Notes from 45th International STC Conference
Anaheim, California, May 17-20, 1998

Notes from Networking Lunch with Marketing Communication (MARCOM)
Special Interest Group (SIG)

• The MARCOM SIG offers free peer review of marketing communication products.
• The Web is an increasingly important part of companies' marketing plans.
• Considerations of cultural sensitivity are becoming increasingly important in the international marketplace. One participant explained how a promotional item marketed in Asia backfired because it was predominantly white -- evidently the color associated with death in that culture.
• It's very important to pinpoint your marketing audience to the appropriate decision-makers; otherwise, you're wasting your time. Sharpshoot; don't shotgun.
• Testimonials are very important.
• Web marketing includes:
   
• Retail sales
• Business-to-business sales. This category is becoming increasingly important. One participant cited the example of a small company that manufactured O-rings which posted a Web site. Before long, they were besieged with requests from all over the world, and they tripled their sales in less than a year.
• Trade shows use a multimedia approach. There was keen interest in the way we treat those. Even my limited knowledge in this arena made me a "green beret" at the table; imagine what Jen or Len could have done!
• Information sheets: One useful, cost-effective technique is to print a sizable quantity of a high-quality, four-color, photo-offset basic template for information sheets that contains the company logo, key product photos, etc.; then tailor these to specific marketing applications by laser-printing black type in a central area that is left blank to accommodate varying messages.
• "Stealth" Web sites... a rather nefarious technique in which the company creates a site that masquerades as an intellectually objective organization producing "white papers," analytical studies, etc., which purport to be scientific when they are actually serving the company's agenda in subtle ways... refer to Ethics Workshop!