Archive for the 'marketing' Category

Reading List

Published 11/15/2008 in books and marketing. 2 Comments

A regular reader of Chiperoni.org has suggested that I add a book list.

Yesterday I stopped by at the uni library and browsed thru the marketing section. I picked up “How Customers Think” by Gerald Zaltmann. And some pages caught my eye. The 10′000 feet view.

four challenges

Ways to find original ideas and get out of the customary, surface-oriented thinking about consumers:
for fleeing our worn cognitive hampers

He describes the Titanic Effect here:
the titanic effect

Another book I browsed thru is:
“Marketing-Erfolg im Internet” by Martin Blatter-Constantin. It stood out of the crowd ‘cos it offers nifty black and white icons in the left column. And I liked the fact that it talks about personas from the beginning.

anna analog vs achim digit vs dane digital

Other books I brought along for reference purposes, include:

  • The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott - a recommended read; I wrote a couple of blog posts here and here.
  • Marketing your Business, A Guide to Developing a Strategic Marketing Plan by Ronald A. Nykel - no opinion yet.

Last in today’s list is “The Marketing Mavens” by Noel Capon:
marketing maven

On Following Tweet Streams

Published 10/26/2008 in marketing, tech and tweet. 0 Comments

I recently talked to Persillie on the difficulty of following people’s tweet streams. Esp. if you have a limited time budget and can only tune into Twitter every so often.

For example, I follow Kathy Sierra’s stream at Twitter. You can see quite a few of her 140 character statements in my Twitter Favorites.

Re: “PR is Dead?” meme–PR has same issue as UI design: it’s NOT something you can slap on afterward. Must be baked into product.

“Job happiness” should not have a single point of failure… but too often it ALL depends on your current boss. Bad managers REALLY suck.

Things Smart People Do: Martin Fowler (software dev pioneer) said he went to a ‘passionate users’ talk *because* he “doesn’t like the topic”

Powerful template 4 learning: “I will do Project A, to ‘force’ myself to learn Skill B” rather than “I must/will learn Skill B” @hrheingold

PR/marketing should fail when it’s about “getting word out”. If they’re about helping “users kick ass”, we’re good. Less pitch, more teach.

I see a huge overestimation of the importance of “social” in marketing/PR or product dev in general today.

etc, etc…

The difficulty arises when other Twitterers ask questions and Kathy responds. I don’t see the question and it gets much more difficult to follow.

Twitter is like a cocktail party. The music is so loud, sometimes you only hear parts of the answer.

Are there Twitter tools that help with this? The only tool I can think of is Twitter Search (formerly Summize).

Regarding passionate users, see this video of the talk that Kathy held at the SF WordCamp 2008:

Techniques for Reviewing a User Interface

Published 10/24/2008 in marketing and tech. 1 Comment

I like this quote:

The GUI is the only contact the user has with the application.

that I found in this presentation:

which I found while surfing thru my Sitemeter stats.

An obvious fact. Yet…

When talking to software developers, I often hear complaints about the quality of code (especially if somebody else programmed the app). While I understand that wild, unruly code creates maintenance problems and is more error prone, I would expect the same care, investment and commitment on the GUI level. At the very least.

See also Leah Guren’s presentation at In Other Words on “It may be GUI…“.

Appfrica Interview on MTN Uganda

Published 10/7/2008 in Malawi, africa, blogger, marketing and tech. 0 Comments

Just a quick note to point to an interesting interview with an official of MTN Uganda at:

Appfrica: Interview With MTN’s Erik van Veen - Part 1

These points caught my eye:

(…) revenues per user, are very low in Africa by international standards, and require a low cost operating model if the Operator is to be profitable. If you look at East Africa, new customers joining the mobile category spend about $4 per month – that is not a lot!

(…) I see Asian, especially operators from the sub-continent, playing a bigger role in Africa as they have been able to survive in cut-throat, highly competitive, low tariff environments in their home markets.

(…) And then you have to deal with the cost of doing business in Africa. Infrastructure and productivity remain major hurdles that add costs to the P&L. Our own success, relative to other companies in most African economies, has backfired on mobile operators in Africa, where governments see these as an easy source of tax income. In East Africa, excise tax (read luxury tax) has been institutionalized within the mindset of financial ministerial policy on tax. Uganda has the 2nd highest tax burden on mobile services in the world, Tanzania 3rd. Just think about it – in Uganda we hand over nearly a third of the cost of every call to the government. What a shame!

It is a short sighted initiative that is impeding growth of the ICT industry.

Very interesting read!

Quick side notes:
There was a recent article that Malawi is considering to add (or has already added) a 10% tax on all airtime. I can’t find the Daily Times article online any more (note to myself: make a screenshot next time) See this Daily Times article.

There’s also White African’s catch phrase to keep in mind.

