Opportunity Houston Nears Branding Budget

It’s easy to build a brand position when what you’re marketing only has one or two prominent points of differentiation. It’s much harder to brand something with dozens and dozens of disparate differentiators. Houston, for example.

But the fine folks at the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP) are making real progress in trying to do just that. For those of you who’ve been following the GHP’s Opportunity Houston^SM initiative, it seems as though the effort is in the home stretch. The initiative, which comprises a five-year marketing program to support the GHP’s strategic plan, will help build a stronger Houston brand to help retain and expand business, improve communications and leverage technology and information.

And it will cost big bucks. The campaign’s goal, which as established back in 2006, was set at $40 million. As of July, the campaign had reached the $31.9 million mark. What will the effort entail? Learn more at www.opportunityhouston.org. Maybe you could help push them over the mark.

Or maybe you could just check out the upcoming Opportunity Houston Fourth Annual Marketing Excellence Luncheon, SPEAK LOUD: small budget (I’m sure many of us can relate).

What can you learn about brand personality?

Rohit Bhargava, Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy & Marketing at Ogilvy Public Relations will be the AMA Houston speaker at the November 12th Luncheon. In this interview earlier this year, Rohit explains that “Many companies are focusing too much on branding/messaging and too little on personality. There is a difference. Personality is what brings a brand to life.”

What makes for a good brand personality and why is this important? I was reminded of several points from this short interview:

• I confess, one of the reasons I faithfully watch Lost is because of the backstories (but at least now I know why that’s so compelling)
• That, all else being equal, I really would rather deal with a humanistic organization than a faceless corporation for my hard-earned money
• Social media is important in developing connections, but does not entirely replace real conversations
• And, you can’t neglect the details in a brand experience – it’s often the little things that are remembered (good or bad)

The more I read, the more excited I am about hearing Rohit speak in person. Oh, and did I mention that he’s doing a book signing the night before at Capone’s?

To attend the luncheon ”Why Personality Matters …The Untold Secret Of Marketing In The Social Media Era”, read more on our events page, or register online now at http://www.regonline.com/ogilvy.

More reading about Rohit is here:
Blog: www.influentialmarketingblog.com
Book: www.personalitynotincluded.com 

September Event Photos

AMA Houston didn’t let Hurricane Ike get us down. Check out these photos from two great events in September:

• The luncheon with Jamey Rootes, President of the Houston Texans. Cheerleaders and all, Jamey came in style and pumped us up with his words of wisdom. We all left excited to see what the Texans would do next, but had to wait until after Hurricane Ike!
• The monthly social – this month was hosted by the Multicultural Marketing SIG and held at Americas Restaurant. It was packed! Socializing with your friends was much more fun than sitting in post-Hurricane traffic.

Mplanet to Rock Your World in January 2009

There will only be two kinds of marketers in 2009: those who went to Mplanet and those who didn’t. If you think getting away after the holidays wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, check what promises to be one of the best marketing conferences of 2009.

Mplanet 2009 is a national marketing mega-conference, brought to you by the American Marketing Association, Bain & Company and the Wharton School of Business. This year’s theme: “Navigating the new marketsphere.” In Orlando, Florida January 26-28 next year, it promises myriad interesting discussion on new marketing challenges and great contacts.

Speakers will include marketing gurus from XEROX Corporation, McDonald’s Corporation, Tata Coffee, American Express, Wal-Mart, General Mills, DuPont, Ford Motor Company, Nintendo of North America, Dow Chemical, Best Buy, Adobe, PPG Industries, Hewlett Packard, Google, Dean Foods and dozens of others including the esteemed AMA CEO Dennis Dunlap.

Hit sunny Florida and tap into:

• Perspectives & Insights from top business leaders at leading companies provide their perspectives and share their experience on broad business topics such as leadership, strategy and innovation.Strategic
• Forums with C-level marketing leaders and marketing luminaries provide fresh insights and learning, best practices and case studies, and new research and future trends in core topic areas for B2B and B2C marketers.
• Application Spotlights from subject matter experts, giving an in-depth look at new concepts, models, tools and solutions in core topic areas.
• Discovery Center, which is the nucleus of Mplanet, where attendees and presenters come together to experience a free flow of ideas (and talk trash about you if you don’t go).

Check it out now, while there’s still time to quadruple the estimated time and money you’ll need and write it into next year’s budget.

Welcome New Board Members

As part of the 2008-2009 Board, we’re pleased to welcome some brand new Board Members. New members of the Board and their areas of professional development for AMA Houston include:

Director, Brand/Marketing
Christine M Hollinden, Hollinden Professional Services Marketing

Director, Media Relations
Vickie Alleman , University of St.Thomas

Director, Member Management
Tara Mascarenhas

Director, Research
Shiara Trumble

Co-Chair, Energy Marketing SIG
Becky Eckerman Ernst & Young

Co-Chair, Market Research SIG
Jennifer Meyer, InterDirect USA

Co-Chair, Multicultural Marketing SIG
Adrianne Poyet-Smith, The Buckingham 

Annual Board Retreat Kicks-off New Year

This past Saturday, the AMA Houston Board met at the Inn at the Ballpark in Downtown Houston for our annual board retreat. It was my first time there, and I have to say that I wasn’t expecting it to be so nice. The lobby and meeting areas were comfortable and the food was really good. We greatly appreciate their generous sponsorship, and couldn’t have asked for a better retreat location.

Houston Chapter Now #2 in Nation

The Houston chapter of AMA rallied members to surpass New York with the second largest membership in the nation last week. At 939 members and counting, AMA Houston’s membership increased 16%. Colin Hageney (former AMA Houston chapter president) said 5 years ago that we would be at 1,000 members, proving that “The Power of Intention” really does work! We’re on our way there, so send us your suggestions on where might be a great location to celebrate.

We couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help. Thanks to all, as well as our membership campaign sponsors KBR, C2 Media and Houston Business Journal.