“You must unlearn what you have learned.” –Yoda

I am reading through reports this morning from the Business Marketing Association’s annual meeting which had the theme “Unlearn”. It is about time! Regardless I give them credit for their efforts. Here are some of the more interesting points that were presented.

“Business marketing is rapidly changing, and business marketers need to learn about the full spectrum of change that is taking place in our field,” said Gary Slack, chairman-chief experience officer at Slack Barshinger, Chicago, and chairman of the BMA. Pffffft, what did I say earlier? “It is about time!”

““We have been too worried about shareholders and not focused enough on customers,” said Ralph Oliva, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets. “When did the shareholder become No. 1? We need to unlearn going along with this ride and begin constantly teaching people how business markets work. In the wonderful place between the supplier and customers, when we do our job well, we work together to create new value. This is what will drive the growth of our domestic product.” THAT was profound! I would totally agree that our customers look to us for guidance. They want us to be the expert and to help them to understand.

Some Tweets I followed from the conference.

Help people declare their love – Let people tell their friends about ur brand in any way possible. @sernovitz

Word of Mouth Topics (WOMT) – Portable, repeatable, memorable. @sernovitz

Skittles example – Home page is now Facebook cuz fans have more to say than company could. @sernovitz

#bma09 – HIGLY Recommended… got to www.skittles.com

NOW, THIS is a game changer, skittles.com. You have to take a look at these innovators. Their home page is taken from Wikipedia. Their friends page links to Facebook. Wow! This will certainly be a marketing study for future Marketing 101 classes.