market strategy
That glittering object in the distance…
I’ve been at the B2B tech marketing game a long time, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned (and re-learned, and re-re-learned) is that one of the most difficult things to figure out is what market to go after.
Actually, strike that thought.
It’s not all that difficult figuring out what market to go after. What’s difficult [...]
You might not want to throw in an AK-47 with purchase (but there’s a marketing lesson in here)
The other day, over on Pink Slip, I posted about a Missouri car dealer who’s giving away vouchers for AK-47’s for every new car he sells in August.
Now, as a peace-loving, city girl, I might raise both eyebrows at this type of promotion. And as a B2B marketer, it is supremely unlikely that I’ll [...]
Think and Do
When I was in primary school, we had workbooks that were called Think and Do. They were full of simple little arithmetic problems and written-word exercises - busy work, of course. And who could blame a nun trying to manage a class with 45 kids in it by setting them to some busy work task. [...]
"Tuned In" does some myth debunking
I knew I’d be back to Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs, by Craig Stull, Phil Myers & David Meerman Scott, which I reviewed on Monday. I just didn’t know it would be so soon - and it’s to delve into the myths that they debunk as table stakes for [...]
After Mary Schmidt’s "Somebody will always buy it"
Mary Schmidt has a little goodie over on her blog, where she asks the questions we all need to ask when we’re bringing a B2B technology product to market:
Who would buy it?Who would buy more than one?How many “whos” are there? (Horton may be able to hear ‘em, but can you sell to them?)
Oh, [...]
The tortoise and the hare: in praise of consistency
Product launches. Grand openings. Big events. Most of us have done more than a few. If we had to account for the results of these activities, could we say that they were worth it? Seth Godin says, “Probably not.”
Make a list of successful products in your industry. Most of them didn’t start big. Not the [...]
Progress is good, right?
The New York Times wrote about the return of the browser wars last week. The browser world is getting interesting again; Firefox 3 will be released this month, Microsoft is showing test versions of IE8, and Apple’s Safari is making inroads thanks to the iPhone and their unfortunate decision to push out to Windows users [...]
Specialists and generalists
Are you a specialist, or a generalist? Should you hire a generalist or a specialist? Seth Godin suggested that there’s no reason to be a generalist (note: since I first read it, he’s toned it down a bit):
If I need an animator, I can find the world’s best animator. If I need a bond [...]
Niches will be filled
When people talk about what’s ailing the newspaper business, there’s one little company whose name comes up again and again: Craigslist. With Craigslist offering free classified ads in cities all over the world, how can newspapers compete? In an interview in the New York Times, however, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark questions that idea:
In the face [...]
Things change
Are you ready for a change in your market? Take a lesson from American automakers:
Automakers reported higher sales of small cars as oil and gasoline prices climbed to record highs in April, but said Thursday that overall vehicle sales in the United States plummeted during the month.
Sales decreased 29 percent from April 2007 at Chrysler, [...]
