Digital and Marketing Leadership: SAP Hybris' Global VP, Strategy and Solution Management, Jackie Palmer

In this episode we discuss digital marketing strategy and SAP Hybris with Jackie Palmer, Global VP, Strategy and Solution Management at SAP.  If you are not familiar with SAP Hybris, it is SAP’s platform for customer engagement and commerce that includes five distinct areas: marketing, sales automation, customer service, commerce/e-commerce and customer data cloud.  Enjoy!


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Kevin Benedict
SVP Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc.
Website Regalix Inc.
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Digital and Marketing Leadership: SAP's CDMO Mika Yamamoto

In this episode, I have the privilege of interviewing SAP’s Chief Digital Marketing Officer, Mika Yamamoto about SAP’s marketing strategies.  We discuss why SAP decided to separate the CDMO role from CMO, and what each of their responsibilities are.   Spoiler Alert – The CMO watches after the SAP brand and aims to make it a top-10 global brand, while the CDMO focuses on demand generation and customer retention.  We also explore how SAP supports the EU requirements for GDPR, the global data protection regulation, and how it can actually be turned into a competitive advantage.  Enjoy!


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Kevin Benedict
SVP Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc.
Website Regalix Inc.
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Digital and Marketing Leadership: Sophie Vu, CMO, Vibes

In this episode, I interview mobile marketing expert and Vibes CMO Sophie Vu. Vibes has been a critical part of the core international mobile network infrastructure for decades, but did you know they provide all kinds of interesting mobile marketing apps, platforms and tools for marketers?  Watch this episode to learn how this rapidly developing market is evolving, and also learn what it's like to be a CMO in this environment.  Enjoy!


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Kevin Benedict
Senior Vice President Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc.
Website Regalix Inc.
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Digital and Marketing Leadership Series: Efrat Ravid, CMO ContentSquare

In this episode we dig deep into website analytics and customer journeys with digital marketing expert and CMO Efrat Ravid.  We explore the topics of romance in France, website habits in Germany, how to use activity-based analytics to help businesses understand exactly what content is working and effective, plus much more. This interview is valuable to any digital/website marketing leader or practitioner.  Enjoy!


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Kevin Benedict
Senior Vice President Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc.
Website Regalix Inc.
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

My Interview with Digital, AI and Marketing Expert Chris Willis, CMO @Acrolinx

In this episode, Acrolinx CMO, digital, AI and marketing expert Chris Willis, walks us through the use of artificial intelligence to ensure marketing, brand and message clarity and consistency.  Their platform “learns” content strategy, and makes it actionable across your enterprise. They deliver a comprehensive view of content quality, while monitoring key metrics and fine-tuning guidance with AI.

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Kevin Benedict
Senior Vice President Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc.
Website Regalix Inc.
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Digital Expert Interviews: SAP's VP of Influencer Marketing, Jim Dever

In this episode I interview Jim Dever, SAP’s VP of Influencer Marketing, and learn how influencer programs work, the value SAP receives from them and the key strategies and tactics behind influencer marketing.  Enjoy!


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Kevin Benedict
Senior Vice President Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc.
Website Regalix Inc.
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

My Interview with Digital Marketer, Account Based Marketing Expert and Terminus Co-Founder Sangram Vajre

Sangram Vajre
This transcript was edited for readability.  The original video recorded interview can be watched here.
Hello, I’m Kevin Benedict, Senior Vice President of Solutions Strategy here at Regalix, and I want to thank all of you for joining this Digital Expert Interview series. I’m just thrilled to have as my guest today, Sangram Vajre. Sangram, thanks for joining us.
Thanks for having me, Kevin. I’m excited.
Sangram is the co-founder and chief evangelist of Terminus. Why don’t you tell us about Terminus?
We started Terminus in 2014. We thought that something was wrong with the way marketing and sales worked. Forrester came out with this research around 2014 that reported less than 1% of leads turn into customers. Thinking about that, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the way B2B marketing and sales is working if only 1%, or less than 1% is turning into customers.
We are on a mission to build the best-in-class account-based marketing (ABM) platform and community to help B2B marketers be heroes in their organization. That’s our mission statement.
Our platform connects with Salesforce and LinkedIn and you can literally say say here is a list of companies I want to go after. Here are the types of people, and the roles we want to go after. We’ll help you advertise to them across mobile, LinkedIn, web and videos. It will also give you analytics at the account level. You can answer the question, the age old question, “Where’s my money going?” We can also help you understand which accounts are spending what money.

Digital and Account Based Marketing Expert Interview with Terminus' Co-Founder Sangram Vajre

In this episode we dive into the strategies, tactics and digital technologies involved with account based marketing (ABM) – one of the hottest trends in marketing. We learn how ABM evolved, how it is different from traditional marketing, plus the impact it is having on sales and customers’ experiences today.  This information is not just important to marketers and revenue officers, CIOs and CDOs are now supporting and responsible for digital customer and prospect interactions so this information is important to all leaders.

Even before a prospect becomes a customer, they are evaluating vendors based upon the quality of their experiences.  ABM is about using data, digital technologies, analytics and personalization to provide the best possible experiences for a prospect during their path-to-purchase journey.  It is also, of course, about sales teams being more effective at closing deals.  Enjoy!



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Kevin Benedict
Senior Vice President Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc.
Website Regalix Inc.
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Data, Competition and the Evolution of Product Identity

Digital Identities
Everyone is talking about the massive volumes of new data available to businesses as a result of digitizing  just about everything, but I believe we are just getting started.   Every business process, piece of equipment, building, product, customer if they don’t already, will have a digital twin – a unique digital identity.  This digital identity is necessary because traditional relationships between manufacturers, brands, products and consumers is rapidly changing?  A business’ recognition and response to these digital identities will determine whether they will be digital winners or losers.

