DECEMBER 2004
SPECIAL FEATURES

• AMI NATIONAL PRESIDENT
  A new year begins for the AMI
• MARKETING AND THE LAW
  ACCC mulches Daikin's 'green' claims
• UNIVERSITY VS WORK
  Endless opportunities outside the comfort zone
• SERVICES MARKETING
  Intellectual capital and the essential role of marketers
• CULTURE AT WORK
  Battling with cultural awareness
  
  
• Open/download PDF version of December issue (285KB)

AMI NATIONAL PRESIDENT
A new year begins for the AMI

By Roger James, FAMI CPM, national president, AMI

THE Board of the AMI changes over at the conclusion of the annual general meeting, late in October. Then, after a minimum period of four weeks, the Board elects its executive. This has happened recently and I am very pleased to take on the role of national president for another year, with a great team in support.

Long-serving national treasurer Nick Kariotoglou has this year taken on the role of national chair. Nick brings a great deal of experience and knowledge to the position, having served on the Board for several years and having recently undertaken the substantial task of re-compiling and updating the AMI Policy and Operations Manual.

Marco Cicchine, another long-serving Board member and past deputy president, has become national treasurer. With a professional background in financial services, his skills and knowledge will be very well used. Finally, one of our more recent Board members, Trish Hyde, has become our deputy president. Trish has previously served as chair of the Board's communication committee, and professionally has a strong strategic marketing background.

As we move into 2005, there are some real opportunities for the AMI to capitalise on the successful launch of the Australian Marketing Metrics project to take the organisation to a new level of authority in the Australian marketing community. I will be working hard to promote this cause.

There is a lot to be done inside the organisation as well, in terms of an expanded online professional development program and a planned program of national speakers to provide some higher-profile presenters in the smaller states and territories.

I hope you share my enthusiasm and will actively promote the AMI to your colleagues who are not members. I believe we have a lot to offer and the more members we have, the more capacity we have to improve our service offering because of the economies of scale it provides. I look forward to a great year in 2005.

In the second part of his column, Roger James discusses the need for financial numeracy in marketers.

Read the full article by Roger James | Top of page

MARKETING AND THE LAW
ACCC mulches Daikin 'green' claims

By Philippa Hore, Special Counsel, Technology and Intellectual Property, Clayton Utz

BUSINESSES claiming that their products have environmental benefits should carefully consider whether those claims are sustainable, given the recent outcome of an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) into claims made by air-conditioner importer and distributor Daikin.

From around January 2001 to August 2003, Daikin represented in sales brochures and on its website that certain refrigerants and Daikin air-conditioning units containing those refrigerants were environmentally friendly, and that their use by consumers would prevent (or at least not contribute to) global warming.

The ACCC investigated Daikin’s representations. After seeking expert scientific advice, it formed the view that the representations were misleading and in contravention of the Trade Practices Act 1974, given that the refrigerants in question were, in fact, potent greenhouse gases with significant global warming potential.

As a result of the ACCC’s investigation, Daikin has provided a court-enforceable undertaking that it will:

• Not make the representations for a period of five years.
• Place a corrective notice on its website.
• Write and distribute corrective letters to its distributors and to the Australian Airconditioning and Refrigeration Manufacturers Association.
• Implement a corporate trade practices compliance program, including staff training seminars.
• Advise its Japanese parent company about the existence and content of the undertaking and about the existence and outcomes of the trade practices compliance program.

Clearly, the main lesson from the Daikin case is that businesses must ensure the accuracy of any claims made about the environmental benefits of their products and services. The Daikin case also holds another important lesson for businesses that use promotional material supplied by parent companies or related bodies corporate in other jurisdictions.

Read the full article by Philippa Hore | Top of page

UNIVERSITY VS WORK
Endless opportunities outside the comfort zone

By Emma Scammell AMAMI, marketing manager
and recent graduate

I NEVER thought that at 23 years of age I would find myself in a marketing manager position, with the autonomy and responsibility some people work for years to achieve. And in Sydney! Perhaps that sounds arrogant, but I say it with more amazement than confidence at times. It just goes to show you can do anything if you put your mind to it.

