[bluenote]

HP hires Marty Homlish away from SAP to be Chief Marketing Officer (see link at bottom of post).
Googling his name turns up a number of brand marketing awards he won while at SAP, seems to be very highly regarded.
He also worked at Sony where he was responsible for launching the Sony Playstation.

Homlish seems to espouse a very customer centric approach, singling out Zappos as a company to emulate. Here below a few quotes from an article he wrote last Sept:

"...to be effective, marketers must understand what motivates the people behind the companies that they wish to do business with and properly engage them in a conversation. Since customers and prospects are moving in and out of different communication channels throughout their day, taking an integrated multichannel approach significantly increases the opportunity for marketers to engage in brand-defining conversation. Most B-to-C companies are already behind this approach, and it's important that B-to-B marketers follow suit and make the transition to B-to-P... Everything from what customers hear while on hold with a call center to how sales reps interact with consumers should encompass brand values and delight customers.
Zappos, for example, demonstrates its commitment to people exceptionally well. Not only is the value proposition the company offers to consumers a winner, but the emotional connection the brand has established with both its customers and employees is something to be lauded. Zappos puts the customer experience at the center of everything it does."

http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/22/soc...network_2.html

Touchpad launch is still a few months away, perhaps far enough away for Homlish to have time to influence its launch?



HP Appoints Veteran Marketing Professional Marty Homlish as Chief Marketing Officer | Clusterstock Stock Pages

[akitayo]

He also spent 15 years at Sony Corporation in several strategic roles, including: president of Sony’s Media Solutions Company and the head of the Sony Electronic Corporate Marketing Services division with responsibilities to create a unified corporate brand strategy for the Sony Corporation of America, Sony Pictures and Sony Music and PlayStation.

He also served as president of Sony Consumer Audio Group and president of Sony Computer Entertainment America. He also was a board member of the influential Recording Industry Association of America.

Homlish holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Goddard College. He continued his education at Babson College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. In his spare time, Homlish sits on the boards of several organizations, including: Columbia Center for Global Branding and the New York Stock Exchange Marketing Advisory Board. He also is a guest lecturer at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business

Press Release: HP Appoints Veteran Marketing Professional Martin Homlish as Chief Marketing Officer

That is an impresive profile. And as you said bluenote he has about 3 months more or less to improve the global launch of webos products.

[bluenote]

He may have been hired too late to do more than tweak marketing for initial launch. I'm guessing his real impact will start to be seen around the holiday season.

[kkhanmd]

This is what should be up on P/C front page.



<staff edit>

[bluenote]

This is what should be up on P/C front page.

Surprised to visit Precentral page right now and find two android stories back-to-back. Sure, I get the first story about android being put on pre hardware (although seems of mild interest since there is so many types of android hardware) but the story about an android tablet does not make sense to be put on this venue.

What does this say about the interests of the precentral editors?
I'm not sure their interest matches with the general interests of the precentral readers, who know at any time they can go to androidcentral or other sites to read about android.

[Syndil]

Homlish sounds like a pragmatic rational rather than a creative idealist. We're not going to see any Apple-like ads because of him. I expect to see ads trying to sway customers with logical reasoning. IMO this is not an effective marketing strategy.

[bluenote]

To compete with Apple on a consumer level, HP needs to provide the same level of consistent customer service across the webos experience (see post below in thread "Its the ecosystem, stupid" for more on this ); the way Homlish describes Zappos as an example, suggests he would aim for this.

http://forums.precentral.net/webos-s...ml#post2875003

[Courousant]

Homlish sounds like a pragmatic rational rather than a creative idealist. We're not going to see any Apple-like ads because of him. I expect to see ads trying to sway customers with logical reasoning. IMO this is not an effective marketing strategy.

if he was really the man behind the initial launch of the playstation, then he probably has more creativity on his resume than you are giving him credit for.

[Syndil]

Touché, if that is true. I was basing my impression of him on what he was quoted as saying in the article.

[spudland]

This is a step in the right direction for HP. We are entering a very exciting age for electronics and device integration and HP certainly has the tools to be the leader for years to come if they can pull all the pieces together and show the world WHY they NEED this integration in their lives.

[bluenote]

Touché, if that is true. I was basing my impression of him on what he was quoted as saying in the article.

Its not just about initial ads, its about keeping the customer once you get them and getting them to buy more stuff from your ecosystem, both hardware and software. Right now HP provides a fragmented experience unlike Apple which supplies a unified one and therefore can get people to keep buying the refreshed ipads along with their iphones and macs and ipods and itunes libraries and storage subscriptions.

[Syndil]

I agree, but if that's the initial impression you try to give the customer (convincing them they will have a unified experience through marketing), you will fail. Ads based on logic and reasoning do not sell products. Ads that lie to you and tell you how cool your products are or what you can (but probably never will) do with your products sell. Homlish seems like he would fit right in with HP's old way of marketing, which will not do WebOS any favors. Just calling it like I see it. Would love to be proven wrong.

[bluenote]

My sense is that his creativity comes from keen observation of how people use the products. And that's a valid approach (see below for excerpt from marketing preso he did for Sony Playstion). Additionally, HP needs the rational thinker to tie together an unified message for a global company with tons of products that wants to sell an ecosystem to both consumer and enterprise.

