I’m a passionate marketing practitioner and storyteller who believes FUN is a customer “delight” and happiness strategy. Most of my 18+ years experience has been in high-tech and professional services marketing. I’ve launched products for a number of high-tech, Internet and service companies. I’ve also spun out a few start-ups. My areas of specialty include market research, product strategy and marketing communications. I also use improvisational facilitation within organizations to help companies be more creative. I’ve worked for and with Dow Jones, SGI, Excite, Yahoo!, Cisco, Autodesk, Intermolecular, Stanford Univ. to name a few places.
An important part of my business is my Powerfully Funny brand – same marketing expertise with a light-hearted twist (twisted sense of levity?). I am especially interested in the intersection of marketing, innovation, and fun. B2B marketing never has to be boring! Moreover, fun increases customer engagement. FUN is not a dirty word in B2B; too many acts of bad marketing put the FU in the idea of fun within B2B companies. But it’s not fun’s fault! Jargon is anti-customer, unprofessional, and goes un-read. If you are not having fun, neither is your customer. B2B needs to lighten up, and in doing so, marketers will see greater results.
Humor and marketing both require great storytelling – and I think that is why stories are enhanced when fun is used. Fun connects at a very fundamental, human level. Currently, I am working on a study on online video storytelling for SNCR, and writing a book on using Fun in B2B Marketing. Whew! I’m tired thinking of all there is to do. But excited too.
I spent years performing comedy and still do ( ComedySportz San Jose Rec League). I started out doing sketch and stand-up (thank you, Joni Rodgers, comic and writer extraordinaire Judy Carter, Heather, and Rooster T. Feathers – a great comedy club in Sunnyvale, CA, where I started). I also wrote sketches for a group years ago called Moronlife. I love the spontaneity and the challenge of improv. There is no do-over or editing. I am a marketing story strategist and writer, and improv uses a completely different part of my brain – my gut!;-)
My not quite-two year old son, Evan, thinks I’m hilarious; he doesn’t get out much.
*****************************
Note: the next paragraph is the “serious” yadda-yadda stuff! Fair warning!
I have 3 graduate degrees including 1 from UC Berkeley and 1 from Stanford University. I am a founding board member and research fellow for the Society for New Communications Research (www.sncr.org), a think tank that studies and advocates best practices of social media today (in communications, journalism, marketing, non-profits, politics, etc.). I concentrated on the role of parody in civic discourse with a focus on Jon Stewart and Thomas Nast for my Stanford thesis below (linked here to prove to my mom it’s real. See mom?):
Thomas Nast and Jon Stewart : Public Intellectuals and Civic Idealists
Klotz-Guest, Kathy.
| Author: | Klotz-Guest, Kathy. |
|---|---|
| Title: | Thomas nast and jon stewart : public intellectuals and civic idealists / Kathy Klotz-Guest. |
| Electronic version: | // <!–[CDATA[// May be available electronically: -->[Link] |
| Imprint: | 2008. |
| Physical Description: | iii, 236 leaves, bound. |
| Note: | Submitted to the Faculty of the Master of Liberal Arts Program. |
| Note: | Thesis (M.A.)–Stanford University, 2008. |
Yours truly, Kathy
