Marketing and Other Things

Where I Blog (rqtaylor.com)

2008-09-22T10:35:00.005-06:00

With a little push from my younger brother Jacob, I started blogging on a "real" website.

http://rqtaylor.com/ - where I post about marketing and other things
http://www.conversationsmatter.org/ - where I post with others about social media

Jennette and I also have a personal site at http://nettieandrich.blogspot.com/

Sun Microsystems to acquire MySQL

2008-01-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

There was an interesting announcement this morning during the All Company Meeting of MySQL. Mårten Mickos, the CEO of MySQL, put up his third powerpoint slide which stated that Sun Microsystems will acquire MySQL for $1 Billion. It got really quiet in the room of 400 employees. I personally thought it was a joke of some sort until my boss turned around, smiled and nodded at me. As it sunk in, I started to realize what this means for me.

I will no longer work for a small open source company with one major product. Instead I will work for a very large company with many products, both software and hardware. My day to day job should be the same for the most part, but I am excited to see what new challenges will come. This will provide many opportunities for myself and MySQL. I am excited to take on this new chapter in my life.

For more information on the acquisition announcement, go to
http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/sun-to-acquire-mysql.html

Customer Retention vs. Growth

2008-01-04T14:58:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine worked as a teller for Key Bank for over 6 years. He has since left, yet maintains a bank account there because he still gets some good perks. A huge issue arose when myself and 4-5 friends all received iPod nanos from Key Bank for opening a free checking account. He was upset to say the least. He has been a loyal customer/employee for over 9 years and doesn't have a nano to show for it. He is now considering moving on.

A similar issue comes up for me each time my cell phone service contract ends. I usually want a new phone after a year or so (I seem to drop mine often) and the phone companies will only give me a small discount on a phone because I am an existing customer. If I were to switch companies, or a new customer of theirs, they would give me a new phone for free. This makes very little sense to me. I remember hearing over and over in college that new customers were much more expensive to get than keeping existing customers. So why do these companies work so hard to alienate their customers? I don't understand, but I believe that this is one of the most overlooked aspects of customer relationship management in most companies.

I believe that a major reason for this overlook is the increased importance that sales departments have become in companies over the last 20-30 years. I haven't done any real market research on the matter, but here is one example.

To put myself through college I sold pest control contracts door-to-door for three summers. I worked 50-60 hours a week but had plenty of money and flexibility to show for it. The offices I worked in usually had between 15-25 sales reps and 8-10 technicians. The technicians worked from 7am - 9pm six days a week. They were payed much less than Sales Reps but worked much harder. The technicians are the most direct point of contact that the company has with the customers, yet they are paid the least. There are many reasons for this, but how important is it to have great technicians? How much of their training is on customer interaction? This was overlooked for the most part when I worked in the industry. Technician turnover was high and as a result customer retention suffered.

I don't claim to have the solution for the issues, but it is something companies need to consider and take a look at. Especially my phone company. My contract is up, I want a new PDA, what are you going to offer me? Sad thing is, probably nothing much.

Marketing Confusion

2007-11-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

My wife and I decided last week that we wanted to buy a digital camera. The only digital camera I have experience with is a 3 year old walmart special that my father-in-law bought for Jennette. It has worked ok at times, but failed us in a trip to London.

I did my research online, found the camera that fit into what I wanted and went to Circuit City to make a purchase. But the rebate for a free photo printer was only available online. Strange, huh? So Jennette and I got back in the car, went to my office, bought the camera online, went back to the store, picked up our camera and now we have our new toy. This didn't bother me at all, but Circuit City has some confusing marketing. Do they only want me to shop online? Their website banner ad says otherwise, they are opening 65 new stores in the next couple of months.

My take away from the experience: Traditional brink-and-mortar stores get confused with how I (and many of my friends) shop and how to market to these new buyers. Web 2.0 seems to have some of them confused. So here is some insight into how I shop.

I am educated. I will do all the research at home online and know almost as much as your employees in a short time. I will have a couple questions and then buy something.

