Marketing: Shipping is more important than you know

So I'm way behind on my posts - my apologies to everyone. I've decided to go back and look at all the components of the event for my upcoming blogs. The first of these is shipping for events. I know that seems like a no brainer but you would be amazed at the things that can go wrong. Here are a few of my - sadly- real life stories.

At one show our shipment worked perfectly, sadly none of the sales team that were supposed to staff the booth showed up at the show. I won't even try to tell you the sorry excuses they gave me. Suddenly I was in a panic. We had a booth space filled with a sad pile of boxes in Portland Oregon while I was sitting in my office in Milpitas. All those items had to be relabeled and redirected home. Thank goodness for our shipper. He got in touch with someone on site or I would have had to fly to Portland just to bring everything back.

I heard about one show company that went out of business in 2007 but didn't tell exhibitors at their upcoming European show in time for people to stop their shipments. Someone from each company had to go to Amsterdam just to hunt down and ship back their shipments. Sounds silly? Not when your systems can cost upwards of $50-100K.

When I started my current job the worst shipping disaster took place - the shipment didn't arrive. It went to Chicago, which I'm sure was fun for all the signage - sadly we were all in Orlando. That shipper is no longer with the company.

One shipper I actually terminated during a show. The driver had shown up and violated the processes of the show by cutting in line- with an 18 wheeler no less. So he was punished by being the last truck unloaded at the show. Since we had an enormous booth we had to pay all our workers overtime so we'd be ready when the show opened. He had also taken some cash under the table and added another company's load on top of our load - breaking some of our booth components. He also lost several of our items. With all that info in hand I set out into the bowels of the convention center in Los Vegas and located and negotiated for a new shipping company. Then I came back and fired the wayward shipper.

My favorite shipping story is one where everything went according to plan - not that my CEO didn't do his darnedest. Picture this - we're in Barcelona Spain in a tiny 10x10 trade show booth at GSM Congress - the largest wireless show in the world with hundreds of exhibitors and over 60,000 attendees. 1/3 of the booth is taken up with our media server. A media server is not a single item but one that has to sit inside a rack that can hold all the various components. We had shipped the server to Spain at the insistence of my CEO who always likes to show customers what the equipment looks like. I had not let the workers at the show take away our huge crate that the server shipped in. Instead I had draped it with sheets I procured from our hotel (best not to think about that too much) and used it to hold literature and the copious number of briefcases and coats our staffers insisted on carrying to the show every day. It also simplified our move out from the show. The guys all worked together and lifted the server in its rack into the crate and helped me secure it. It was tightly packed ( I crammed all our leftover collateral and giveaways in amongst the components), I put a shipping label on it, returned all our rented equipment and off we walked.

Two hours later I was standing on the Ramblas in Barcelona in front of the Hard Rock Cafe waiting for my team to decide where we would eat dinner. Then my phone rang. It was our CEO who had an idea - instead of shipping the server back to the US we would send it to our sales VP's house in Amsterdam. "No," I said. He argued further, outlining all the benefits of this plan, how it would help them all to have the server. "No," I said. He continued the argument. I thought of the million reasons this would not work - one was that I was not with the server but about to have dinner, the second was the complexity of international shipping and customs forms, the third was that the server was not actually fully functional because we hadn't fully loaded all the hardware and 4th - it had all the stuff I needed back in the states packed around it. Instead I very simply explained, "Did you ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark?" He said yes. "Remember the scene at the end when the Ark was sent into the giant warehouse?" He said yes.
"That's where the server is." There was a long pause. "Oh, never mind." He hung up and I went off to eat.

So lessons learned - a lot can go wrong with shipping so it makes sense to work with high quality firms that deliver what they promise.

Media Relations Summit: The New Newsweek

Last week, while at the Media Relations Summit, I attended a panel on how to pitch to the major news magazines - Time, Newsweek and Businessweek. It was an interesting panel. It rapidly became clear to me that the only news magazine that I would probably get coverage for ABI was Businessweek. This was in large part because they covered us previously and we have a relationship, the other part was because they were interested in covering news related to business and technology - our sector.

I am a longtime reader of Time and Newsweek and have subscriptions to both. I started getting Newsweek several years ago when my friend Kathy got a buy one get a gift subscription free deal from Newsweek and gifted me with it. It's now one of my annual Christmas gifts (my sister gives me Martha Stewart Living and I now have a friend who is giving me People Magazine - great gifts all of them). I started Time last year because they made me a great offer - 1 year for $15 - such a ridiculously good deal I couldn't refuse. And I'm lucky to work in HP Labs where I get to read Businessweek in the library which is just feet from my desk.

