Category: marketing
Click above to Enlargeby Braden KelleyFollowing up on my previous article – The Right Way to do Social Media – I wanted to share another value-driven social media example:Wisk’s facebook application called WiskIt.”We thought perhaps we could take our stain-fighting heritage, and take it online to Facebook,” according to Elisa Gurevich, Brand Manager for Wisk.It’s a great comment from the brand manager, and it is the way that every marketer should be thinking.What value could we deliver to customers online that is consistent with our brand and our marketing strategy?After all, despite what most people think, you don’t really need a social media strategy that stands apart from your marketing strategy.Though your approach to social media might be different than other communication channels, social media isn’t this separate thing with mystical powers.Social media should be an integrated part of your overall marketing strategy and something that every marketer has already … Continue reading
Our October Innovation Contest winners won a signed copy of “7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis” by Bill George and the right to have their article re-published here on Blogging Innovation. Here is the second of the three winning entries:by Barrett CoakleyThe Corporate Learning group at Harvard Business Publishing currently uses Eloqua as our marketing automation platform (MAP). Eloqua is very robust and does everything we need and more. However, I have been thinking lately as social media applications mature do they have the potential to be a free marketing automation platform, especially for a small business? Already today there are services that you can use to do some rudimentary tracking. For example, if I use bit.ly to shorten my URL and post a note on Twitter about a free article on my site I can track click throughs and retweets through bit.ly’s tracking capability. I can then use Google … Continue reading
Thanks to a tweet from Richard Dedor, Chris Reaburn and I were last minute attendees at a Kansas City PRSA lunch session by Dan Schawbel based on his book “Me 2.0 – Build a Personal Brand to Achieve Career Success.”The talk was part of a career day for students interested in PR, so the average audience age was 20. As a result, Dan’s slant on personal branding was customized for the industry and audience life stage.The concepts he covered were nonetheless applicable to anyone working on personal branding. From talking with many people in mid-career transitions, however, they tend to be woefully behind on how personal branding applies to their situations. So for the 25 times 2.0 crowd, here are three suggestions customized for you:1. Volunteering for meaningful assignments with professional associations is a great mid-career internship.Dan highlights the necessity of internships for college-age job seekers. Mid career job seekers … Continue reading
This is the fifth of several ‘Innovation Perspectives’ articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on “What roles do engineers and marketers play in an innovation setting, and what conflicts can arise based on their perspectives and approaches?” Here is the final perspective in the series:by Rowan GibsonCorporate innovation has traditionally been driven from the technology side; from departments like R&D and engineering. It’s an approach that can be very successful. Indeed, it has often led to great breakthroughs. But if a company wants to win in today’s value-based economy, this is no longer the best way of doing things. Instead, organizations must learn how to drive innovation from both the technology side and the customer side. Sure, innovation can spring from a technological discovery that is then leveraged to meet a customer need. But, conversely, it can be driven by an unmet customer … Continue reading
A few weeks ago I received “When Growth Stalls” by Steve McKee in the mail. “When Growth Stalls” is a relatively short, easy, and pleasant read.The book starts by making the point from research that 54.9% of companies’ growth is either currently stalled or stalled at some point in the last decade. Growth can stall for a variety of reasons including: market techtonics, the lack of consensus at the top, a loss of focus, a loss of nerve, or creation of marketing inconsistency.When you look at the world and the findings of the research in the book, one thing stands out, and that is often companies run into trouble because executive teams either are too busy to notice or too afraid to admit that they:Have lost their ability to differentiate their products or services from the competitionHave customers who don’t understand the company’s point of differentiation anymoreDon’t know their place … Continue reading
This is the fourth of several ‘Innovation Perspectives’ articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on “What roles do engineers and marketers play in an innovation setting, and what conflicts can arise based on their perspectives and approaches?” Here is the next perspective in the series:by Mike BrownIt’s natural for engineers and marketers to be at odds over innovation. Engineering generally focuses on internal perspectives related to conformity, efficiency, and the cost side of the income statement. Success is defined as just enough performance for the costs incurred.Marketers, on the other hand, are natural customer advocates, espousing innovation and differentiation in the customer experience a brand creates. So while engineers target a threshold level, marketers want to maximize and create advantage from a customer’s brand experience.Growing up in the B2B transportation and logistics business put me at the heart of this struggle. Our “engineering” … Continue reading
