Hi, I'm John Balla - I co-founded the SAS Customer Intelligence blog and served as Editor for five years. I held a number of marketing roles at SAS as Content Strategist, Industry Field Marketing and as Go-to-Marketing Lead for our Customer Intelligence Solutions. I like to find and share content and experiences that open doors, answer questions, and sometimes challenge assumptions so better questions can be asked. Outside of work I am an avid downhill snow skier, hiker and beach enthusiast. I stay busy with my family, volunteering for civic causes, keeping my garden green, striving for green living, expressing myself with puns, and making my own café con leche every morning. I’ve lived and worked on 3 contents and can communicate fluently in Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian and get by with passable English. Prior to SAS, my experience in marketing ranges from Fortune 100 companies to co-founding two start ups. I studied economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and got an MBA from Georgetown. Follow me on Twitter. Connect with me on LinkedIn.
I’ll never forget the first time many years ago that I saw the Dilbert cartoon by Scott Adams showing Dilbert getting transferred to marketing, approaching a doorway that says “Welcome to Marketing - Two Drink Minimum.” I found it so funny until I realized that my friends in IT and
There are many reasons I often feel overloaded and overstimulated nowadays, so I think I can relate to my target market when they get my messages. I'd like to take a moment to set aside my usual John-the-marketer hat and explore the issue of relevance from the perspective of my
As mentioned in a previous post, SAS was again a sponsor of the Masters of Marketing Conference, the annual executive conference held by the Association of National Advertisers (“ANA”). I had the pleasure to attend the sessions of this extraordinary event, which brings together the marketing leadership teams of the
If I say “Brazil,” what do you think of? The Girl from Ipanema? Pelé and 5 World Cup championships? Coffee? Sultry supermodels? How about statistics? Probably not, but that’s okay (I hope to change that). We Brazilians actually don’t mind being associated with fun, relaxation and other positive things. And
I recently had the pleasure to sit in on one of our customer presentations at the CRM Evolution Conference in New York. Sean Lowe, the Managing Director of Endless Vacation Rentals and Revenue Management for Wyndham Exchange & Rentals, gave a presentation about how his company manages the demand forecasting
Momentum for SAS Customer Intelligence is at an all-time high, and we’re responding in kind by taking it to the streets with a blockbuster line-up for October this year in a city near you. These opportunities have been designed to enable you to interact with both SAS and non-SAS experts
In this segment of “The Nuts & Bolts of Social Media,” Kirsten Hamstra outlines the details of how SAS Publishing planned and executed its social media strategy. SAS Publishing was the first SAS division out on Social Media and they achieved good early success through planning, and are able to
The following entry is reposted from the sascom voices blog, and was contributed by David Hughes, SAS VP of Sales for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. I hope you enjoy reading his words, as there are important lessons for marketers in the examples he uses to illustrate the
It’s no secret that SAS enjoys a high degree of customer loyalty and it’s also well known that part of what drives that loyalty is driven by how much we pay attention to our customers. This devotion to our customers is helping to ensure that we deliver on our promise
During the week of August 1 - 7, 2010, SAS Customer Intelligence will be making a big splash in the New York area and there are several ways you can catch up with us in person: CRM Evolution Conference & Exhibition This event begins on Monday, August 2 and ends
