Thoughts on marketing, technology, start-ups, new product launch, branding, leadership and more from Jim Gardner of Strategy180. Find out more at www.strategy180.com Because Results Matter.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Building teamwork between marketing and sales
Friday, August 29, 2014
3 marketing topics to school yourself on this fall.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Teaching entrepreneurship isn't impossible.
Thursday, August 07, 2014
The 5 Most Important Marketing Spends for a Start-up
1. Market and competitive research
Useful to finance, sales, and product development, gaining a full understanding of the industries and individuals (personas) that are in the target market is critical. Young companies should know their customers as well if not better than they know their own product or solution. The same goes for the competition – there is always competition, even where the product, niche, or industry is brand new.
2. Positioning strategy
The world of marketing is ruled by Venn Diagrams. Understand the similarities, differences, Unique Selling Proposition, potential black holes and growth opportunities in your market. Know the desired customer behavior and how slow or rapid adoption would reshape the market and your own assumptions.
3. Go to market planning
Plan the routes to market and go to market strategy for each channel; direct sales, online, partner, etcetera. I am always surprised at the number of companies (even large ones) seeking to promote their solution before they even fully understand how they will sell and fulfill orders. Really.
4. Branding and identity
In spite of the myriad number of self-proclaimed designers and fiverr designs out on the market, leveraging the knowledge and experience of a professional designer is critical to bring the above three investments to the public. A designer that understands your market, what you are trying to achieve, the emotional bond you want to create in a customer, how colors, typefaces, and imagery interact. Great marketing is easily undermined by an identity that doesn’t reflect the marketing message.
5. Inbound/content marketing strategy
Finally, the first stage, 'growth hacking' promotional, demand generation actions begin with the foundations of the content management strategy that drives initial value and interest among your target publics. As content management takes some time to spin up, this should be initiated as early as possible, and ideally prior to product release, in order to drive demand upon release.
Once these five prerequisites are established, then, and only then, should any shorter-term aggressive promotional lead generation activity be undertaken. Excepting perhaps the days of being featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things, there are no shortcuts to effective marketing and sustainable lead generation for a start-up, or for any established company.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Build a marketing plan using old school journalistic style
Monday, January 14, 2013
Tomorrow's lawsuits start here
And now there's this. East Carolina University Suing Cisco Systems Over Slogan ‘Tomorrow Starts Here'.
Simple due diligence. C'mon people. If you're gonna steal, don't steal from a client. And if you steal from a client, at least make sure it's a good slogan. This doesn't even pass the 'bakery and bedpans' test.
Monday, December 26, 2011
99% of readers think this is an awesome post.
As marketers, we are among the first to abuse statistics in our favor, and even as consumers have more information at their finger tips, so too do they have mis-information. Even today, buyer beware is the watchword.
Yet as we enter a political season, the stakes are even higher and we must think and vote with care. This recent article in The Atlantic illustrates some more egregious info-graphic lies used to increase interest and click through rates to study sponsors, and advertisers.
We are a graphical, headline-loving, sound-bite oriented culture. Yet it takes only, on average, 12% more time to learn the truth behind the hyperbole.
Okay. I just made that up.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Extreme Couponing: Mobile Shoppers and the New Face of Mobile Couponing
Mobile Shoppers and the New Face of Mobile Couponing
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Fear itself.
Of course, fear is ever-present in doing or buying anything new, but not often is it in the top three. And rarely fear, as such. In marketing, that is, in encouraging a buying decision, fear is more often wrapped in something less... well, absolute. Uncertainty, not fear. Caution, not fear. Inertia, not fear.
Fear is more real, more certain, and more an obstacle than any other faced by marketers. Fear as represented by the perceived lack of control. A lack of control is never overcome in the real sense, but only mitigated through trust.
Trust in turn is encouraged through understanding, established with a relationship, built through consistency, preserved through responsiveness, and confirmed through repetition - selling to and buying of - a loyal customer.
That is nothing new, as although it takes longer to overcome, the fear obstacle is addressed by simply doing what we as marketers know we ought to be doing all along... understand our market, develop a relationship with them, deliver products and services with consistent quality, respond quickly and appropriately to problems and questions, ... and repeat. Other than that, it is, ironically, out of our control how quickly we can make customers feel sufficiently in control to try something new.
So when management, sales, or product grow concerned that uptake of a new product or service is slower than predicted, you'll know that all things being equal, simply staying on track and by doing the right things right, it will happen in time.
Comfort them with FDR's words: "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Top 10 Branding Miscues of 2010... and three more.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Can I hear an Amen?
Yeah, well, I'm not excited either. And I write this stuff.
So who is excited? Who is so danged fired up that they'd get dressed to the nines and go door to door during their free time to talk to desperate housewives? Who's so convinced of the value of their product that they'd tote their entire families and a forest worth of pamphlets with them to be certain everyone had a chance to share their enthusiasm, including their kids? Who's so completely convinced of the superiority of their value statement that they'd give up everything to take two years to do nothing but sell, sell, sell?
