President's Blog

If you’re in the marketing world, you’ve probably heard a talk or read a paper about how to target the Millennial Generation. (The Millennial Generation’s dates of birth vary depending on who you ask, but I’m working with those born between 1980 and 1995.) I find the fuss over the Millennial Generation fascinating. There seems to be a fear of this generation, as though they’re not flesh and blood people with thoughts, behaviors, and opinions, but avatars that sprung fully formed from Mark Zuckerberg’s head.

If you’ve taken in a Philadelphia sports game recently, you may have noticed a bar code on the side of your drink cup. And if you’d had the appropriate app, you could have scanned it and gotten the whole season schedule on your phone.

Say what you will about the state of our economy, but I say that marketers will be at the head of the parade leading the nation to economic recovery. 

I’ve taken the liberty to share just a few resources that enhance our programs with extra content that many marketers seek. Here’s a compilation of great tools, tips and whitepapers on Social Media, Mobile Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Branding and Career Development.

Case studies are numerous of successful products that have been cross-marketed: Arm and Hammer (yes, a regional Philly icon) is also your refrigerator’s deodorant, 3M post it notes have become bookmarks to highlight important excerpts, Clorox made its way OUT of your clothes washer and into your kitchen cleaning supplies but what about something as big and diverse as a city?

As we jump into PAMA's 2010-2011 programming year, I want to take this opportunity to introduce you to the incoming Board of Directors and extend my appreciation to last year's Board and group of volunteers.  Were it not for such ongoing commitment to PAMA and the region's marketing professionals, we wouldn't have had nearly as successful of a year that we had.

Well I do. I know Karen through AMA, not just PAMA, but AMA. Karen is the President of CapStrat, one of the top agencies in Raleigh-Durham and with significant penetration in life sciences, education and financial services to name a few. Karen is just one of the Chapter Presidents throughout the country that I have come to know through my involvement with PAMA and AMA.

…said a friend of mine at a recent dinner. We were talking about strong brands and as he is the VP of Marketing of one the largest health information networks, I respect his opinions on the matter. When people talk about Wegmans their eyes light up. Why is this? It’s because the BRAND is so strong! Highly recognizable, evokes strong, positive emotions and consistency that permeates the organizations. Customers know what they’re going to get when they walk in the door, an uncompromising experience that lasts well beyond the store visit.

As you now know and have seen in the multiple references, PAMA has a new look and feel - a new logo, a new Website, new email communications and more to come. We did this because we looked at how we were representing ourselves interactively and quite frankly, it was not what one would expect from a top notch professional organization that serves marketing professionals.

Welcome to all members of The Philadelphia Chapter of the American Marketing Association (PAMA); we have a championship year ahead of us.