Dr. Neil Hair

I was rather shocked yesterday when I checked my mail. It looked as though someone had sent me an A-Z map (big in the UK) for no particular reason. 1st thought - throw it in the bin, who needs it with Tom Tom GPS mapping technology these days (much as it disgusts my now defunct wife). The curiosity took hold. Why would someone send a resident of the area a map of the area?

SOME MARKETING GENIUS THATS WHO!!!

I opened this map and I see a really nice outline of where Brighton lies. I see the palatial Rustic Village (which I always thought laid within the lines of Henrietta) and I see a few features like local parks that Im aware of. Then I start to notice places that I am NOT aware of. Stowell nature conservatory, ELS sports centre (yes! we have a sports centre!), the park at Allens creek… list goes on. What a clever idea! So then I start reading about the history (any thing's better than another paper on CRM right?) services, local government info and so on. I probably learned more about the area that I have lived in on and off since 1999 than in any other means. So imagine the possibilities from a marketing managers perspective. I pay a token fee for the rights to have my name listed on this, the chances of people like me finding something new is probably minor. But what when guests come over? 'Neil - I dont know the area do you have a map?' oh yes I do - because some clever planning official has mail shotted the entire community with one. It really impressed me that someone had the gumption to be so innovative in approach. And here I am blogging about it - a cost effective map of all things.

Rit ought to do this for the student population - with coupons and so on. We had these at Cardiff in my undergrad days and they were very popular with both local business and students.

No doubt about it, it has been a very sad week in the United States. Like many I find it difficult to even talk about it without feeling a very deep sensation of pity and hopelessness that can quite easily lead to a depressed state of affairs - it hits home especially since we ourselves are an institute of technology. One of the things that Ive noted which gives me a great deal of hope is the way in which people immediately turned to web 2.0 models for a collective outpouring of comment, in support and shared grief. My own reaction was I think in some way a reflection of the importance placed (at least by me) on user generated content. Allow me to reflect on one of many personal outcomes of this event - the means by which I gleaned information. I first heard the news on the BBC's news site which ran an emergency banner heading on its site. I then tuned to the BBC News 24 streaming broadcast from the UK (they stream all major news events live over their site when they happen) this appeared to be in a news loop containing at first - very little information. Then I logged into facebook and looked over my news feed to find that many of my friends were already talking about it, posting sources for localized information, blogs of VT students, news sites and of course plenty of soul searching commentary. It was all rather sad, no one mentioned it in class when I taught at 12pm, whether this was due to nervousness or news yet to filter out I'm not sure. But by 6pm everyone was talking about it. That's the time when I finally tuned to local and national television channels. So what's changed? This terrible event illustrated for me, my increasing focus and trust on user generated content over and above traditional media outlets. To my mind people seem to trust people before they trust corporations and official statements (though these are still very important of course). It is the first time when my consumption of news and information has witnessed a stepped change where by I placed users at the top of most trusted sources of information. I found it to be more relevant, personal, true and meaningful.

Then the following day came the news of individuals name. I (like many one assumes) turned to facebook to see if there was any news specifically on the person everyone was talking about. Interestingly there was no self entry on either facebook or myspace which may indeed be a comment on the nature of the individual concerned, it may not - it was certainly a comment on my use of sources of information that I trust. Then I turned to the online representations of the media - BBC news, CNN, Rochester Today, D&C - static and time locked it seemed (very little refreshed information, very commercial). Back to facebook, increasingly more and more students were commenting and posting information. This seemed to contain more relevant discussion to me than any of the usual media outlets (with its usual obsessions). 

It would be interesting see how others managed their search for information.

In the meantime I think all of us are still in a state of shock and I for one am still processing. My most important thoughts are of course for those poor souls who lost their lives. Rest in peace.

