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<title>Jan Kelley Marketing Blog - Peter Petch</title>
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<description><![CDATA[Jan Kelley Marketing Blog - Description]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 19 May 2012 18:29:09 -0400</pubDate>
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<title>Megaregions Pack a Huge Punch</title>
<link>http://www.jankelley.comblog.php?blogId=150</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 May 2011 09:22:47 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[While doing research on the future of freight logistics I was intrigued by the term &ldquo;mega-regions&rdquo; and how they would affect freight flows and the commercial activities that generate them. So I googled it and took a detour...&nbsp;
Mega-regions
They are huge concentrations of population and economic activity that cover multiple metropolitan areas and can cut across state and even international borders; they however share environmental systems and topography, infrastructure systems, economic linkages, settlement and land use patterns, plus culture and history (see Wikipedia)&nbsp;
In the US
At this time 11 mega-regions have been identified and they are expected to account for three quarters of the national economic activity and 80% of the population.&nbsp;




Arizona Sun Corridor


Cascadia


Florida


Front Range




Great Lakes


Gulf Coast


North East


Northern California




Piedmont Atlantic


Southern California


Texas Triangle


&nbsp;




Side-Note: FYI Canada has a footprint in the Great Lakes and Cascadia mega-regions through the Toronto and Vancouver metropolitan areas.&nbsp;
Globally
Looking to find global distribution of mega-regions I came across an analysis by the Martin Prosperity Institute (The Rise of the Mega Region)&nbsp; that used night-time light emissions (pretty cool insight!) and other parameters to identify 40 global mega-regions (including the 11 from the US). In their results they identify that:&nbsp;
&ldquo;The world&rsquo;s 40 largest mega-regions, those which produce in excess of $100 billion in LRP (Light Based Regional Product) account cover only a tiny fraction of the habitable surface of the earth, and are home to less than 18% of the world&rsquo;s population, yet, they are&nbsp; responsible for 66% of global economic activity and about 85% of technological and scientific innovation.&rdquo;&nbsp;
So while the concentration of economic output is there, the concentration of population is diluted, maybe because there are very large urban populations in the developing world that don&rsquo;t generate the economic output to qualify as a mega-region plus large numbers of dispersed rural populations. Still the population densities within the mega-regions will be comparable.&nbsp;
Transportation
Literature points out that every mega-region is unique in its industrial characteristics and the this will influence the level and mode of transportation. In general certain types of industry (i.e wholesale) will dominate the volumes in mega-regions while others (i.e mining will be more important outside of them. Elements associated with high population densities like congestion, zoning, and other regulations will also influence the type of transport that can function efficiently in them. The challenge is to unify criteria across the metropolitan areas (and political divisions,&nbsp; borders and ambitions) that are subsumed by these regions.&nbsp;
And what about globalization? 
In the Harvard Business Review article Megaregions: The Importance of Place Richard Florida states:&nbsp;
&ldquo;The rise of megaregions doesn&rsquo;t mean that globalization isn&rsquo;t real: The amalgamation of technology and trade leads to the dispersal and decentralization of economic activity. At the same time, however, the economic benefits of colocation&mdash;the concentration of similar kindsof productive and innovative activities in the same area&mdash;have spurred a strong countervailing tendency toward clustering. Writers like Thomas Friedman have overemphasized the centrifugal forces of globalization, arguing that the world is flat. In so doing, they neglect the equally powerful centripetal forces that trigger economic concentration. As Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter told BusinessWeek: &ldquo;The more things are mobile, the more decisive location becomes. This point has tripped up a lot of really smart people.&rdquo; Amen! &ldquo;&nbsp;
Marketing
On the marketing side of things the mega-regions will concentrate the purchasing power that comes from strong economic activity and large volumes of consumers. And if each mega-region has a unique industrial characteristics and &ldquo;the concentration of similar kinds of productive an innovative activities in the same area&rdquo; clusters consumers with shared interests and needs, won&rsquo;t the mega-regions evolve into distinct markets for a number of products and services?&nbsp;
Take a look at the map (Map of emerging Mega-regions) and you will see immense areas outside&nbsp; off the mega-regions,would it make sense for companies to rejig regional boundaries to set strategy and&nbsp; track performance&nbsp; to maximize results by mega-region? I wonder if some corporations are already doing so, particularly if you are franchise or dealer based operation.&nbsp;
&nbsp;On a global basis structuring around mega-regions may be a harder decision because while they pack a very large economic punch they don&rsquo;t include the overwhelming levels of population that they do in the US. Still it is something to consider, especially if your strategy focuses on early adopters with money to spend.&nbsp;
Do you have any examples?
Urbanists have been looking at this phenomenon for some years now, I wonder if corporations are. Please let me know if you come across any examples.&nbsp;
Below you will find some more links to literature on mega-regions&nbsp;
