Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Sara Lee Challenged on Antitakeover Defenses Invites Consumers into its Kitchen

I was reading two articles on Sara Lee a few days ago. BrandWeek did a Q&A with the company’s Food & Beverage division Chief Marketing Officer, Kim Feil. The Wall Street Journal published an article (paid content) on Sara Lee CEO Brenda Barnes rebuffing calls to shield the firm from a possible takeover. Just like Melanie Griffith’s character in Working Girl (only the Italian version), I wondered how the story is going to unfold. Will the company have the chance to architect its own turnaround strategy before investors and corporate-governance groups push to accelerate growth through an acquisition? There is... Read more →

Heroes for a Day

Many of you noticed that I added a little icon on the sidebar yesterday. I made the metrics cut for the Top 25 Marketing blogs maintained by Mack Collier at Viral Garden. My debut was at number 23, so technically there are only 22 blogs separating me from Seth Godin. Talking about Seth, I had the pleasure of attending his first appointment on the book tour for The Dip at the World Cafe' Live in Philadelphia this week. Some choice thoughts to consider from my favorites: find ways to learn what it feels like to be the best at something;... Read more →

Conversational Intelligence

What does Conversational Intelligence (CI) mean? There is an interesting article by Loren Ekroth at Conversation Matters that outlines how there exist multiple kinds of intelligences. In it, Dr. Ekroth suggests that Conversational Intelligence is made up by two main intelligences: linguistic and interpersonal. That is truly fascinating, yet it isn't exactly what I'm talking about. I think conversation has expanded from an action to a process in this new age. This idea, combined with the thought that when immersed in conversations we can learn a great deal of information, forms the basis for this week's post at FC Expert... Read more →

Campbell’s: the Brand Journey from Tomato Soup to Simple Meals

Are annual reports still relevant? This is a question I found in a year 2000 copy of @Issue: The journal of Business and Design. The same year, according to a survey of communication executives by Roper Starch Worldwide titled “Annual Reports in the New Economy,” respondents said that printed annual reports serve so many purposes they will always be around. It's now 2007, and annual reports continue to be printed -- and read. Some companies use them as part of their integrated communications with external and internal audiences: customers and employees read from the same pages. Whether they are used... Read more →

Ask Away: Storytelling in Marketing, Mark Goren -- Part Deux

This continues the conversation on storytelling in marketing began yesterday with Mark Goren of Transmission Content + Creative. We stopped in medias res, right as we were talking about the crucial topic of measurement. Bob Glaza asks a very good set of questions: what is it we want to measure? Is it a concrete number like bottom line? Is it more elusive like customer loyalty? How about return visits? Matt Dickman chimes in with the idea of a balancing act measurement. While some short term goals are easier to measure, the real marketers are looking more long term. How can/should... Read more →

Ask Away: Storytelling in Marketing, Mark Goren -- Part One

Last week I invited Mark Goren of Transmission Content + Creative to host a conversation with me here. Mark is truly passionate about marketing -- look at the root word, mark is in it, as in making a mark. A self-defined educator on the importance and power of developing a solid presence in new media, Mark's style is very collaborative. He even came up with a logo for this series of exchanges between bloggers. Feel free to borrow it for your conversations (with attribution to him, of course). Mark Goren: Earlier this week, you emailed me a list of questions.... Read more →

Business Lessons I Learned from My Mother

My mother was Miss Romagna, her name is Anna Laura. I wanted to have her purple blue eyes and ready smile. She has the welcoming spirit of a woman always ahead of the times and comfortable in her own skin. In addition to being a mother of three (all girls), she has had multiple careers -- in accounting, sales, public office, and geriatric care; some overlapping for years. Mother really gets communications -- the listening part especially -- the organization of work along with the care of the individual. Whether she negotiated credit rates or the recovery of the elderly,... Read more →

Conversations Build Reputations... and Brands

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about What Spam Delivers. After receiving a series of email error messages and annoying spam when welcoming someone who signed off as Nancy @ delivermagazine, I decided to share my experience. My hope was also to find out what happened, since I read Deliver magazine. Yesterday, I received an email from Dave Scott, who said he is associated with the publication and informed me he was investigating the incident. I promised Dave I would follow up with a post if he shared the results of his investigation. Today, Nancy Adams, a writer for... Read more →

5 Steps to a Better Brand: The Greening of the White House

There can be substance to marketing and branding. When we step beyond the mechanics of getting a message to its intended audience, we can find that it is possible to build something enduring. Something that still evolves with the times. And we can do that through branding. People are talking. And they are talking more about sustainability these days. Companies are jumping on the bandwagon because it makes good business sense. It's good business not only so that organizations can look good in the eyes of their customers by doing good. It's good business for the future use of our... Read more →

Piracy -- An Interesting Problem to Have

Ten days ago, Hugh MacLeod posted an entry at gapingvoid titled “Rip off” or Homage? Was his work copied? See for yourself. In the discussion that ensued, some said that imitation is the highest form of flattery; some stated it’s a tough call. In the comments, Phil said something that resonates with a recent conversation we had: “if you put work of any kind of quality online then you're pretty much definitely going to get copied.” That is exactly what Dr. James Chan said to us last night. Piracy is an interesting problem to have. You can beat imitators, and... Read more →