Marketing Joint

Hiring: Skill sets and Mindsets

Hiring talent at a startup is critical to success. The most precious capital at a startup is human capital. However, it’s too convenient – and, misleading – to think that hiring people based on the simple criteria of whether they are startup types or big company types is enough. Even startups go through stages that are quite distinct. Generally speaking, a startup really goes through three stages. Understanding the stages will help you make the right hiring decisions. Conversely, it’ll also help job seekers find the right company.

Packaging and the Paradox of Choice

We love to have choices. By definition, it implies freedom and control. I can choose from the multiple options and get exactly what I want, something that uniquely fits my needs. What could possibly be wrong with that?

You Promise? Absolut-ly!

I’ve been asked countless times about what branding means. It’s usually an innocent question posed by a genuinely interested individual. But, quite a few times, I’ve been asked by someone who simply wanted to see if I knew the answer. I’m not sure if there is a single, unanimously agreed upon answer but I’d always make my attempt to describe what I think branding represents. My reason for doing so is quite simple. For a marketing professional, branding is critical to fueling and supporting high trajectory growth.

Branding represents a promise. When promises are kept, the brand gets stronger. Before a brand can propel itself, it needs to be constantly fed or nourished. A brand gets automatically reinforced through what I like to term ‘the repetition of making promises and keeping them.

Achieving your Team's Full Potential

Sorry 49er fans, your football team is terrible, but the good news is that you can think back to better times, way back to 1994 when the team won their last Super Bowl. Now, that was a great team. How did a very good team in 1993 get to greatness in 1994? I would argue that it happened because of the signing of one player – Deion Sanders – who made them great not through his own play, but by improving the play of every other player out there.

The One Thing

For those of you who have seen City Slickers, I’m sure you’ll recall this memorable exchange between the Billy Crystal character (Mitch) and the Jack Palance character (Curly):

Curly: You know what the secret of life is?
Mitch: No, what?
Curly: This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don't mean shit.
Mitch: That's great, but what's the one thing?
Curly: That's what you've got to figure out.

Color Matters

Color is important to get right but most companies pay little attention to it. Understanding color is a “soft” skill and tech companies want little to do with that kind of stuff. Yeah, I know that nurses wear a soft blue or pink garment so that tense patients can relax more but what does color have to do with our ability to market or sell? Give me the major league issues to go and brilliantly conquer! Well, if you’ve just acknowledged the fact that color does have a concrete impact on human beings (albeit in a hospital), you’ve pretty much just answered your own question. Customers and patients are people. Hence, color does matter.

Two Deadly Habits of Tech Marketing Pros

Everybody loves lists just ask David Letterman’s viewers and fans) so I found it necessary to write my own list of the “Two Deadly Habits of Tech Marketing Pros.” I know ... two makes a short list. Both of these maladies are largely observed most frequently at tech startups. I’ve decided to tailor this piece to startups mainly because it’s easier that way. Maybe calling these deadly habits is a bit weak since habits are sometimes never broken. Let’s call them bullsh*ts since habits can be ignored but bullsh*ts have to be confronted.

Getting to Meaningful Partnerships

We’ve all seen this story before. Company starts shipping products and is growing revenue but wants to expand faster. What better way to grow than to partner with big companies? So Company hires BD manager to form relationships, create solutions, and drive leads. BD manager meets with like-minded BD personnel at other companies, signs contracts and referral agreements, creates partnership programs, and puts colorful logos on the website. Press releases are issued and backs are patted. Life is good.

There's only one problem … nothing happens.

This scene plays out every day. I’ve been part of this myself. Guilty as charged.

Startups: Selecting a PR Agency

The process by which a tech company selects an agency involves a lot of variables. So, I’m going to focus on how a startup in its early stage of growth should pick a PR agency. Here are some rough guidelines from my years in the trenches.

Basics of Product Launch Planning

The product launch is probably the most time and sweat consuming activity that anyone in marketing ever engages in. Here’s a very short version of the basics in launching a product.

PR: Buzz is an outcome, not a goal

If you’re working in the tech industry, it’s inevitable that you’ve heard someone say, “we need some more buzz.” Quite often, this phrase is uttered in the direction of a PR (public relations) personnel. It’s also a phrase tossed around quite frequently in board rooms. Today, and in tech marketing especially, the notion that PR is a function that goes out and gets (finds?) “buzz” is fairly prevalent. It is, however, the wrong way to look at PR. Obviously, PR does not create “buzz.” PR builds and maintains the relationships, or connections, with industry and market influencers who themselves create the “buzz” on your behalf. Hence, “buzz” is the outcome, not the goal of great PR. “Buzz” also does not come solely from press articles or media coverage.

Marketing Joint Off-And-Running!

Here's how we came up with the name of our blog. Raj came to me and said that the new realities of business is all about sharing. In the past, businesses (and, by extension, business people) hoarded information and protected intellectual capital. Today, those who thrive in our ever competitive environment do the exact opposite ... they share intelligence and information. Sharing in the context of businesses usually involves the JOINT use of resources. Our blog is about all of the practical lessons learned in technology marketing and thus, an appropriate name for our cyber resting place seemed to be ... (drum roll please) ... Marketing Joint. There you have it.

- John