Mega-regions and Freight&nbsp;
America 2050]]></description>
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<author>ppetch@jankelley.com (PeterPetch)</author>
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<title>A Truck Parts Sales  Marketing Experience in Colombia</title>
<link>http://www.jankelley.comblog.php?blogId=137</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:41:26 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Navistar recently held a regional meeting at their Latin American Training Center in Bogota, Colombia, for a leadership group of Parts Managers from the Caribbean, Central and South American International dealer network.&nbsp; Besides the planning and strategic components of the&nbsp;&nbsp; meeting this was&nbsp; an opportunity to learn about the issues affecting the trucking industry in the region and also about some of the tools available to resolve marketing and sales challenges.
The local host was...
NAVITRANS a leading truck dealer in Colombia and during our stay we visited one of their very impressive Bogota facilities. They are based out of Medellin and have a 19 locations distributed around the country. This location had 10 service bays connected to their parts inventory through underground passageways; a very large shop area for engine overhauls and other services, plus a very comfortable parts and truck sales and customer service space.
&nbsp;Their market, Colombia, is a country with a population of 46 million (Canada has 33 million), a GDP of US $ 431.9 B (Canada&rsquo;s is US$ 1,335 B) and 164,245 km or roadways (1,042,300km in Canada). All references are from the&nbsp; CIA's The World Facebook for purposes of consistency.
The dealer&rsquo;s organization and professionalism was evident in their employees and in the state of their service bays, parts warehouse, offices, shop, truck and part sales offices.&nbsp;
Mobile telecommunications were very much in evidence as we moved around the city, people were talking and texting everywhere. The participating parts managers were also permanently connected, answering emails during every break. The parts manager for&nbsp; MACO International, the dealer from Chile, stated that &ldquo;every one in Chile had a Blackberry&rdquo;,&nbsp; and they have and use the mobile numbers for all their clients. &nbsp;&nbsp;
This led me to search out some data on the regional mobile market and as per an INFOBRAND&nbsp; article, by the end of 2009 there were 470 million mobile users in Latin America, and 578 million by the end of 2010. Of these mobile users approximately 37 million have access to one of the 63 3G networks in the region.&nbsp; Latin America concentrates 11% of the&nbsp; 5,100 million mobile connections in the world.
Smart Phone penetration in this region is still low. About 1.5 million of these phones were imported into Argentina, more or less 7% of the installed base. INFOBRAND assumes that Chile probably has a similar penetration, but that it will drop off sharply for other Latin American countries. Still it is a very important trend to follow.
Tension between government and truckers seems to know no boundaries. While we were there the Association of Colombian Truckers known as the ACC (one of six freight transport associations) was in the middle of a strike that paralyzed more than 130,000 vehicles and blocked many of the main arteries in Bogota as well as highways leading to the main ports. Nearly 90% of the retail establishments in a sector of the capital remained closed and food prices started rising due to a lack of supply. On a macro level it generated a short spike in inflation.
The strike was called primarily because the government eliminated a minimum freight rate system that had been in place for years effectively de-regulating the industry with the objective of reducing transportation costs. The ACC claimed that this move would ruin small firms and put independent owners out of business.&nbsp; The strike ended with ACC agreeing to a government proposal to work with them to implement the de-regulation in a manner that will not harm the small fleets, backed up by a threat to use the riot police to remove the vehicles that were blocking traffic.
It was a very productive and educational trip that contributed to our knowledge base of this important region and also generated many questions for ongoing research. If you have any info or experience on trucking, social media or mobile for this region please do share.&nbsp;&nbsp;]]></description>
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<author>ppetch@jankelley.com (PeterPetch)</author>
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<title>Social Media in the Transportation Industry</title>
<link>http://www.jankelley.comblog.php?blogId=136</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:49:36 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Social Media is not only for trendy Business&ndash;to-Consumer fashion or entertainment organizations and digital developers (see &nbsp;Social Media Outside of the Mainstream) but also for all manner of Business-to-Business enterprises, including the transportation industry.
The Ontario Trucking Association (@OnTruck) recently organized a webinar on Social Media in the Transportation Industry and invited Todays Trucking (Marco Beghetto @Todaystrucking) and Jan Kelley Marketing (Kim McWatt @KimMcWatt)&nbsp; and myself @peterpetch) to participate. The objective of the webinar was to provide a primer on social media and some of the top tools (primarily Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter) with some examples sourced from trucking and logistics companies sprinkled in and topped off with Today&rsquo;s Trucking social media experience.
We also did our best to answer the questions asked&nbsp; and it is the seeds planted by those questions that lead the way to more research.
