
Marketing Horizons, a series in the WVU Marketing Communications Today podcast, is forward-thinking, looking ahead, through the front windshield and beyond, into the marketing future. Marketing Legends, another series in the WVU Marketing Communications Today podcast, features marketing thinkers, innovators, practitioners and founders — legends of the marketing world — who will talk about their careers and share their wisdom with the marketers of today. Hosted by Cyndi Greenglass and Ruth Stevens, these podcast series are dedicated to looking ahead to the new ideas, technologies, tools and strategies that are emerging to help marketers navigate over the marketing horizon.
MARCOM TODAY
Marketing Communications Today is a collection of resources for marketing communications professionals filled with industry research, marketing trends, and career information about integrated marketing and data-driven communications. Learn industry insights through the Marketing Communications Today blog, podcast, as well as Integrate Online, all sponsored by the WVU Marketing Communications Online Programs.
Episodes

Mar 21, 2024
Mar 21, 2024
33 min

Amas Tenumah explains why customer service is broken and what we, as marketers and as consumers, can do to help fix it. The reasons range from the industrialization of the customer service function, where it became all about efficiency and cost-cutting, to the difficulty in demonstrating quick results from investments in happier customers. But he ends on a high note, with encouraging news about the power of technology to improve the ability of call center reps to establish rapport and solve problems. Amas shared some interesting hacks with us from his latest book, Waiting For Service, including how as consumers we can advocate and achieve better service for ourselves!
In our post-recording chat, Amas shared one more tip to check out: ACSI, the American Customer Satisfaction Index, where you can find CSAT scores by industry and by company, across the U.S. economy.
About our Guest:
Amas is a humanist, futurist, and storyteller. Amas obsessively focuses on two topics - Customer Experience & Living Blissfully.
Amas’ life's work so far has been advising companies and governmental agencies on how to deploy technology to connect emotionally with employees and customers. Amas is often asked to keynote or advise select C-Suite executives 1 on 1. He has given dozens of Keynote presentations at Salesforce, National Dentist Association, Annenberg Foundation and many many more.
Amas work has been featured on NPR, FoxBusiness, Fortune, Forbes, The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur and other business journals for thought leadership.
Amas has helped organizations like Fastly, Wendy's, Teleflora, Coca-Cola, the state of Oklahoma and DirecTV.
Amas’ books include Waiting for Service, The Curated Experience, The Joyful Stoic, and No One Wants Customer Service.
WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master's degree programs in Marketing Communications.

Feb 22, 2024
Feb 22, 2024
28 min

Whether you have heard email expert Jay Schwedelson talk before, or this is your first listen, you are in for a treat. Email is often said to be dead or dying as a media channel, but Jay makes a convincing case for its strengths—and successes. In fact, according to Jay, email is only dead for those marketers who failed to adapt to the new realities. You’ll love Jay’s straightforward and energetic style as he tells us where email is headed.
In this conversation, Jay also shares realistic and actionable tips for how we can immediately improve our email performance. Listen in for valuable secrets about subject lines, CTA buttons and EMOJIs, pulled from Jay’s informative website subjectline.com. Tip: This site uses AI to analyze, rewrite, and optimize over 15 million live examples. It’s a great resource for instant (and free) subject line testing.
About our Guest:
As one of America’s top marketing experts, Jay Schwedelson provides the latest, research-backed knowledge and best practices to marketers of all sizes and industries. His newly launched podcast “Do This, Not That!: For Marketers” is among the most popular in the United States and has been ranked in the top 10 out of over 50,000 marketing podcasts in the entire country.
Jay gained much of this expertise as the founder of SubjectLine.com, the leading free subject-line rating tool ranked in the top 1% of all websites worldwide where he’s led the testing of more than 15 million subject lines.
Jay is also the president and CEO of Outcome Media, a multi-brand marketing services company with a portfolio that includes three organizations: 1) Outcome Media, the leading demand generation agency for many of the largest brands in the world, 2) Subjectline.com, and 3) GURU Events, which puts on the GURU conference, the world’s largest email marketing event, as well as other major marketing events which attract more than 30,000 attendees annually.
Jay was inducted into the Hall of Fame at his alma mater, the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, in recognition of career excellence.
WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master's degree programs in Marketing Communications.

