Effectivus Product Management » promotion

Steamed FUD

Chris — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:00:05 +0000

Like so many things invented elsewhere[i], the high-tech industry has grabbed the marketing ploy of spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) through disinformation and made it all their own.

The idea is simple. Put just enough doubt into the minds of your customers that there is something dodgy about a competitor, or their product, so as to instil enough FUD to stall or reverse a buying decision.

A classic was a SEGA marketing campaign with the slogan “Genesis does what Nintendon’t”.

Let’s face it; FUD is the last defence of the desperate. You just know that the corporate marketing barrel is empty when a high-tech firm turns to FUD. It implies that you can’t differentiate your product, you are haemorrhaging customers and your stock has hit the floor.

If that’s the case then your CEO will be purple in the face and with steam coming out of his ears (despite the fact that it’s probably his fault that you’re in the situation in the first place). Who is he going to call? We’re going to reach for anything we can use, aren’t we? So let’s look at the different ways you can use FUD.

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Post tags: marketing, pricing, specification

What the Dog Saw

Chris — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:21:57 +0000

I can find almost any topic interesting if presented well. In fact, I love being given a glimpse into the normally hidden world of a new specialty. Not only do you learn about stuff you would never normally encounter, but you invariably get a view of the alien culture of those who inhabit this strange new realm. As I learn about a new topic my mind is constantly searching for analogies between it and topics I understand or experiences I have, and then, “POW!” I get a revealing insight into something completely different. I wish this inquisitive habit mean that I was a Polymath or a Renaissance Man, but sadly I’m more of a butterfly generalists, flitting from one subject to another.

As I write this, I have my media player in random mode and am delighted by it switching from Stéphane Grappelli to Indigo Girls.

I do have a deep respect for those who combine my interest with real knowledge and Malcolm Gladwell never fails to impress. In “Open Secrets” in his collection of essays, he touches on Enron, Al Qaeda, Nazi Propaganda, Prostate Cancer, and the Cold War, all in search of a clear differentiation between “Puzzles” and “Mysteries”.

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Post tags: Book review, marketing, MBA, writing

Limited only by your imagination

Chris — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:00:16 +0000

Are your customers completely devoid of imagination? Do they consistently fail to understand how hugely useful your product is? Do they consistently fail to use it in the way that you intended?

Remind them with this cute and all powerful marketing phrase; “Limited only by your imagination”.

Actually, don’t.

Apart from the fact that it suggests, in a backhanded way, that your customer, has a pretty limited imagination (“The product is limited only by your complete lack of imagination”), it really tells them nothing more. In fact the implication is that you don’t know what your customers could possibly do with your product.

In The Economist last week there was an article about Stan Lee. Stan was editor in chief of Marvel Comics for 30 years where, with Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby, they created Spider Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Thor and Iron Man. Now that is imagination at work!

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The art of writing very little

Chris — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:22:32 +0000

effectivus Wordle (www.wordle.net)

I was at the Thames Valley Innovation Conference. We’d already had a long morning of “death by PowerPants”; a succession of grey men in dark suits talking about “innovation” but completely failing to do anything innovative other than the odd feeble PowerPants animation (“oh look, shiny thing moving, ooooh”).

Then Harry Hobson and Andy Reid of ?WhatIf! stood up.

They bounced around the stage like a couple of Duracell bunnies, got the audience on their feet (reluctantly) and engaged, for the first time that day. Woohah, they’ve got our attention!

Then Andy held up a copy of “Blue Ocean Strategy” (Kim and Mauborgne); “anyone read this?”. I, and a few other delegates, put our hands up. “Well”, he continued, dropping the book and holding up just the dust jacket “you needn’t have bothered, it’s all here”.

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Post tags: ideas, marketing, writing

The Secret of Good Marketing? Give Something Back!

Chris — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 06:18:41 +0000

Lying in bed on Friday morning I was struck by a momentus marketing insight. I was listening to the BBC’s Today programme. It was one of those short pieces where the ageing presenters try to show that they can be “fun”. They were reporting on the phenomenon of viral marketing (it takes the Today programme a few years to catch on to new stuff). They were interviewing Matt Golding of Rubber Republic. He observed:

“There are a lot of people out there that are failing to realise that you actually have to give something; just trying to communicate a really strong message, get a lot of points across about their brand … its about buying time with people and not abusing that”

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Post tags: fun, ideas, theory

promotion

Chris — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 23:00:36 +0000

You know that you’ve got a great product, but do you know who you are trying to sell it to? Do you know what they will value in the product and how to speak to them about that?

We can help you to work through this, help to define your target market, help identify how to locate them, and then speak to them in language which they understand.

We can speak to the press on your behalf, stand up for you at conferences or demo your product at tradeshows.