I have limited loyalty. I will shop for the best deal and don't really care where it comes from. But if your company makes an unreasonable mistake, I might never shop there again. BUT, I personally really enjoy customer service and good CRM marketing. So if you prove you are a good place to shop. I might be loyal.

I will abuse your system, if you let me. Key Bank has now given me 3 iPod nanos, for free (holding my money for a day before I transferred it to my ING Direct account is really close to free). I have and will cancel my account with them and only open an account when you offer me another iPod nano. This brings up another topic I will discuss some other time.

Figuring out how to sell to me must be difficult. Using disruptive methods along with the traditional is one way. I'll discuss more on disruption in my next post.

just a few of my thoughts

Too Much Clutter

2007-10-02T11:18:00.000-06:00

Clutter is a term used to describe the phenomenon of a marketplace being full or even overcrowded with products. It also refers to the extreme amount of advertising the average American sees in their daily lives. Clutter is a major problem for marketers and advertisers.
- wikipedia

While driving down to Utah this weekend I was reminded of the reason I hate the drive between Ogden, Utah and Provo, Utah, too much Clutter. I have had the opportunity to visit Times Square in New York City and Piccadilly Circus in London and the strip in Las Vegas. Besides Tokyo, these may be the two most cluttered locations in the world. They do not annoy me as much as Utah Advertising. I am amazed each time I drive at how bad the billboards and other ads can detract from the beautiful scenery that makes Utah a place to visit.

I understand the importance of signs, billboards and advertising, but I wish people were a little more tactful in their approach. Just a few of my thoughts.

Blogging Break

2007-06-08T13:13:00.000-06:00

For the past 5 months I have avoided blogging on this personal blog. I started thinking about it today and realized a couple of possible reasons why.

1. My friends gave me a nickname.
For some reason I tend to attract nicknames. This isn't always a bad thing, but sometimes I don't like it. Here are a few: Howard the Duck, Dobber, Gerber Baby, and lately it was Conan the Blogarian. Conan the Blogarian is a funny nickname, but made me hate myself a little bit.

2. I hate keeping a journal.
Blogging for me was/is a way to express myself and keep a journal. I am not very outspoken and tend to keep my opinions to myself, so a blog seems a little out of character. But expressing myself and voicing my opinions is something I would like to work on, so here I am again.

3. The tubes are cluttered
With some many people on the internet now a days, it just seems like there is a lot of crap out there. I didn't want to add to the pile.

4. I was busy
For the past few months I was studying for the GMAT, applying to graduate school, given more responsibility at work, and applying for a home loan. I never wanted to take the time to write a couple paragraphs and hit the PUBLISH POST button.

So now that I got out why I didn't blog out in the open I feel a lot better.

Political Rallies and Sales Kickoffs

2007-01-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

After attending a Sales Kickoff in Orlando, FL, listening to Jesse Jackson at a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, listening to Al Gore live giving his latest edition of An Inconvenient Truth and attending the Boise State Fiesta Bowl celebration, I am a bit overwhelmed with thoughts of how people attempt to get others to jump on their bandwagon.

I have been to a few sales kickoffs and all of them had some great training, but there is always some type of excitement and hype built up about the company. The Sales Kickoff I attended for a door-to-door sales company was always full of giveaways and excitement. The company took care of us but always made me feel a little childish. I guess they did get me to the conference so they could get all of my paperwork filled out. The corporation I work for now does a much better job giving insight into our products, the competitive environment and the company situation. Corporations will always try to get people to believe in their product, I am just happy to work for one that I actually do believe in.