Jan 25, 2024
Jan 25, 2024
28 min

B2B marketers who put all their focus on lead generation are missing 95% of the market opportunity, says our guest Drew Neisser, founder of CMO Huddles and author of Renegade Marketing: 12 Steps to Building Unbeatable B2B Brands. "Only 5% of your target audience is likely in the market and ready to buy. It’s essential to build awareness and a positive image among the rest," he says. Listen in as Drew explains how to get this done, with “clarity and consistency, more than creativity.” Drew also shares three inspiring B2B brand-building case stories from Coupa procurement software, Case Paper and Wasabi cloud storage. Bonus tip: How marketing professionals can make an impact inside their companies by building a side hustle.
About our Guest:
Dedicated to inspiring B2B marketers, Drew Neisser delivers on his mission via community, coaching, and content. CMO Huddles, the community he founded in 2020, is solely focused on helping B2B marketers share, care, and dare each other to greatness. As a coach, Drew works with a handful of senior marketers each quarter. He is also a prolific content creator, having told the stories of over 500 marketers via Renegade Marketers Unite (podcast), CMO Huddles Studio (live-streaming), his Ad Age column, and two books. His 2nd book, Renegade Marketing: 12 Steps to Building Unbeatable B2B Brands was named the top B2B audiobook of 2022 and nominated for the AMA’s best business book of 2023. Drew is ranked among LinkedIn’s Top 15 Voices in marketing and has been a featured marketing expert on ABC, CNBC, dozens of podcasts, and the New York Times. Says bestselling author Jay Baer, "Drew Neisser is among the strongest B2B marketing thinkers in the world."
WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master's degree programs in Marketing Communications.
Dec 21, 2023
Dec 21, 2023
33 min

David Aaker is the world’s leading brand strategist, having created the most recognized brand strategy model, written 18 books, and helped countless companies develop successful approaches to brand equity management. Join us as he shares the progression of his career and the evolution of his thinking regarding the real sources of brand value. A successful brand, he says, needs energy, differentiation, and engagement. Managers must think long-term about their brands, and use brand equity strategies to resist the pressure to make reactive, short-term adjustments. Take a listen to learn why disruptive innovation is essential to survive and thrive in our fast-changing world. Bonus tip: Learn the reason Professor Aaker considers Brand Portfolio Analysis to be his single most important book.
About our Guest:
David Aaker is the Vice Chairman of Prophet and Professor Emeritus at the BerkeleyHaas School of Business. He is the winner of five career awards including the NYAMA Marketing Hall of Fame. He has published over 120 articles and 18 books that have sold well over 1 million copies and been translated into 18 languages. They include Managing Brand Equity, Building Strong Brands, Aaker on Branding, Creating Signature Stories, Owning Game-Changing Subcategories and The Future of Purpose-Driven Branding. The first two of these have received over 45,000 citations. Sometimes called the Father of modern branding, he was named one of the top five most important marketing/business gurus in 2007 and won awards for the best article in the California Management Review and the Journal of Marketing (twice).
WVU Marketing Communications Today: Marketing Legends is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications.
Nov 16, 2023
Nov 16, 2023
31 min

McGhee Osse is a trailblazer in multicultural marketing communications. As the Co-CEO of Burrell Communications Group, one of the most highly regarded multicultural advertising agencies in the country, she has both witnessed and influenced the evolution of diversity advertising in the U.S.—and the world. In our conversation, McGhee shares how under-represented black and Hispanic agencies are in the U.S., and yet the spending power of these consumers is massive. While black advertising had its moment after George Floyd, Osse cautions us that “Black people are not dark-skinned white people.” To communicate effectively, you need to understand the demographics and consumption patterns of minority groups and learn to speak in a way that is both engaging and respectful. This episode will open your mind to the importance, and the essential practice, of multicultural advertising. Did you know that less than 2% of ad revenue is devoted to black consumers? Take a listen and find out why.
About our Guest:
McGhee Osse is a nationally recognized marketing and advertising professional. She is Co-CEO of Burrell Communications Group, one of the leading and most highly regarded multi-cultural advertising agencies in the country with annual billings exceeding $200 million and a roster of clients that lead in their respective categories, such as Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, Walmart, Toyota and Comcast.
McGhee became an equity partner in Burrell Communications in 1996. In 2004 she and a long-time colleague purchased majority ownership of the company from its founder, Tom Burrell. With P&L responsibility and expertise in building brands, she has strategically grown revenue through value-based service and a consumer-focused approach.
Innovations to her credit include starting the agency’s Yurban marketing initiative, which targets youth and young adults; the introduction and development of the agency’s “account planning” practice; and spearheading the agency’s formal entry into the digital and interactive marketing arena. And most recently, she launched the agency’s political consultancy and practice.
WVU Marketing Communications Today: Marketing Legends is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications.
Oct 19, 2023
Oct 19, 2023
29 min

