Marketing Joint

Back to Fundamentals: Invest in AR, Revive Influencer Marketing

In response to my last posting on analyst relations (AR), Barbara French of Tekrati asked if it were “somewhat unrealistic for startups to spend much money on industry analysts?” referring to an earlier suggestion of mine that startups must spend at least $60k or so on AR. My feeling is that it is absolutely realistic. I think Barbara is referring to the tactical startups that spend money on analysts as a matter of routine and put it into auto-pilot only to see nothing positive come out of it ... and, turn off the faucet altogether. If so, yes, I see a lot of that going on, as well. These companies see it as spending (vs. investing).

8 Questions with Rowland Hanson (Father of Microsoft Marketing)

To even a technology neophyte (is there such a thing now?), Windows is synonymous with Microsoft and vice versa. To a tech marketer, Rowland Hanson is a name that is the stuff of legend. The story of how Windows got its name has been mentioned in numerous books, articles, and countless departmental discussions around branding, naming, and marketing strategies. You can Google “Rowland Hanson Microsoft Windows” and read about how Bill Gates personally recruited Rowland from Neutrogena (where he had already made a name for himself as VP of global marketing) to serve as Microsoft’s first marketing executive (VP of corporate communications). And, upon joining, how Rowland convinced Gates to name its GUI based MS-DOS extension or add-on as “Windows” instead of “interface manager.”

What's in a Name?

I was reading a page on company name orgins in Wikipedia and wanted to point you to it HERE.

I'm amazed at how many corporate names are either derived from the names of its founders or cryptic acronyms of a descriptive phrase. It's a good approach since a lot of companies end up doing something entirely different than what it first set out to do. It's a lot better than a new "Web 2.0" startup calling itself iStorage or SmartShopper only to change its business, change its name, and waste a lot of brand equity (ie., mony, time, goodwill) in the process. Well, I guess there would be very little brand equity to begin with and these companies - or "products" - won't last long enough to go through such a change anyway since too many of these endeavors are outfitted to sell "features" to Google ... fair enough.

Eureka! Happy Employees = Happy Customers

I’ve written quite a bit already in prior postings about customers – and, it’s a safe bet to say that I’ll write about it a lot more going forward. A lot of people talk about the importance of customer satisfaction. After all, the measurement of customer satisfaction is an important scorecard for management. Oh yeah, it also sounds really good to say “we’re customer-centric at Acme Corporation.”

Marketing Technology to Businesses

When it comes to hiring the marketing head, I have always preached hard the importance of looking at a marketing professional’s breadth of experience and hands on skills across ALL marketing functions and disciplines. Specific domain is important but secondary. Get a great chef and he can figure out the recipes. Get a line cook and you’ll need to give him specific recipes. At a startup, you often don’t have recipes etched in stone. So, go for the chef. I guess I should’ve also mentioned that preceding any of this is the more basic question of “consumer or business?”

Corporate Logo Stinks? You're Not Alone

If you’re a startup spending way too much time on getting the perfect corporate logo, put your time to better use. Just take a look at how some of today’s biggest tech companies evolved their logos over time.

It’s interesting to see that giant IBM stuck with their current logo for quite some time (since 1972!) while others like Xerox changed their logo a few years ago. I actually like the red Xerox logo.

- John

The Psychology of Twitter

I thought about Twitter this afternoon because I was reading some stuff on communications theory and psychology - not marketing or media. I love what Twitter potentially represents, not what it is today. But, I still cannot get myself to use Twitter – at least not yet. There’s been enough ranting by anti-Twitter people on the web so let me share some positive light on the whole thing.

ARe You Sure? Analyst Relations in 15 Minutes

There is little doubt in my mind that nothing in technology marketing is more misunderstood, ignored, and underappreciated than analyst relations (AR). AR is an area I call “unfair leverage” or what some may prefer to call competitive differentiation. Differentiation is not exclusive to products. A great marketing team leverages effective AR to pounce on its competitors and win mind- and market share quickly. I’ll present some of basic AR insights in a Q&A format below. We’ll go into various execution aspects of AR with future blog drill-downs.

Q: What is analyst relations?

Marketing and Innovation DNA

A business seeks to create customers. Therefore, to borrow from Peter Drucker, a business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Most startups understand this simple concept but fail to execute on it. The problem stems not from the acknowledgement but rather from the interpretation. So, here, I’d like to spend a few minutes on the correct interpretation.

Marketing is not …

Five Laws of Customer Marketing

It goes without saying that all startups – and, for that matter, all businesses - exist to serve a value to customers. In doing so, the startup makes money. In turn, customers provide a value to the startup. Recognizing a customer’s value and understanding how it further enhances your product/service so that you may gain more customers in the future is what I define as “customer marketing.”

On Company Evolution, Survival, and Start-Ups

While studying the evolution of animal species, Charles Darwin made some incredible insights that translate remarkably well to the world of business. Here is one of my favorites:

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one that is most adaptable to change."

This is a fascinating statement that has important implications for both the large and the small.

Getting the Most Out of Customer Interactions

Gathering accurate, insightful, and actionable information about customers and the market is Job #1 for the product management team. Market research and analyst reports are useful in assembling this information, but they pale in comparison to the value from regular and consistent direct customer interaction.

Tough Decision Making: Chess, Chrysler, and Seeing Patterns

Decision making is a tough part of all jobs. How does a VC know which startup to invest in? How does a big company CEO know which acquisition deal is good or bad? How does a startup CEO know where to direct limited, but critical, resources?

"Refer A Friend" -- PRESS HERE, PASS IT ON!

A lot has been written lately on the similarities and distinctions between … viral marketing vs. word-of-mouth … telesales vs. telemarketing … and network effect vs. bandwagon effect. In this entry, I’ll attempt to bring it all together as best as a 1,500 word entry could do with particular focus on the enterprise B2B startup.