May 21, 2013
Innovation and new product development are hot topics in today’s market, especially in technology sectors like IT, software, Web, telecoms, and related areas.
Every organization has its own approach for developing new offers to bring to market. Today’s firms invest up to 15-20% of revenues on R&D, depending on the sector, for creating, testing and trialing new technologies and new products.
At the same time, when it comes to developing new products, what matters is not just the amount of resources allocated to new product initiatives, but how they are applied. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Customer focus, Great products, Market-driven strategy, Marketing strategy, Product development
Posted in Customer Experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Value, Innovation, Marketing strategy, Product Development, Software, Strategy, Telecoms | Leave a Comment »
May 6, 2013
Marketing has become more specialized and strategic than ever. Customers are more vocal and increasingly deal with companies on their terms; New companies can serve clients in new markets and compete with established ones more easily, and companies have an increasing range of ways to create and deliver targeted value to their clients, while precisely measuring the effects.
To thrive in this ever changing, high-stakes world, business leaders must invest in professional marketing capabilities to better serve clients and compete.
So what what does this mean for today’s technology firms? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Marketing investment, Marketing strategy, Strategy, Technology companies
Posted in Customer Relationship Management, Customer Value, Expertise, Growing businesses, Growth, Innovation, Marketing strategy, Product Development, Start-Ups, Strategy | Leave a Comment »
April 25, 2013
This week I spent an evening discussing product and marketing strategy with a dozen up-and-coming Web-based start-ups, currently hosted by Silicon Sentier’s Le Camping, a Paris-based start-up incubation program.
In general the products and services being developed during this 4th session of the Camping were interesting, well-designed and helped solve a range of practical, everyday issues.
Among them was a product for easily planning and coordinating events among a group of friends, and a pricing recommendation service for e-tailers that are trying to remain competitive without systematically giving away their margins.
In particular, I sat down with 3 chosen start-ups to examine some of their more pressing issues, going beyond product-related aspects. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Business growth, Challenges, Customer focus, Marketing, start-up, Web
Posted in Case Study, Customer Experience, Customer Value, Marketing strategy, Product Management, Product Marketing, Start-Ups, Web | 2 Comments »
April 17, 2013
As one of the powerhouses of the personal computing revolution, Intel, along with its partner in crime Microsoft, came to symbolize the Wintel era of increasingly powerful (read energy-hungry) and standardized (read price-driven) desktop and laptop computers.
Despite the rise of smartphones and more recently tablets – both requiring small, low-cost, low-power chipsets – Intel continued to back its PC-driven empire, which continued to crumble at a historic double-digit rate.
Following the release of it’s latest quarterly results on Apr 16, this translated to a -17% decline in net income, its 5th consecutive quarterly fall.
How did this tech leader like go from great to dismal and how could they recover? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Customer Insights, Innovation, Intel, market trends, Strategy
Posted in Case Study, Cloud Services, Customer Insights, Innovation, Strategy | Leave a Comment »
April 11, 2013
Today’s technology companies use different commercial approaches to attract clients, with some more effective than others.
Examining most commercial pitches reveals consumer and business propositions that are constructed in one of the following ways:
- Direct sales propositions focus on the features and characteristics offered to clients by a product or service. (e.g. a PC with 2GHz processing speed)
- More on-point client proposals focus on the practical benefits that clients can receive from buying a given product or service. (e.g. a quicker and higher performing PC)
- Even more relevant propositions highlight the favourable points provided by an offer relative to the next best alternative. (e.g. a quick and high performance PC offering more choice of software than a Mac)
However, the most client-driven proposition is one that resonates with a customer’s particular needs and demands, offering them what they really value. (e.g a PC that provides “the right mix of performance, design and value-added services to meet your everyday demands.”)
Designing and selling a custom client value propositions is especially applicable for complex offers, where clients have a lot to consider, and for uncertain times, where they may need to be fully convinced before buying.
So how can companies get more clients from “maybe” to “yes”? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: B2B Sales, Product marketing, Sales techniques, Value selling
Posted in Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Value, Marketing strategy, Sales Strategy, Strategy | Leave a Comment »
March 29, 2013
Given the continuing pressures and constraints from today’s market place, most companies are constantly on the look out for ways to control their costs. In particular, growing companies are often more cash-strapped than most, and are always trying to do more with less.
From a staffing standpoint many growing business owners and managers increasingly look to hiring interns as a way of handling many of today’s must-have activities, which wouldn’t otherwise get all of the resources they really need.
For many growing technology companies marketing is often one of those ‘minimum-resource’ activities that are partly powered by interns.
While this is mostly a win-win approach for both employer and intern, there are several pros and cons of using interns to handle an important business activity like marketing.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Interns, Marketing strategy, performance, staffing
Posted in Expertise, Marketing strategy, Strategy | 2 Comments »
March 19, 2013
Focus on satisfying client demands
Today’s technology sector is a very innovative, fast-changing and competitive area, where dozens of new multi-device services come online daily.
In this setting there are many early-stage companies – particularly in Web, Software and devices – that have become quite good at designing elegant and useful products to serve their initial clients.
However, to thrive early-stage companies need to operate less like product development houses and more like businesses. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Marketing strategy, small business, start-up, Strategy
Posted in Customer Insights, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, Marketing strategy, Product Development, Product Management, Product Marketing, Sales Support, Strategy | 2 Comments »
March 5, 2013
Marketing is now a 2-way street
Marketing is experiencing drastic changes as interactive and digital technologies begin to replace mass media as its foundation. Both consumers and business clients are no longer a passive audience waiting to be showered by company ads and billboards.
Today’s digital, interactive and social media capabilities empowers any customer to speak up on their experiences and opinions, whether good and bad.
This has created a fundamental shift in customer-supplier relationships, that not even small or specialized technology firms operating off of the business main-street can escape. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: B2B social networking, Digital marketing, Interactive marketing, Social media
Posted in Collaboration & Participation, Customer Insights, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Service, Marketing strategy, Media & Advertising, Product Management, Product Marketing, Social Web, Strategy | Leave a Comment »
February 25, 2013
There are many emerging technology companies filled with talented people with a knack for designing and creating great 1-off products and services.
However, to stimulate growth companies also need the ability to quickly create and commercialize competitive, market-driven offers appealing to a broader range of clients.
See how one particular Web firm transformed a 1-off product into a growing opportunity with Merkado’s help. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Client growth, Creating demand, Marketing strategy, Product marketing, SaaS
Posted in Business Offers, Case Study, Cloud Services, IT Services, Marketing strategy, Product Development, Product Marketing | Leave a Comment »
February 11, 2013
Quench the thirst for rich content
Within today’s growing digital world relevant online content is becoming the core material for all B2B and B2C marketing initiatives.
Relevant content allows prospective clients to conduct meaningful research, discover the practical benefits of new offers, learn about others’ experiences and build a case to justify any new purchase – all important steps in generating company growth.
But what if a technology company has trouble satisfying its clients’ growing thirst? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Content marketing, Customer relationship management, Go-to-market, Marketing channel, Marketing strategy, Storytelling
Posted in Customer Relationship Management, Marketing strategy, Media & Advertising, Methods, Product Marketing, Sales Support, Strategy | Leave a Comment »