Zemanta

Published 9/19/2008 in africa, basel, blogafrica, blogger, blogging, marketing and tech. 0 Comments

I am learning a lot from the African blogs I am reading…

App+frica recently wrote about useful web applications for bloggers in developing countries.

In his list he mentions Zemanta:

Zemanta, which just scored a new round of funding from Union Square Ventures, is a huge time saving tool. It’s a browser-side plug-in that scans the context of your blog posts (even as you’re writing it) and offers up a ton of time saving shortcuts like related links, photos, wikipedia articles, blogposts and suggested tags. With the click of a few buttons it can help you format your post in a way that normally takes hours! For instance, if you’re writing an article about Google, Zemanta will find recent articles about Google from other blogs, photos, logos and more.

It works with all the major blog platforms including Wordpress, Livetype, Blogger, Drupal and more. When I had an abundance of time (and internet) I would usually just do all those things myself but Zemanta speeds up that process significantly.

Zemanta analyzes your text and then searches the web to suggest related articles, photos, tags. For some texts, the results still need tweaking. But this is a cool tool and a sign of what’s coming.

Thanks App+frica for sharing. I hadn’t heard of it before. And I live in a so-called developed country.

Freeconomics

Published 9/16/2008 in General and marketing. 0 Comments

Interesting background article, for future reference:

We can start with a simple user question: why would we ever pay for anything that we could get for free? When anyone buys a version of something they could get for free, what are they purchasing?

From my study of the network economy I see roughly eight categories of intangible value that we buy when we pay for something that could be free.

In a real sense, these are eight things that are better than free. Eight uncopyable values. I call them "generatives." A generative value is a quality or attribute that must be generated, grown, cultivated, nurtured. A generative thing can not be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced. It is generated uniquely, in place, over time. In the digital arena, generative qualities add value to free copies, and therefore are something that can be sold.

Source: Edge: BETTER THAN FREE By Kevin Kelly. Via Appfrica.

Complicit

Published 8/7/2008 in marketing. 0 Comments

I agree with
this.

Upgraded to Wordpress 2.6

Published 7/26/2008 in marketing, tech and wordpress. 2 Comments

A message from the admin: Chip moved to WP 2.6.

If anything appears broken, leave a comment ;-)

Update:

Finally, fixed the Terong Related Links plugin, which hasn’t been working for the past months since I upgraded to WP 2.5. I found this fix here and simply replaced the PHP code as described. After activating the plugin, open a blog post and you should see a Related Links in the right-hand sidebar below Related.

chiperoni.org › Edit — WordPress

I’m trying out a new plugin called XML Sitemap Generator for WordPress.

Develop More and Better Ideas

Published 6/13/2008 in marketing. 0 Comments

Interesting read:

Develop More and Better Ideas

Web Ink Now: Top ten PR tips for small businesses

Published 5/5/2008 in marketing. 1 Comment

Top ten PR tips for small businesses

1. The old ways to get noticed were to buy expensive advertising and beg the media to write about you and your products. The best way to get noticed today is to publish great content online.

2. Don’t talk about what your products and services do. Instead talk about how you solve problems for your customers.

3. Be enthusiastic and have fun. People want to do business with people they like.

4. Dont rely on spamming the media with your press releases and PR pitches.

5. Use press releases to reach buyers directly.

6. Comment on blogs, forums and chat rooms but don’t talk about your products and services.

7. Read the popular books in your market and write a review on Amazon. Use your real name and affiliation.

8. Shoot a short video and put it up onto YouTube

9. Know what search terms people are using to find products and services like yours and create content that search engines will reward with high search engine rankings.

10. Don’t be egotistical. Nobody cares about you and your products. Your buyers care about themselves and solving their problems.

Twitter-like Presentations

Published 4/10/2008 in marketing. 0 Comments

for future reference:

I like the format of these presentations:

http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2008/04/entrepreneurial.html

http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2008/02/thoughts-for-to.html

Marketer’s Cheat Sheet for cvs and svn?

Published 2/26/2008 in marketing and tech. 0 Comments

At work we use cvs and subversion for version control, light years better than Visual SourceSafe.
I’m trying to extend my active command line knowledge of cvs and svn… Remember I’m a low and humble marketer / content developer / writer.

Regular commands I use:

cvs update
cvs commit -m "message" filename

cvs tag -F "tagname" filename
cvs update -dPr tagname to checkout a tagged version
cvs update -dPA to return to head

I’m using cvs (command) --help to list the various options available.

I’m a visual person, and can remember best when I write things down and see them. How do you keep on top of cvs and svn commands? Can you recommend a cheat sheet?

The easy way

Published 2/17/2008 in marketing. 0 Comments

Stumbled across this blog post:

It’s really easy to insist that people read the friggin manual. It’s really easy to blame the user/student/prospect/customer for not trying hard, for being too stupid to get it or for not caring enough to pay attention. Sometimes (often) that might even be a valid complaint. But it’s not helpful.