During the conference the speaker from Newsweek spent his time, not speaking about how to get stories into Newsweek, but rather how Newsweek has reinvented itself. It has become in large part a think piece type magazine. There will be more essays and reporters views on the news rather than covering the news itself. He spoke about the redesign of the magazine and how it was making the magazine more relevant and readable. The trouble with a magazine of think pieces and essays from my perspective,as the person promoting ABI, is that there isn't much room for coverage of a study done on underrepresented minorities in technology. In the new publication there are about 10 small articles up front - each about a column long that cover the week's news. The rest was all essays - which looked remarkably consistent at exactly a page long with nary a picture for several sections. The one extended article this week was on the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street which was quite good.

I recognize that each magazine must follow its own path but as a reader I'm disappointed in the new Newsweek (I didn't like new Coke either). I know that with the age of the Internet and instant news and 24 hour news networks, that the news magazines have to change to remain relevant and offer an alternate perspective on the news. But I miss the CW which highlighted what was in and out that week, the one page of odd celebrity gossip (always amusing and quirky itself), the short articles on happenings in odd corners of the country - the crime articles always made me go scrambling to the net to read more details since I do love a mystery and I'm fascinated by how crime impacts a community. And as someone who spends a lot of time proofreading - I'm not loving the font. They did preserve Perspectives - the mixture of quotes and cartoons from the weeks news - but the page seems oddly washed out and less readable.

Still I will continue to give them a chance - I have months left on my subscription and a few of the essays were somewhat interesting though I didn't find them as riveting as the more hard news articles that were on the pages just a few weeks ago.

The Week After Women of Vision

The week after a major event is, for marketing, all about clean up and followup. I spent all day Wednesday working my way through the raw video footage of the event - noting cuts and edits so that we can post clips and the speeches on Youtube. I still have about 3 more hours to go where I look for inspiring clips that we can use for presentations, etc. I also wrote a followup press release that will go out on Monday. And of course we were tracking the media coverage post event. For a fabulous summary check out www.valleyzen.com for their article and photos from the event. If you go down to the bottom you can see the photo of me with the winners at the event.

We also got to do the nitty gritty clean up - unloading the cars, integrating the collateral back into our piles, and of course starting to through out all the drafts of everything. And we did our debrief meetings - identifying what we can improve next year.

All in all a busy week. Things will stabilize a bit more next week then it's off to the Media Relations Conference in NY for a few days.

Working with Your Vendors

One of the things I've learned in my 20 years of marketing is how important it is to have a close, personal relationship with your vendors. I recently had a conversation with a vendor who told me that I had an old fashioned view of vendor relationships. While so many others view vendors products as commoditized, I maintain that it is just as important to have that human relationship. I am very loyal to good vendors, and I have found over time that they are loyal to me.

Here are some examples. A few years ago my tradeshow company had a dispute with our shipping company. I wasn't paying that much attention to that part of it and when my tradeshow person said he could save us some money with a new shipper I allowed him to switch. Biggest mistake of my life. The new shipper allowed some other exhibitor to put their materials into our shipment, packing carelessly and breaking the stair rail on our two story booth; their driver lied and cut the line at the next tradeshow causing our shipment to be moved to the very end of the line, and he then somehow managed to lose 2 of my very expensive leather chairs. When I found out I was beyond livid. I immediately searched the show for my old shipper, apologized profusely, rehired him on the spot, then hunted down the new shipper and fired him. I also itemized the costs of all the damage he had caused (we had to replace the chairs and stair rail and pay overtime to the booth builders because of his being the last one to the show) and deducted them from the half payment we were making to the "new"shipper for getting us to the show. Because my tradeshow people had always been good to me I forgave them but I forced the two companies to reconcile to the point where they would at least both support me. So I've learned that when you have a great vendor you stick with them - you may save a few dollars by switching but you can get burned on the other end.

Another example is our printer. They have dealt with a great deal of nuttiness on our part - especially last year - we gave them a lot of tight deadlines and they always came through. When other people send me solicitations or suggestions for other vendors they end up deleted - it is worth a penny or two a copy to know that everything will get delivered on time and in perfect condition.

