Jeff Bennett's Blog

Fitchburg won the National Basketball Championship in 1926, proudly supports the second oldest schoolboy Football Rivalry in the US with Leominster, has been hometown to Olympians Longsjo and Lawler, received the prestigious “All America City Award”…and has a Tournament of Roses Band as well.

It is the fiftieth anniversary of the Fitchburg High School Band’s triumphant cross country journey to Pasadena, CA, to participate in the 1962 Tournament of Roses Parade.  Fitchburg was the first high school band from Massachusetts to participate in this grand pageant and parade.

As it was reported in the Fitchburg Sentinel:

“Eighty-nine proud ones from Fitchburg High School,

Eighty-nine good will Ambassadors,

Eighty-nine on parade at Pasadena,

Eighty-nine million viewers on TV saw

Eighty-nine from Fitchburg High School on New Year’s Day of Sixty-Two.”

Those Eighty-nine musicians surely were Ambassadors and a group of great musicians under the direction of a very dynamic leader in Mr. Ed Hanjian.  The Fitchburg High School Band was lauded the “most outstanding high school band” in the 1962 Tournament of Rose Parade.

Those eighty-nine proudly played “Hey Look Me Over” as they marched down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena before the nation inviting all to take a look at this small industrious and proud mill city in Massachusetts.  Also reported in the Fitchburg Sentinel, “the appearance in Pasadena marked the early stages of what David Turner has called the social and economic renaissance of Fitchburg and the Montachusett region.”

Full disclosure, I was not even around on New Year’s Day of 1962, but I have witnessed the films that captured this event.  I am sure proud of my fellow members of the Red & Gray and all those who supported this historic trip.  This includes my Dad, Ted Bennett, who along with Mr. Hanjian were the architects of this endeavor.  It was a herculean task to raise over $28,000 in less than three months to send the band to California.  It was a tremendous community effort that included thousands coming together to will the band to Pasadena.

Happy New Year to all!  Happy fiftieth anniversary to the Fitchburg Tournament of Roses Band and it’s extended family…may “everything come up roses” for you in the years ahead!

It was a strange Halloween in New England.  Many communities had to postpone “Trick or Treat” night due to the weekend snow storm and power outages.  Despite the devastating storm that ripped through the region just two days ago, it was a mild evening to be outside if there were festivities where you lived.

We were glad to make it out.  The Bennett family had a record haul on Halloween 2011.

We have been taking this survey for years now and it is interesting to see the popularity of some brands holding year to year.  Just as in prior years Kit Kat, Snickers, Three Muskateer, and Milky Way were in the top four.  Kit Kat again takes top honors with 20% “share of the pillow case.”

This year was marked by a wide distribution of many brands though.  This was a surprising development but it is great to get a nice selection.

A disappointment of was Nestle Crunch falling way off.   One of my favorites.

Thanks for the Pop Corn and other refreshments along the way last night!

Check out the pie chart that illustrates our complete 2011 Halloween Candy Survey on JeffBennett’s Blog.

Happy Halloween to all.  I hope that everyone can get out and Trick or Treat here in New England by the end of the week!

Swap.com played a feature role in today’s story on CNN Money that is dedicated to the over $12 Billion barter market in North America.  Swap.com has combined the category moniker Swap.com domain to be the brand umbrella on the largest online and offline swap market.  Like Amazon, we started with books, games and movies…great swapping categories.  Through our offline swap events with the Swapaholics we expanded to fashion, toys, kids clothes and more.  We are now on the verge of expanding to any category that is swappable…anywhere in the world!  Businesses barter…consumers SWAP. 

Product marketing and development has evolved so rapidly in the last two decades.  It is amazing to me first how many tools are available to track just about everything…from web traffic, social media, keyword clouds, vast demographic, user engagement tracking and more.  Secondly that many of these services are available for free.

The difference between the successful consumer ventures of today and tomorrow are those that will leverage these tools to track, analyze, iterate and do it all over again.  It is a continual process with the goal of seeking optimization and a great user experience.

I do not claim mastery of this but I know that it is all about the data.  The more and more I work with the data the more and more I learn about how this important process of consumer interaction works or not.