Blogs can kill brands

Published 2/17/2008 in blogging and marketing. 1 Comment

good quote:

In a pre-web world, marketing was synonymous with advertising; today, the customer is active and has true recourse.

via Swissmiss

They say it’s all about the customer

Published 1/31/2008 in marketing. 1 Comment

Since Mlle. A. started using Google Reader in full force a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been getting a steady flow of cool, funny, high-quality articles and links.

This one caught my eye:
(…) customers don’t really care how you’re better until they understand what you’re gonna do for them.

The next please

Published 12/5/2007 in General, books and marketing. 1 Comment

aargh*

Here’s the next marketing book to read:
Interview with Seth Godin about Meatball Sundae

What a name for a book.

*just finished reading “The new Rules of Marketing and PR”

I got out of bed this morning

Published 12/4/2007 in marketing. 0 Comments

I finished reading David Meerman Scott’s book on: “The new rules of Marketing and PR”.

Here’s a quote which is probably already the most quoted excerpt out of the book:

Big news is great, but don’t wait.

  • Have a new take on an old problem? Write a release.
  • Serving a unique marketplace? Write a release.
  • Have interesting information to share? Write a release.
  • CEO speaking at a conference? Write a release.
  • Win an award? Write a release.
  • Add a product feature? Write a release.
  • Win a new customer? Write a release.
  • Publish a white paper? Write a release.
  • Get out of bed this morning? Okay, maybe not… but you are thinking the right way now!

His main point is that news releases should be written for a wider audience, not just journalists.

And I liked the chapter on avoiding typical industry PR speak (see the The Gobbledygook Manifesto).

I found the book helpful.

Most of all I felt reassured that somebody else has written down lots of the things I discovered on my own by following a hands-on, learning-by-doing, check-out-what-works approach regarding blogs and news releases.

But before I go into further detail, I’ll wait for Mlle. A. and her literary criticism.

Here’s my previous post on this book:

Content drives action

Weekend Thoughts

Published 10/6/2007 in flickr, mac and marketing. 1 Comment

I just installed GIMPshop on my (no longer new) MacBook. And the interface looks a lot simpler.

And I received a Skitch invite. I don’t like the pink heart icon much. Kitsch.
But I somehow managed to get past that and watch the introductory video (!). The features look very useful. It offers a direct upload to Flickr. Looks like a good tool for quick screenshots. OS X’s Grab only offers TIFF, which isn’t recognized by the Flickr Uploadr for some reason or other. And which means opening GIMP or GraphicConverter or Preview. 20 clicks more.

BTW, I’m sitting in a train to northern Germany and there are quite a number of free seats for a Friday evening… (and a power plug right next to me: hope it works). I guess, the strike warnings caused a lot of people to reschedule.

(Insert pause to take a snapshot of setting sun near Karlsruhe, will be uploaded when I find adequate WiFi access)

Quite a few regional trains have been cancelled. The official reason given via the pa is “wegen Notfall” (Translation: cos of an emergency).
Why not say strike? Emergency sounds like accident or natural catastrophe (can’t spell, too much German on my brain).

Wondering out loud:
Would the new PR approach be more direct and advise the German railway company to use the word “strike” or would it find a roundabout way to describe the situation?

(I forgot to take “The New PR” book with me.)

(I like the size of my 13″ MacBook. Just right for travelling.)

Anyway, “the new PR” book has got me thinking a lot more about buyer personas.

Who am I writing my marketing collateral, company blog posts, and technology announcements for? What kind of things are they interested in? How does a buyer persona search for a new service provider? Keeping your target audience in mind while writing is nothing new. Buyer personas, though, are on a more detailled level, describing a character and a typical work/leisure setting.

And it also reminded me of Bogo’s talk at the STC Transalpine conf in Zurich last April. He stressed the importance of agreeing on personas to develop adequate tech. documentation and user interfaces.

I signed up for Redbubble.com a couple of days ago. It offers a service to upload, sell and print artwork via the web all-in-one. Payment is transferred by Paypal or cheque. There’s a minimum price for the printing and production costs. And you as the seller of the artwork can decide on the markup (i.e. your gain/income/profit). I stumbled across this service via Ozczecho’s Flickr profile. My first impression of Redbubble.com is very positive and IMHO this could develop into a viable Flickr and Etsy alternative.

Still on my list of fun to dos:
Buy a DSLR
Set up an Ubuntu laptop
Learn more Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts (zoom in and out with command + option and ^ or ‘)
Install WordPress 2.3
Try out Pixelmator
Write a book (LOL)
Go on vacation

Disclaimer: at times Chiperoni.org is my personal online thinktank and my half-geek playground.

