Tecnológico de Monterrey | Maestría en Innovación Empresarial » MNN Guests

Word of Mouth and Physics

Katy Flores — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:21:37 +0000

John Moore (former marketer for Starbucks Coffee) who last April visited us at Tecnologico de Monterrey campus to share interesting business learning and insights, talks in PROMO website about the relationship between basic Physics concepts and Word of Mouth Marketing.

Just as Newton’s laws of Inertia, Acceleration and Reaction, marketing should be pursued through these three factors to generate a positive customer response.

Such as Inertia, conversation about a brand or a product remains at rest if no one talks about it. Conversation in motion tends to continue in motion as long as people are talking about it.

Acceleration law in Word of Mouth Marketing is about the relativity of how much force and effort is needed with the size of a brand. The bigger it is, the more force you’ll need to provoke people to generate an opinion.

Finally, Reaction law says that for every action there is a reaction, and in Marketing is nothing but an adequate business response for every customer action. For adequate business response John Moore refers to when a business reacts quickly and individually to customer requests.

Don’t miss the complete article, here the link:
http://promomagazine.com/news/0406-word-mouth-marketing-physics/

Ten Good Pieces of Advice, by John Moore

Cristina Viehmann — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:37:07 +0000

MNN student Katy Flores had been assigned by one her professors to contact an expert in a given field to help her with her shoe design project. Katy did some research on the web and finally decided to contact John Moore, former marketer that worked inside the marketing departments of Starbucks Coffee and Whole Foods Market.

John not only responded Katy’s request, but he also agreed to come and visit us at the Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Said and done. The John Moore business talk took place on April 22nd in the Campus Monterrey.

In a conference entitled “Expresso Shots of Business Wisdom” John gave ten good pieces of advice, which we now wish to share with you:

1. Strong brands are build inside out
The example of Starbucks shows us that company founders and employees have the power to reinforce a brand every time they interact with their customers.
2. Make the common uncommon
When it comes to coffee maybe one could rephrase this by saying: “Turn a commodity into an uncommodity”
3. Remarkable things get remarked about
No efforts will remain unperceived. The word of mouth is the best marketing tool. Just make sure you are a talkable business!

John Moore Conference, Tecnológico de Monterrey, 22 April 2010

4. Only three strategies exist to drive sales
Acquire new customers, get current customers to buy more and raise prices
5. Pricing tells a story
Pricing says everything about your business. Usually, high priced products deliver a great story.
6. All profit is not created equal
Good profits are earned when the customer is satisfied and bad profits are earned with the expense of customers.
7. Brand management is reputation management
A good brand is a brand that lets customers understand what the business does.
8. Marketing has two audiences: customers and employees
Marketing is too important to be left out to the marketing department! As for employees, treat them with respect and dignity. Because “Jazzed employees will jazz customers”.

9. Passion attracts Passion:
Think about the qualities that you want your business to personify!

John Moore Conference, Tecnológico de Monterrey, 22 April 2010

10. Failure is a cost of being in business
A business that has never failed will never succeed. If hard times arise, stay close to what your business does well.

…and a bonus 11:

Make your company something to believe in! The reason of existence of any company should be to change the world, to make to world a better place. So John’s final question was:

If your business went out-of-business tomorrow, would anyone care?

About philosophy, engineering and the human element

Cristina Viehmann — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:08:13 +0000

This week’s MNN guest of honor was David E. Goldberg from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

David E Goldberg

Let us tell you how we got to know David. Two months ago in our class of “Innovation, Design and Strategy” we discussed a presentation of David about the missing basics in engineering education. We then realized that he shares the same thoughts as we do and we contacted him by mail in order to explore possible ways of collaboration between our department of Business Landscaping at the Tecnológico de Monterrey and the iFoundry, the Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education.

Who would have thought that we would be so privileged to have David as our guest at the Tec so soon? Right on his arrival day he gave us a talk about philosophy and engineering.

Asking what engineers can learn from the conceptual rigor of philosophers, David invited us to go back in the history of thought and to start at the human beginnings of conceptual clarity.

Why isn’t there a philosophy of engineering? David’s interest in this question led him to establish a forum gathering philosophers and engineers. By the way, the 2010 Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology (FPET-2010) will be held on 9-10 May 2010 in the Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, and is open for submissions.

Engineering hasn’t cared much about philosophy for a long time, yet this is changing. As for philosophy, it only punctually gave attention developments in the world of technology.

But why is philosophy important to engineering right now and vice-versa?

The answer is this: Times have changed – again.
At the beginning of 20th century there was the crisis of physics when the notions of space and time were upset. There we had a tight link between science and philosophy!

Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, we are facing a disorientation of a different kind due to the fast pace of technological change and to the growing need to understand the human element in our engineering endeavors. Trying to understand people is a challenge. Yet there is an urgent need to integrate our knowledge of human beings into what we do.

Take Google for example – it is a human preference engine, as David describes it. It is a proof that for designing and understanding complex systems today we need to know how people function.

From A class with David E. Goldberg

To learn more about David E. Goldberg’s activities and thinking, visit his personal blog: The Entrepreneurial Engineer.