Girl Scouts, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormon Missionaries, respectively.
For me I marvel at their commitment even as I brush them off. (I am a salty snack favoring Methodist so thanks, but I'm covered.) When was the last time you encountered a salesperson at your company with the earnestness of a Girl Scout, the persistence of a Witness, or the commitment of a Mormon? Before you complain, maybe you should start with a mirror.
I understand that in technology sales as in other industries, we aren't talking about salvation and deep set belief systems. But that's the point, right? Perhaps we need to approach sales enablement with the fervor of a Chautauqua preacher converting the heathen masses. When was the last time YOU got excited the latest version of software or throughput on a server? And if not, why not?
As you prepare to talk to salespeople about a new product, service, or feature, first answer for them the question they must answer all the time: "Who are you and why should I care?" If you can't answer that with the enthusiasm of an itinerant preacher, you can't expect it from your congregation of salespeople, either.
Even if you threaten their eternal soul.
Sunday, August 01, 2010
The Oldest Profession
In this excellent Advertising Age op-ed by Les Marguiles, he addresses the critical importance of the agency-client relationship, or increasingly, the lack of one.
Conversely, and importantly, those service providers – agencies, consultants, what have you – who accept that their work can be commoditized and are therefore willing to forego basic standards of quality of service, creative, and responsiveness also deserve what they get from clients who take that unique value for granted.
I remind my small agency colleagues of the following exchange, often attributed to Winston Churchill:
Churchill: Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?
Socialite: My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course…
Churchill: Would you sleep with me for five pounds?
Socialite: Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!
Churchill: Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are just negotiating the price.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Why you need to be .co dependent
Right after you finish reading this blog entry, go to your domain host and purchase your company's URL ‘.co’ domain.
As of today, you can register .co just as you have .com, .net, or .org, and other more obscure ones, such as .me or .name
It will cost you under $30/year but save you headaches. I predict .co will be a popular domain because: a, outside the US, web users already are used to typing .co prior to their country code (eg, .co.uk, for the Brits, .co.nz for the Kiwis); b, it’s a letter short of .com, which is great for typo trolling sites, and of course, c, in the states, it is a suffix for legal companies.
Yes, I might be wrong about the eventual land rush for the .co domain. If so, you’re out $30. If I’m right, you could pay thousands later. I say that’s pretty good insurance.
That’s it. Just this timely advice. No snarky comments, no opinion, no sermonizing. Mostly because I can't, off hand, come up with a good pun using '.co'. If you have one, post it in the comments (the .co mments).
Friday, December 11, 2009
The price is falling! The price is falling!
Its a valid subject, but most of these articles are promotion-oriented. What hasn't been discussed as much is the role of price strategy in a sagging economy, and generally. This especially occurs to me today because of a current client project, where pricing strategy is the current key gating concern prior to product launch.
Obvious Secret #1: Pricing strategy, especially in a weak economic environment, has little to do with, well, price.
Even in the best of times, great products, great promotions, clever ads and a loyal base can be undone by a misguided or misapplied pricing strategy. This is because left to their own devices, finance and sales executives will see sagging demand as a numbers issue and not a brand issue. Plus, it is expedient to react instinctively with a red pen (cutting prices) when profits shrink and sales falter.
Bad plan.
Unstudied discounts are not as easily undone tomorrow as they are done today. Price cuts are a short term solution to a larger, longer term issue; that is, the product hasn't established the brand position to maintain margin in a discount environment. Understand that price cuts are welcomed by consumers but always create subtle dissonance - an inability on the part of the consumer to properly relate price to value, so when the market returns upward, as it always does, this results in a nearly Sisyphean effort to re-establish a brand position held prior to the discount. Pricing is not a cost issue - it is a value issue.
Understand the way customers make buying decisions and become far more visible, and more efficient, in delivering on these criteria; this will always be more effective in building recession-proof brands. This is because pricing is a long-term strategy, not a short term tool. When the economy sours, there are other levers to pull - operating costs, added value, extended hours, free upgrades. Think about supplier pricing and work new billing models to manage cash flow. Invest in money-saving IT investments such as Unified Communications and collaboration products. Reevaluate your market position and consider new marketing initiatives to go after markets competitors might have recently abandoned. Fire some costly customers. Adjust invoicing offers and procedures to improve cash flow and reduce defaults. These tools and others are manipulated in good times and bad with far greater flexibility than price, which can only move in two directions: up, or down.
Its easy to be Chicken Little and think in blocks of fiscal-quarter-bound panic over a current fiscal situation, but creating and applying the right principles for pricing allows for decisions that over time not only weather current storms, but position a company for consistent growth over the long haul.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Using Context in Creative - Part Two
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Do The Math
'Biggest', 'Better', Fastest', 'Smallest', 'Cheapest' are nice claims but of little* value. Only slightly better are percentages, useful in any circumstance when the real numbers are small to begin with ($0.04 is a penny less than $0.05, but it is also fully 20% less)
I was reminded of this point by a number** of excellent recent blog entries that are worth a read:
How to Make Your Data Matter, Fast Company, by Dan and Chip Heath - Notable insight: "...an $800 billion stimulus works out to be the rough equivalent of seven weeks' income for an American household. Is that worth it? Seven weeks' worth of work to stave off a potential depression. Or maybe you're appalled. Regardless, we can finally have a real argument, because we have a better idea of what we're arguing about."
