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.
There are many reasons for marketers to see opportunity in the Internet of Things, most especially because it entails the interconnection of objects and devices and the data that's generated from these devices. It's not so much that we have to get our geek on, but the devices themselves ultimately
Some people consider "big data" an "overused" buzzword, almost as if it were a fad or a "trending term" and then in a year, we'll all move on to the next "shiny object." We may very well have a new shiny object soon enough, but the fact remains that big data is a current
It’s never been more important for marketing to speak the language of technology (IT) and for IT to speak the language of marketing. Why? Because technology is radically changing the world and marketing and IT have the opportunity to radically change the enterprise together. Yes, the stakes are high and
Adversarial relationships make for wonderful stories. Why? Because we can relate to them so well. It’s human nature to clash with rivals - cat fights, turf wars, even sibling rivalries reliably sell magazines and fill cinemas and theaters. But are they good for business? Of course not, especially not if the
As customers have grown more demanding and empowered, the role of marketing as steward of the customer relationship has evolved to be more strategic in the enterprise. And with that evolution comes a greater need to validate vendor claims of superiority. Analyst firms offer advice and research through their publications,
When you are making a big, important purchase there are few things more helpful than seeing how well things are going somewhere else. It's better than merely "kicking tires" because it's really happening somewhere else and in their own way, that other organization is putting customers at the center of their strategy. To that end,
Leading your organization to faster, better decisions requires skill, agility, resourcefulness and above all - analytics. In marketing, that combination allows the CMO to put the customer squarely in the center of strategy, and align operational execution around the customer focal-point. It's no coincidence that leading organizations, such as the world's biggest retailer,
People love to joke about "watching cat videos" as the epitome of wasting time. Or they don't joke, but express amazement at "how you seem to get sucked in so easily watching cat videos. I am not one of those people that watches cat videos, so you can put me in
Developments in advanced analytics, data visualization and processing power are opening new doors to solve big data marketing problems. Most notably, the time horizon on our perspective has broadened into the future by progressing From descriptive analysis (What happened?) To diagnostic analysis (Why did it happen?), To predictive analysis (What will happen?) and then To prescriptive
Happy Valentine's Day! Today is the international day for celebrating love, or at least the day for love offerings. Naturally, I'm inspired to write about ways marketers can spark and nurture feelings of love in their customers, and for that there are valuable lessons to be had in looking at