"#MOD# Marty Homlish takes the stage wearing a Playstation cap

...We also have nearly 200 publishers and developers who have partnered with us to deliver a product line-up that is incomparable:
Companies like -- Acclaim, Crystal Dynamics, Electronics Arts, Konami, Namco, Time Warner Interactive, Virgin Interactive, and many more.
Thanks in large part to their creativity and hard work, there will be15 titles available at our launch and throughout the month of September
that include many of the best videogame titles out there. And many of them exclusive to PlayStation...As you'll get to experience for yourself in a little while,
PlayStation is as vi rtually real as you can get. For the first time, kids can actually dive inside the game itself...

It's an experience that goes
way beyond video games. Way beyond dexterity. This is an experience that converts imagination into reality in a way that will forever change our concept of what home entertainment can be...
#MOD# Play another commercial, Joey crashes on

#JOEY# Hey... Hold it.

#MARTY# What are you doing?

#JOEY# I'm going to re-wind it to catch the secret message.

#MARTY# How do you know there's a secret message?

#JOEY# All these commercials have secret messages. See? See, the deal
is you tape the commercial. Freeze frame advance and you get a game
code. Everybody tapes the commercials.

#MARTY# Like I said, totally intuitive..."

http://www.vidgames.com/ps/misc/sonyirc.txt

[GodShapedHole]

Ads based on logic and reasoning do not sell products. Ads that lie to you and tell you how cool your products are or what you can (but probably never will) do with your products sell.

New webOS commercial:

"HP devices come with Synergy. Synergy will let you cure cancer and AIDS. HP webOS smells good and improves your chances to lay with women by as much as 238%. Thanks to True Multitasking, you can have as many as 20 women simultaneously!
[you see a seven-foot bodybuilder working as a face model take off his armani suit and fish a Veer out of the pocket. At the locker next to him, a squat, still young but already balding, obese guy with nerd glasses is trying to get a 4" phone out of his baggy pant pocket]
HP webOS spent seven years in the Army, protecting your life and that of your loved ones. The Pre3 has killed seventy-nine terrorists but is still smooth because of Gorilla Glass.
Suffer from depression? webOS will solve all your problems and make you feel like a boss. [you see gameplay footage of Brothers in Arms, advanced gesture to Angry Birds where a Pig is getting killed, advanced gesture to some video with explosions]
HP TouchPad comes in an exciting range of colors including Midnight, Onyx, Obsidian and Classic Black. HP touch-to-share technology is behind the runaway success of renowned artist Justin Bieber and will let anyone grow a hairstyle like his."

How's that?

[mhunterjr]

I agree, but if that's the initial impression you try to give the customer (convincing them they will have a unified experience through marketing), you will fail. Ads based on logic and reasoning do not sell products. Ads that lie to you and tell you how cool your products are or what you can (but probably never will) do with your products sell. Homlish seems like he would fit right in with HP's old way of marketing, which will not do WebOS any favors. Just calling it like I see it. Would love to be proven wrong.

I didn't see anything in the article that suggested he would have ads based on logic and reasoning. all he mentioned was that it's important for marketers to capitalize on what exites consumers about the product, and keep consumer centric communication lines open. He didn't go into the specifics on a particular ad.

[Syndil]

New webOS commercial:

"HP devices come with Synergy. Synergy will let you cure cancer and AIDS. HP webOS smells good and improves your chances to lay with women by as much as 238%. Thanks to True Multitasking, you can have as many as 20 women simultaneously!
[you see a seven-foot bodybuilder working as a face model take off his armani suit and fish a Veer out of the pocket. At the locker next to him, a squat, still young but already balding, obese guy with nerd glasses is trying to get a 4" phone out of his baggy pant pocket]
HP webOS spent seven years in the Army, protecting your life and that of your loved ones. The Pre3 has killed seventy-nine terrorists but is still smooth because of Gorilla Glass.
Suffer from depression? webOS will solve all your problems and make you feel like a boss. [you see gameplay footage of Brothers in Arms, advanced gesture to Angry Birds where a Pig is getting killed, advanced gesture to some video with explosions]
HP TouchPad comes in an exciting range of colors including Midnight, Onyx, Obsidian and Classic Black. HP touch-to-share technology is behind the runaway success of renowned artist Justin Bieber and will let anyone grow a hairstyle like his."

How's that?

As absurd as it sounds, it would probably do quite well. Kind of along the same lines as the Old Spice commercials.

[bluenote]

The writer of this article gives a big thumbs up to Homlish as an exec who knows both enterprise and consumer well based on his tenure at Sony and SAP (see my post here for my details Touchpad will launch in June - Page 3 - PreCentral Forums)

[Weaser999]

I agree, but if that's the initial impression you try to give the customer (convincing them they will have a unified experience through marketing), you will fail. Ads based on logic and reasoning do not sell products. Ads that lie to you and tell you how cool your products are or what you can (but probably never will) do with your products sell. Homlish seems like he would fit right in with HP's old way of marketing, which will not do WebOS any favors. Just calling it like I see it. Would love to be proven wrong.

Palm's last marketing guru should have taken a chapter from psychology and realized that good looking people sell more products and you only use logical and reasoning if you aren't asthetically pleasing to the eyes, whereas people will pay then more attention to the specifics of the product. Palm used the creepy girl and tried to make it creative which was a complete failure.