Tag Archive for 'marketing'

I’m fed up with Marketers

Published by The Unreasonablemen on September 2, 2008 in Design and IT. 4 Comments

A guest post from unreasonablemen.net

I think they’ve got a lot to answer for. IT is such a hype driven industry and its all because of the marketers hyperbole.

Massively over used terms like ‘revolutionary’, ‘next generation’ and ‘2.0’ are thrown around incessantly. All they do is confuse our clients and create a need for more marketing spend.

Examples of this nonsense in action

  • ICT - that would be convergence? or IT&T?
  • IBM branded cars with “integrated business productivity solutions “ - otherwise known as a fax and printer in one - wow
  • Anything 2.0 - that would be something older and (becoming) crusty renamed to be cool and new - web (2.0), enterprise (2.0) anyone?
  • Social networks - err Chat groups with more features?
  • iPhone - (I’d better be careful here, this is hallowed ground) - the advent of the mobile phone was the revolution, every innovation since is evolution.

I’m being deliberately cynical in my examples, but my point is that we, the marketers are becoming our own worst enemies. Customers have to deal with the complexity and confusion we create. Its no wonder they continually say trust is a key element in vendor selection.

Lets just keep it real. Lets apply some sanity to the way we bandy around words, even check the dictionary once or twice

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Good advice for later adopter….

Published by Ben Kepes on July 31, 2008 in Business, IT, SocialMedia, Strategy and Web x.0. 2 Comments

In this swirling world of the digerati, we tend to encourage others to “drink of the kool aid” in the way that we are. What I mean is that we push our more mainstream brethren to partake in all the things we are - twitter, plurk, identi.ca, blogging, social media etc etc.

I’ve often felt this is a dangerous thing to push people into - us bleeding-edgers can cope with a service going down, or even entering the deadpool, oh we’ll moan about it ad nauseum, but deep down it’s kind of what we expect with a lot of these things. In the same way that its a pretty cool thing for VCs to be able to say they were in at the ground floor on the next Google, it’s pretty cool for the digerati to say they were one of the first to use the 2.0 offering du jour once it achieves critical mass.

One of the most even-keeled posts I’ve read lately about uptake for later adopters is from Steve Borsch. Steve gives sage advice when he says, in relation to one of his corporate clients question about whether Twitter should be one of their marketing platforms, that;

[you should] begin to participate, watch it (especially for brand mentions), but make it very peripheral to the rest of [your] strategies since the service simply isn’t reliable

I agree wholeheartedly with Steve but would extend his comments beyond merely reliability - to include viability, business-sustainability and the other due-diligence measures that somehow seem to have been forgotten in this mad dash to the kool aid fountain

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My take on viral marketing, corporate’s and mass market….

Published by Ben Kepes on July 1, 2008 in Business, Design, IT, New Zealand and Strategy. 10 Comments

This morning there is much discussion about the latest advertisement created by Telecom New Zealand. The video (see below) is apparently an office scene after Friday night drinks with staff lip-syncing to a popular song. So far so good - cutting edge, viral-esque and different.

Things get a bit more complex though. Turns out that the video was inspired from the Connected Venture video of a similar ilk.

It also turns out that the Telecom video was made in a fake office, with professional actors by high profile add agency Snitchi and Bitchi.

The twitterati, bloggerati and digerati have been quick to lash Telecom, saying it shows no imagination or vision and at first blush I agreed. But then I thought about it… Telecom New Zealand sells to (guessing here) four million or so New Zealanders. Of those Four millions I reckon about ten thousand understand what is wrong with the video and will watch it and be turned off. The remainder will be left thinking that it’s a hip message and Telecom is at the forefront of technology. If that is the case - who are we to judge? Telecom has no option but to “talk to” the highest proportion of its own customer base as possible - I know some of the marketing people within the organisation and I’m sure that they’ve thought about this stuff and considered the pros and cons of the ad.

That said, it does strike me as strange that Telecom didn’t just grab some pizzas and a few beers and a video camera and go and visit an office somewhere to create their own, authentic add. I guess it’s all about an appetite for risk within a publicly traded company.

Thoughts?

Disclosure - Diversity Limited is a consultant to Telecom New Zealand and its subsidiaries.

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Partnering for SaaS sales

Published by Ben Kepes on May 21, 2008 in Design, Efficiency, IT, New business, SaaS and Strategy. 2 Comments

Synopsis - SaaS vendors should really find channel partners to do some of the marketing heavy lifting for them

When Xero first announced its strategy of targeting accountancy firms as a primary marketing channel for its SaaS accounting product I was a little dubious. Bear in mind that SMEs traditionally see accountants as a “once a year” service and, beyond possibly some advice at inception of the business, are unlikely to approach their accountant for operational advice such as which accounting package to use.

Further to this there was no real incentive for accountants to recommend Xero - sure it meant they could (possible) convince their clients that a move to Xero would save accounting time that could then be used for value-added services - but I’m not sure how well clients would respond to this claim.

I was thus sceptical that Xero could achieve any real degree of referral sales from accountants (and bear in mind that the rapid scaling that Xero needs mean lots of customers signing on over a relatively short period of time).

I was however positive about one avenue for Xero - that of partnering with accountant to create a mutually beneficial relationship. I mentioned this to Xero nearly a year ago, a situation where accountants could bundle Xero in with another bunch of products/services that in aggregate add real value to the business.

Much as I’m a firm believer in creating SaaS aggregation potential (CRM + ERP + HRMS etc etc), this software + services concept is a powerful offering.

Great then to real in the Xero blog that a UK firm of chartered accountants has started offering a packaged “consultancy and compliance” solution to businesses. Their OnLine product packages Xero with some other consulting services.

I can’t comment on the price or how it compares to other similar offerings in the UK (OnLine runs to £195 per month) but the concept should give Xero shareholders some comfort heading into the second year post IPO.

This should be seen as a model for other SaaS startups - marketing is expensive - if a channel partner can provide some of that heavy lifting it’s a valuable thing (especially given that a third party is generally a more trusted party than the SaaS vendor themselves)

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