New heads, old bags, network power

She is not known for being overly shy. When Susanne Wille wants to - and Wille often wants to - she can quickly break through verbal barriers as host of the Swiss Marketing Day and really get to grips with invited guests. But of course a lady like the "10vor10" anchorwoman also has tact and decorum. So it was that Susanne Wille had to summon up all her courage when she asked the newly crowned Marketing Trophy winner Peter Hiltebrand coram publico: "And what can you be hired for, you old bag?"

Wille was sure of a thousand voices of laughter. And the question was not cheeky or inappropriate. On the contrary, it was highly appropriate. After all, if someone, like the retired electrician Hiltebrand, has "Competence Center for Old Bags" on their business card, then you simply have to ask them. Especially as Peter Hiltebrand and his daughter Sarah have just been awarded the newly created Marketing Trophy special prize. Their achievement: with the online platform "Rent a Pensioner", the Hiltebrands are, as they say, bringing "old boxes and old bags" to the people. You can hire sprightly pensioners and ladies who use their expertise to carry out a wide variety of tasks.

Morning greetings from overseas

Another elderly gentleman, who will be 80 in May, opened this year's Swiss Marketing Day. With a message of greeting that was recorded on video from overseas. Professor Philip Kotler - revered by many as the "Pope of Marketing" - spoke in faraway Florida about how we can imagine "Marketing 3.0". For example, by splitting the conventional marketing team into one team that takes care of day-to-day business and a second task force-like marketing team that is responsible for finding out what customers will want and need in the future: "Marketers," said Kotler, "are in the best position to anticipate the future of any company. They have the customer data and they know the demand."

The fact that the video cast from Florida was recorded in the KKL Luzern without any jerking or twitching was just one of the many flawless facets of the technology. In fact, this year saw a veritable firework display of innovations (see second text). Not just any old gadgets were on show, but tools were introduced that increased interactivity to such an extent that you could feel like you were in an offline Facebook. And even though the carnival-like Güdisdienstag was raging around the KKL Luzern, inside the theme was eagerly filleted, which this year was: "Worthless or valuable? Marketing for marketing". Swiss Marketing President Uwe Tännler is full of praise for the thousands of participants who once again came to Lucerne for the Swiss Marketing Day: "A sensational recognition for what we do. And an incentive to continue to meet the high expectations in the future. Or even better, to exceed them!"

Enemy figure scores plus points

Kotler, it soon became clear, has not retreated into his university ivory tower, but knows what marketers want today. And what sometimes makes them sick: "Of course, we marketing people often have our problems with the CFOs," said Kotler. He called for more understanding on both sides: "The Chief Marketing Officer has to have lunch with the Chief Financial Officer once in a while."

One of the event's strengths was that it was not just a debate about the differences between marketers and (mostly absent) financiers. It also offered a stage to a speaker from the crater of numbers. Thorsten Truijens, Managing Partner of the consulting firm Controlling Partner St. Gallen AG, gave the marketers in attendance an understanding of the finance people's soul meccano. Caused by the financial crisis, which most of them had not foreseen, they went through a kind of crisis of meaning. They were also aware that the big end of the general debt crisis was yet to come. The Chief Financial Officers in the companies are working hard to achieve sustainable cash flows. And they are sometimes worn down by how little the marketers understand about the general wheel of figures. "Financial knowledge is not rocket science," Truijens warned, adding that marketers should ask controllers to "explain their number salad a little more precisely." He advised an alliance to bridge the eternal rift in companies: "Controllers need allies to compensate for their lack of market knowledge." However, this is often the responsibility of the marketers, who should first take an interest in the basics of the financial jungle.

Names to take home

After Truijens, it was fitting that a representative of an original Swiss cash cow made an appearance: Urs Riedener, CEO of Emmi. The former head of marketing at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives explained how the Lucerne-based milk processor cleaned up its patchwork of brands, how it now uses three pillars and why it can make sense to reduce its innovation cadence to a healthy level despite the eternal battle cries for more innovations. The KKL Lucerne provided a high-quality "real-life" marketing lesson.

And where other speakers sometimes put on too much cream, moderator Susanne Wille was quickly on the spot. She engaged with the other speakers in a constructive style, with Professors Christian Belz and Holger Rust and with Tom Kunze, who explained the brand power of the Mini car powerhouse.

Which of course is also part of a Swiss Marketing Day: extensive networking, exchanging the latest news and business cards. And people like to have a take-away in the form of a head that they have never seen before. In this respect, the attendees were well served by the hero of quirky bel canto, Leo Wundergut - and by the appearance of Canadian trend guru Jeremy Gutsche. In a mixture of James Brown and Justin Timberlake, he whirled across the stage, a single invitation to always push the wire mesh in your own brain a little further. If you don't want to end up like the US typewriter giant Smith Corona, who did everything right for a hundred years - and then got into a huge mess due to the misjudgement of the computer boom.

Prevailed against "big names"

Gutsche succeeded in reminding those present of the enthusiasm gene. Those who connect emotionally with their customers, who get the spark going, can write marketing history, the Canadian announced.

Marketing history was also made on March 8, 2011 by all those who won a Marketing Trophy. And it was not uncommon for companies to win against market players that actually have a much bigger name. In addition to the aforementioned Hil¬tebrands and their pensioner company idea, SAM Sustainable Asset Management came out on top among the large companies, Brack Electronics won in the medium-sized segment with its "Daydeal.ch" project, and the transport company Alois Scherrer AG triumphed in the small company category with its repositioning as a specialist in textile logistics. In the NPO segment, the charity project "Jeder Rappen zählt" ("Every cent counts") came out on top, while Ego Kiefer was awarded the audience prize for its climate protection project. Worthy winners on the Day of Deeds at the KKL Lucerne.