The news is full of stories of companies “battening down the hatches”, going into “cash conservation mode”, and making deep cost reductions in an effort to survive the real or expected drop in demand. This retreat reflex drives business decisions that feel like the right thing to do at the moment. But, statistically, for many companies these measures will prove insufficient Read the rest of this entry »
In This Economy, Does Your Value Proposition Still Hold?
April 2nd, 2009Six Reasons Why The Future Belongs to Content
March 30th, 2009
There seems to be a growing concern that the importance of content will wane because technology now enables everyone to be a content creator, and consequently, that there will be too much content for any particular piece to be noticed. While the situation is certainly changing fast and will remain very fluid, it is doubtful that we are moving to a reduced role for content. Here are six reasons why: Read the rest of this entry »
Market Research by Product Launch: When Does It Make Sense?
March 24th, 2009
We all know of companies that put products out in the marketplace like the proverbial spaghetti tossed against the wall just to see if “it sticks”. Spotty planning and tentative execution usually lead to mixed results and perplexity as to what to do next.
But are there circumstances when a solid case can be made for the “let’s see if it sticks” approach? What if throwing spaghetti had real value? Read the rest of this entry »
Can We Beat Information Overload?
March 16th, 2009
Take a stroll through today’s blogosphere. Subscribe to a few tweets, check out some Facebook and MySpace pages, and see how much data you get exposed to, and that’s in addition to all the “regular” websites you pop in on. Everybody has become an author, editor and publisher AND is still somehow convinced that there will be time to be a reader, and do some thinking too.
The time investment required to get to the nuggets hidden in the long tail will just get bigger, Read the rest of this entry »
Video is Hot! So What’s Holding You Back?
March 10th, 2009
Moving images have been used for marketing since the dawn of cinema. What’s different now is that everyone can do it. Digital cameras are everywhere, prosumer video editing software is now affordable, broadband is widespread, and YouTube - now part of Google – is the perfect video publishing platform, and it’s free! All this amounts to faster production and lower costs. Studies show that half of all teenagers check YouTube at least once a day. The world is learning to get information in video format. So what’s holding you back?
When Does “Focus” Become “Tunnel Vision”?
March 6th, 2009
“Tunnel vision is a medical condition that results in a loss of peripheral vision. As a result, the patient can only see objects from within a circular field.”
Today, “focus” is an almost universally accepted imperative when elaborating a business strategy. But tunnel vision is a risk inherent to concentrating on the pressing objectives of the day. So what happens when focus turns to tunnel vision? What are the signs? How does one resist it?
Clearly, there is a right way to focus, as well as some pitfalls. Read the rest of this entry »
10 Reasons Why Email is the Best Marketing Tool Now
March 3rd, 2009When the good times roll, it is easy to yield to the temptation of experimenting with cutting edge tools.
But when times are tough and budgets and teams get slashed, marketing re-evaluates budget allocation to concentrate on programs that yield the best results. In this recession, email marketing is one of a handful of tools selected to bear a substantial portion of the revenue generation burden.
Why? Here are ten reasons: Read the rest of this entry »
The Vertical Strategy: an Ace in the Hole for SMBs?
February 28th, 2009Verticalization is a favorite strategy of small companies because it opens the possibility of upstaging bigger firms on specific markets . It is the classic case of a small force achieving a breakthrough against a larger opponent by concentrating overwhelming firepower on a small section of a long front.
Going vertical can proceed along two very different vectors: one is a “soft”, messaging-oriented axis, the other is more focused on product, or it can be a combination of the two. The costs and risks involved are very different in each case. Read the rest of this entry »
Verticalization: Ugly Word, Powerful Idea
February 26th, 2009Verticalization is the ugly neologism that describes a long term trend in which BtoB companies see industries as the operative way of grouping customers . Conversely, verticalization also refers to a strategy of focusing on a specific industry in order to compete more effectively.
So what are the dynamics, and what can be done to maximize the chances of success with a vertical strategy? Read the rest of this entry »
Tools for Marketing in a Recession – or – How To Do More with Less, Soviet Style?!
February 23rd, 2009The story goes that when NASA started sending people into space, it encountered the problem that regular pens did not work in a weightless environment. After spending many $100Ks on research, NASA did manage to engineer a special pen that could work in zero gravity. Naturally, the Soviet space program had the same problem but did not have the same resources and technology to solve it. The Russians did find a very effective solution, both technically and financially: they simply gave their cosmonauts lead pencils.
The story rings like a good metaphor for Read the rest of this entry »