For many it is a game of talking the talk about it but still relying on gut.  Leveraging staged focused groups and leading consumers to a foregone conclusion that has already been established.  This is a lazy approach to this important work.

Mark Zuckerberg is emphatic that “we can not fall in love” with our own ideas/products.  We must leverage our ideation, build and get consumer interaction flowing.  Measure, measure, measure.  Study this data.  Then iterate.  He is so right.

I thought that my friend Tom Fishburne captures this topic pretty well in his recent cartoon.  I am sure we have all encountered this fall back approach.  Surely at least it was not a “gut” reaction..but in this case it is still an elementary response. Those who take this approach have no business building consumer products.

FutureM was conceived as a way to bring together many thought leaders and practitioners from the “new world of marketing.”  There is a great deal of “new” marketing going on right here in Boston.  This is not your 30-second tv spot crowd…rather those driving innovation in social media, inbound, mobile, ad networks and more.  There is an entire week of activity planned.

My picks as the events that I am most interested in:

1.  Future of Sports & Entertainment Marketing

2. The Future Of Marketing Is Here

3.  The Future of Communities

4.  Socializing B2B – Industrial Marketing and Social Media

5.  YouTube and the Future of Content

6.  Drinks with the CEO

7.  Speed Networking for Innovators

Looking forward to FutureM.  See all of you there!

NPR’s Steve Pomerantz has created an acclaimed radio show “On The Money.”  I joined the show in early August for an edition dedicated to the economy.  I was joined by some economic heavyweights.  Sam Stovall, Chief Investment Strategist of S&P and Bill Isaac, former Chairman of FDIC, talked on the state of the economy.  I was able to contribute the silver lining to the show, discussing our incredible platfrom at  Swap.com that is providing a contemporary solution for consumers to make the most of what they have..to get the things they want.. for free.   Swap.com emerges with a “AAA” rating!  An informative NPR show that I wanted to share with all. Enjoy.

Have you ever met someone in your life that you instantly connected with?

Someone who has the unbounding energy and enthusiasm of a teenager… not afraid to think big and do big things… yet wise?

Someone who made you better because his intellectual curiosity and energy drove you?

I have been fortunate in my life to meet a few people who fit this classification.  They are special folks.

Picked up the cell phone today even though I did not recognize the number.  Glad I did as well.  One of these special people that I have met along the path of life was there.

Jan and I were executives in the fledgling Internet search category at Lycos when we met.  We had a great time working together.

We talk here and there.  We have not physically seen each other for a decade though.  But no matter, through the connection of a cell phone, it was 1998 all over again.

It was great to connect on what we are both doing.   Time marches on.  Great to share a tale or two about what has been happening.

As always though, no lamenting on anything.  Honest discussion of the challenges.  Energetic discussion of the opportunity… the big opportunity we both drive toward.

Just like it is whenever we connect… it was an energizing experience.

Look forward to continuing our discussion again soon on the cell… or hopefully seeing you in person to share a “bevvy.”

“Until next time keep the faith bro… keep on pushing!”

“Wheels up man!”

Dictionary.com defines “Humility” as:  “ The quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance, rank, etc.”

Humility is a very important aspect of leadership especially when you are leading an organization that is in the business of innovation.  There is no predetermined road map in this situation.  You assemble a great plan with a team, go head long into executing it, and you learn, learn, learn…and from this iterate, iterate, iterate.

Some people might not agree with me on this taking the more “command and control” egotistical approach.

There is no right or wrong answer.

I strongly believe that humility is very important for enabling creativity, collaboration, testing, iterating and ultimately succeeding.

Sure you need to be strong and an ego helps in this regard.  Humility is integral as well.

My friend Dave Balter, Founder and CEO of BzzAgent, agrees wholeheartedly.  Dave authored a very interesting post about humility in Inc.com.

Along with many other friends and colleagues, Dave has assembled “100 Days Of Humility” as well.  Check it out.

Interesting to see so many examples of the importance of humility.

What is next?  Buying votes in the next Presidential election?