The Marketing Blender

Wow! we are getting ready for our second Blender this Thursday April 2.  In our February Blender, we discussed marketing strategies to survive the economic downturn, as we were very much waking up to the new year with an economic hangover.  But now the new reality has sunk in and companies are starting to or have already taken actions, including significant redundancies and corportae restructuring – some with greater and some with lesser “success” and certainly with lots of media coverage and commentary, and a huge amount of popular discussion and debate.

At this Blender,  we will talking about how this crisis can and in some cases already has impacted on the reputation of the business and the confidence of consumers in Australia. Importantly our expert panel will be discussing how business needs to adapt its processes and governance in order to survive.

To what extent is this not only a financial crisis, but also a communication crisis? Have events over the past six months highlighted a market of corporate excess fuelled by the search for greater ’shareholder value’ and stellar performance? What happened to the ’solid performer’?  Have companies lost the reputation war with stakeholders and what does the Australian community now view as ‘value’?

We have some great panelists

• Robert Gottliebsen – Commentator, businessspectator.com.au
• Indira Naidoo – Consumer & Environment Consultant
• Paul Taaffe – Chairman & CEO, Hill & Knowlton Inc

I will report back on the conversation next week and we will have video highlights of the session, if you are unable to make it.  But we still have a few places left so if you are keen to come please let me know.

If you have any questions you would like me to ask the panelists specifically, please post a question here and I will add them to the audience’s on the day.