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Marketing Mondays - Has traditional education gone out the window? (7th ed., 2010)

2/21/2010

What a week! I’m not sure about you, but time seems to be going faster and I just seem to be getting busier. I guess this is the reality of the world today…no complaints from me but sometimes its amazing how time flies!

I hope you can take 10 minutes out of your busy lives to enjoy February’s final edition of Marketing Mondays!

Following on my last blog on finding simple ways to keep our marketing skills up, I wanted to take time to discuss how education is really everywhere nowadays.

After my last blog, I got some offline feedback that made me really realize a few things. Some feedback centered around reinforcing the importance of in-class study; others mentioned that we don’t even need books/articles/websites to learn.

I’m going to speak more about the latter.

I can’t reinforce the power of studying in a classroom with similar marketing minded people but I also agree with those that feel that the world is our classroom.

As I sit on the bus observing people around me, talking to people when I’m in a shop, surfing the web or even watching TV, I’m taking information in that helps me be a better marketer.

They say that our generation is time poor (anyone disagree out there?) and if we really don’t have the time to invest in formal education, the one thing we all can do is to start opening our eyes and ears to learning through living.

What’s amazing about marketing is that it is everywhere! Every person you speak to is someone who gives you insight into their needs; every city you visit shows you a cultural uniqueness you can use in your next campaign; and every bad customer service call (and I’m sure we’ve all had at least one of those before) shows us what not to do when communicating.

As marketers, we are blessed with a profession that allows us to take these learnings and implement them in how we do our work. It’s simple – we are Learning through Life.

For the past couple of years, I’ve actively tried to do this and I feel like it’s made me better at what I do.

How do you feel about this?

Can education come merely from opening our eyes to the world around us OR does it have to come from a textbook/classroom to make it meaningful?

I know what I think but I want to hear your thoughts! Post a comment and have your say!

Have a great marketing week, take care and keep those eyes and ears open,

Miriam Berger
AppleCrisp Marketing Solutions

PS> Next week I’ll kick off March’s monthly topic with another new approach to my Marketing Mondays blog – you’ve got to keep it fresh! STAY TUNED!

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Marketing Mondays - Marketing made easy (6th edition, 2010)

2/15/2010

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Welcome back to Marketing Mondays! Before I get into the topic of the week, I want to apologize for missing a week of my blog but I was really suffering from a nasty bug. Now I’m back and I hope this was worth the wait…

While I was lying in bed, sick as a dog, I was actually practicing what I’m about to preach. So I guess we can say I was kind of working.

When it comes to keeping your skills up, it is essential to surround yourself with the most up-to-date information, highlighting different views on the marketing world we know and love.

Learning doesn’t have to be overly complicated. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to devote time doing a secondary diploma, postgraduate degree or even a doctorate but, in my opinion, these ways of learning aren’t the be all and end all for the professional marketer.

It all goes back to one small four letter word – K-I-S-S: Keeping It Simple Sweetheart (remember from my blog in December 2009). The more we make learning simple, the more likely we are to fit it in around our already busy schedules.

What I want you to get out of this blog is that as marketers we need to keep our knowledge current. If the best way to do that is by reading marketing books, articles, information on the web or any other way – DO IT!!

There is so much information out there on marketing – it’s unreal. Just doing a Google search on marketing articles, I came back with 147 MILLION results! Granted this isn’t a scientific way of finding quality information but it does demonstrate how much information is available to us.

There is no way to possibly know what will be of good use to your day-to-day work or even your future marketing career but I’m hoping that this blog can act as a forum for my readers to share those marketing books, articles and websites they just can’t live without.

So...drum roll please...Here’s my Top 5 reads in the K-I-S-S strategy to marketing learning:

# 5 – Interbrand Branding studies (http://www.interbrand.com/studies_list.aspx?langid=1000): not everyone will agree with me but I find Interbrand’s approach an interesting one. At a basic level, it is a current analysis on some of the top brands across the globe with an overview of general trends affecting our world. A one-stop shop for the marketing mind – why not?

# 4 – www.thewisemarketer.com : I stumbled on this website while doing a search not so long ago. Personally, I think it has a lot of interesting information – including daily news updates, articles and a research centre with archived information. One article in particular I liked was on the importance of a positive customer experience – check it out: (http://www.thewisemarketer.com/features/read.asp?id=87). Highly recommend!

