Monthly Archives: October 2012

Stupidly Simple

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Simple declarative statements communicate most effectively. Kinda like the one above. Marketing messages need to be simple, yet marketing “pros” routinely make them complicated. Nowhere is the situation worse than in tech marketing. Perhaps lingering “feeds and speeds” mindsets pervert messaging. Or worse yet, maybe marketing types are budding authors who use marcom materials to practice their literary skills (there is a novel in every marketing director, which is a damn good place to keep it). Weak marketers rely on buzz words when copywriting skills and product differentiation do not exist. Even I suffer from an alienating allegiance to alliteration. Complexity sucks, and sucks the life out of messaging. People don’t have time to think, and forcing them into unsupervised thinking is dangerous. Keeping messages simple, even sparse, leads buyers rapidly to cognition, self-qualification and motivated interest. Slowing them down with needless and distracting verbiage does the opposite. Yet tech … Continue reading →

Interviews and Lectures

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A busy month is ahead for me and my new book Start-up CEO’s Marketing Manual, with the fun kicking off this morning. Sandhill.com, the web site for Silicon Valley venture capital, has published their interview with me about the book. I have to admit to being flattered when they said I was a Silicon Valley legend, though given how legends typically die this may be more of an omen than advertisement. Aside from brightly spooky intros, the interview covers the groundwork for the book, relates some of the sadder aspects of start-up leadership, and sets the stage for November’s to-do. On the 12th I’ll speak to the Silicon Valley Forum’s Marketing SIG on the topic Start-up CEO’s Marketing Myopia – How to lead marketing without being a guru. Drawn from the book and mumble-mumble-mumble years of leading CEOs by the nose, this part-lecture, part-discussion, part-comedy act will help start-up CEOs and their marketing … Continue reading →

Mystique Mistakes

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An ounce of image is worth a pound of performance. This is sadly true, and for marketing mavens it is a cursed blessing. The fact is that people buy image. This occurs in faddish B2C markets and function-driven B2B sectors. Image is often the single most motivating factor in a purchase decision. From Louis Vuitton to Barack Obama to IBM, sales are made on the strength of image. Craft a certain image and people will lob lucre at you or elect you to high office. Fail that image and disaster is almost certain. Reliance on mystique is both the essence and the failure of branding. Mystique is defined as “an aura of mystical power … a framework of beliefs constructed around a person or object, endowing the person or object with enhanced value or profound meaning.” In no sense of the word does mystique equate with reality. Many Hollywood stars … Continue reading →

Tripping Customers

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My father was too fond of the old joke about a farmer and his mule. The punch line of the joke was that the farmer would whack the mule in its forehead with a two-by-four, saying “First you have to get his attention.” Customers are like that, though I don’t advocate felonious assault as a promotional tactic. Modern life is complicated to the point that we can only be distracted. Thus, distraction is the first act of promotion. If you cannot pry your prospects’ attention away from their work, smartphones, Facebook and on-demand videos, then you cannot possibly move them toward buying. Long gone are the sad old days of advertising when spokesmodels pointing to refrigerators with a disembodied droning voice pitching platitudes about the appliance. Customers are mules and have to be coaxed with similar bluntness. This is not new, though the chain of advertising practice is oddly convoluted … Continue reading →