On the flip side - I am also very willing to take care of my vendors - I make sure they get visibility with ads in our programs, invitations to our local events, etc. So many smaller businesses today are struggling I want to be sure that my vendors survive.

One story I've heard about a not good vendor. A friend went on a trip to a Skating event earlier this month. When they arrived they discovered that even though the tour group had prepaid the hotel through their tour coordinator the hotel had their reservations but no record of the prepayments. It turned out that the vendor had disappeared - taking the hotel deposits with her, plus all the prepayments for the next event in January. It served as a reminder to me that good vendors are like gold. Sadly my friend is out several thousand dollars, had to pay for her hotel room twice and can no longer attend an event she's been to every year for the past 15 years. She had the Bernie Madoff of Travel Agents.

So the moral is take care of your good vendors but always keep an eye on what's going on.

Making Videos for Women of Vision

I spent all day Friday and Monday in an editing room working on the videos for our upcoming Women of Vision event. The work is intense but very sporadic. We started by watching rough cuts of each of the videos then going back through them and stopping and questioning almost every point and making edits. It's slow but fascinating work - and gave me time to get some other work done during parts where we waiting for our editor - Patrick - to make the necessary changes. Since I had written the script I knew what the video was going to say but it always amazes me how many different ways you can represent a statement visually.

One of our winners attended Princeton and while there wrote a compiler. So in that brief sentence you end up seeing on screen a shot of Princeton, the princeton logo and our visual representation of a compiler. Maybe 4 seconds on the screen but a good 45 minutes of work easily. And it was examined over and over. Another challenge is how do you represent someone from New Jersey vs someone from the Bay Area in their videos. I grew up in New Jersey and for the life of me I couldn't think of anything that would truly visually represent New Jersey easily - except of course for a New Jersey Tomato that would only make sense to me and not the rest of the audience. And of course how do you know if you are doing an accurate translation of a word (for yet another video) when you only speak one of the three languages you're working with?

So how did we solve those problems and many others? You'll have to come to the event to find out. Or keep an eye on this blog - I'll be posting links to the videos when they are up on Youtube.

Marketing Yourself: What do I want to do when I grow up?

In writing about Job Hunting and finding a new job I've been doing a lot of research. We did our Savvy Geek Chix program last week and it was a huge success. Of the people in the room, a majority had taken our resume workshop and many were looking for a job - either because they'd been laid off or because they were in fear of being laid off.

So, to continue this series of posts I wanted to break down the job search into its components. The first of these is What do you want to do? When you tell your friends you are out of work and looking for a job they are all scrabbling in their brains trying to decide - what is it she does? My grandmother for years would say to me in the sweetest voice - "what is it you do dear?" even though I'd told her a dozen times or more. My boyfriend's sister-in-law, who's never worked in business, could simply not grasp what I did as a marketing person - she didn't understand the terms press release, collateral, etc. And my darling nephew, at the end of a long day of going about, responded to my statement of ask me anything, said in all sincerity- Aunt Jerri - exactly what is this thing you keep talking about - a trade show?

So if the people closest to me are unaware of what I do how much do my friends, and network really know about what I do, and even more importantly - what I like to do?

After my first layoff from the phone company I went to an outplacement firm. And they put me through a battery of tests to help me determine what I should do. I had become a little muddled in my last job - doing a combination of marketing, training, sales support (going with salespeople and presenting on key products that they weren't able to answer questions about), IT (how to teach sales people not to leave their laptops lying around? Steal them and lock them in your desk - they'll never forget them again). Once the tests were completed I was told I was suited for 4 jobs - Marketing, Training, Minister (of great hilarity to me since I am the epitome of the late Sunday morning sleeper- but something I'll talk about in the future) and Politician. So my personality profile said it - I am a Marketer. But a marketer of what? What did I know? I thought at the time I could only work for a phone company but the counselors showed me that marketing skills are applicable across a wide range of businesses. I interviewed at a variety of companies and got several offers but I decided to go with Telecom at the time. But, as I have learned in the last two years working for a non profit - my skills are very transferable. But I have kept my focus very steadily on Marketing.

So what does this mean for people who are out job hunting? First of all sit down and write out what you like to do - what brings your pleasure. In yellow page advertising one of the key tips is to highlight in ads the things you enjoy doing most that make you the most money. Those are the things you want people to focus on. If you are a programmer but what you love is managing a team - then target that. If you are an accountant but you really enjoy working on grant submissions - then focus on finding a company that specializes in grant submissions. It will be much easier to sell yourself to a company if you believe in the product you are selling - yourself. If you enjoy something that will shine through.