Listening to Jesse Jackson was a treat. I am amazed with how prolific he pontificates the prolonging pragmatic problems that face these United of States. If there is anyone that can rhyme words in a way that makes you want to yell amen, Jesse Jackson is that man. Mr. Jackson did a good job at first telling us of the struggles that faced Martin Luther King Jr. and the people that he represented. Then Jackson started to explain to the audience the detriment that is the Bush Administration. The reverend catered to the audience the was composed of mainly democratic liberals, and told those that would listen of the atrocities that those in Washington were committing on the world. I liked the first half of his speech and Jackson made some good points about equality, but the second half was too much "Bush Bashing" and not enough telling me how I could help. (I will add that the many 'amens', 'you tell it', 'thank you brother', etc were worth attending the event. I really enjoy the way Rev. Jackson speaks)

Two days after a packed house, 10,000 in attendance in Taco Bell Arena sat through a Boise State basketball game during a day of celebration in Idaho for the Undefeated, Fiesta Bowl winning Boise State Broncos Football Team for the presentation of the Fiesta Bowl trophy (sorry I digress), another 10,000 people gathered to listen to Al Gore present An Inconvenient Truth to Idaho. My first observations were the difference between the two audiences. I believe there was a small percent of people that attended both the basketball game and the Al Gore speech. Myself, my wife and brother-in-law were three of those that attended both. I was a different atmosphere for sure. Al Gore has some good things to say, but he didn't give me enough ideas of how I could make a difference. I also wonder what he did while he was in the White House for 8 years? Today it was announced that he is up for a Nobel Peace prize. Go figure. My thoughts coming out of the speech were, "Didn't I see and hear all of this in that movie I watched starring him?"

I really enjoy living in the Treasure Valley of Idaho. The population is exploding and too many people are finding out that Boise is a great place to live. People complain about the diversity, but I can attest there are many different people with plenty of different ideas. I may not like all of them, but I respect them. I also realize that people try to get you to jump into their agendas. Do your own research and find out what you think. Don't just "Damn the Man" or "Blame Big Brother" before you look into the facts yourself.

Another Great Voip Service

2007-01-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

Digg.com had a post about GrandCentral.com today. GrandCentral is currently in beta, but offers some great free services. The basic idea is that you get "one number for life." Pick a number that will not change when you move or change jobs.

This is a great for those working remotely and want a phone number in the state they are working. No longer will you have to worry about the long distance charges affecting the amount of inbound calls you receive. The grandma that has resisted a cell phone for so long will be so happy. It also helps if you have a corporation set up in Nevada and want to get rid of that annoying cell phone with a Nevada number.

Pretty neat what people are coming out with.

Posing as a Rebel

2006-12-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think of the extra curricular activities I participate in and wonder if I am trying to be something I am not.

Here's one way people may look at me: The Conservative Nice Guy

a middle-class white american male
an every sunday church goer
son of parents who are still married and both college graduates
a conservative when it comes to most political opinions
senior class president of my high school class
president of the largest religious organization on my college campus
college graduate
gainfully employed
took out some additional life insurance on my wife and myself last month
wear a suit and tie frequently
most people who know me would describe me as a nice guy (I think)

Here is how other's may see me as: The Liberal and kind of a Rebel

married to a liberal social worker (who I love not despite, but because of her opinions)
I rode a skateboard to class most of college
snowboard, not skis
listen to punk music
own and ride a motorcycle
rarely tuck my shirt in (kills my dad)
play frisbee golf (hippie game)
rock climber
work for an open source software company
have a hard time shaving frequently
I sold pest control as a door-to-door salesman for 3 years

At times I think there are some conflicting sides to the person that I am. I have thought about all the labels that are running around out there and wonder if they are good or bad for society. In some ways it helps people gain a sense of belonging. In the words of Reel Big Fish, "everyone who looks like me is my friend."

But it can also cause segregation and classes. We have all seen a teen movie and can pick out the jocks, nerds and popular kids from one another. This happened in my High School in a not so obvious way. A younger brother of mine was recently labeled as a Cerd = Cool + Nerd, by some girls who couldn't figure out what kind of kid he is. Another brother was called a hippie by a teacher because he rock climbs and has longer hair (this brother reads Micheal Savage books for fun).

