Ici Paris II: Social Media as Marketing tools

Participating in the 8th International Congress Marketing Trends in Paris last week I had the opportunity to follow many interesting presentations during the Strategic Marketing Forum that was held the first day of the Congress. (See my post of 15 Jan 2009). During the presentations and also at the coffee and lunch breaks I spoke with several of the executives who participated in the proceedings asking them about the extend of using Social Media as marketing tools, namely in "listening to customer voice", allowing product customization or engaging the customer as innovation agent. The answers were in general on the positive side. This proves once more that the Web 2.0 issue is a hot item for many marketing executives who despite their "back to basics" attitude realize how important it is to get the customer as much as possible involved in their business. A really optimistic attitude and for me the confirmation that more research in this area is needed.

Ici Paris I: A Crisis Bubble? After all the doom and gloom some optimistic voices about the crisis from Europe

Like last year these days I attend in Paris the International Congress Marketing Trends. This rapidly expanding conference is a forum of new Marketing ideas from Europe (but increasingly from other parts of the world).

Today was the opening. A Marketing Strategy Forum with the theme Facing Market Crisis: Crash Marketing or Flex Marketing gave the opportunity to top managers of well-known European companies to tell us what they think about the crisis. Among the participants were SCFC (French railways, owners of the high speed TGV trains), Lesieur (consumer products), Walt Disney (Euro Disney), Europ Assistance (Road assistance and insurances), Auchan (global food retailer), Michelin (tires) and many others.

My impression from almost all speeches is that no one of these companies is really in crisis management mode. The crisis seems to be everyone's mind but on strategic and even on operational level things seem to be as usual!

While I can't argue that the sample is representative I can't help thinking that the media (at least in the European continent) and self-proclaimed financial gurus are in a course of hyping things. Probably this hype rather than real economic fundamentals leads to loss of consumer confidence fall of demand, production / capacity reductions and lay-offs. After all the price of the oil is 1/3 of the price during the last summer, the European consumer is not living from credit and the Euro is strong. Next to the financial sector that during the recent years demonstrated in many cases irresponsibility and questionable corporate ethics I have the feeling that many European firms think that the crisis is a cyclical (yet more heavy than usually) event and in any case it is less serious than many people think. Maybe some of them also expect that it will be over soon.

Conclusion of the day: Flex Marketing rather than Crash Marketing! Maybe after the dot.com bubble and the real estate bubble a Crisis Bubble?

Back from Venice

With some delay I hope to publish my new post this week. The reason for the delay this time was the 7th International Congress Marketing Trends I attended last week in a rainy but always beautiful Venice. A congress with interesting workshops and papers but mainly a congress known for the unique feature: 6 official languages!

Many colleagues from mainly European countries and many participants from the business world. A very good opportunity for networking and meeting people you know.

Living for even a few days at the center of Venice among the locals and far from the touristic routes is a unique experience if only for the fact that you do not hear the sounds we are used to: Motor cars! Nothing on wheels is allowed in Venice, not even bicycles.

During a short tour in the tiny island of Murano, the center of the crystal industry of Italy, I was very impressed by the craftsmanship of the crystal workers and also by a crustal turtle priced 25.000 Euro (I could get it for the friendly price of 15.000 including postage if I wanted!!!). In my question who would buy such a thing our host told me that the main customers are the Russian and Chinese, the nouveau riche of today. Talking with the host I also learned that the Murano crystal masters are not interested to sell their products on line! The customer wants to see and touch the product before buying it. I was not convinced.