By Linda Forrest
I read an interesting blog post today at Buzz Machine on the changing nature of the media. The post illustrates that news, unlike in the print-only days, has mutated online such that it’s a collaborative endeavour best summed up by the following Marshall McLuhan-esque line from the article, “In print, the process leads to a product. Online, the process is the product.”
The post has a number of charts and diagrams to help illustrate this point and it did get me thinking with the axiom that with online media, the process is the product. Indeed, since I began my career in media relations close to a decade ago, generating media coverage has changed considerably. It used to be that this was a clearly defined process and that once the article had been published, that was that. Now, with the organic nature of the web, a variety of other voices can be added to the piece in the form of comments, opinions, corrections, links, and any other range of inputs.
Well-known technology blogger Om Malik stated a month ago, “I have often said that the real value of blogs lies in the intelligence embedded in the comments.” and perhaps it is fair to extend this to online news as well – the news isn’t in the news itself in the traditional sense, but in the conversations that it starts and the resultant collaborative coverage as a whole. If indeed this is true, the challenge then becomes managing one’s brand and messaging as other inputs raise their voices and add to the conversation.
By Francis Moran
I had one of those conversations last week that frustrate the hell out of me and leave me wondering when, if ever, some technology executives are going to come to their senses.
I was at a session of the Ottawa Wireless Cluster on Thursday evening and I took advantage of the networking to renew an acquaintance with a seasoned CEO, someone who has helmed at least a couple of companies, bringing one of them public.
As usual, I asked him how things were going with his latest venture, now about four years old. He said things were alright, but that it had taken about twice as long as he expected to reach the level of business he currently has. Naturally, I asked him what he was doing to acquire that business. Such as, oh, I don’t know … marketing?
With no apparent awareness of the bitter and tragic irony at play, he proceeded to tell me his new company didn’t need — indeed, didn’t want! — marketing because it is the little upstart in the sector and he doesn’t want to tip off his competitors to what he’s doing. He said he gets customers through word of mouth, or by identifying prospects and going after them.
Now, I have nothing against a sales-driven customer-acquisition strategy and there’s no more powerful a channel than fabled word of mouth, but if it’s taking you twice as long as you expected to acquire those customers, maybe the direct route could use a little help. Such as, oh, I don’t know … marketing?
Naw, he said, don’t need it. In fact, don’t want it because, until very recently, his company was in “stealth.” God, I hate that word. Check out what I wrote about it in Mass High Tech Journal a while back. I have never been able to fathom why companies elect to be in so-called “stealth mode.” I have yet to come across one that was truly stealthy; that is, hiding itself from every prying eye. Most are talking to just about everyone — potential investors, candidate employees, suppliers, landlords, bankers, you name it — everyone except potential customers. In other words, they are simply failing to invest in marketing, and excusing it to themselves by pretending they’re doing something exotic and daring.
Fortunately, I also had the chance last week to at the same OWC event to conclude that conversation and go listen to a tech company CEO who really gets it. The featured speaker at the event was Nick Quain, founder of Cellwand, a gorgeous little company that has rolled out one of the wireless sector’s first premium directory assistance products, #TAXI, with others in the wings. I could write a lot about the product and the company’s strategy but for the purposes of making a stark contrast, suffice it to say that Cellwand executed effectively on the technology requirements and has racked up phenomenal success securing partnerships with wireless carriers to the point that the company now has blanket coverage in Canada, where it started, and is available on 150-million phones and counting in the U.S. It’s a textbook case study in building the right product and the right channel to market, and Nick did a great job of sharing the lessons he has learned along the way.
But, get this: He insisted that, phenomenal product, great carrier partners and blanket coverage notwithstanding, Cellwand is dead in the water without one more key ingredient. Such as, oh, I don’t know … marketing?
The CEO I spoke with before Nick’s presentation began was still there when it was over. I sure hope he was paying attention.
By Danny Sullivan
I’ve recently been working with a client on the development of article discussing the economic downturn and how companies can profit by investing in customer-facing activities during this period, rather than the usual approach of cutting back in these areas.
The article isn’t going to appear for a while, but I wanted to raise the topic now, as it’s one that affects PR and marketing people directly.
Many of us who worked in this business during the years when the tech bubble burst will have stories to tell about the hacking and slashing of marketing budgets that were, in many cases, first in the line of fire. Unfortunately, marketing is often viewed as an area of business that doesn’t have enough impact on the bottom line to prevent the hatchet falling heavily on it.
But in the article I’ve been working on, my client references data showing that companies that chose to increase their investment in marketing during previous downturns actually vastly outperformed those companies that cut or maintained marketing budgets, once the economy started to recover.
It’s an interesting topic, and I’m sure it’ll be of even more interest as marketing and PR departments start making the case for their budgets in the face of the downturn.
Of course, I’ll refer back to the article when it’s published so you can all check it out for yourselves (some time in May).
By Francis Moran
Ottawa technology entrepreneurs were reminded again this morning that India is the world’s second-fastest growing market encompassing 1.1 billion consumers, 300 million of them middle class and about 500 million of them under 25, and that with a confluence of manpower, money and a can-d0 attitude, it’s a market most technology companies will want to consider.
At the same time, Peter Sommerer, a veteran of Ottawa’s telecom sector who now advises companies on how to do business on the sub-continent, warned that there are still many challenges associated with chasing that opportunity. Quoting his former boss and current investment partner Terry Matthews, Sommerer said, “If it wasn’t easy, everyone would be doing it.”
Sommerer, who heads up consulting firm Erlauf Holding, was speaking to the regular Dollars and Sense CFO’s forum along with Raj Narula, co-founder of TaraSpan Group, which also helps companies explore business opportunities in India. The two also presented what they called a platform that has been developed by TaraSpan and Matthews’s private investment company, Wesley Clover, that technology companies can use to expedite their entry into the Indian market.