# 3 – Smarter Pricing (Tony Cram): being the nerd I am, I’m all about the numbers. I spent a significant amount of time developing pricing early in my career and it is one of my favourite areas of marketing. Unfortunately, pricing is one of the loneliest P’s of the marketing mix. So I recommend reading this book as it is cleverly written, a joy to read and will help beef up your knowledge on pricing.

# 2 – http://www.themarketer.co.uk/ : The magazine published by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). CIM, an international association based out of the UK, offers an online version of its members’ magazine. It highlights marketing trends, interviews with marketers across various industries and also lists jobs. Personally, I see this as a valuable resource to keep a pulse on some hot topics and to learn some best practices.

# 1 – Crush It: Why now is the time to cash in on your passion (Gary Vaynerchuk): this is one of the most recent marketing books I’ve read. It is very short and sweet with its focus entirely devoted to how we can use social networking to make a successful business out of our passions – whatever they may be. Not only is Gary’s story truly inspiring, it also gave me hope and energy that, with the right attitude and tools, my passion can turn into my livelihood.

So that is my Top 5 – now it’s your turn.

Tell me about some books, articles or websites you’ve encountered lately that have made you stop and think. It’s not just for me, I want this to be for all of marketers who want to keep our skills up and read interesting materials about our field.

I’m hoping that, from your input on this blog, I can pull together a list that I’ll post on my website so it can act as a reference for marketers everywhere!

So…comment away!!!

Have a great marketing week and more importantly…
…Go CANADA Go! (it is Olympic season, isn’t it?)

Take care,
Miriam Berger
AppleCrisp Marketing Solutions

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Marketing Mondays - Learning never really ends, does it? (5th Edition, 2010)

2/1/2010

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As I start to settle into 2010, I sit back and look at those resolutions I put together a month or so ago.

Professionally, one of the things I do every year, whether I’m working for a big company or am doing it solo, is try and understand what skills I need to develop over the course of the year.

After I graduated, I thought that was it – I got the overpriced piece of paper, put in my time and now I could practice what I spent so much time studying. Not until a year or two into working, did I realise how fast the world of marketing moved and that it actually wasn’t over – it was just beginning.

Most people in most careers will say how important it is to invest time in continuous professional development and I agree completely. With technology moving at such a rapid pace and with it influencing almost every aspect of our lives, I think we all need to spend more and more time learning.

It is crucial in marketing to be on top of the game. We need to invest time in honing our skills, learning something different or refreshing our memory about something we learned back in that classroom years ago.

After I hopped over to the other side of the pond, I was presented with the opportunity to do a professional postgraduate diploma. Since I’m a bit of a geek at heart, I jumped on the opportunity. Even though at face value this diploma covered a lot of aspects of marketing I’d already done in university, the content was very different. It dug deep into something that has a great influence on our world today – marketing in the digital world.

Don’t get me wrong, there were computers when I went to university – I’m not that old. But the internet was not what it is today - that’s for sure. I think most of my graduating class knew how important the internet would be to our chosen profession but, to be fair, we didn’t have many good examples to drawn upon.

Doing the postgrad, gave me some renewed understanding of the power of the online world and its impact on my work.

Since graduating with my postgraduate diploma – just a couple of months ago – I bet marketers who are just starting this same program now will be seeing even newer content than I did just over a year ago.

So... why is it essential to invest time in learning as a marketer?

The only answer I can give to this is a personal one. I am passionate and when I complete a project, investigate a new industry or prepare a communication I want to deliver a superior product – for my clients or for the company I’m working for. By refreshing what I already know, finding out new things I don’t know and learning from best practices out in various industries, I’m able to be the best I can be.

Someone once told me that knowledge was the key to success. Success means different things to different people. By empowering myself with knowledge, I know that when I sit down to do my “day” job I’m doing it to the best of my abilities. That is part of the secret to my success – that’s for sure!

So...how do you feel? Why is it essential for us to invest time and energy in keeping our skills up-to-date? Tell me your thoughts...I want to hear your views.

Have a great marketing week,

Miriam Berger
AppleCrisp Marketing Solutions

2 Comments

Marketing Mondays - Has traditional education gone out the window? (7th ed., 2010)

Marketing Mondays - Marketing made easy (6th edition, 2010)

Marketing Mondays - Learning never really ends, does it? (5th Edition, 2010)

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