Note to CMO: Check out Stephen Denny

Today I had the pleasure of spending an hour in Palo Alto with one of my favorite marketing bloggers, Stephen Denny (shown at left).

Stephen writes the always perceptive Note to CMO (Tagline: "If you could send a memo to the marketing community and straighten everything out, what would you say? This is my "Note to the Chief Marketing Officer"). One of the delights of his blog is his wide diversity of examples: Seneca here, Kurosawa there, Goya to make this point, and Jet Blue to make a different one. Plus, he turns a phrase quite well.

If you haven't visited this site before, check out his series of marketing advice to a smaller company wishing to take out a larger competitor:

Killing Giants (Part I), Killing Giants (Part II), Killing Giants (Part III)

Stephen's got a lot of interesting marketing stories garnered from real-life experiences (good, bad, and crazy) with companies such as Sony, Iomega, and other channel favorites.

Who are Stephen's favorite blogs?

• Grant McCraken (This Blog Sits at the): "He's just about the best marketing writer out there."
• Valeria Maltoni (Conversation Agent): "I like the way she writes about people."
• Lewis Green (Business Solution Plus): "I like his friendly, social manner, and especially his Friday columns."
• Ann Handley (Marketing Profs): "She's good."

Currently, Stephen spends his time doing marketing consulting. He's also thinking about getting into the seminar business. In addition, he's carving out time to write his book ("Killing Giants"). I wish him success with the book endeavor: I think the market would respond well to his ideas!

Comments

[Stephen Denny]

Roger: great meeting up with you yesterday -- many thanks for the well-deserved whack in the side of the head (figuratively, for now) re getting the writing underway, too.

By the way, who's that guy in the photo? Looks like Rip Torn's police mugshot... yikes, the people you meet on the street in Palo Alto...

[Ann Handley]

Yeah -- who *is* that guy...? The real Stephen Denny looks far more buttoned up....

How awesome that you two connected. Nice write-up Roger, and for the record... I agree: Denny turns a phrase quite well.

(Thanks for the shout, SD!)

[Valeria Maltoni]

Roger:

Funny, I wrote about you at The Blog Herald Friday sending people who want to get creative here ;-) Good choice of person to meet and write about.

Stephen is one of my favorite writers, he strikes just the right balance on humor and wake up call. His series on killing giants was particularly good -- I'm glad he's working on a book about it.

Stephen:

Thank you for the shout. You are very kind. I cannot visit you in Palo Alto right now... we should visit soon anyway.

[Lewis Green]

Roger,

Wow! It's funny how we connect through this social medium. All of Stephen's favorite bloggers represent those I would also mention. Thank you for sharing.

By the way, I began to rely on your post reminders. I hope you continue to send them my way.

Lewis