People sometimes ask how I got here, and it is not too hard to put it down to determination and hard work. All the work experience, voluntary projects, casual jobs and getting involved with associations such as the AMI have helped me to develop my skills and knowledge. Not only is it hard work, but it is learning to step out of your comfort zone. I found that going to seminars and networking functions helped me interact with new people from different industries, thus making invaluable contacts for future business.

Once you can determine a focus (such as marketing) for your career, it becomes easier to take the steps to get to where you want to be. You can work out what sorts of jobs could give you experience to suit a marketing role.

For example, customer service and retail train you to work with customers, merchandise and monitoring sales. You can involve yourself in voluntary work, such as market research, to give you exposure to surveys and different research methods. There are so many different ways to develop your skills and experience to complement the path you want to take. It certainly helps to have experience in all areas of marketing that you will be working in.

Read the full article by Emma Scammell | Top of page

SERVICES MARKETING
Intellectual capital and the essential role of marketers

By Louise Robinson AMAMI and Daryll Cahill

PEOPLE are the core asset of services firms; they provide services for financial return. Through service provision, intellectual capital is built, which underpins a firm’s ability to budget its future revenue. Marketing professionals play a vital role in the identification, documentation, internal co-ordination and management of a firm’s intellectual capital, as well as using it as a differentiator in external communications to the marketplace.

Return on assets (ROA) is a standard measure for company performance in other industries, used by management and investors alike to make strategic decisions about a company and to gauge its financial status. ROA is easily calculated by using values for physical assets compared with sales generated. Physical assets, such as stock, raw materials, equipment and cash, are tangible and easily identified and measured.

However, for professional services firms intangibles come into play: technical expertise, knowledge of clients, relationships, industry experience, the brand or reputation of the firm, and service delivery. Given the practice group structures of professional services firms, critical questions arise: how is an overall understanding of these elements achieved and then used to yield financial returns?

Professional services firms must recognise the power of the intellectual capital they attract and generate. The responsibility to identify, interpret and relate intellectual capital often lies within the domain of in-house marketers.

With their constant need to capture experience and credentials to meet market needs and through their direct work with the practitioners in different practice groups, marketers learn about existing clients, understand engagements and the service delivery of practitioners as well as market needs. Marketers are heavy users of intellectual capital.

Read the full article by Robinson and Cahill | Top of page

CULTURE AT WORK
Battling with cultural awareness

By Joost Thissen, managing partner, Culture Resource Centre

DURING focus group sessions recently we were investigating the concept of ‘cross-cultural awareness’. We asked participants what being cross-culturally aware meant to them and how aware they thought they were. Although most participants acknowledged that being cross-culturally aware was very important in a multicultural society and/or working in an international environment, some of their interpretations were quite revealing in the sense that being ‘cross-culturally aware’ is easily misunderstood.

For one participant, it simply meant understanding and speaking the basic language in a foreign country, which is a quite limiting definition. Another participant mentioned that she had gone to school with a Greek girl and therefore was very culturally aware, “like most people in multicultural societies”, she said.

So what exactly is cross-cultural awareness? It is being sensitive to the fact that people from different cultures behave differently. An awareness of our own cultural identity might be a good place to start to understand others. Once we understand how values and biases influence people, we can use this information to enhance relationships with them.

Being aware of and sensitive to other cultures will help people feel more comfortable with differences, and can be useful in predicting how people who come from different backgrounds will act, speak, think, make decisions and perceive the world.

In business, being aware of and sensitive to other cultures can win you contracts and life-long relationships on which you can build your business relationships – and keep them. Cross-cultural awareness is one of those abstract, ‘soft’ skills that take time to cultivate. It is an evolutionary process that continues throughout your life, if you choose to open yourself to it.

Read the full article by Joost Thissen | Top of page