Archive for March 2007

Traditional marketing and branding has an inside-out approach. Understanding the customer or client is now the central challenge to B2B companies. This means that companies should adopt an outside-in perspective.

I just heard a podcast of Maureen Blandford and Michelle Nichols (BusinessWeek) on reasons why business-to-business organizations should spend less on marketing and more on sales to increase revenues. I think Blandford was not only inaccurate but illogical.

A while back, Geoffrey Moore remarked on the ineffectiveness of B2B branding (at least compared to B2C branding). Today, I read an article by Jon Miller, who is holding the contrary position—that B2B branding matters. Who is right?

In the first part of this post, we discussed the nature of the ordinary kind of branding. Last post, we discussed the shortcomings of this approach and distinguished it from the true nature of branding. This time, we’ll discuss how to achieve this kind of branding and who is good at it.

As usual, Seth Godin adopts a strong position: good is much worse than great. I am reminded of Spinoza’s famous claim (from 1677) that “all things worthwhile are as difficult as they are rare” (Pt. V, prop. 42).
If good isn’t nearly as good as great, it seems to follow from this claim that it’s [...]

Last time we discussed the ordinary kind of branding. This time we’ll look at the better kind.

Good branding creates an understanding of the essence of the company. Just as a writers characterization allows the reader to grasp the true essence of the individual (whether fictional or nonfictional), the brander must establish the true nature of the company.

John Gruber offers a new take on an old debate: are design templates a good idea? He’s talking about blog templates, but the idea is general. And so is his conclusion:
Default templates are terrific for people who can’t or don’t want to design their own—but they’re terrible starting points for anyone attempting to establish their [...]

Seth Godin brings up an example of an attitude that I see often. When you work at a company for a while, it’s easy to start thinking that your company is the universe. In this way, you start optimizing the work to suit you, not your customers.
In the agency world, it’s the same thing. [...]

Many people have written about SEM and/or SEO. Today, I want to offer an outsider’s perspective on the industry.