Then create a 30 second - one paragraph simple explanation of what you want to do - i.e. I am a highly skilled marketer with 20 years experience in Public Relations, Branding, Collateral Develpment.... - Tell people that's who you are and what you want to do. You're writing the sales pitch for them to use. So if someone says I really need a marketing person - your friends can say - I know someone who'd be perfect for that. Remember your network has become your salesforce and the product is you.

The cure for a fear of public speaking - 250 little old ladies

I am moderating a panel tonight at our Savvy Geek Chix Event. We'll be discussing strategies for keeping your job, and what to do when you are job hunting. I used to be petrified of public speaking. It would take all my nerve to get everyone at the dinner table in college to clink their glasses so that I could stand up and make a one minute announcement about the next day's flag football game (yes I was team captain). I could lead meetings and group discussions. But put me in front of an audience and I would tense up. I remember rehearsing my thesis presentation (which was presented to basically all the senior science majors and faculty in a large auditorium), and my best friend pointing out to me that I was systematically tugging at my dress skirt. I refrained during the presentation and basically was doing fine during the regular presentation until someone sneezed in the audience. They tell me I jumped about a mile in the air, turned and screamed god bless you, then smiled and went back to presenting. I remember none of it.

Somehow I avoided large auditoriums and audiences for the next 5 years, except for one very memorable presentation to the New York State Telephone Association. My boss told me that it appeared I took one deep breath and read the speech without ever pausing or breathing until I finished. I don't remember it.

Then my boss Bill Hammond, one of my favorite people in the world, decided that part of my objectives was public relations events. I was Regional Marketing Manager for the State of Pennsylvania and based at Enterprise Telephone Company. And so he sent me to do a presentation on understanding your telephone bill to the Sunshine Senior Group in New Holland PA (the name of the group has been changed due to my inability to remember names). He told me how could I be afraid of 15 little old ladies and assured me I'd do fine. I walked in and instead of 15 ladies at a table I was confronted by an enormous room packed full. I quickly counted - 25 tables, each with 10 seats. 250 little old ladies. I was doomed. I had, yes it was the old days, transparencies and my projector which I carefully set up as I was scrutinized closely. I easily topped each of these women by a foot and I think I was the only one in the room who was not wearing a Mennonite cap on my head. To top it off I had an extremely curly perm in those days and my hair was naturally very blond. I was in my very favorite teal suit and pumps - the very picture of the 80's business woman confronting little ladies that had all been farmers wives during the depression -not necessarily my constituency.

I was terrified. I'm not sure what I was afraid of more - fainting or somehow having all these women attack me for my lack of a cap.

I was introduced and got up and began my talk - careful to avoid eye contact. I could hear people in the back talking and I was completely unsure what to do so I just talked faster. I suddenly realized that one of the little tiny ladies in the front row had stood up and was tugging on my jacket. All I could think is "this is it, she's going to throw me out",even though I could have easily picked her up with one hand. I stopped and looked at her. She held out her hand for my microphone. I gave it to her. She turned to the audience and into the microphone she said, "This little girl came all the way from the phone company to tell us about phone bills. And I for one want to hear it. So all you chatterboxes in the back," she paused, "SHUT UP". She turned back to me, handed me the microphone, patted my cheek and said- "You go ahead honey."

Well I just had to laugh. And the audience laughed with me. With that I turned back to the audience and said - I have just a couple of slides but I'm going to forget about them and let me just answer your questions. With that my 15 minute talk turned into an hour long Q&A. The ladies were great and I actually was able to use my slides when answering their questions. It was great.

I'll never forget that little woman. She taught me that an audience won't be in the room unless they want to hear what you are saying. And yes, over the years I've had people walk out on talks - but I don't take offense anymore. And I love it when people raise their hands and ask questions - I prefer my talks to be interactive. So I'm not nervous about tonight. Well not too much. I may give my skirt just a couple of tugs as we get started.

Stitches West: An update from the world of tradeshows

Annually knitters and purveyors of all things knitting gather from around the country (and even beyond our borders) in the Santa Clara Convention Center for Stitches West. Ok, I'll admit it - some crocheters show up as well. Since I am an avid knitter of scarves and afghans I love to go and see everything they have to offer. Mountains of yarn dazzle the eye - from tiny skeins of beautiful silk bamboo yarn that cost $42 to huge mounds of cotton at $1 per skein - there is something for every knitter. And there is something incredibly satisfying from running your hand over silky soft alpaca, lovely organic cotton and sleek silks. And yes I did shop.

