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Symposium targets marketers
Founder believes Bakersfield could use potential annual affair
| Thursday, Nov 8 2007 8:10 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Nov 8 2007 8:40 PM
When marketing professional Bob Marx stepped down as head of the Bakersfield Convention & Visitors Bureau in May, he made it known that he hoped to stay in Bakersfield instead of moving to take a similar position elsewhere.
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But what he would do in Bakersfield, he wasn't saying.
Now we know.
Working with local marketing firm and events producer Th!nk, Marx has organized the Bakersfield Marketing Symposium, a daylong event he hopes will become an annual event -- not unlike the now-defunct Bakersfield Business Conference.
Here are excerpts from our conversation with Marx earlier this week:
QUESTION: How did this symposium come together?
ANSWER: When I was the president of the Bakersfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, and I had the opportunity and, of course, the pleasure to work with a number of local businesses in the area, I just noticed that there was an acute lack of both knowledge and appreciation of marketing.
They just didn't really understand the width and the depth of what marketing is all about. They knew that they needed to do it, but in some cases they just didn't know how to to do it.
When I left the bureau, I thought this would be an opportunity to help the local Kern County-Bakersfield businesses gather some really good marketing insight and learn some of the basics, as well as some of the more here-and-now marketing ideas to help their business grow. So it's something that I felt I could do personally through my extensive contacts in the marketing world, and I wanted to provide something that I thought the city could embrace and sustain over a period of time.
Q: What's been the response?
A: The response has been very favorable for the concept, in terms of bringing a traditional and annual event to the city that Bakersfield has never had before.
Businesses that are becoming more highly competitive are now embracing something that will help them stay ahead and help them stay in the race, because obviously now, with Kern County and Bakersfield growing rapidly, there's an even greater need now for businesses to compete. And in order to compete you've got to somehow differentiate yourself. Hence, the marketing opportunities will show them how they can do that. So for that, they've embraced it as an event that will never replace the Bakersfield Business Conference, but it will hopefully be a good second choice in terms of an event that people will be able to learn from senior marketing executives from leading businesses from around the country.
We want this conference to be an annual event, and as it grows, as the business conference did, we'll be able to secure bigger and better speakers. Just this year, for example, I've had conversations with leading marketing people from Wal-Mart and others.
Q: Which are the speakers attendees mustn't miss this year?
A: I believe they're all valuable, but if they were going to pick a couple of them, the gentlemen John Arnold, who is going to bring us all current on e-mail marketing, just how to make it work -- how to get the message that you want to convey to your target market into their mailbox successfully. With the advent and the growth of the Internet, he is probably one of the leading (experts on) one of the most popular marketing channels right now. This is a need-to-know, because e-mail is where it's at right now.
The other one is Francisco Valle, who will talk about successful marketing strategies to reach the Hispanic consumer. With a significant Hispanic population in Kern County, Bakersfield, California and the nation, they represent a sizeable buying power, and in order to capture that buying power, there's certain things you need to know to reach them that are different from reaching the typical Anglo consumer. And he will share the tips and the techniques that a business needs to know and what to do to get Hispanic consumers to take out their wallet. Again, they're all going to be valuable, but those are probably the latest and greatest of 2007.
Q: How were these speakers selected?
A: They were selected on several counts, No. 1 on what their proficiency was, in terms of what's hot in marketing. We wanted to get speakers that were going to talk about things that everybody could relate to. In other words, a small business just starting out or a large company, well established. I wanted to have topics that everybody could relate to and get some take-away information. So that was the reason for the topics that I selected. It was just a matter of, 'Could I get the senior-level person to deliver?' We wanted to get speakers a little closer to home just to make it easier for our expenses as well.
Q: What new marketing trends are you seeing?
A: Definitely what I'm seeing is the Internet. Using the Internet is more than just an electronic brochure, but as an interactive marketing tool. Then, of course, social media is becoming extremely important these days. It's always been strong for the Generation Y crowd, but now MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn are becoming hugely popular marketing channels for businesses.
The second part of that is multicultural marketing. You can no longer just market to the white, middle-class consumer. Now you've got to basically appeal to a wide base of multicultural backgrounds -- Hispanics, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, just to name a few.
Q: What opportunities will there be for attendees to share their experiences at the event?
A: That's exactly what the breakout sessions in the afternoon are intended to be for. You can pick one of the three breakout sessions that you're interested in learning more and gathering more insight, and those are designed to be more interactive in terms of talking about your experiences, more importantly, asking your questions. At the end of the day, though, around 4 o'clock, we're bringing all the speakers back into the ballroom for an open Q-and-A session. You can ask any of the seven or eight speakers your questions. The speakers will be there purely to answer questions. That'll be about an hour. We're going to encourage everybody to ask their questions.
Q: Anything you want to add?
A: We just hope that Bakersfield and Kern County embrace this event. We want this to be another shining star for the city, and we really hope that if you're in business and you need more business -- who of us doesn't? -- here's an opportunity to do that.
This is like a mini marketing degree. You're going to get a good marketing education in one day for a relatively small price, and you're also going to be helping, because this is a fundraiser for Junior Achievement of Bakersfield.
To attend
What: Bakersfield Marketing Symposium
When: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday
Where: The Bakersfield Doubletree Hotel, 3100 Camino Del Rio Court
Proceeds: Benefit Junior Achievement of Bakersfield.
Details: Available at www.bakersfieldmarketingsymposium.com, or by calling 472-0215.