Marketing Update.

Do you own your own customer?

WHEN IT COMES TO MARKETING, there's a crucial difference between the Internet and other media: the customer.

"Internet users have 100 percent control. They can go to an unlimited number of places, they come on and leave when they want, they comment on you, they reject you," asserted Dan Rosensweig, chief executive of ZDNet, speaking at the conference's panel on "CEO DNA." "The old mentality of 'I can control the pipe' doesn't happen on the Internet."

Does your marketing approach accommodate customers -- and the new breed of customer-investors -- in charge? Do you know them?

Never before has the customer had such a direct relationship with a company's brand. Online trading, working with an investment advisor in a volatile market, or surfing and buying on the Web -- all of these figure into brand credibility. No longer is brand simply a buying experience.

These issues engaged the attention of dotCEOs during "The Brave New (Old) World of Marketing" panel, which explored cutting-edge and traditional marketing strategies. Stuart Elliott, the New York Times' advertising columnist, led a lively discussion on the eternal question of how to win and keep the customer and on new tactics for the Internet world. Solid advice came from Pam Alexander, chief executive of Alexander Ogilvy Public Relations; Louise Kirkbride, chief executive of Broad Daylight, a problem-solving site; and Lon Otremba, president of Mail.com.

* Capitalize on the connected customer. In the "CEO DNA" panel, Howard Morgan quoted Bill Gross, his CEO at idealab!, who labeled the Internet "the greatest direct marketing vehicle ever invented -- you have instant feedback." Customers have 24/7 access to information about you, and you can get information about them right back -- if you develop effective interaction. You can know what they want or need or will need. You can know how they feel about you. And you can leap in whenever customers have complaints or problems.

Companies hip to the interactive nature of the Internet now integrate marketing with customer response. Those using closed-loop marketing not only will know the customer, but also can turn customer relations into their competitive edge.

* Respond like lightning. The Internet ratchets up customer needs. Kathryn Creech, chief executive of Miavita, voiced the customer's bumper sticker: "I want what I want when I want it, that's it, and nothing else." David Liu, chief executive of the wedding site The Knot, added that "customers punish you quickly if you don't deliver results. You lose traffic; you lose advertising dollars." If you plan to "own" your customers, you need the technology and trained customer relations personnel to respond immediately to problems -- or they'll turn away with a single click and not look back.

* Use targeted, permission-based e-mail marketing. Otremba lauded this approach, winning over a reluctant Elliott troubled by the idea of junk e-mail. When they've granted permission for you to market to them, Otremba said, customers know what they're getting, and ergo, it's not junk. And the company gets the eyeballs from its audience of choice. "I can't think of a single thing more worthy of acquiring than permission with regard to e-mail advertising, because e-mail's a smart medium," he said. Customers can create filters and folders and read only what they've asked for when they want.

* Be a multidimensional marketing machine. The Internet has not made traditional marketing obsolete. "You've got to integrate the Web into the total marketing mix," said Otremba. "And that means going back to the 4 Ps of marketing: product, price, place, promotion." He supports everything from bus ads (which touted Mail.com in New York City this past fall) to television to PR to banners.

* Don't give up on advertising. "About half of the 36 dot-coms that advertised on the 2000 Super Bowl are out of business. Where are you putting your advertising dollar now?" asked Elliott. The panel's consensus supported targeted advertising in traditional media as well as on the Internet, so long as it is done prudently. Mail.com, for example, changed its strategy to include more promotion that is targeted to its preferred audience. noted Otremba. He capitalized on falling dot-coms by "scooping up cheap media in the wake of the carnage." Internet advertising has a bad name now, but Otremba and Joe Galli, CEO of VerticalNet, agreed that when smartly targeted, it works. Galli advised frugality but also advocated dividing a site and targeting different users with surgical precision.

* PR rules. Alexander sticks to her tried-and-true approach of building relationships between CEOs and media influencers, especially arranging events to bring them together. She also recommended media relations-as-usual. "Be proactive in dealing with the top five publications and the core media who'd have the most impact on selling your product or service," she advised. Broad Daylight's Kirkbride, meanwhile, offered a ringing endorsement of old-line PR as "the cheapest form of advertising: one story is worth 5,000 magazine impressions." But don't neglect "the one percent of opinion leaders that are helping customers make their choices," added Alexander.

* Get your story out ... with a grabber. How, asked the Times' Elliott, do you land a story when a senior person at a large publication or an influential tech writer at a specialized trade magazine gets 100 e-mails and calls a day, plus tapes, press kits and Mr. Peanut characters dancing through the door? "Why should we write about you?" He answered his own question: "Come up with a point of differentiation that makes you newsworthy. Hone in on the key point or two that makes your company, your invention or your process worth covering."

Alexander added that the number-one complaint from journalists is, "They've never read anything I've written." Do your homework so you understand the writer's usual content, angle and audience, and make your slant innovative. Hiring a PR firm can get you heard above the clamor.