished it never ended! One of the bullet points were:

A blog editor. (They’ve dabbled with linking Hootsuite to WordPress.com, but this shouldn’t be that hard.)

Every time I come across his comments in the closed parenthesis I think of casual conversations I have with my friends and how I do the same when I talk. He also uses italicized words. When he uses the word that…it is almost as though he is reassuring his followers it should not be hard and after watching the video part of the Dream a Disney Dream post I can totally imagine him emphasizing that word.

Another thing I admire about his posts is his voice does not change very much. Whether he is talking about his marvelous adventure on the Disney cruise line or simply writing about social media applications, he still comes off as relatable and cordial. I think when he adds his side comments; it helps make his writing sounds more like a conversation rather than a tedious lecture. Hopefully I come off the same way and you can relate to me.


Stay tuned for more goodness...

TTFN, ta ta for now!

P.S.  Chris Brogan: …I think you’re awesome!

Fellow Blogger Profile: Michael Fleischner

One of my new favorite marketing blogs is The Marketing Blog by Michael Fleischner. He is a true marketing guru and an author of a couple books on the topic. With 13 years of experience in the industry, he provides great insight to online marketing. He shares his experiences with different products and brands. The best way I can think of describing him is an amusing spunky nerd.

He manages to write about ‘all aspects of marketing’ and offer interesting tips to his readers while sharing his personal experiences with different products and services. His post on January 5, 2011 was one of my favorites because he passionately talks about email marketing! Some posts even come off as diary entries. His attention to detail is great and the examples he uses are very helpful.

In his post titled, “The Best Customer Service Email Ever!” He shares his experience with the company Bodybuilding.com. He copy pasted the actual email he received from the firm and said it is “the best friggin' follow up email I think I've ever received.” It is awesome to see someone get so excited about a confirmation email. It goes to show how important it is to invest in great customer service! Michael writes new posts roughly once a week and each receives on average ten comments. The greatest thing about his posts is they are not too long so it is great for people like me who have an attention span of a goldfish.

Another blog post I found interesting is “National Email Unsubscribe Day January 3, 2011.” I like that he does not use a boring tone and does not write as if he is a dreary business professor. Instead, he writes as though he is having an enjoyable conversation with his followers. In this particular post, he started by complaining about how difficult it is to unsubscribe from certain email lists and then he talks about the importance of having updated mailing lists. He then shares a quick tip, “Having a clean email list is great for us because it allows us to better understand our true reach and effectiveness with marketing campaigns.”

Similar to The Marketing Blog, I would like to write about my personal experiences with different products and services as well as talk about different marketing strategies of firms. Even though the world of marketing and advertising is loads of fun,what is great about his blog is he took an academic subject and managed to turn it into something fun and attractive.

Unlike Michael, I would like to write article reviews and about various case studies because I love reading about issues firms face and how they overcome problems. I plan to focus more on different marketing campaigns, sharing my opinion on whether or not their strategies coincide with their brand image. Our target audience seems to be relatively similar: people who are intrigued by the industry as well as looking for some interesting marketing stories and strategies.

His audience may be slightly more experienced as he is a businessperson with thirteen years of experience! I hope to attract a younger audience who is looking for an informal blog about the industry and it would be great if we started a community and shared different ideas and thoughts about what companies are doing…how about we go with the Marketing Mayhem Clan…I like the sound of that!
 

TTFN, ta ta for now!

Hello World!

Welcome to the awesomeness I call the Marketing Mayhem! Take this blog as my…not so secret journal of greatness. Join me on my journey as I delve into the world of retail marketing. Marketing includes everything from product development and design to product packaging and distribution. Ever since I took an e-marketing class during my senior year of high school, I have been infatuated with Marketing and learning about different strategies. As part of a class project, we were required to reposition any product of our liking. With orange juice as my product, I aimed to change the way people perceived it. We were given freedom to change anything we wanted about the product. My goal was to persuade people to think of orange juice as a cool and hip beverage rather than just a dull breakfast drink they consume with a boring muffin. I introduced Slominski, the world’s finest tasting premium orange juice, to the world. My project was a hit! Everybody loved the sleek design of black striped bottle. 







After getting a little taste of marketing…I was hooked! Being a communication major and a marketing minor, I am finally on my way to become a marketing guru. I specifically chose retail marketing because I am very interesting in learning about consumer behavior and am fascinated with the evolution of complex strategies. I have always felt as though business-to-business marketing does not allow for as much freedom and creativity as retail marketing does. My dream job would be to work for Disney or Dream Works in their retail-marketing department. I am obsessed with watching cartoons and learning more about how children’s programs and toys are developed and sold. I love the challenge of marketing to children because you have to market to both the kids and the parents to persuade them to purchase merchandise. Disney or Dream Works would be the perfect place for me to grow and have the freedom to allow my mind to be creative. It would be a dream come true! 

I look forward to writing about the evolution of marketing and the incorporation of psychology and different marketing cases about various companies. I would be interested in writing about different articles featured in Business Week and Entrepreneur magazine because I love reading about innovative firms and want to share my ideas with the world! Rhetoric plays an important role in marketing because, in order to fully engage the target market, a firm has to mold its communication and business strategy to fit its audience. Rhetoric and media composition would also be an interesting topic to cover because every communication can be considered a means of persuasion. Since I am taking a media literacy class, I would also like to analyze different ad campaigns and their graphic compositions. Social media will also make its way to my blog because with its introduction, the marketing game has completely changed. With the easy access of social media platforms such as FaceBook, firms now have access to free and a wide range of consumer data. They are able to learn more about their target audience and their purchasing behavior, preferences, psychographic and demographic.

More awesomeness to come in the near future…

TTFN, ta ta for now!