Ideasabound

It's the best novel ever written! It's our human story; our loves, wars, failures, and triumphs. It tells us how we got to where we are and can tell us about our potential. Today there is so much push on science, math and technology that history is seen as wasteful. To understand all the achievements in those fields, we study history. History is not only the famous people and events from time but it is the tales, journeys, art, music and discoveries that connect all people from all corners and walks of life. It's a study of cause and effect from which we can learn who we are today.

Peninsula Hong Kong: Doing it right on Social Media Recently I've been looking at how hotels use Social Media for marketing, developing brand loyalty and just being seen. The Peninsula , one of the best in Hong Kong, has expanded over the past few decades while tying its original image of service, quality and brand in Hong Kong. It is considered Hong Kong's most famous hotel and most prestigious. It's been featured in Hong Kong tourism videos and even made its way into " The Man with the Golden Gun ." They have a fantastic Social Media presence building not only local loyalty but cross brand loyalty through their posts on Facebook and through using other medium. Today they posted a video called " Peninsula Moments " tied directly to a larger marketing campaign. It shows how a hotel can use social media to promote themselves without spending a billion dollars on ad buys. This probably cost a bit but putting on their facebook page and youtube was...

Luxury and chain Hotel industry has had a boom of late in Tokyo. At the same time many hotel companies are saying to their marketing team, "launch a Facebook page" and "get on social media" without giving them the proper budget, time or training to do it right. Recently I wondered what makes a good Hotel Facebook page? What is the market make-up? In Japan, why do so many hotel Facebook pages seem to be disconnected from the larger brand? Why do Why? The traditional marketing department has been put in charge of the system without understanding who to target and how to use it to generate sales. They are still thinking and working in the old hierarchy and thought process. But one of the key problems is they talk to the mirror and not to a wide audience. Most hotels in Japan depend on agents to sell rooms so they feel they don't need to appeal to the traveler - that's left up to the agencies. Instead the marketing and sales teams focus on selling bridal ...

Aim Beyond Target in front of you When I was studying modern Chinese economics in Changsha in 1998, I found a man to teach me Tai Chi and the basics of Kung Fu. He always said, "unlike boxing (which he considered stupid and wasteful), in Kung Fu you must be flexible and conserve energy. Qi, the energy from within, should be focused when exerted. If you were to punch someone, don't aim for the nose, aim for a point behind the back of the skull." Recently I've been wondering how this can be applied to Facebook advertising. Instead of targeting people with specific interests in a country, how about looking at the diaspora of that nation as well? In the fall we ran an ad that targeted Indonesians. Most of the Indonesian diaspora is found in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and the Netherlands. We found that we received visits and likes from Malayasia through Indonesia but nothing from Saudia Arabia nor the Netherlands. The Indonesians living in Saudi Arabia are mainly im...

The true messages of Secretary of State. I'm working on a post regarding Inbound Marketing and Japan but had to step back and talk about Hillary Clinton leaving from the State Department. In a recent Andrea Mitchell interview, Hillary Clinton said that the day after she leaves state, she will have no airplanes to get on or meetings to attend. She might just sleep in. She has plans and we know it. They involve her one and only daughter Chelsea Clinton. Like any mother her age and in her situation with a married daughter, she is about to run up a phone and text bill all to Chelsea. "Okay Chelsea. I'm no longer Secretary of State. I've got a lot more time. I'm not getting any younger. Where are my grandchildren?" I saw an interview with Chelsea where she says that her mother, in between dealing with foreign powers and saving the world from self-annihilation, would contact her about having children. You know... "Just finished negotiations wit...

I was speaking with a marketing CEO about social media marketing's positives and negatives. There were three topics that really stood out: • GM pulling their Facebook ads and repurposing them to other areas • Social Media marketing not seeming to do much for small business-to-business lead generation • the continued need for face-to-face or human interaction in the inbound marketing environment. Today I want to examine GM pulling Facebook Ads and some alternate thinking. Even though it does do some corporate sales, GM is still dominated by B2C. The items they sell are not small nor taken lightly but thought out and pricey. Unlike companies like Starbucks or other small price items, they can't put up a coupon for the first 100 likes for a new car. Large brands like GM work to build brand loyalty by showing quality, safety, and trying to get the page "liker" to imagine themselves using the product. It's a long-term investment. So why would a company like...