I guess the point of my ranting today is that we should be slow to judge who people are, or just try to leave labels out of it. I just went to Christmas Party at a friends house where my friends were trading Magic the Gathering cards, talking about WOW (World of Warcraft for the non-geeks out there) and the girls were discussing their latest photo album of pictures of themselves as fairies, called 'fairy books' (not that there is anything wrong with those activities. These are some of my A level friends.

Just my quick take on labels.

Skype and other great Voip services

2006-12-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

Many of you have probably heard of Skype. It is a service that allows you to make phone calls over the internet to landlines and other skype users, either for free or for a very affordable fee ($14.95 for a year). I also use it for IM and sending files. I have been using Skype for over a year and can't express how valuable it has been. I have a fairly open crush on Skype.

But there are some other services out there that allow consumers to make phone calls over the internet either for free or for a great price. I thought I would list a few just to get the word out.

*Before you go trying these, make sure you are not using dial-up, it just isn't worth it.

Just another great product from Google. They have about anything you want and give it to you normally for no cost. This is an IM service, Call service and allows you to send files easily. I don't think it allows you to call to landlines yet, but it is a great service.

Palore takes a different approach. It is a browser plug-in that works with IE or FireFox. It searches company phone numbers and gives you a review of that company/restaurant in a pop-up window. Then it lets you call the number from the pop-up window. A great product if you are looking for a restaurant on a business trip in a city you are unfamiliar with. I am excited about this one.

With some clever marketing Vonage has become the leader in taking Voip into people's home. Plans start at $14.99 and they are trying to replace the traditional home phone line. I am not a big fan, but it is a simple option to get off whoever is charging your $30 a month to have a home phone #.

This looks to be one of the more promising communications programs. It allows you to talk, conference, text message, IM (Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Google, Skype, ICQ), file transfer, email support, offline messaging, and dial-out services to landlines for a small fee. That is a pretty promising list.

I am really excited about where the industry is going. I think there will be more and more impressive changes in how we communicate in the near future.

Television on the Web

2006-11-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

While at work and wanting to watch the World Cup over the internet, I came across something marvelous.

There are some wonderful sites out there so that you can watch TV episodes over the internet. I am sure everyone has heard of iTunes, Daily Motion (runs on MySQL), YouTube (MySQL user) and Google Video. But these are great places to find full versions of many TV shows for free.

www.bleenks.com
www.streamick.com
www.channelking.com
www.chooseandwatch.com

Some of them stream the video live and others point you to websites when the episodes have been uploaded. Another fantastic bit of technology is the Slingbox (as promoted on Jim Rome). It allows you to stream the TV stations that you already pay for to your computer anywhere in the world (where you can get an internet connection. I am amazed by all of the ways people are creating for me to waste time.

Just a quick take on television wasting my time, I love it.

SaaS (Software as a Service)

2006-11-22T13:53:00.000-07:00

I am always interested in how great ideas come about. One of the most best ideas and movements in the software industry lately is Software as a Service (go here for a definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_Service). I am a CRM program administrator that uses SalesForce.com. I can log-in securely to our companies data from any computer in the world. There have been many occasions when I have been away from my computer, or my computer decided not to work and I could log onto the internet and do my work.

I thought I would list a view great SaaS vendors.
www.salesforce.com
www.sugarcrm.com
www.webex.com
www.atroad.com
www.google.com (docs & spreadsheets, calender, blogger, etc.)

There are a few drawbacks to SaaS. Companies will need to build infrastructures to keep up with demand. If the servers go down or something else happens that hinders a users experience, customers will go elsewhere. The great thing about the software industry today is that you can get the entire LAMP (linux, apache, MySQL & perl/php) stack for little or no coat. This allows companies to purchase commodity hardware and load a stack of hardware for a fairly inexpensive cost.

The more and more the internet moves towards Web 2.0, the more companies will start moving towards SaaS. If you are building a company, make sure to look into saving costs with vendors that provide Software as a Service.