I also took some time out for a foot massage at a friend of our's booth. As Ellen got her back rub I giggled (yes I have ticklish feet) and chatted with the booth staff about the show. The results were surprising - there had been a morning meeting of the vendors and the first two days numbers had been calculated. The show had seen a 10% increase in attendance over 2008 but sales themselves were down 10%. We brainstormed what that meant. Here are our theories:

1. Stitches West is a better value than almost any other event out there for pure entertainment. The tickets were $8, $6 if you had a coupon which almost everyone did. That's $2 less than a movie at the AMC Mercado and it lasted longer. We were there over 4 hours. And the food was less expensive than the Mercado- for another $7 I had a diet coke and a sandwich for lunch - less than a soda and popcorn at the movies. So for a total of $13 I had a full tummy and 4 solid hours of entertainment. Throughout the day there were also demonstrations and if we'd gone on Saturday there would have been a fashion show - all included in the price. And where else do you get to talk to a woman who is knitting with yarn made from cat fur?

2. Knitters just can't resist running their hands over yarn. But people, including myself, were definitely shopping more carefully. All I can say is everything I bought has a target recipient at Christmas time. The yarns were gorgeous but I did refrain from indulging in that $42 skein of bamboo/silk blend though I actually dreamt about it last night. So people may have quelled their urges and stayed on budget.

3. You could see the impact in the difference from last year - several of the aisles that had been full last year were a bit shortened - and the first aisle contained only a single booth - a coat check run by the girl scouts who let you check a bag or a coat for $2 and managed to sell you cookies when you did the pickup. So some vendors may no longer exist or did not want to make the expensive journey to CA for the show.

4. Speaking of the girl scouts - it seems the price of cookies has actually gone down - through boxes that used to be full now only hold 15 cookies for $4 - so the boxes are more affordable but you get less than you used to.

So the lessons learned from this event - keep the quality and entertainment value of your event high and be sure to have some good bargains in your booth.

Marketing Yourself: Your Online Collateral - LinkedIn

There are currently so many ways to Market yourself online that I decided to address them one at a time. The first, and for people in business the most important, is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a free online service that allows you to build a resume online. Once the resume is built you can begin to connect with everyone you've ever worked with, gone to school with, etc. This is the ultimate networking tool.

Once you begin to connect with people you can see the lists of people they are connected to and continue to expand your network. In my LinkedIn account - which is currently at 366 connections - I am connected to people from both undergrad and grad school and almost every job I've ever had. But LinkedIn is about more than networking, it is a job hunting tool.

Here is a simple example. If I am looking for a job and I see that company has posted a position for a Director of Marketing - I can search my connections to see who I know that either works at that company or who knows someone at that company who can introduce me. When I find someone I can send them my resume and ask them to forward it or I can request an introduction to the person they know. With that often comes the opportunity for my connection to recommend me for the position. It's that simple.

LinkedIn is also expanding its features to include groups - interest groups, ex-company groups, college groups, I'm even in my high school alum group.

Is it worth the time? Absolutely. You can use LinkedIn to promote events, get general questions answered, make connections, keep up with old friends and find jobs.

So what are my suggestions to make LinkedIn work for you:

1. List every job you've ever had in Linked In with the correct company name. You'll get suggestions of others who worked at the company available so you can re-connect with even more of your past networks.

2. Get recommendations. You can have co-workers, customers, bosses (old and new), friends, etc write you recommendations on LinkedIn. I currently have 19. I wasn't sure if it was worth it until a current co-worker told me that when she was checking my references she looked at my LinkedIn references as well. The fact that so many of my references talked about high energy, cheerful, team player and got things done - all helped me get the job.

3. When you meet someone new - Link with them.

4. Spend 10-15 minutes a week scanning the contacts from past companies and sending invites. You don't need to spend days on LinkedIn. Once you do connect try and drop notes to check in on people once in a while.