A former student and good friend of mine Amy Cham is conducting a study for a client on the role of internet advertising. Check it out if you own a business, the questions are genuinely thought provoking. There's also a chance to win $100 for ten minutes of your time. Check out her blog here. I particularly like Amy's take on small business marketing activities in her blog - but Im not quite the Seth Godwin fan that she is

Congratulations to Professor Clyde Hull for being nominated Zutes fellow for 2007-8 yesterday in our faculty meeting. Clyde holds this highly competitive post for a year - awarded on the basis of his research performance in recent years. And an additional celebration is called for, Professors Hull, Hung, Hair, Perotti and DeMartino recently had their paper on 'Typologies of Digital Entrepreneurship' accepted in the International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organizations. Both points bode well for our recent launch of a think tank in digital entrepreneurship. You can follow our musings here. Professor DeMartino was himself a Zutes fellow two years ago.

I've found a job that quite possibly beats the top post of hospitality agent (someone paid to show clients a good time). In Japan it's all the rage for foreign agents to act as trend hunters who quite literally spend their days researching the latest trends set by the Japanese consumer. Want an orb that fires the cosmos onto your bedroom ceiling? Thank the Japanese. What your ears cleaning for less than ten bucks? Thank the Japanese who have recently taken to having their ears cleaned at specialist boutiques. Want a remote controlled 1/10 size fishing boat (complete with Garmin fish finder, several lines and many many hooks)? Thank the Japanese. These are just a few examples. Who says market research is a dead end job?

I had one of the most touching experiences of my teaching career today with my undergraduate Business to Business E-Commerce class regarding progress presentations. I'll be the first to admit that I had tempered my expectations as you usually do in the mid term period. Not quite sure what to expect. Ive a few students in this class that I've worked with before, Alex, Josh, Erica, Erica, Theresa, Jake, Willie, Brad and Rachel. So you raise your expectations with these students. They did well. What was nice though was that everyone performed well irrespective of any opportunity I might have had to have made a bit of difference before now. One student who has said very little since he started class proved an exceptional orator. I was really impressed - in fact I may well have sat there with my mouth open. This class is on fire! I sat there scratching my head as to what I could add, where I could critique to offer improvements and - seriously - these were limited - evil Neil was well and truly tempered. I love my job I really do. With the sole exception of advising them to enjoy what they do when they're up there I was a little stuck. And so I want to start my own consultancy using the best RIT has to offer!! surely its the easiest way towards a 60ft boat. This class qualifies, everyone of them - if they'll have me.

So, there comes a time when every academic faces a milestone in the tenure process. At the COB there are two - the three year review and then the final review before a tenure decision is made. In the last few weeks I have been planning out exactly what I've done these last few years back at RIT. Enter MindManager - I've extolled the benefits of this package before in class and today as I laid out my mind map out over 8 pages on my office floor it really drove home the usefulness of this software package. Some people are more visual than others I'm told - I am definitely one of those when it comes to planning. You can manage projects well, collaborate and share lots of information easily. Its great for linking ideas, extending points with call out boxes and creating relationships between variables. For me though the real benefit is being able to see exactly where you are in map like environment. Lists used to cut it for me, now I have this they dont anymore. Give it a try for 15 days and I guarantee you will end up buying a copy. www.mindject.com.

I am delighted to report that there is a symposium on Wednesday at RIT on Counterpublics in which I am presenting a disciplinary view of Marketing. Counterpublics are essentially micro cultures that form usually as counters to mainstream cultural movements. It's my job as one of four panelists to articulate the relevance of counterpublics to marketers and I'll be exploring several themes including; the commercial case for targeting counterpublics, the means by which we might do this, the role of new communication platforms in facilitating counterpublics, the caveats that marketers should be acutely aware of, and research techniques relevant to exploring the wants and desires of a counter public. It should be a great day! Registration is free to those who are interested - this will be relevant to a wide audience base including digital entrepreneurs, classic marketers and anyone who wants to specifically target micro cultures that counter public movements.  

So, there I am watching Brit TV yesterday and my sense of humour is tickled pink by an ad for the UK’s premier dating agency. Several of these exist. My reason for blogging them is that I find many US adverts fail miserably on the humor side of things to communicate their ideas effectively. They also loose out on the viral nature of consumers spreading the message. For instance, when was the last time you asked someone - ‘have you seen the ad for..’? Which got me thinking about the nature of humour and how we might study it. Personal construct theory would be ideal for this purpose and I dont believe it has been done. So, if anyone is interested Id love to work with someone on a study of humor in advertising to see what matters and why. Anyways, enough of that - heres the ad.