Right to Work in Idaho

2006-11-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

There is always some talk in Idaho about how horrible it is that we are a Right to Work state. My uncle is a proud Union member and my father and he have some great debates about this subject. While I realize that Unions helped shape the good working standards we have in this country, I don't think anyone should be forced into a Union. Here are some basic stats about unemployment that might let people know that Right to Work is not all that bad.

The following is taken from a U.S. Department of Labor report (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/laus_10202006.pdf). The unemployment rates shown are only those that are significantly different from the national average.

Unemployment Rates

United States 4.6%

Right to Work States (that are significantly different than the national average)
Idaho 3.3%
Utah 2.8%
Nevada 4.0%
Wyoming 3.6%
Alabama 3.3%
Florida 3.2%
Arizona 3.7%
Iowa 3.4%
North Dakota 3.1%
Mississippi 7.2%
Virginia 3.2%
South Carolina 6.4%
South Dakota 3.2%
Nebraska 3.1%
Average 3.5%

Forced-Unionism States (that are significantly different than the national average)
Oregon 5.4%
New Hampshire 3.2%
Michigan 7.1%
Minnesota 3.8%
Washington 5.3%
Montana 3.6%
Minnesota 3.8%
Alaska 6.6%
Ohio 5.3%
Vermont 3.7%
Hawaii 2.5%
D.C. 5.9%
Delaware 3.7%
Average 4.6%

It seems that there is a correlation between Forced-Unionism States and higher unemployment rates. I am grateful to live in Idaho and believe that it will continue to be a great place to live as long as people think resonably about the causes they support. There is a wealth of information out there. Before you jump on a bandwagon, please do some research.

Just my quick take on Right to Work in Idaho.

Political Marketing

2006-11-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

It is the day after the elections and I am a little disappointed in the Marketing efforts of the Idaho candidates. I can't believe how many lame ads on my TV I sat through about how bad a candidates opponent will be for Idaho. Gerry Brady's entire campaign was how both He and Idaho are not for sale. A slam on Butch Otter's once position that Idaho should sell some public land. Of course Butch couldn't just leave it alone, he had is own slew of ads slamming Brady.

I wish politicians would live by three simple rules.

Tell me why you are qualified for the job.
Tell me what side of the major issues you are on.
Tell me what your most important goals are when you are in office.

I think election day would be much easier if every candidate would follow these simple steps. Perhaps there could be a few less red, white, blue and (insert a bright color here) posters on every street corner as well. Too much clutter. I guess most importantly I want people to represent what they stand for and if elected, do what you said you were going to do and make a concerted effort to find out what the people want. I think once elected, some government officials forget who they are there for.

Just my quick take on political candidates.

Five Things I would change about Boise State, my Alma Mater

2006-11-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

I graduated from Boise State University with a degree in marketing in December of 2005. I enjoyed my time there and think that the university has many great programs. But I do have to shake my head at a few disappointing things that need to change at my alma matter.

1) The College of Business and Economics (COBE) Website - http://cobe.boisestate.edu/ I guess my main issue with the site is that is looks like someones first website. Perhaps they grabbed a template and added a few different links. All I know is that anyone that is looking into attending Boise State for it's business program is probably thinking the same thing. I understand that BSU is a state college and most student commute from the Treasure Valley, but if the university is going to become a metropolitan research university, upgrade and put some class in the websites.

2) www.BroncoSports.com - I realize that you are trying to promote the Logo for Boise State, but the website is too busy and gives me a headache. Please clean it up a bit. It just doesn't look clean.

3) Better Technical Solutions - Using Oracle and many other propriety software solutions is great for a lot of what Boise State needs. I would like to hear about a cost saving method using Open Source Software to reduce costs.

4) Tuition - I would like the students to have a better understanding of what they are paying for with their Tuitions fees. Go look at what your tuition and fees pays for. If you don't like it, go talk to the ASBSU front office in the sub and find out how you can get involved. Attending one of the Budget planning meetings (open to the public) is an interesting event.