Content drives action

Published 8/5/2007 in General, marketing and tech. 2 Comments

reading

I started reading “The new rules of Marketing and PR” yesterday, and I like it. I’m at Chapter 3, and so far it’s a good summary of things I’ve discovered. Reinforcing experiences which I’ve been calling Low Budget Internet Marketing.

A couple of notes:

  • Today’s search engine setup means you can reach buyers directly.
  • One-way interruption advertising is over.
  • Good content will help buyers decide. There’s people like you and me that do their own research and consider a decision over a period of time before buying.
  • There’s a “long tail” effect for news announcements as well.
  • The lines between PR and marketing are blurry.

Meerman’s right about the way consumers and buyers do their own research, ignoring the advertising to a large extent. And evaluating on their own. Take me as an example: I’m in the marketplace looking for an entry-level DSLR and I’m reading review sites, asking questions, watching the news and prices.

(Yes. My evaluation process is long. And I overdo it sometimes. But then I’ve been working in IT for the past 9-10 years. 6 months minimum.)

The Learning Effect of Blogging:
There’s one effect I’d like to highlight: by setting up my own blog, posting short tumble blog-like entries, and keeping track of a couple of marketing bloggers, the new rules aren’t that new to me. Blogging is a great way to learn. Instead of watching from the sidelines, my advice is to dive in.

I’ll try to post a summary as I go along… Mlle. A. is reading the same book. Between the two of us, we’ll get some two-way discussion going. Feel free to join us.

Pragmatic Marketing Blogs

Published 7/19/2007 in marketing. 0 Comments

for future reference:
List of marketing blogs at Pragmatic Marketing

sakku.worker

Published 7/11/2007 in blogger, marketing and tech. 3 Comments

haben wollen

Via this Flickr comment I heard that there’s a Sakku competition for bloggers…

I already blogged about Sakku bags some time ago. And I would love to win a bag. As a knowledge worker and digital nomad, I believe I’m the right candidate :)

I’ll write a review.

Take photos.

And test the solar cells where ever I go.

Corporate Blogging Experience

Published 7/8/2007 in blogging, marketing and wordpress. 0 Comments

useful:
What others are saying about corporate blogging

I like this:

Actions always prove louder than words. Lead by example. Give people something to aspire to but don’t make it so daunting that they will be easily discouraged.

This holds true for a lot of other things as well, not just blogging…

Apparently the number of blogs is peaking and the hype is starting to move on. Meno male. I’ve always had hype antibodies. On the other hand, I’m not a sceptical late adopter either…

Blogging isn’t easy. It’s time-consuming. And results will not be immediate. But it’s a good way for small and medium-sized companies to bypass the media gatekeepers and spread their message faster. The publishing world has changed / is changing.

Another useful article I found (while writing and editing this post) is Quick Tips on Corporate Blogging:

  • Designate an editor.
  • Don’t be too precious about it, but do have a purpose.
  • Content is king.
  • Develop a content engine.
  • Have an editorial policy.
  • Experiment, learn, and evolve.
  • Make it a core part of your marketing strategy.
  • Be patient and watch your audience grow.

The way I see PR - or parts of it

Published 7/3/2007 in General and marketing. 0 Comments

A regular Chiperoni reader asked about my opinion on Scoble’s recent post on PR and developers.

Not an easy question to answer. I’ve been following a pragmatic way. And I’m in a smallish company where I need to generate interest rather than block off journalist queries. A very different situation.

I would tend to agree more with Guy Kawasaki’s DIY list of PR tips. I’ve had good experiences with being authentic and sticking to the truth. There’s so much marketing glib out there. In my experience, journalists prefer talking to somebody that knows the product ;) but can explain the big picture. Some PR folks want to control the message yet know too little about the product.

But Kawasaki also says you should try to find an interesting story. Just presenting the tech. specifications or technology highlights isn’t really going to thrill anybody. And that’s a pitfall some developers may fall into. And many small IT companies want to appear serious and established. Whereas looking dynamic and fast-moving would scare the established competitors more.

As the comments show being secretive isn’t going to work the same way for all companies. And IMHO, Scoble profits more from developer or entrepreneur interviews than polished PR interviews.

In our fast-moving world, bad or inaccurate press stories may also generate good attention. Cos some people will look closer to form their own opinion.

This sums up my current strategy.

With the usual disclaimer: off the top of my head and unreflected….

PR and developers

Published 6/28/2007 in marketing. 2 Comments

Scoble says:

But PR departments keep the developers away from the press because the PR departments know that developers:

1. Are likely to tell the unvarnished truth.
2. Aren’t skilled in explaining/demoing what their product does.
3. Might be boring or unprofessional on camera.

Do-it-yourself PR

Published 6/10/2007 in marketing. 1 Comment

I’ve got to link to this:
How to Change the World: DIY PR

See also this older entry on visibility for small companies.

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