5. Never write a recommendation for somone you don't recommend. Your reputation becomes tied to the reputations of people you recommend. If you're put in the awkward position of having to do a recommendation because the person is a current co-worker or even a friend that you love but would never want to work with - make the recommendation very specific. Everyone has their strengths - focus on those. For example if someone is a terrible manager but an excellent writer - only talk about their writing. If someone is great at people skills but terrible at delivering on projects - then talk about their ability to connect with people. Never give a strong broad endorsement unless you truly mean it.

6. Do fill out the profile completely. Some people only put their current job on LinkedIn. That's not using the service to its fullest extent.

7. Do help other people get jobs. You never know when you'll be the one out looking.

Marketing Yourself: Your Collateral

I have rebranded many companies during my career. And central to that process are two things - the website and the collateral that you develop. Those are often the primary means of communicating to customers. The web is a topic I'll address in a future post - but your personal collateral is today's topic.

For non marketers the question arises what is collateral? I think of collateral as any leave behind materials. For a business those include datasheets, brochures, case studies, product descriptions, diagrams, photography, presentations, videos, etc. They are a representation of what your company is and tell the story of your product when you are not physically present.

So what is your personal collateral? What represents you to a recruiter, a hiring manager, an HR person, an interviewer? There are several items that can be included - your resume, listings of your publications, your portfolio (though these should never be left behind unless you have copies of everything and are willing to lose it), and your references.

When you develop collateral you need to think about several things. The first is the overall look and feel of the piece - the colors, the fonts, the design style, the length. You should do this with a resume too. You will most likely do your resume submissions on line but you will also want to print out the resume too. It never hurts when you walk into an interview with multiple clean printed copies of the resume - preferably on a nice piece of stationary. It makes it stand out from all the copies mass printed on copier paper.

Make sure the resume is done in a nice readable font. Be sure to make the font size big enough to be seen. Make sure you have a nice balance of white space and dark print (do not put your print in anything but black - you want it to stand out on the page). And be sure that when you print out the resume that it all fits well on the page and that it doesn't look like a solid mass of print. You want to make it easy for people to scan quickly and find the key points. Do use bold - but sparingly - bold is to be used to highlight items. I personally do not like underlining on a page - I find it distracting.

The length for a business resume should be no more than two pages. Yes, yes, I know - but whoever is screening resumes is seldom going to read that third page. All the most important information should be on the first page.

And what is that important information? If you've ever read product literature it is all about features and benefits. What are features and benefits? Features are the things that remain unchanged about a product - it's functions, description (size, speed, capability). Benefits are what that product can do for the user.

Your resume is your product literature - you are the product. You can design your resume by thinking this way - you have a set of skills, experience and expertise, as well as your job history and academic background. This is what you are capable of doing. These must be in the resume. And while everyone wants to make sure you have all the features (see every job description - it is a list of the features they want in the person they hire), it is the benefits that make people select you.

How do you convey benefits in a resume? Those are the bulleted items under each job in your resume that shows how you took the features and made a positive impact on you. If you were buying a toothpaste you would look on that has fluoride - that's a feature. If the toothpaste says it has fluoride and use of the toothpaste has been shown to reduce cavities by 98% - that's the benefit. So people want features but they buy on benefits.

So let's take myself for example - I know how to create collateral, design web pages, develop and implement PR campaigns, and a host of other things. I put all of those at the top of my resume in my skills section - these are the things I know how to do. The check list. If I were a developer I'd write about all the types of systems and code I know how to work with. Then under each job - i.e. Director of Marketing, Anita Borg Institute - I show how I used those skills to positively impact my organization. For example

• Implemented PR Campaign to support research study deployment; achieved media coverage in Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and an additional 40 major publications.

The reader of the resume says hey I need someone who can do PR campaigns and I want to be in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Or say they want someone who can create a newsletter:

• Edited and published two newsletters monthly and increased circulation of newsletter by 98% in first year.

So yes I met the checklist item with my yes I can do a newsletter but they're saying - wow she increased circulation. And I don't go into the weeds - I don't tell them how I did it - I save that info for the interview.

The same can be done for any job. Think about how your work impacts the product you are working on as well as the company.

Also, remember to highlight what you did on a resume. Women especially like to say we did this or the team did this. Be sure to highlight your individual contributions on your resume and note the impact overall.

Remember your resume is not a laundry list of everything you've ever done. Be sure to make sure you put your strongest results into the resume. And don't be afraid to tweak the resume before you send it in for a specific job. I always read the job description carefully and review my resume to make sure it meets most of the points the hiring firm is looking for. Just keep track of what version you send out.

