September, 2004

Yesterday was my last day working with The Jackson Group. I've decided on a little career modification and I'm off to pursue other opportunities.

The Jackson Group is a great company and have, I believe, a competitive edge in delivering support for integrated customer management. Particularly, some of the new services that integrate technology-based front-end tools to manage back-end marketing operations are exceptional and one-of-a-kind.

I like change. I like the excitement and energy of something new. I like the experience of interactions with new people, places and things. I'm invigorated by change and actively seek opportunities for change in my daily life. I live my life in search of opportunities for change. Yes, you could say I love change, except when it's forced upon me. I was forced to change a while ago, and my experiences gave me a few new insights on managing change.

My local phone company has a a true monopoly on communications services in the county. This company is the only provider of phone, DSL and cable service. It's a small, local company and apparently not subject to the same regulation as the big provider in the area, BellSouth.

Not long ago, I stopped getting a number of e-newsletters and began subscribing to RSS feeds of business and news topics which interest me. Often these feeds are aggregated sources of news and I'll occasionally come across an article that I think I want to read, but it's behind a sign up page. Such was the case last night when I was catching up on the headlines and wanted to read an article on Credit Card Marketing that appeared in the LA Times.

After I finished the article, it occurred to me that newspapers should leverage this approach to drive subscriber leads.

In recent trips to Blockbuster, I've noticed that they're not stocking as many new releases in the store as before.

In recent trips to Blockbuster, I've noticed that they're not stocking as many new releases in the store as before.

Netflix is now offering RSS Feeds of its latest additions, top rentals and more.

I don't know if the RSS feed are tied to their affiliate program, but what a way to improve the viral component of the RSS approach. If affiliates were compensated on purchases made from RSS click th roughs that would be the beginning of the change in RSS Marketing.

You know how sometimes you read something and you think to yourself, "I've been thinking about those same things. I wish I'd written that!"

Well, today was one of those days. Mark Hurst over at Good Experience has an excellent blog post entitled, How to become a VP of Customer Experience.