Innovation: Indexed

Jessica Hagy has an awesome site. It’s a little project, “that lets her make fun of some things and sense of others.”

This grabbed my attention, and there is plenty more like it.

Great stuff.

Column inches - a lesson in logo (re)design

Elegant font & web 2.0 colour palette used in new logo redesign: £14,000.00

Printed Mousemats: £1,000.00

Printed Pens: £500.00

The look on everyone’s face when they see a picture of a man holding his, er, column inches, when the logo is put on its side: Priceless.

So. All publicity is good publicity right? Alas maybe not.

Definitions of marketing

There is a lot of debate and commentary about Seth Godin’s recent post about a definition of ‘marketing’.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) would have you think the definition is this. Ouch.

Is Seth’s definition any better? Does its brevity raise more questions than it actually answers? Do the four words focus the mind (an achievement in itself)?

I really think marketers need to make their own personal definition of marketing - in every role, and in every project. But I do think a little more Seth and a little less (CIM) would help focus the mind. Ofcourse the real message here is that if you under promise you are invisible. And over delivering needs to be a defacto response in your company. Why?

Consistent ‘over delivery’ = Reliability

Over delivery = ‘Delight’

Trust = Reliability + Delight

As for under promising? R.I.P.

Brand Camp: Creative Types

A story about unfair advantage

I read a great story recently - and whilst it has nothing to do with b2b marketing I like it so much I thought I’d share it anyway. What it teaches you I don’t know, but let me know.

The story stems from a discussion Martina Hingis was having with journalists after a game she lost - in her opinion due to excessive grunting.

Whilst the argument was tailing off - Martina settled the matter in a way that you and I couldn’t, because we haven’t played in a grand slam final.

When one player grunts, she said, the other player can’t hear the racket hit the ball, and is thus deprived of a vital item of information about how the ball will behave next. In other words, the grunter is taking an unfair advantage. Cheating.

When it was put to her that some people might not be able to help grunting, Martina pointed out that if Federer didn’t have to grunt, then nobody did.

And indeed Federer doesn’t grunt. And if Federer doesn’t grunt, nobody needs to. The case is closed.

Branded Software Experiences

Branded Software Experiences - A Cost-Effective and Critical Component of Your Brand Advertising Mix. Free Whitepaper from the BrandChannel.com

The race, the elephant and Jennifer

The internet is like an elephant. It never forgets.

As long as there is a server, a web page with a story about you, plus money in the meter, you are going to be read about. For days, weeks, years, possibly decades. Great news.

Possibly.

Which is why I feel for Jennifer.

Nobody wants to be made an example of, for the wrong reasons. And in that regard I refer B2B marketers to Seth’s point:

You can contact just about anyone you want. The only rule is you need to contact them personally, with respect, and do it months before you need their help! Contact them about them, not about you. Engage. Contribute. Question. Pay attention. Read. Interact.

For every Seth, it still seems there are ten thousand Jennifer’s. And that is not intended as being another slight on Jennifer. The reality is, there are very few B2B marketers not guilty of invading privacy, mis-reading trust, or abusing or mis-reading permission.

This simply needs to change, in an era where consumers of all kinds (from CIOs @ FTSE 100 firms, through to window shoppers @ a local store) are craving a new marketing tipping point.

So whilst growing your subscription list, increasing your sales pipeline or adding to your customer list can feel like a mad dash in B2B circles, my advice is simply to change the goal of your marketing. Race toward Trust and Permission. Play the long game, take the long haul.

And although this can take months, even years in B2B, the good news is (to completely over-use a racing analogy) we are probably just on a parade lap.

Albeit a highly visible, search engine optimised, parade lap; with a memory of an elephant.

I think you should watch ‘we think’

Earning a living, in appalling rendering conditions

For all the email marketers out there - earning a living in appalling rendering conditions - This is for you.

Hat tip to the author Mathew Patterson.

You may also want to check out, or join the Email Standards Project.

Want to write a book?

Today, there is one less excuse not to. Thanks to Blurb.com.

I just published my own - a photo portfolio - and will report back on the quality in due course.

My initial belief is that it is ideal for photo books, portfolios, business books, wedding books and even a blog book, something that has been in the news recently!

And for the youtubeaholics here’s a video with more info, and an interview with Blurbs CEO.

Find your brand spam

I had an interesting email exchange with Seth Godin a few days ago - in response to this post.

During this brief exchange Seth wrote, “I hate email.”

It turns out one of my email replies went straight into his spam folder. And he felt awful a couple of days later, because having retrieved the item and having read my message, he knew he would have replied sooner - given the chance.

But Seth ‘hates email.’

Of course, in reality he might not. Seth hates ‘Spam’ and the effect it has had on his email use. And his reputation. So much so, that it might have made him say (and think) the wrong thing.

For B2b brands there is a lesson here. Someone somewhere might well be ‘hating’ your product or service due to something that you have no control of. The best B2b marketers will try their darn’dest to find the unrelated ‘Spam’ that messes or cloggs up their brand - and look to fix it.

As for email? It turns out the real Killer App (for productivity and collaboration) is actually Spam. What a shame. I am sure innovation pays a price.

Great ideas

Great Ideas need landing gear as well as wings. C.D. Jackson

The 101 most useful websites

Out of millions to choose from, the UK’s Telegraph picks the 101 most useful websites.

Something to remember ’something nice’ with

Here’s a nice little idea.

And here’s the visual cues:

Plenty of scope to copy that in B2B campaigns. And I will. Unashamedly.

Sliderocket - Best in show

Sliderocket presented at Under The Radar in the US yesterday - scooping, wait for it, three gongs….Best in Show, the Judges Choice award, and the Audience Choice award.

Take the Tour.

I think this is one of those ‘Miss it - Miss out’ moments.

You see, SlideRocket is a rich internet application that provides for every part of the presentation lifecycle. It integrates authoring, asset management, delivery and analytics tools into a single hosted environment that allows you to quickly create stunning presentations, intelligently manage your assets, securely share your slides, and measure the results.

SlideRocket differentiates itself from other presentation products by being Web-based, feature-rich, easy-to-use, secure, and complete. SlideRocket is also unique in that it includes a community marketplace where content and services can be shared and transacted.

SlideRocket is the first online productivity application that embraces business level features such as collaboration, robust security, dynamic data binding and business integration with applications like Salesforce.com. SlideRocket also embraces the best of the Internet with features like asset tagging, web content mashups, embedded data services and seamless rich media support.

Very cool.