The Marketing Companion

Mark Schaefer and nonprofit marketing authority Keith Jennings unwrap new ideas in nonprofit marketing, including a new way to segment audiences, why a focus on "product" enables better nonprofit marketing, and why nonprofits should consider community-based marketing. 

In this show, Mark Schaefer and two friends, Samantha Stone and Chad Parizman, weave a story of his greatest professional accomplishment -- ten years in the making. It's not a book, it's not a famous speech. This is the story of 30 people who took a risk together.    Samantha Stone is the founder and CEO of The Marketing Advisory Network. She is a teacher, consultant, marketing strategist, researcher, and the author of Unleash Possible.    Chad Parizman has been a digital marketing strategist for HGTV and Pfizer and currently leads brands into an effective social audio strategy through his company Ader Communications.

In this unique episode, Mark Schaefer talks about how viewing "community" through the lens of brand marketing is not a strategy that works, it is marketing that heals. In fact, community might be the greatest overlooked marketing opportunity in the history of marketing opportunities. The legendary Douglas Burdette serves as a special co-host for this episode. This episode includes a free chapter of Mark's new book "Belonging to the Brand." Douglas Burdette is the founder of Artillery Marketing and the host of the well-known Marketing Book podcast.  Mark Schaefer is a strategy consultant, college educator, keynote speaker and the author of 10 books including "KNOWN," "Marketing Rebellion" and "Belonging to the Brand." His annual marketing retreat is The Uprising. 

Tom Peters was named as one of the top 10 business minds of this century and he just published an extraordinary new book. In this interview, he covers some surprising topics with typical boldness: His surprising take on "quiet quitting." "You don't have to like your employees, but you have to love them." Why great speakers act out of a sense of desperation about their message Why "business is community, period." Your job as a leader is to "hire well and promote." Why he is perpetually pissed off Why we need to hire "the quiet ones." Tom is best-known for his book "In Search of Excellence" and his new book is  "The Compact Guide to Excellence."

Mark Schaefer and Mathew Sweezey talk about some of the landmark marketing events of 2022 and project what might be important in the coming year.  Mark Schaefer is a strategy consultant, college educator, keynote speaker and the author of 10 books including "KNOWN" and "Marketing Rebellion." His annual marketing retreat is The Uprising.  Mathew Sweezey is the Co-Founder of Salesforces Web3 Studio where he helps Salesforce and their top customers transition into Web3. Mathew is also a best selling author, and avid adventurer. 

In five days, one million people signed up for ChatGPT, a sophisticated artificual intelligence program now broadly available in a user-friendly interface. At a minimum this upends our approach to content, social media, research, and strategy. For many, it will be the end of their careers as they've known it.  To help us figure out what's next, I turned to a revered tech analyst, Shelly Palmer. In this special episode, Shelly explains why he things ChatGPT "changes everything," the opportunities and limitations, and his career strategy. Mark Schaefer is a strategy consultant, college educator, keynote speaker and the author of 10 books including "KNOWN" and "Marketing Rebellion." His annual marketing retreat is The Uprising.  Shelly Palmer is an author, speaker, educator, and tech analyst. 

Mark Schaefer and Jay Acunzo re-think content marketing from the ground up, contending that that the personal brand and their trusted audiences may drive strategy more than "helpful content."  Instead of a content department, Mark and Jay think through what a "content culture" would look like that nurtures in-house creators, establishes a space for outside industry thought leaders, and assigns full-time creative duties at an executive level.  This is a model that is already happening at media companies. Why not transfer these best practices to the corporate and agency world? Mark Schaefer is a strategy consultant, college educator, keynote speaker and the author of 10 books including "KNOWN" and "Marketing Rebellion." His annual marketing retreat is The Uprising.  Jay Acunzo is an author, speaker, and host of the podcast Unthinkable -- the show about marketers who trusted their intuition, not the best practices, and all the unconventional, refreshing things they did to build their brands and leave their legacies. Learn more and find a Starter Pack of episodes at https://jayacunzo.com/unthinkable-podcast 

Amanda Russell relates an amazing story of how she cuts through the clutter to surround herself with powerful business relationships. This is a graduate level class about networking strategy and gaining attention of thought leaders in a busy world.   Some themes: Deep research on potential connections Creating value that cuts through the noise Continual effort to build on momentum Establishing a mutually-beneficial relationship Focus on the individual, not the ask Prioritizing follow up and follow through Establishing reciprocity The role of community Mark and Amanda also discuss the phenomenon of imposter syndrome. It seems to be everywhere but neither one of them has this condition. How do they approach scary new situations and ambiguity with confidence?   Amanda Russell is a college educator at the University of Texas, author of The Influencer Code, and consultant on influencer marketing.    Mark Schaefer is a strategy consultant, college educator, keynote speaker and the author of 10 books including "KNOWN" and "Marketing Rebellion." His annual marketing retreat is The Uprising.

Mark Schaefer and Keith Jennings explore a vastly overlooked aspect of marketing -- status. While this may seem like a taboo topic, seeking status drives almost every aspect of our lives from where we live to our art, music, and brand devotion. Mark and Keith connect the dots between status and key cultural trends, especially the shifts we are seeing from Gen Z.

NFTs have been in the news so much lately, and there's so much to learn! In this show, Mark Schaefer and Mathew Sweezey talk about NFTs as a tool to build community, loyalty, and brand identity through some exciting new use cases.