If you have experience with a specific industry don't be afraid to namedrop. I once got an interview for a voice mail product marketing position. My experience was with voice mail systems and I listed all the manufacturers I had worked with. It turned out they were hiring for someone to deal with three of those manufacturers on my list. It would have been a great fit. And I would have gotten the job if I hadn't asked what had happened to my predecessor. The interviewer told me in graphic detail how she'd become so unhappy and overstressed in the job she'd killed herself. I was horrified and it showed. Especially since his next question was how well did I deal with stress. Ack!

Most importantly - never present something on your resume that you did not do. I can't tell you how many times I've heard interviewers say - great resume but it was clear they did not do the work themselves. As things have become more competitive and hiring restrictions grow tighter you have an increased chance of being interviewed by multiple people who will ask you about everything on your resume.

I'll be writing more about your personal collateral in the coming days. One final note - be sure to have someone proofread your resume who is very good at the language the resume is written in. If you have a friend who's an English major, English professor, super speller - have them read it. There are things spellcheck will not find for you and trust me someone will notice.

Superbowl Ads: Which ones do I remember?

I wouldn't be a marketing person if I didn't write a blog about the Superbowl commercials from yesterday. I haven't seen or read any of the reviews of the commercials - I understand the news last night was actually offering reviews but Mike was so upset about Pittsburgh's win we ended up watching House Hunters on HGTV to avoid all discussion of the game.

So which commercials did I like? The Clydesdale commercials. I know I know - it's a beer commercial - but I really love the horses. They were my favorite, I especially liked the one where the horse wanted the treat and retrieved the log. The look on the dalmatian's face was classic.

I also loved Pixar's preview for UP. Something to look forward to this summer.

I happened to go to the grocery store yesterday and discovered at the checkout 3D glasses which were required for a commercial at the end of the second quarter. So I brought home a set of 4, even though only two of us were watching, carefully cut and punched them out and had them waiting. Thank goodness they gave us repeated warnings that the commercial was coming. So at last they announced the commercial was starting and Mike and I put on our glasses and watched. Our conclusion - Monsters and Aliens looks so/so - might be good, hard to tell from the commercial - but not much of the commercial was in 3D - though something did pop out at one point. It may have been a case of too much hype - the commercial was inevitably going to be a let down. So those of you without 3D glasses - you didn't miss much.

The new Star Trek movie looks fine though the clips at the end of the commercial were a bit muddled so hard to tell; the new Julia Roberts/Clive Owen is a must see - it looks like a sort of Mr & Mrs Smith type movie - rival spies fall in love - but I want to see it because I honestly think it's the first time I've seen Clive Owen ever smile. Must be worth a bit.

The rest of the commercials were of the forgettable sort. I hope no one spent their last marketing dollar. I noticed the only car companies really advertising were Hyundai and Toyota - no American car companies to be seen. Thank goodness they aren't spending our tax dollars on Superbowl commercials.

Of course my favorite part of the whole event was Bruce Springstein - I'm a Jersey girl and we love our Bruce. Excellent songs until the next to last about Dreams. We were both like what the hell is this? I was demanding Glory Days and thank goodness Bruce heard me and switched into that for his final song. Very cool. And how fun is it to see Steve Van Zandt not playing in the Soprano's but rocking out once again.

So who was the big winner in last night's Superbowl? The Boss of course.

Marketing Disasters and Lessons Learned Pt 1: Never tell a reporter anything you don't want to see in print

I saw a request today for PR disasters in recent history and that got me thinking about past marketing disasters. We all have them. This first disaster took place while I was riding a shuttle bus in Chicago in 2000. I was attending the old PCS tradeshow and had left my co-worker to go to the hotel to work. My phone rang and through the static I could hear my boss screaming at me in a mixture of chinese and english. I got off the bus at some other hotel to try and get a better signal and then I heard it. Our Chief Scientist had gone to a standards meeting in China and encountered a reporter. The reporter said, I heard your new company is doing well. The Chief Scientist proceeded to tell the reporter in detail the names of all the potential customers we were engaging with and that we had a deal with a major wireless carrier in the US. And the reporter published it. And the screaming began.

