Blog Yes & Know

Anticipation …

Persistent rumors that Google is launching a mobile “platform” based on open business models could culminate tomorrow, November 4, 2007. Here’s the link “href=”http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20071103/tc_pcworld/139240” I found. Bunches more online this …

Marvel Story

Marvel Comics used to sell comic books. That was their business. They created comics, they sold them in the form of books. Then, one day, they realize that the real asset isn’t the publishing business. Which is what they had directly built. What they had indirectly built is characters that had stories. And those were assets.

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?

Standing Apart: How a Blender Creates Affinity

The central goal of online marketing isn’t awareness, it’s engagement. And the five key tools to produce engagement are affinity, personality, community, co-creation, and advocacy. Engagement at the broadest level is getting the customer involved with your company, with your products and often, with your people. You want your customers to get to know your organization, its values and services. When customers like what they see and experience, the relationship deepens and it leads to affinity. Thus what was once a distant relationship becomes personal. Another way to same thing perhaps is to say that “Personality replaces traditional brand marketing”

The Buying Experience: Part of the Brand

When some people thing of “brand” they might think of the stuff that the PR team or the corporate marketing team does to create a tag line or the pretty slicks of stuff to “position” the company. But a brand is (and I know you readers have heard me say this before so my apologies for being redudant!) more than the fluff. It is the ultimate integration of everything a company does. It is the packaging because the ease, simplicity, etc of “getting the product” is part of the experience.

The Nature of Things: Web Marketing

For each era, there are new rules. In the web world today, marketing online has new rules. Marketing is no longer about awareness online, but about creating an experience for the consumer or customer.
I propose the new marketing goal with online marketing is about engagement. Personal engagement. Connection from user to company. Customers like what you help them do. Your offerings are appealing and designed around and with them. Customers are delighted because they can exchange usages with one another and therefore find more ways to use your gadget. Joy of engagement brings them back again and again.

Online Marketing as Personality Marketing

Online branding used to be about static, brochure-like, well executed but rigorously pre-defined websites. But great brands, like most people, are more than a flat dimension. People want to know …