for technology companies
Helping you keep through the complexities of technology product management and marketing.
Technology companies know what life is like in the fast lane, their markets, competitors and technologies change at breakneck pace making it really hard to keep your eye on all the issues that have to be "just right" if you are going to be (or remain) successful.
We can help by pointing out the balls you may have taken your eye off, and stepping into the breach to pick them up for you.
We have a lot of experience of working with technology companies. We don't claim to be able to do your job better than you can, but to be able to step in and help out when you most need it.
In return we expect to receive an agreed flat fee when you are happy with the work we've done.
Powerful people make better liars. I wonder if the same goes for organisations?
Product Marketing is all about presenting the benefits of the product to the intended user. We do so as positively as possible: we want the product to sell. So we emphasise those benefits, play down the negatives. Particularly when marketing new products, perhaps ones that have yet to come to market, the line between fact and fiction can become a little blurred.
Some companies undeniably step straight over that line and lie. That poses all sorts of problems for the rest of us, either as marketers in the same market or simply as consumers. How can we spot that they’ve crossed it? How can we differentiate good product marketing from big, fat, porky marketing?
Professor Dana Carney, assistant professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business conducted research into lying using two groups of people: bosses and employees. As reported in the HBR this month, they were asked (by a computer) to steal a $100 bill and told that if they could convince an interviewer that they had not taken it: keep it. Professor Carney measured speed of speech, shoulder shrugs, the level of stress hormone in their saliva, how hard they press their lips together and how much their pupils dilate.
(more…)
Is your customer focus two faced?
Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face in Batman Forever - 1995
For those of you outside the UK who were lucky enough to miss our inconclusive general election campaign, you may have missed one of the smallest, but most influential, moments about which public opinion turned.
As the BBC reported it, on the 28th April, Gordon Brown was doing the usual walkabout with that false smile plastered to his face. In Rochdale (a gritty northern town), he meets Mrs Duffy who has a bit of a go at him (who wouldn’t?). Firstly about government debt (more than justified, Gordon), then the number of people on benefits (still the same as when you started 13 years ago, Gordon. Finally, she raises the issue of immigration and all the Eastern Europeans taking the jobs (probably no longer a real concern, but The Economist reports that most of the jobs that Gordon created went to them).
Gordon delivers the same old messages (which fail to answer the questions), and gets back in the ministerial car without realising that he is still wearing a Sky News microphone.
(more…)
By Chris | April 18, 2010
The benefits, or otherwise, of having an intimate knowledge of an industry.
After 30 minutes of scudding over the desert tundra we crested a rocky bluff and the ground fell away vertiginously into the Grand Canyon. The whole grandeur of one of the seven natural wonders of the world lay below us. The tiers of soft rock falling rapidly down the 1 mile drop into the Colorado River which snaked off into the distance, giving us just a glimpse of its 277 mile length. Wow.
A sense of perspective can be difficult to achieve, and this particular one was costing us $300 each, but it was unique and we could not have achieved it any other way.
After following the Colorado for a few minutes, the helicopter started to descend towards what looked like a tiny landing area. Finally it banked dramatically, and battling the crosswinds, finally settled on the rocky shelf. We scrambled out and looked around us dazed. Suddenly we were very small and the canyon was huge, towering above us and entirely surrounding us. We could no longer see the overall topography, but were stumbling over stones, with our feet slipping on the red rubble that was testament to the erosion that had created the canyon.
Now we were amongst beautiful desert plants with bright yellow and blue flowers. Cacti were dotted all around. Below us was the Colorado: huge, mud red, and lazily boiling as it swept around the corner and disappeared from view.
(more…)
By Chris | April 14, 2010
How to entertain your trade show stand visitors and completely fail to deliver your message.
Also posted in product marketing | Tagged marketing |
By Chris | March 23, 2010
What does the mythical kill switch tell us about consumer adoption?
All effectivus posts