Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Tuesday, November 18th, 2014
Like virtually every industry, marketing has been transformed dramatically by advances in technology, particularly the increasing ease with which high quality digital media can be produced and distributed relatively cheaply online. Professional audio and video can be incorporated into a website or distributed through email marketing with ease, and this has led to an increase in the use of such media when marketing for a variety of products and services.
Marketers have taken advantage of new technology and digital content techniques by increasing their use of such material to promote their products and services. According to a dual survey of content marketers and the B2B audiences they serve, (more…)
Tags: B2B, B2B marketing, Customer Communication, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, video, visual communication
Posted in Business Development, Content Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing and Branding | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 4th, 2014
In the midst of the current Ebola outbreak, there has been much made of the role of big pharma in the race to stem the tide of the deadly virus. Many commentators, non-governmental organizations and governments have been critical of drug companies in the past and currently for what is seen as their lack of interest in developing vaccines and cures for illnesses that are deadly, but just not profitable.
But numbers are numbers, and the decision-makers of publicly-traded companies are obligated to conduct their business in a way that returns an acceptable return on investment to shareholders.
In an editorial for Forbes (more…)
Tags: big pharma, Business development, collaboration, ebola, ebola crisis, Innovation, Marketing
Posted in Business Development, Marketing and Branding | No Comments »
Thursday, October 16th, 2014
Despite the fact that business and advertising classes and textbooks tell us that the first stage in the consumer decision-making process is identifying a need, there are certainly instances when consumers don’t know they have a need. That’s where innovators can have an edge.
Lee E. Miller and Kathleen Hayes Onieal recently wrote a blog post for Harvard Business Review called “Getting People to Believe in Something They Can’t Yet Imagine.” In the blog post, Miller and Onieal discuss the fate that often befalls new, groundbreaking innovations: Nobody believes they will catch on! The very fact that something is so revolutionary and unheard of often makes getting buy-in from key decision-makers next to impossible. The authors point out some of the reasons for this, including organizational inertia, fear of change, financial disincentives and fear of failure, among others.
So what can be done to overcome these obvious challenges? Certainly, companies introduce innovative products and services all the time. What makes the champions of change within those organizations succeed? Miller and Onieal point to several paths to success: (more…)
Tags: Harvard Business Review, Innovation, Marketing
Posted in Business Development, Marketing and Branding | No Comments »
Thursday, September 4th, 2014
It seems like just about every week I see a question on social media, or coming through various media feeds that I monitor, asking something like: “What’s the best way to market to millennials?” or “What’s the best way to market to Baby Boomers?” or “What’s the best way to market to mothers?” or…insert any group you can think of.
While I do believe that any question is a valid question, and this one obviously must resonate with many, the question itself points to what would be my key recommendation: (more…)
Tags: Advertising, audiences, Customer Communication, Marketing, marketing communication, segmentation, strategic communication, target audience, targeting
Posted in Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication, Strategic Communications | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 5th, 2014
The older I get, the more I recognize the inevitable cycles that occur all around me, from fashion trends to areas of marketing focus. It’s the yin and yang of life I suppose; we naturally shift back and forth between preferences for one thing or another. And, it is likely true that there is nothing really “new” under the sun, just recycled or updated twists on things that have gone before.
Except, perhaps, in the world of online marketing. One of the latest trends–contextualized advertising–offers marketers the ability to almost “get inside the heads” of potential consumers to deliver messages to them based not only on places they’ve visited online, but for things that might be geographically or contextually relevant to them.
For instance. You’re walking down the street on a hot summer day and you get a text message telling you about a great deal on ice cream at a shop that is now literally 10 steps away from you. Or, you’re driving to a vacation destination and a special deal on a hotel at the next exit pops up. That’s contextual advertising and it’s all the rage right now. Although, of course, nobody quite knows yet (more…)
Tags: Advertising, anaytics, contextualized advertising, Marketing, SEO, Social Media
Posted in Analytics, Content Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Measurement, Strategic Communications | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 30th, 2014
If you’re reading this post, chances are you’re familiar with the use of demographics in helping to define and understand your target audience. Demographics are objective criteria such as age, sex, income or geography/location. You also may be familiar with psychographics. Psychographics are qualitative characteristics of your audience–whether they are family-oriented, enjoy the outdoors, etc.
But, if you’re in the B2B (business to business) space, there’s another marketing term that you should be focused on: firmographics. Firmographics are (more…)
Tags: demographics, firmographics, Marketing, prospecting, psychographics, Sales, sales success
Posted in Business Development, Marketing and Branding | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014
A recent Gallup poll indicates that just 5 percent of U.S. residents say that social media had “a great deal of influence” on their purchasing decisions; 62 percent said that it had no influence at all.
Yet, companies in the U.S. spent $5.1 billion on social media in 2013. Are they nuts?
Likely not. The thing of it is, (more…)
Tags: Customer Communication, Gallup, linkedin, Marketing, online advertising, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Marketing and Branding | No Comments »
Thursday, July 3rd, 2014
Every once in a while I hear someone make a comment about their customers like: “They just don’t get it.” Or, “what they don’t understand is…” The truth is, with any audience, when you hear yourself saying these words warning bells should start going off inside your head. Chances are, it’s not them, it’s you that doesn’t “get it.”
As I work with clients, or speak with prospective clients, it’s not uncommon for them to lament that their target audience just “doesn’t understand the value” of their products or services. That certainly can be a valid communication opportunity. But, in my mind, the opportunity doesn’t lie in trying to come up with new and ever-more-creative ways to spin your messages to that audience. Instead, the real opportunity lies in (more…)
Tags: Customer Communication, effective marketing, listening to customers, Marketing
Posted in Business Development, Client Relations, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 18th, 2014
Too often businesses – large and small – cast a wide net when it comes to those they believe they can or should serve. Perhaps counter-intuitively, when you attempt to serve everyone, you lose the ability to effectively serve anyone. Just because your product or service literally could be consumed by the masses, doesn’t mean that should be your focus.
The more you are able to effectively segment your broad market into niche-specific “chunks,” and the better you understand those chunks, the more effective you will be at both identifying the appropriate communication channels and developing the right – and most compelling – key messages. Unfortunately, many marketers fail to do this, or fail to do so effectively.
The biggest misstep we see (more…)
Tags: effective marketing, Marketing, niche marketing, target audience
Posted in Marketing and Branding | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 11th, 2014
The wide proliferation of social media sites–from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram–provide a myriad of opportunities for businesses of any size to connect with their target audiences. That can be good news and not-so-good news for marketers. Why? Because while the out-of-pocket costs for using most of these tools is low to none, the time investment can be significant. Add to that (more…)
Tags: Advertising, content management, content marketing, facebook, Google+, Instagram, linkedin, Marketing, Pinterest, selling social media, Social Media, social media advertising, social media and the C-suite, twitter
Posted in Content Marketing | No Comments »
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