My boss called me not to tell me to be prepared in case we were asked about it, but to tell me to call the newspaper and have them print a retraction. I remember the conversation went like this:

Me: So did he actually tell the reporter we have that company as a signed customer?
Boss: Yes he did. But he didn't know the reporter would write about it.
Me: Did the reporter not identify himself? Did he know he was a reporter?
Boss: Yes he did know that. But he didn't know the reporter would write about it.
Me: Was the reporter taking notes while they talked?
Boss: (Background conversation) Yes, he did.
Me: Then there is nothing we can do. The reporter did his job.

And the screaming started again. There was truly nothing that could be done, no trickery was involved, it was just an executive enjoying his moment in the spotlight.

The article published, the customer screamed and walked away from us and life continued. The damage with the customer was done - perhaps if we'd had a deeper relationship or commitment we would have been able to salvage the relationship. I don't doubt that part of it was a language issue but to this day when I work with Executives my first piece of advice is never tell a reporter anything you don't want to see in print.

Movie Marketing: All The Award Shows

Unless you are completely oblivious to the media you know that we are in that crazy time of the year, award show season. Now is the time as we huddle for warmth in our homes (because we've turned down the heat to conserve energy and our dollars) that we settle in and watch all the beautiful people walk the red carpet and receive their awards.

Of course, it's all about marketing. The stars turn out so they can promote their movie which is either in the theatres now or about to come out on DVD. It's all about making money.

Last night's SAG awards was entertaining since it acknowledged not the films themselves (though people did talk about them) but their casts. Mike and I missed the first hour but thoroughly enjoyed watching the second hour. As huge fans of Mad Men we were thrilled to see it win best cast for a TV series - and we totally agree. Of course after the speech we went into a discussion of exactly how long it was until the next season of Mad Men started and would it be adversely impacted if the show creator left and exactly how old are Elizabeth Moss and Fred Armisen and how could they possibly be engaged? In fact I think we missed the next award because I had to go check IMDB for their birthdates.

So do Award Shows work? Do they get us to go to a movie or watch a TV show, or order a DVD? I'll confess - the results are mixed. Mike still can't figure out how Slumdog Millionaire is doing so well (he's seen it and didn't love it) and I'm thinking since it keeps winning perhaps I do need to go see it so I can be prepared for Oscar night. However, I'm still outraged that Gran Torino and Clint Eastwood have been overlooked - so I'm discounting somewhat the award shows intelligence. Sean Penn winning for Milk was understandable since I had seen it - but since Mike remembers it all vividly, since he lived in the Bay Area at the time, he's not as inclined to see it. I will confess - I'm going to have to add that John Adams Series to my Netflix list - with as many wins as it's had it is probably worth my time.

What Every Marketer Should Do in these Tough Times

I was recently asked what advice I had for other marketers in these tough economic times. There are so many things but I narrowed it down to five items.

1. Network, Network, Network - This could be all five items in itself. But constantly building and expanding your professional and personal networks is crucial. You never know when you are going to find yourself out of work and your network is how you get a job. You need references, connections, introductions - and that comes from your network. I recommend LinkedIn - it is absolutely the best for helping you find people from your past life and reconnecting you. I have friends from 15 years ago writing me references.

2. Learn Social Media/Web 2.0 - Companies hiring marketers are often filling one job with many roles. And Web 2.0/Social Media is a big component of what they are looking for. So your first step should be to go out and build a Facebook Page for yourself. Set up a Twitter Account. Create a blog (like this one) where you are putting yourself out there. Also, start following leaders in your market's blog, twitters, and build reciprocal links. This will put you way ahead of people who are solely focused on traditional marketing.

3. Learn something new every day. This is an old adage but an important one. Keep yourself from becoming board by reading and learning new things. You never know when new knowledge you've picked up can help your organization. I have Google Alerts coming in for about 20 topics and I review them all each day to see what is going on in tech and what opportunities there are for my organization.

4. Review your vendors. You are at year end and you are probably dealing with slashed 2009 budgets. So take a look at your vendors carefully and see what can be renegotiated so you can do more with less. I had one vendor under monthly retainer which we could not sustain. Instead I determined when would be the times next year when they would be critically important and negotiated a consulting agreement with them for those times. We saved about 50% but they'll be there when I need them.

5. Reality - what a concept. Make your plans realistic. The greatest challenge I see is people write unrealistic plans or goals and then struggle and ultimately fail to execute. Create a plan you can live with and implement. If you can maintain that focus you can achieve a lot. And make sure to refer back to that plan when you meet with your manager. You need to be flexible but marketing is often about momentum building - so make sure they realize that changes can derail that momentum.