The Transportation Industry is complex and covers, as&nbsp;&nbsp; Dan Hawk recently posted in Linkedin,&nbsp; the&nbsp; &ldquo;three phases in the life of a load: Shipper, Trucking, and Receiver&rdquo;. These three phases are divided and recombined into multiple corporate identities:&nbsp; manufacturers, brokers, truck owner operators, truck fleets, warehousing,&nbsp; 3PL, 4PL, among others, and they are all increasing experimenting with social networks.&nbsp; It would be impossible to cover all the permutations in one post (there are also a couple of mountain ranges of research I would have to do!) so I will start with some info on...
Social Media in the Trucking Industry is of course growing, and why not. Truckers have a history of communicating and networking among themselves and with their employers through CB radios (Truck News Blog and Truck News Story). The demographic skews toward older age ranges so they may not be technology early adopters and the economics of trucking have been harsh for the last years so buying the latest and greatest communication tools may not have been a priority. But as the technology is proven and costs decline more and more truckers seem to be adopting it. 
Land Lines&rsquo; March 2010 Reader Survey (@Land_Line_Mag, Land Line Reader Survey), a good barometer of Owner Operator practices, shows that 56.1% of their readers used Facebook., 7.5% are on Twitter, 6.4% &ldquo;use&rdquo; blogs and&nbsp; 3.2% are on Linkedin. More and more tweets from self identified truckers are referencing Foursquare a location based social media application.
Large truck fleets and logistics providers are adopting these communication channels more and more. For example the&nbsp; A Truckload, Trucking, Logistics, Supply Chain, 3PL, Distribution group. in Linkedin has 9,442 members, the Logistics Network group has 5,063 and the Canadian Transportation &amp; Logistics Networking Group has 1,212. Twitter searches for the terms #Trucking,&nbsp; #3PL, #Logistics, #Warehousing , #Storage, or #Shipping will also show multiple and ever increasing references.
An Example of a successful B2B social media experience is probably a good way to close out this post so take a look at&nbsp; what&nbsp; Shipserve a leading e-marketplace in the maritime industry achieved (by the&nbsp; way this case was also sourced from Social Media for Logistics group on Linkedin, courtesy of Kenneth Kowal).
While there are important differences between B2C and B2B business cycles and sales processes, the need for transparency, authenticity, value and engagement that are served by effective social media efforts works for both. I&rsquo;ll keep my eye out for more examples and statistics on the use of social media in the transportation industry, but if you come across any please send them my way.]]></description>
<author>ppetch@jankelley.com (PeterPetch)</author>
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<title>And You Thought Canada Was Already Multicultural</title>
<link>http://www.jankelley.comblog.php?blogId=10</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 24 Mar 2010 06:39:31 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[The bulk of the media surrounding the release of the Stats Canada report "Projections of the Diversity of the Canadian Population "(91-551-X ) centered on the significant growth estimates that populations identified as  "visible minorities" in Canada will achieve by the year 2031.
But while race continues to be newsworthy the important data for marketing (and government services) has to do with the growth of culturally diverse groups and the communication challenges this implies.
By 2031 it is estimated that up to 30% of the Canadian population will be foreign born. But while in 1981 a majority of this group was of European birth (66.7%) it is estimated that by 2031 almost 80% of first generation Canadians will have been born in Africa, Asia or the Americas. If you include second generation Canadians you will find that "nearly one Canadian in two aged 15 and over would either be foreign born or have at least one foreign born parent". What does this mean in terms of the cultural considerations you should include in your marketing plans to make them more effective?
What about languages? In 2006 one in five Canadians had a mother tongue other than English or French (allophones) but it is estimated that this group could include almost one in three Canadians by 2031!
And these trends become much sharper if you consider Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs). In general two out of three Canadians lived in CMAs, but since the early 1990's over 90% of newcomers have settled in them so by 2031 it is estimated that "55% of persons living in metropolitan areas would be either immigrants or children of immigrants, compared to 19% in the rest of the country." An estimated 91% of all allophones will live in CMAs. These are large numbers. Do you have the capabilities to communicate with them?
Multicultural communities will continue to grow, the numbers for first generation immigrants will increasingly justify multicultural marketing efforts, and while second and third generation members will become ever more integrated into the Canadian culture, becoming fluently bilingual and eventually English dominant, they will still carry forward their heritage and traditions. Having the capability to consider and refer to these markers will enhance your relationships with them and increase the effectiveness of your communication efforts.
Look to your current client base and learn from them. Look to your employees, are they culturally diversified? If they are, get them involved in your efforts to learn about their communities; if they are not maybe you should review your staffing criteria.  No company or brand will achieve multicultural credibility overnight, so don't wait until 2031 to start.&nbsp;]]></description>
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<author>ppetch@jankelley.com (PeterPetch)</author>
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