Marketing

Making us Stickier

Posted in Book Review, Marketing, Software Development, Word of Mouth Marketing on July 10th, 2010 by Paul McArdle – Be the first to comment

Over the 10+ years we’ve been in business, we’ve been lucky enough to gradually stumble upon a formula that provides us our own measure of stickiness with clients, and potential clients, in the electricity market:
1)  We have products, such as NEM-Watch, that have proven sticky products (the manifestation of ideas) in their own right
2)  The way our clients perceive us (in terms of “making the electricity market understandable”) has proven to be understood by many (though not all) people who come into contact with us – as we have been told by those who responded to our recent survey.
3)  In addition, we’ve had some (though far from all) of our communications prove to be fairly sticky.

Given where our bus is headed, we have a keen interest in building on this base to make ourselves much stickier in future – in the above ways, and more


1)  Binary Review

It’s for this reason that this book was of great interest to me…

The Book

What we thought
Made-to-Stick

“Made to Stick
- Why some ideas Survive and others Die”
by Chip Heath and Dan Heath		 Thumbs up

… and it did not disappoint
Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way.  If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books.  Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you…

read more »

Positioning – the battle for your mind

Posted in Book Review, Marketing, Strategy on May 21st, 2010 by Paul McArdle – Be the first to comment

I first read this book about 10 years ago. Re-read recently it to refresh my memory of some of the core concepts expounded by the authors – as it is very topical for the company, where we are at presently, and with several important decisions to be made.


1)  Binary Review

This one is a pretty easy read, with good insights (and many anecdotes).

The Book

What we thought
Positoning

“Positioning – the battle for your mind”
by Al Ries & Jack Trout		 Thumbs up

Very topical for us
Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way.  If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books.  Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you…

read more »

Marketing is sick, Sales is dead

Posted in Event Review, Marketing on March 3rd, 2010 by Paul McArdle – 5 Comments

Food for thought, this morning, when I trundled along to a breakfast event hosted by the AMI, featuring Dr Don E Schultz of Agora fame, and author of a number of books (none of which, it would seem, we have previously added to our shopping cart).

Don’s main thesis is that:

1)  The “modern” approach to marketing emerged in parallel with the industrial age of society, and hence is based on similar principles (e.g. a Taylorist view of the world – which leads into a “command and control” focus internally, and a top-down mentality in terms of push-based marketing to “consumers” (how I hate that term).

2)  Given that we’re progressing from this Industrial Age into what’s been termed by a number of people as a “Customer Age”, Don’s view is that marketing also needs a transformation.

read more »

What’s Required of our “GM for Marketing & Sales”

Posted in Human Resources Management, Marketing, Strategy, Vision on January 4th, 2010 by Paul McArdle – 4 Comments

.

This post is an incomplete work-in-progress (current issue posted on 4th January).  Check back later for updates! read more »

Vision (part 1) – Our clients

Posted in Management, Marketing, Software Development, Strategy, Vision on January 1st, 2010 by Paul McArdle – 8 Comments

I posted, early in January, about where our bus is headed (you might refer to this as our Vision).  I have progressively refined this, since then, to improve the clarity of this core message.

For those who are interested, I have also started posting more details about some aspects of this Vision – as falling under any of these core headings.  This post provides more details under the first heading.

As part of the navel-gazing we have been doing recently (to coincide with our 10th birthday, which is rapidly approaching) we have been contemplating this question.  For us, there are plenty of opportunities (some mutually exclusive – at least for a company our size).

Being New Year’s Day, I thought it would be of interest to you to post a few comments about where our bus is headed into the future. Call this our very own New Year’s resolution.

read more »

Book Review: The Anatomy of Buzz

Posted in Book Review, Buzz Marketing, Word of Mouth Marketing on December 12th, 2009 by Paul McArdle – Be the first to comment

.

Perhaps more through good luck then good management, in our early days we put together the NEM-Watch product, which tends to be a product that “sells itself” – by generating a form of buzz.

Note that when I speak of buzz here, I do it within the framework of the industry in which we operate, which tends to have a staid image, as I discussed here.   Certainly our successes are not going to make it to the “Top Viral 100” list, if there is such a beast.

As a company with a small team of staff and a large number of clients, and aspirations to grow our number of clients further over the next few years, I have a keen interest in understanding how we can use principles of buzz to assist us in building up the profile of all of our products.

1)  Binary Review

Hence I found this book and excellent read.

The Book

What we thought
AnatomyofBuzz

“The Anatomy of Buzz”
by Emmanuel Rosen		 Thumbs up

Thought-provoking
Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way.  If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books.  Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you…

read more »

Don’t just roll the Dice (Tips on Software Pricing)

Posted in Book Review, Marketing, Strategy on December 9th, 2009 by Paul McArdle – Be the first to comment

.

This e-book was referenced as a teaser for the “Business of Software 2009” conference.

We had been thinking about attending this year, enroute to Toronto (to pay our clients there an overdue visit).  However, we did not go in the end (still not sufficient capability for delivery – one of the triggers of us starting Autopsy 2).

Hopefully next year!

1)  Binary Review

The Book

What we thought
DontJustRollTheDice

“Don’t just roll the dice”
by Neil Davidson		 Thumbs upWish I had been able to read this 10 years ago, when starting down this path…
Full Disclosure – oh, it’s an e-book, so this one is free, free, free!  Worth far more than the price tag, though.

If you really do want to buy a hard-copy, get it here from Amazon (yes, this one is a tracked link through which we hope to add to the total amount Amazon pays us – at $2 and counting, we might be able to buy a book with the proceeds, one day!)

read more »

Joel Spolsky’s focus is NOT on the customer

Posted in Article Review, Marketing, Methodology, Requirements Gathering, Software Development, Strategy, The Managing Director's Philosophy, Vision on November 15th, 2009 by Paul McArdle – 5 Comments

Here’s another back-dated post, with a date chosen shortly after Joel’s post to which it refers.  I’ve done this to ensure that these comments are read in context.

My apologies to those for whom this practice offends – as noted before, I believe ICT is an enabler, not an ends in itself (or, to put it another way, I am not interested in form without substance).

.

1)     Introduction to Joel’s Post

Back on November 1st, Joel Spolsky made a post for Inc magazine entitled “Does Slow Growth Equal Slow Death?”.

One of the guys in the office found this, and it stimulated a bit of discussion internally about where our bus is headed (on a restricted post).  This was good, as we had commenced our Autopsy 2 process. read more »

« Older Entries