ITSMA’s 2009 State of the Marketing Profession Address: Making the Right Choices in Uncertain Times

January 22, 2009
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)
(Free for ITSMA members)

Registration Closed

Overview

During an economic downturn, marketing is more important than ever, but most companies cut budgets and staff further than they should. Resourceful marketers need to make the right choices in where to ramp up, where to maintain, and where to scale back—in some cases permanently.

Join Dave Munn, President and CEO, and Julie Schwartz, Senior Vice President Thought Leadership and Research, as they share ITSMA’s view of where marketing is today and the challenges and opportunities we face in 2009. You’ll hear highlights from ITSMA’s 2009 Marketing Budgets & Trends Survey (that is currently being conducted), learn what choices marketers are making in response to the current economic environment, and gain practical insight and recommendations on how to turn adversity into opportunity.

Specifically this briefing will explore such issues as:

• What are the current projections for marketing spending and staffing?
• What areas have been impacted the greatest by the downturn?
• What are the most important initiatives that will see marketers through this period?
• For w hich programs should marketing maintain, increase or cut back investment?
• What are leading companies doing to weather the storm and demonstrate the value of marketing?

This Briefing is complimentary for ITSMA members and $195 for nonmembers.

Presenters	[TOP OF PAGE]

Dave oversees all ITSMA strategy, partnerships, and international operations. He also moderates numerous ITSMA conferences and speaks at a variety of industry and client events.

Since joining ITSMA in 1995, one year after its formation, Dave has played a central role in expanding the organization’s offerings to include: Best-practice, benchmarking, and customer research; custom consulting and training; and a wide range of member services to help companies improve marketing, sales, and business results. ITSMA now has operations in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, serving over 100 member companies representing close to half of the total Technology & Telecom services revenues generated worldwide.

Prior to joining ITSMA, Dave held senior-level field positions with Oracle Corporation and Apple Computer, responsible for marketing products and services to commercial and government accounts. Earlier, Dave was a senior analyst with The Ledgeway Group, where he authored Ledgeway’s first “Service Trends and Forecast” study and launched the company’s inquiry hotline service.

Dave holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Denison University and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School, where he concentrated in Marketing and Corporate Strategy. Dave is a former President of the Alcott Toastmasters Club and an alumni interviewer for Kellogg’s MBA program.

Julie oversees ITSMA’s thought leadership development and custom research. She has authored numerous reports and articles on technology services trends, marketing, branding, and sales topics, and is a frequent speaker at public events and client meetings. Julie created ITSMA’s Solutions Roadmap and Services Competency Assessment, developed a balanced scorecard approach to measuring services marketing performance, and designed ITSMA’s 360° brand assessment research, which helps companies better understand how their brands are perceived by customers, prospects, partners, employees, and influencers.

Prior to joining ITSMA in 1996, Julie was an analyst with State Street Research. Earlier, Julie was the director of professional services research for Dataquest and manager of research for The Ledgeway Group.

Julie holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated summa cum laude and was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She also has a Master of Science in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where she was named a Seley Scholar.

General Information	[TOP OF PAGE]

ITSMA’s Online Briefings offer recent research findings or survey results from thought leaders on a variety of services marketing topics. The Online Briefings can be viewed individually, or in groups composed of people within the same company. The briefings are available anywhere in the world that has telephone service and access to the Internet. A typical program runs 45 minutes followed by 15 minutes of questions and answers. The person making the online presentation speaks into a telephone and advances the visual portion of the presentation via their computer connected to the Internet. At the end of the presentation. and at the presenter’s discretion, the listeners are invited to ask questions. Each listener with a question identifies him or herself and is listed in a queue and taken one at a time by the presentation monitor. The monitor also manages the question and answer session by giving each questioner access to the phone line to communicate with the presenter.

Technical Requirements	[TOP OF PAGE]

This briefing will be administered by BT Conferencing. All participants are required to test their browsers 24-48 hours prior to ensure compatibility. This test can be done by clicking here: Check your system. You will receive a pass code and dial in number three business days prior to the briefing.

The technical requirements for this ITSMA online briefing are:

• Direct or dial-up Internet connection of 56Kbps or higher.
• A separate telephone line to access the audio teleconference.
• If participating from your company, ask about your company’s Internet Firewall 48 hours prior to the event. This will enable your IT technician to reconfigure your connections if necessary to ensure access to the Internet portion of the briefing.
• No plug-ins or software downloads are required.
• System Requirements: Windows 2000 or higher, Internet Explorer 6.x or greater, Netscape 7.2 or later. The following operating systems will work with limitations: Windows 98 SE, NT Server or Workstation 4.0, Mac OSX 10.3 with Safari 1.2; Solaris 9 with Netscape 7.0 or Mozilla 1.4, Sun JVM 1.4.2.

Fees and Registration	[TOP OF PAGE]

Aside from the telephone call, the fee for the presentation is complimentary for active ITSMA members, and $195 per location for non-members.

Note: Registration is on a first-come/first-served basis. You must register by 5:00 pm ET, January 21, 2009.