Blog posts
Segmentation and the power of focus
The more companies I talk to, the more convinced I become that thinking clearly about the segments you serve is the key to effective marketing.
The value of segmentation is really that it causes you to be objective about the kinds of people who will find your products and services interesting. Objectivity includes understanding the positive and negative aspects of ...
More >What is Web 2.0 really?
60% of online news is now published by individuals, rather than by organizations, networks and commercial portals.
That’s a huge change.
I think the most useful aspect of Web 2.0 is the way these technologies connect individuals and enable individual voices to be heard on the web.
Web 2.0 is based on the realization that even if ...
More >Sales and Marketing MindXchange
I just returned from three interesting days in Tempe, Arizona, at the Frost and Sullivan Sales and Marketing MindXchange. This is a highly interactive event – workshops, facilitated discussions, and a lot of networking.
I was somewhat skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a good thing for several reasons:
- The quality of the participants was high. From many ...
Articles
Differentiation drives your business
We are experts at ignoring and tuning out. We especially ignore things that are like other things we’ve seen before. It’s a natural response to the clutter that surrounds us every day. Our brains have learned to look for the new and the different, and to ignore that which is undifferentiated. Most of marketing is about efficiently defeating ...
More >The Marketing Knowledge Base
Powerful marketing messages are built on real data. There’s an important role for creative work, clever jingles and tag lines, but they won’t work for you reliably unless they are built on a solid understanding of the market.
Market research is a large and complex discipline, worthy of a book in its own right. If you have the ...
More >Brand Magic
I have never been branded in the physical sense; however millions of farm animals over the centuries would attest to its effectiveness. The original of the word “brand” is in old Norse—the language of ancient Scandinavia. It means “to burn.” It was a good idea in Scandinavia to burn an identifying mark into the rump of your livestock, because ...
More >Services
Marketing Communications Planning
It’s easy to imagine that the primary task of marketing is the creation and deployment of communications tools. Certainly this is an important activity, but it comes almost at the end of the workflow for marketing.
- Begin with a clear strategy;
- Identify key segments and their needs;
- Develop positioning and messages;
- Understand your delivery channels,
…and then design the ...
More >Vision and Values
Behind all the technology and product and business activity in a company is a group of people. Increasingly, that group is diverse in culture, language and experience. It has never been more important to clearly define the basic beliefs and intentions of the company in a way that the team can understand. This is the purpose of establishing values within ...
More >Brand Strategy
A brand is first and foremost a promise to the customer. It is intended to cause the appropriate customer to prefer the products and services associated with that brand.
Over the years, marketers have become more and more creative about how they build those perceptions. It’s no longer just about product value – it includes lifestyle issues, fashion, links to ...
More >Links
- Wikipedia on Branding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand
- Landor http://www.landor.com/ - A leading branding consultancy.
- Pentagram http://www.pentagram.com/en/ - A leading consultancy in branding, communications, typography and design.
- JetBlue: Customer Promise http://www.jetblue.com/about/ourcompany/promise/index.html - A great example of a Customer Bill of Rights. It captures both objective and subjective aspects of the customer experience that JetBlue aims to deliver.
- Harvard Business Review: Working Knowledge http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ - The Harvard Business Review publishes a lot of very well-thought out materials. Some of it is available in blog-like forms from the Working Knowledge site. There are articles on marketing, strategy, and a wide range of business topics.
- Interlink Partners http://www.interlink-partners.com/ - Interlink Partners is a boutique consultancy with a track record of results in semiconductors and software. Their focus is on a high-intensity examination of business issues and opportunities resulting in rapid results. The partners bring deep experience in marketing, operations, venture funding, and international business.
