By Caroline Kealey
The word “strategic” is used so often that we’ve lost track of what it means. You might think it’s nothing but another bit of corporate-speak tossed around to make things sound fancier. In fact, something real and utterly important is at stake in this word.
A strategic state of mind is one that directs a systematic plan of action toward a specific result. It’s about looking at the big picture – what outcomes you’re trying to achieve – before working out the detailed tactics that might be taken to get there. This is the state of mind that makes communications activities work in the service of larger corporate goals. Being a strategic thinker demands always holding yourself to a standard of acting based on strong evidence and a logical progression of planning steps. That’s no easy thing when you’re frazzled by the day-to-day demands on your time.
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By Bob Bailly
Over the holidays, I was looking for a present for my wife and found myself checking out a pre-Christmas sale at a local department store. During my time at the mall I was bombarded with generic Christmas music everywhere I went. Despite my urge to gag at the arrangements, when I was absorbed in the purer business of shopping, I actually caught myself singing along to several of the tunes.
At a cerebral level, listening to the musical pap made me feel like just another cranky holiday shopper, but deep down it was making me happy. Recognizing that I was being manipulated by these businesses in a subtle way got me once again thinking about the impact music has, or can have, on our behaviour. I’ve also been intrigued by my 21-month-old grandson’s fascination with music and rhythm. These things led me to revisit some research I did a couple of years ago on the affects that music can have on education.
Bottom line, music does help wire the brain, and the potential use in our lives is beyond measure.
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By Leo Valiquette
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are MarketingProfs, TechVibes, Forbes, Inc. and Dan Barker.
What’s next in marketing: 29 bold predictions for 2013
MarketingProfs’ Veronica Maria Jarski makes the rounds to find out what we should expect in 2013. We of course are particularly pleased by the prediction that content marketing will continue to gain prominence this year. However, there is a diversity of ideas in her article and we will leave it to you, gentle reader, to decide which are insightful and visionary or just so much buzz word-ridden bombast.
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By Francis Moran
This is a word cloud of the more than 200 blog posts we published here in 2012. In one fell swoop, it graphically illustrates our preoccupations over the past year, the subject matter we returned to time and again as we looked at the unique challenges of bringing technology to market.
Not surprisingly, the most frequently mentioned word — and by a significant margin — in all our content last year was”marketing.” We are, after all, marketing strategists, and we created this blog as a resource where technology companies, both startups and more established ventures, could find solid counsel on how to master this mix of art and science. This will continue to be our main focus this coming year.
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By Tara Hunt
It usually starts something like this:
“Hey! Everyone I know is on Instagram! We should start an Instagram for the company!”
The suggestion in itself isn’t wrong, per se; it’s just not made with much of an understanding of how these social platforms work. It takes less than five minutes to set up an Instagram account (if you have an iPhone or an Android device). That’s the simple part. But then the real work begins.
People who rarely use social networks love platforms … even when they, themselves, admit to not having enough time to use them. That’s pretty much what they see: Platforms and the numbers. “Why aren’t we on Pinterest/Foursquare/Tumblr/Google+/You Tube/Instagram/etc?” they’ll ask. They’ll tell you about all sorts of other companies that have set up multiple accounts on multiple platforms and how they read about it on Mashable. They’ll hint at being concerned about your expertise or ability to execute because you haven’t created accounts everywhere. They may even say, “It takes five minutes to set it up!”
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The revitalization of the Canadian venture capital sector
January 15, 2013 by Chris Arsenault
It was a good news day for Canadian entrepreneurs yesterday. The Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, and Minister of Finance, the honourable Jim Flaherty, were in Montreal to announce the “Venture Capital Action Plan.” Under this plan, the federal government will put $400 million to work under the leadership of private sector fund of funds and venture capital funds […]
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Making the business case, face to face
January 14, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
They say the world is more connected than it’s ever been. You can push software to a global audience with the tap of a key, and serve customers worldwide from a desk in your living room. Of course, the trade-off is that it’s loud out there […]
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Great articles roundup: The series A crunch, pitching well, email and content marketing, scaring investors
January 11, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are TechCrunch, Polaris Venture Partners, Pando Daily, Gust and MarketingSherpa […]
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It takes a village … to succeed in social media
January 10, 2013 by Chamber of Commerce
Traditionally, the work of social media profile development has fallen on PR departments. Over time, social media efforts morphed into a department of its own in companies that could afford the manpower and saw the financial potential of a vast mobile following […]
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When the cat’s already out of the bag …
January 09, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
Back in the day when I worked as a business journalist and sparred with “those PR people” for a living, I did, on more than one occasion, one afoul with a source or a business that I was writing about. This is of course par for the course […]
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Five new year’s resolutions all marketers must adopt
January 08, 2013 by Francis Moran
Well, we dodged the Mayan doomsday, the solar flares that were going to scramble all electromagnetic systems on the planet and the first Times Square ball-dropping without Dick Clark in what seems like a century or two […]
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December roundup: What does it take to get technology to market?
January 07, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
Though we took our usual holiday break in December, we still covered a lot of ground on the blog during the month. Scotland’s startup scene, the unintended consequences of Canada’s Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit program, and practical pointers for handing off a content marketing program were among the many topics we covered […]
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First-time entrepreneurs: There are big ideas, and then there are doable ideas
January 04, 2013 by Alexandra Reid
This is the second article in a continuing series chronicling the growth path of ..duo, a startup based out of Kelowna B.C. that creates simple keywords that use your name, brand, slogan or any other word combination as a shortcut to content on the web. By Alexandra Reid Daylin Mantyka, cofounder of ..duo, is reconsidering […]
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By Caroline Kealey
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The Future of A&R – Walabe : [...] http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/top-10-questions-every-strategic-communicator-should-ask... [...]
Traditional Marketing is Dead – Long Live Bikini Waxer Marketing | Scalexl : [...] pointed out by Alexandra Reid on the Francis Moran website content marketing is becoming more and more like journalism. So, it is not just about the content, [...]
It’s Summertime…and the Networking is Easy? | THE MERRAINE BRAIN : [...] In fact, summer is perhaps one of the times least used to network, yet at the same time has shown to be the most productive time to network. People tend to be in a brighter mood compared to during the gloomy winters-especially where I am from in England! Networking needs to be fun and not approached as another chore, like mowing the lawn. (http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/social-media-strategy-why-meeting-in-the-real-world-matt...) [...]