BRANDING: The Most Dangerous Position.

What's the most dangerous (and therefore, potentially the most important) job in business today? According to a new article in Fast Company, it's the Chief Marketing Officer position. As the author writes, the most successful marketing chiefs are "shape shifting beasts who grasp not only advertising and promotions, but also public relations, IT, finance, manufacturing, customer service and branding across global markets."

We couldn't agree more. And just the same, the successful CMO needs to surround her- or himself with either an agency or a short list of partners who are equally adept at filling not just one or two, but the myriad communications delivery points that touch today's consumer up and down the awareness>preference>purchase>sataisfaction exercise.

Plus this final point: CMOs, trust your communications partners by sharing not just crumbs, but all of the data that they need to understand your sales and profit pictures. It'll make them more informed and better stakeholders in your success.

SOURCE: Fast Company, NOISE

DIRECT MARKETING: Geomapping From Your Computer

A new service from directmail.com makes pulling highly specific direct marketing lists as easy as drawing on a digital map.

The service is called GeoSelector. Users can enter either a street address or longitude and latitude coordinates to reveal a traditional street map or four-color satellite imagery of the area (see accompanying satellite view of the White House, which feels a touch clandestine just having open access to this data). Then, by utilizing simple zoom buttons and outlining your geographic needs by horizontal, vertical or radius parameters, users can define the geography required and get an immediate household count. A variety of additional demographic definers, including age, gender, income, education, marital status, ethnicity and dwelling type, can also be dialed in.

The net result is an extremely user-friendly way to gather highly targeted, highly specific mail lists that are ideal for a variety of industries (real estate, retail, banking, food service and others) who understand that their core audience is within a given distance.

Interested in test driving GeoSelector yourself? Just click on our headline.

Source: directmail.com, NOISE

MARKETING: Online Shoppers Embrace Price, Rewards

What's the best way to acquire and retain a customer — particularly an online consumer?

Hook 'em with price. And keep 'em coming back with loyalty and rewards programs.

That's the word via a new study by DoubleClick Performics and the Etailing Group. Their study of online consumers found the following very important marketing considerations.

1. Price is the major determining factor for online consumers, followed by good value and superior service.

2. Nearly 70% of online consumers eagerly embrace, and are already members of, some kind of loyalty or rewards program. For 55% of them, a company that offers a loyalty or reward program will be more attractive than one that doesn't.

3. When shopping for a readily available product, seven out of 10 consumers will monitor shop, or view multiple websites, for the best price-value relationship.

4. If you have product to ship, offer free shipping: it remains the number one attraction and motivator for online consumers.

Lesson? Regardless of your industry, if you have e-commerce to conduct, there are a number of simple, easy, effective rules to follow to attract and retain your valuable buying audience.

SOURCE: MediaBuyerPlanner, NOISE