5) Boise State Football - This is more of a rant on fans. Please do not participate in the 'wave'. I can't stand it. I have recently read a few articles on the wave and it's origin. I am sick of it. I am an Oakland A's fan and loved the wave during a slow 3rd inning. But if I get interrupted in the 3rd quarter on a visiting teams' 3rd and long situation by some dumb kids in the student section waving their arms because the wave is coming through, I am going to do and/or say something harsh. And I don't want to do it. Save the wave for halftime if you must do it.
__________________________________________________________________

These are my simple thoughts on what Boise State could do to better the situation and just make me a happier Alumni. I know I haven't contributed anything yet, but these would give me some compelling reasons to do so when I get the extra cash.

Thanks for the diploma and the education BSU, now win me a BCS game.

Novell Brainshare 2006: Booth Babes and Giveaways

2006-03-24T15:51:00.000-07:00

Last week I attended the 2006 Novell Brainshare in SLC, UT. This was the first conference of this type that I have attended. It was an eye opening event for me seeing the benefits and disadvantages of attending a conference. Novell did a great job with the event as far as a sponsor is concerned. There was a lot of traffic through the sponsor hall and even an event one night in the sponsor hall. But the most interesting aspect of the event to me was Booth Babes and Giveaways.

Booth Babes, by my definition, are the attractive paid help that boost your booth from a nice piece of marketing to a magnet for bored geeks. Sure these girls might have some product knowledge, and might even know enough about the products to peak interest and boost sales. But the real reason for Booth Babes: stop a geek in there tracks and get them to your booth.

The best example I have is Tuesday night at Brainshare. In the sponsor hall there was Disco night. This included a 6 foot disco ball, music and all the food, beer and wine you could get. There is nothing better than a geek with three or four beers in him asking you about which platform is best to run your cluster solutions. You would think that with all of the giveaways going on (Plasma TV’s, PSP’s and iPods) that the giveaway booths would be stuffed with people. But the big buzz was coming from the Blackbird booth.

I have no idea what Blackbird software does. My brother-in-law claimed that they were the hottest Booth Babes and they definately attracted the most people at Brainshare’s Disco Night. Their Babes were dressed up in some great disco era outfits, showing off their assets and dancing to the music. Blackbird set their booth up so that anyone could take a picture with there Babes with a Blackbird background to boot. What amazed me was the line for getting your picture taken with these girls. It stretched back crowding the entire room on the south side. You could barely walk over there. I am not sure how many leads they got, but they sure attracted the middle-aged white males that made up 80% of the demographics at the conference.

So I guess the results of my conference experience is that Sponsors should spend their money on Booth Babes not Giveaways, if your objective is to get people at your booth. The ROI of both is questionable at best. I got a free jump drive and skype headset from companies I will never purchase from.

I had a good time at Brainshare and our company got quite a few good leads. I am sure we will go again and again because MySQL is used so much in Novell products. I may even attend again myself next year. Who wouldn't want to attend a conference held in SLC?

First Blog

2006-03-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

This will be the first blog of many for me. I will soon be using my education and life experiences in a work environment. I am a graduate of Boise State University in Business Marketing. I wanted to start blogging about my work experiences and other thoughts about Marketing and Technology.

I work for MySQL, the world's most popular open-source database. I was recently promoted to a Marketing Manger position for the company. This will involve many diverse responsibilities and challenges. I will be working with some extremely talented and well know people in the industry. While at college, most of my courses focused on advertising and campaigns for Consumer products. Towards the end of my University experience I took some classes that opened my thoughts to other aspects of marketing. Specifically a class on Customer Relationship Mangement (CRM) and Internet Marketing Strategy. It was nice to learn some things that were somewhat new to college curriculum yet important in the market place. This helped me quite a bit moving from an entry-level sales position to an opportunity in the marketing department of my company.

I look forward to moving into this position and will continue to voice my opinion about various aspects of Marketing in the Database and Technology market. Don't hesitate to give me your feedback.

Rich Taylor