I came across something recently that really struck me. In reading Peter Levine's "SaaS Manifesto," I was surprised to learn that half of all SaaS purchasing decisions are now made or influenced by operating departments, like Sales, HR and Marketing. Now, I know Sales VPs have always had a say in which CRM to buy, and I read IBM's study from a few years back on CMOs on track to spend more than CIOs on technology. I am also well aware of (and complicit in) the "consumerization of IT" trend. But … [Read more...]
Keeping the Audience Engaged with Presentation “Spikes”
Humans are prone to distraction. In today’s world, smartphones are addictive little distractions that sit temptingly right in our pockets or purses. So, even if you are a good presenter and your topic is interesting, you should always check in with the audience, to keep them with you. In their book Conversations That Win the Complex Sale, messaging gurus Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer call the pattern of people’s attention “the hammock.” Why? Because, as shown below, it peaks at the … [Read more...]
Marketingspeak: Why Are They Called ‘White Papers’ Anyway?
White papers are a staple of B2B marketing. We write them to explain complicated topics or products to our customers. We read them to try and glean what our competitors are really doing. Did you even wonder why they are called white papers at all? Since most documents are printed on white paper, the modifier “white” would seem redundant, and too generic to differentiate from other documents. The term was coined by the British Government to distinguish shorter informational documents with … [Read more...]
Smirnoff and WOM Marketing Vodka
One of the best examples of WOM marketing comes not from this century or the last century, but from the 19th century. And, it happened in neither the United States nor Western Europe, but in Russia. As retold in Linda Himelstein's fascinating The King of Vodka, Pyotr Smirnov, father of the now-worldwide Smirnoff vodka brand (rebranded using the more popular French spelling), faced the imposing challenge of making his product stand out among the competition. At the time, Moscow had hundreds of … [Read more...]
Marketingspeak: Who Coined the Term ‘Funnel’?
The funnel is a shorthand term for describing the route by which prospective customers, or prospects, become customers. The visualization of the process looks like a funnel. A larger number of prospects go in the top and are reduced to a smaller number of customers who come out the bottom. Marketers use the term every day, but who came up with the funnel visualization in the first place? Interestingly, the idea for the funnel visualization was a refinement of a previous visualization, also … [Read more...]
Be the Buyer Day: An Easy New Year’s Resolution
Every marketer knows they should know their customer, but few truly make the effort. It’s hard and takes commitment. Customers are busy and can be maddeningly difficult to get on the phone. A sales rep may not want someone from Marketing talking to their customer. Marketing teams can be so busy with internal meetings their existing workload that finding the time can be a chore. Like many New Year’s resolutions, putting the customer first is obvious, we know it’s good for us, and yet…Just like … [Read more...]
Marketingspeak: Why’s It Called ‘Boilerplate’?
Marketing is full of jargon, anachronisms (B-roll comes to mind), acronyms, and new expressions dreamed up almost every week. We use them all the time, almost without thinking. I've done my best in The Professional Marketer to dig in and find their origins. This week, from my chapter on the press release, is boilerplate: "Boiler plate" originally referred to the small metal plate that identified the builder of a steam boiler. The term was borrowed by the printing industry, where plates … [Read more...]
Growth Hacking and Marketing Teams – Oil and Water or Milk and Honey?
One of the biggest challenges in trying to finish a book is drawing the line on content. In a field like marketing, with so much innovation happening in the past few years, I am finding it hard to complete my copyediting without succumbing to the temptation to add new stuff. Around the time I was making my final edit to the chapter on building a marketing department in The Professional Marketer, I happened to be part of a number of conversations on the “growth hacker,” aka “growth hacking.” … [Read more...]
New Case Study: The Virgin America Brand
Just completed this case study of one of my favorite brands, Virgin America. Thanks to my friends there for helping out on this case study for Chapter 2 on Positioning and the Brand. - T.M.Virgin America is a California-based airline that has a declared mission to make flying good again. Launched in 2007, the airline’s goal was to disrupt the airline industry. Though hyper-competitive, the airline industry had become sclerotic. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, in 2011, the … [Read more...]
New Case Study: IBM Smarter Planet
Just added for my chapter on marketing planning, what I think is the best integrated marketing campaign ever created. - T.M. Chapter 4 Case Study – IBM’s Smarter Planet Campaign The vision for IBM’s "Smarter Planet" campaign was laid out in a November 17, 2008, speech by IBM chairman and CEO Sam J. Palmisano. “The world will continue to become smaller, flatter ... and smarter," he said. "We are moving into the age of the globally integrated and intelligent economy, society and planet. … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- Next Page »