I attended a luncheon hosted by the Oregon chapter of the American Marketing Association this past Tuesday. The luncheon was targetted at explaining the current marketing efforts of Keen Footwear, a Portland-based outdoors company. It was an interesting luncheon, with short presentations by the Keen marketing team and Henry V Events (an agency that Keen partners with).
I thought the choice of speakers was phenomenal at first, but I was a little disappointed with the presentation. They were obviously unrehearsed and ran over the allotted time by 10 minutes. Unfortunately, they were unable to finish their presentation and time constraints forced them to delay a video until after the event concluded. I would expect marketers presenting to a room of 181 marketing professionals to be a bit more prepared.
The topic, however, was incredible. Keen is making large strides in promoting sustainability in business. One of their target demographics is college students. Rather than packaging a marketing plan and pushing it on these customers, Keen has enlisted the help of “brand ambassadors” who are part of this demographic. This demonstrates high-level marketing thought on the part of Keen’s marketing team and illustrates perfectly how to best target a perfect customer.
There were several opportunities for networking before the luncheon, and I took full advantage. I met a few interesting conversationalists and at least two people I will be following up with later. This event isn’t targetted towards networking, but it still presents great opportunities.
Unlike the last event I attended, I remembered to snap a photo of the food. The menu was not as appetizing as the September luncheon, but was still a great meal. I apologize for my failure to take pictures of the venue or the presentation. The luncheon was held at the beautiful Benson Hotel in one of the rooms on the mezzanine level. If you want to learn more about Keen’s presentation, I suggest you check out the information on their website.
