There’s a popular website and service called “Marketing Sherpa,” which offers specialized research for marketers. The name of the site, however, might describe how a lot of sales people view marketing in general. Oh, marketing? They’re our Sherpas. We’re climbing the Mt. Everest of sales – the real, hard work in this company – and …
Category Archive: Uncategorized
Feb 09
Advise Senior Leadership on Corporate Strategy
Advise Senior Leadership on Corporate Strategy and Organization Marketing is part of every company’s strategic mix. The direction that a company decodes to head in should be based on an understanding of the market and trends that affect the business. As a marketer, you should have a voice in the strategic decision making process. Then, …
Dec 30
The Product Roadmap
Product management is a process that ideally blends long and short term planning. There’s always what is happening right now, but if you’re doing your job correctly, you should have your eye on the future. Most product managers create a “product roadmap” to express how everyone believes the product should evolve over the next, say, …
Dec 08
Should You Do Market Research?
I have to disclose that my wife is a professional market researcher and focus group moderator, so even asking this question is heresy. In some industries, serious market research is de rigueur. For example, in my wife’s case of medical and pharmaceutical marketing, research is a fundamental of the process. Few major marketing decisions are …
Nov 29
Inform Product Design
Some technology marketers are involved in product design, but not all. The term that gets used most to describe marketers who contribute to product design is “Product Marketing.” Sometimes, the phrase “Product Management” refers to this function, though product management is more typically a role that involves basic marketing on behalf of a specific product. …
Oct 12
News Flash: There is No Customer
Now that we know a bit about the customer, we need to understand that there is no customer in enterprise technology marketing. What? That’s right, there really is no customer. There is only a committee of people who evaluate and purchase products. If you need to think of a “customer,” imagine a hydra-headed creature that …
Oct 03
Understand the Customer
Understand the customer. Understand the market. Create preference. Aren’t these all basically the same activity? Yes and no. As a technology marketer, one of your most basic jobs is to understand what the customers wants and what he or she will actually buy. The two are not necessarily the same thing. What you can interest …
Sep 23
Market Dynamics vs. Market Size
Market Dynamics vs. Market Size If it’s any consolation, I am pretty sure that the biggest successes in the tech industry also were muddled about the size and definition of their respective markets from time to time. In most cases, the true breakouts establish what the market is, and everyone else follows. So, just be …
Aug 16
Enter the Abstractagon
This chart is what I call an “abstractagon,” a visual crime committed in the name of helping technology entrepreneurs find clarity in their strategy. In this case, I am trying to show how the relatively small category of enterprise video fits into an evolving landscape of online communication and business virtualization. The idea was to …
Jul 31
Understand the Industry and Market
Understanding the market you are in may seem so obvious that it doesn’t bear discussion in a blook about marketing. However, in technology marketing, especially in the enterprise segment, the industry is so continually in flux that it can be nearly impossible to pin down your category. This is particularly true for newer technologies. The technology landscape …
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