Today, everything is generating data – websites, smartphones and apps, vehicles, manufacturing processes, home automation systems, smart cities, etc.  However, as much as technology enthusiasts like me talk and write about digital transformation, many products and processes still remain analog, but that’s changing.

It seems every week we read about another retail chain filing bankruptcy or administration.  The struggles retailers are having today are significantly impacting their suppliers – the manufactures.  Think about the problems toy manufacturers are facing!  All the largest toy retailers are gone.  How then do toy manufacturers sell toys to consumers without the retailers?  The answer is manufacturers must get to know, and better communicate with their end customer.  That doesn’t mean removing retailers from the mix, but rather a changing of roles and responsibilities.  Manufactures need to take on more of the responsibility of promoting their products and directing buyers to locations where they can purchase their products.

Products, and data about them, can generate an incredible amount of value if they have unique digital identities and are tracked and traced as the following example demonstrates.  This list, of major steps in a typical product lifecycle, summarizes where data could be generated as a result of having a unique digital identity, tracked and shared.
  1. Design – a new type of product is designed, diagrammed and patented in a digital format
  2. Source – capture data about materials, ingredients, sustainability data
  3. Digital press releases, marketing and training material are all tracked for location, use and effectiveness and associated with the unique digital identity
  4. Manufacture – When, where made, batch, production line, packaging components
  5. Distribute – logistics details, stock location and quantity, 3rd party logistics (3PL) performance
  6. Retail – Which store, shopper engagement, product authenticity
  7. Consume – who, when, where, consumer patterns, consumption data
  8. Operate – live usage data, proactive data monitoring, replenishment, subscriptions
  9. Recycle – where recycled, sustainability data, change of ownership
  10. Responsibly disposed – how were the components disposed, when, where, how
  11. Patent protection – monitor business terms for use, and any violations
All of the major steps in a product lifecycle, if the product has a unique digital identity, can be tracked, documented, archived and shared to generate value.   In fact, apps, new business ventures, products, services and business models can all be created based on the data.

Let’s now walk through a product lifecycle scenario together.
  1. You develop a new innovative type of automotive battery.  You give each battery a unique digital identity.  The digital identity is associated with its design and patent.  It comes with an embedded sensor.
  2. You issue press releases, produce product information and training materials in digital formats that can report their use and effectiveness.  Resellers are trained, tested and certified all online.
  3. All the materials used in the battery are identified, tracked and documented including their source, ingredients and sustainability data.  This information can be used to be compliant to regulations, and in marketing and educational material to attract buyers and to create brand loyalty.
  4. The battery is manufactured in Lexington, KY USA.  All the information concerning when and where it was made, the batch, production line and packaging components are documented and tracked for quality and safety.  All the steps that were taken to make the process sustainable can be reported and shared and have marketing and loyalty value.
  5. The batteries are distributed to automotive parts stores, and the inventory levels and locations are documented and tracked from factory to retail stores.  These inventories can show up on Google Location search, Paid search and Inventory searches for all locations.  The manufacturer did not wait for resellers to effectively load their products, digital content and update their inventory amounts, rather the battery manufacturer did it – it was that important.
  6. Some retail stores allowed battery inventory levels to be monitored by the manufacturer for replenishment purposes, product and brand authenticity, sales levels, pricing and marketing campaign effectiveness.
  7. The consumer is encouraged to register the battery with the manufacturer.  They are rewarded with special performance guarantees.  The data is now monitored – who bought it, for what purpose, when, how is it working, is the customer happy, etc.
  8. The product is monitored in real-time for quality and performance.  Any recognized issues are noted, the user is alerted and issues are tracked and resolved proactively.
  9. When the battery’s lifecycle has been completed, the battery is delivered and registered at a recycling location.  The battery ownership changes to the recycling service provider.
  10.  The battery components that no longer have value, or are too dangerous to reuse, are disposed according to regulations.  The details of when, how and where are documented and reported.
  11. Even after the product lifecycle is complete, the design and patent may live on.  These must be tracked and protected to extend the product’s value.
The above scenario, although fictitious, describes real capabilities, real processes and active trends.  Consumers want to do business with companies that are transparent and can guarantee and document how they do business.  They want proof that their vendors source and operate legally, ethically and sustainably.  They want to better understand their products and have a reason for buying them.  Manufacturers in turn want a closer relationship with their end customers.  They want to know who has their products, how they are being used, and how they can support their customers better to increase brand loyalty.  These desires mean both parties are looking for more data.

Companies that cannot capture accurate data and report effectively on their products and product lifecycles are blind, and will be unable to respond to these trends and the desires of their customers.

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Kevin Benedict
Senior Vice President Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc.
Website Regalix Inc.
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

AI and Marketing Mix Modeling

In the course of my research on the impact of artificial intelligence on sales, marketing and customer experiences, I have been learning about Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM).  If you are not familiar with it, here is a quick description from our friends at Wikipedia.
"Marketing mix modeling (MMM) is a way to optimize advertising mix (where money is spent on advertising) and promotional tactics with respect to sales revenue or profit.  It is an analytical approach that uses historic information, such as syndicated point-of-sale data and companies’ internal data, to quantify the sales impact of various marketing activities." 
As I dug deeper into MMM I saw both the value and the complexity involved.  However, my liberal arts degree, in no way prepared me for it.

The ideas and concepts around MMM have been used in the CPG (consumer packaged goods) industry for decades, but little outside of that industry.  The reason - it required massive volumes of data and greater computing power than was available at an affordable price.  Today, however, with digital transformation, increasing numbers of digital customer interactions, the abundance of data, algorithms, analytics dashboards, artificial intelligence and everything-as-a-service, MMM is rapidly expanding.

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