What Does A Trillion Dollars Look Like?, courtesy of cnbc.com - Notable insight: "With the largest market cap among U.S. companies, Exxon Mobil’s value of publicly traded shares is over $345 billion (as of 3/31/09). If this amount was denominated in $100 bills, the block of Benjamins covering the area of a standard American football field would stack to a height of about 28.7 feet."
Ultimately if your numbers are impressive or modest, whole numbers or percentages, what matters is that your audience understands them and relates to them in clear terms that mean something to them.
(*specifically, 86% less value, that is.)
(** exactly three)
Thursday, August 13, 2009
How much green is there in green?
Not surprisingly, specific audience categories offering unique attitudes toward the 'green movement' differ in the value they place on such products. Six distinct consumer groups within the overall adult consumer population were identified, with “Green Tech Leaders” willing to pay far more for a green certified product, while “Anti-Greens” are not willing to pay much more at all. That alone is interesting as it still indicates a willingness to perhaps consider the positive social implications of buying green even to those who do not value it themselves. This indicates that green product attributes are valuable, but not widespread enough to accommodate anything but a modest price adjustment.
From a share prospective, a green alternative may move the needle. From a margin perspective, this study indicates that their isn't yet much green in being green.
To learn more about Rockbridge’s Green Technology Segmentation, click here.
Monday, August 03, 2009
Shackin' up
1. We think "shack" conjures up many positive store images.
2. Some customers and the investor community refers to us as "The Shack" already.
3. We can't afford the real Shaq as a spokesperson, and he's in Cleveland now anyhow.
4. Basic research could have told us that "The Shack" is actually a popular Christian novel regarding the anguish of a parent over the rape and murder of his daughter. Oh, well.
5. Because... "The (Love) Shack is a little ol' place where we can get together! (Don't forget your jukebox money!)"
The answer is #2, although any of the answers is equally bad, and equally plausible.
That's right. RadioShack's most avid customers and "the investor community" (really? that's their target with this campaign?) already refer to the company (despairingly, perhaps?) as The Shack, so they figured they'd just co-op the term as their own in a desperate grab to leverage, and therefore destroy, any credible independent brand affinity.
Besides, marketing theory aside, every middle school kid in America already knows that giving yourself a nickname is just lame.
Noisy launches
The product is the thing.
The company is not the thing. (An exception perhaps is Apple - which uses its powerful corporate brand to great effect.)
The distribution channel is not the thing. (Your distributors may incorrectly argue the point, especially VARs.)
And most certainly, the ad is not the thing. (Your agency's creatives may disagree, especially if the ads are spotlighted in an article like this one in Advertising Age.
Once you go down the path of suggesting that a "creepy" and "unsettling" advertisement is "doing its job" because people are talking about the advertisement (and not the product per se) you can quickly find yourself sliding down a slippery slope trying to quantify 'mindshare' and 'visibility'.
To be certain, if the ads are effective, they'll be talked about... but more importantly, so will the product. A truly effective advertisement quickly steps back and allows the product to take the spotlight.
After all, no one wants to hear the announcer keep talking once the band takes the stage.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
The Rules Of Business Still Apply
Social Media is beginning its shakeout. MySpace is struggling. YouTube is gaining traction as watching video online becomes a standard media, and Facebook is seeing continued growth, but much of it outside the U.S. as this market becomes saturated and curious Boomers drop off the site. LinkedIn integrates a number of useful applications and solidifies its position as a professional’s social media rolodex.
Now comes Twitter, off its highs of the CNN / Ashton battle for a million followers, a month after an Oprah mention, a curiousity to most and not yet monetized. Studies have indicated that most new visitors stop visiting after a month, and now a report that May’s growth on Twitter was anemic, although, importantly, the time spent on the site (by its active members) grew substantially.
So what’s next for Twitter? I’m not certain, but it is critical to recognize that Twitter’s celebrity users are essentially spokespeople and pitchmen for the site, not a business model in and of themselves. According to the rules of business where a company has an established and vocal ‘tribe’ of followers in its niche, the focus should be to provide value to its most loyal customers (visitors). This may mean perhaps, more integration with the hordes of third-party Twitter applications being developed, recognizing its role not as an interactive medium but a broadcast medium and provide services accordingly, and determine the best way to monetize the platform without alienating a customer base that is not used to be ‘pitched’ with advertising. It is then that Twitter can begin to expand and regain interest among businesses and individuals who will leverage the platform and applications using methods tested and proven by the early adopters.
‘The Oprah Effect’ will only get you to the lip of Geoffrey Moore’s chasm. The rules of business still apply as Twitter attempts to cross it.
Full disclosure: www.twitter.com/jimgardner