A Rubicon Sparkler at the beginning of the season saw CEO Nilofer Merchant presenting a discussion on influencer marketing with Nick Hayes, co-author of Influencer Marketing: Who Really Influences Your Customers.
Tag Archives | Marketing
Marketing is the way we tell our story so it’s relevant to real people in their real lives. Telling our story is more than branding and logos but how the price, the value proposition, the routes to market and all that tie together as part of a whole.
Don’t Throw Your Influencers Under the Bus Just Yet
One thing the marketing industry and the tech industry have in common is that they’re both periodically swept by fad ideas (call them memes if you want to sound hip) that enchant everyone to the point of obsession. That obsession then produces a backlash that causes everyone to swing the other way and completely dismiss the original idea. We’re going through one of those cycles right now with the idea of influencer marketing. As usual, the reality is somewhere in between the hype and the backlash–influencer marketing is not the be-all that some people made it out to be, but it’s not bunk either.
What was Ford’s Alan Mulally thinking?
Unless you are selling talking beer openers or donuts, comparing your product to Homer Simpson defies conventional wisdom. When your product is a slow-selling car, your actions are certain to leave people saying, “D’oh!”
Yet, this is exactly what Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally did recently. He wasn’t subtle, in a public speech he projected an image of Homer over a picture of Ford’s Taurus sedan while being critical of the design and talking up future models as much better. We can be pretty sure that this will not rally sales of the Taurus over the coming months, so has Mulally gone mad or is he actually smart?
Making Marketing Matter
Let’s face the facts.
Marketing isn’t what it once was. The pall cast by the Web 2.0 era where consumers are the beginning and end and marketers are no longer leading the brand, the demand creation process has gone awry, and to the point that corporate confidence has eroded for marketing’s function as a performance driver.
When it Comes to Customer Experience Design, Satisfaction is Sufficient
In the same way that hope is not a strategy, customer experience design is not an accident.
Many companies can miss the mark when it comes to delivering what their customers desire, but most fail in what I might call a blind spot – they fail deliver on their customers’ tacit demands? Those demands are essential needs and involve how the experience of purchase or adoption or use is experienced.
With a few obvious exceptions, such as dealing with Apple, I’m shocked and amazed when my (admittedly low) expectations are exceeded by a customer experience I would characterize as truly delightful. And I’m not unusual in that way. Most consumers will be delighted if a company even comes close to delivering on a customer experience, not just a product.
Marry Sony? I think not.
Sony loves me. It’s true. They recently found my email address and invited me to become a Sony Brand Ambassador. You can imagine how thrilled I was.
With Our Sincerest Apologies to the Prairie Dogs
What’s happening? Have business leaders suddenly abdicated control? Are meeting financial expectations overtaking common sense and good business judgment? Or, have corporations lost touch with their customers?
Striking Gold: The Top Five Myths about the Small Business Market
To many companies, the small and medium business (SMB) market represents the golden vein of market opportunity. Compared to the Fortune 1000 with–that’s right, still 1000 companies–SMB is a huge market with 8 million traditional businesses (plus another 32.5 million home-based businesses). The market is so big and seemingly inviting that the long string of previous failures just adds to the appeal. With so many big software and hardware companies targeting the SMB market, including some of our clients, this is a great time to take a look at some of the popular myths surrounding it.
Always About Engagement
We all want to be new school and know that the latest top hit song (via iTunes) is a song called SOS by Jonas Brothers. I had to look that up. Because what I pay attention to the most are things I already love. While I’d like to be super hip, the songs that run through my head are more like “The Way We Were” if I’m feeling melancholy, “Sweet Home Alabama” if I feel good, or Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” if I feel, ya know, sassy.
What does this have to do with marketing, you ask?
Aptitude vs. Attitude: HP Knows it Takes Consistency
HP watchers have been on quite a ride over the past few years. It’s been full of thrills, change, some major bumps, and, finally, a financial performance that has shareholders applauding. How did they get to this point? There are many explanations, but I like the contribution that consistent product messaging has made to their new situation.