A self-described maverick and passionate advocate of ROMI (return on marketing investment calculations, for decision-making), Peter J. Rosenwald has built a stunning career leading prominent direct marketing agencies worldwide. His advice to marketers? Trust your heart, not your head. Don’t put money ahead of fun and adventure.
Join us to learn why numbers drive everything in marketing, and how economic analysis led him to a technique that converted thousands of new credit card customers for Brazil’s largest bank. Here’s another real marketing legend.
About our Guest:
Peter J. Rosenwald is an expat American living and working in Brazil; founder and first CEO of Wunderman Worldwide, International Division of Wunderman agency) and first chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Direct Worldwide; strategist and senior executive in charge of building subscription and data-driven marketing for Editora Abril, Latin America's leading magazine publisher; founder of Consult Partners, active strategic marketing consultancy working in Brazil, U.S. and U.K. International keynote speaker on data-driven marketing and author of 'Accountable Marketing' (Thomson), 'Profiting From the Magic of Marketing Metrics' (Direct Marketing IQ), and 'GringoView' blog author for Brazilian Huffington Post. With an international perspective, my blog's purpose is to share my maverick views of this business I've spent the last half-century working in, enjoying and observing.
WVU Marketing Communications Today: Marketing Legends is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications.
Sep 21, 2023
Sep 21, 2023
30 min

Guy Kawasaki is an award-winning author, accomplished evangelist and world-renowned speaker. He did not invent secular evangelism, but he popularized it. This goes back to 1983 and his work with the Macintosh division of Apple. He is the author of fifteen books used in some of the finest academic institutions in the world and have been both New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers.
Guy is on a mission to help us be remarkable and enchanting. In our conversation, he shares tactical and practical tips for how to accomplish this. Take a listen and hear about how the power of the Duchenne smile and a firm handshake. Guy shares his philosophy on how evangelists are made, not born. It is quite a ride, so buckle up and take a listen.
About our Guest:
Guy Kawasaki iis the chief evangelist of Canva and the creator of Guy Kawasaki’s Remarkable People podcast. He is an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley), and adjunct professor of the University of New South Wales. He was the chief evangelist of Apple and a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. He has written Wise Guy, The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, Enchantment, and eleven other books. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University, an MBA from UCLA, and an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
WVU Marketing Communications Today: Marketing Legends is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications.
Aug 17, 2023
Aug 17, 2023
33 min

Professor Kotler, recognized as one of the world’s leading marketing thinkers, has been called The Father of Modern Marketing.
When in 1967 Professor Kotler published his groundbreaking book Marketing Management, now in its 16th edition, he changed the perception of marketing forever. He elevated the field of marketing, adding flesh and blood to what economists started, and turned it into a serious discipline. Ninety books later, Professor Kotler continues to impress and educate. Anyone who has studied marketing has read him, and some very lucky few have been able to attend his classes at the Kellogg School of Management.
In our conversation with this Marketing Legend, Professor Kotler explained his view that business exists primarily to serve. Making money is only a secondary factor. He also explores the evolution of the 4 P’s into the 7 P’s, which he will be publishing soon. In our stimulating conversation, he told us that it was his early exploration of equity and wealth distribution that led him to the field of marketing. We also discovered his mentors, including Peter Drucker, his hero. Take a listen to Kotler’s definition of the “Wicked Seven” problems that face us today, and hear why he believes there are “many rooms in the Mansion of Marketing.”
About our Guest:
Philip Kotler is known around the world as the “father of modern marketing.” For over 50 years he has taught at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Kotler’s book Marketing Management is the most widely used textbook in marketing around the world. This is his story – How a Ph.D. economist from M.I.T. became the world’s leading marketing authority, the Father of Modern Marketing.
Philip Kotler is the S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the J. L. Kellogg School of Management. He has been honored as one of the world’s leading marketing thinkers. He received his M.A. degree in economics (1953) from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. degree in economics (1956) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and has received honorary degrees from 22 universities including Stockholm University, the University of Zurich, Athens University of Economics and Business, Budapest School of Economics and Administrative Science, the Kracow School of Business and Economics, and DePaul University.
He is author of over one hundred and fifty articles and 90 books, including Principles of Marketing, Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism, Strategic Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations, Social Marketing, Marketing Places, The Marketing of Nations, Confronting Capitalism, Democracy in Decline, and Advancing the Common Good. His research covers strategic marketing, consumer marketing, business marketing, professional services marketing, and e-marketing. He has been a consultant to IBM, General Electric, AT&T, Bank of America, Merck, Motorola, Ford, and others. He has lectured several times in Italy, Sweden, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and many other countries.
WVU Marketing Communications Today: Marketing Legends is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications.
