Marketing Communications Blog

Evangelism and Marketing

No, not the religious kind of evangelism, but, the marketing kind!!!

Many many years ago, I heard about a CEO position at Microsoft.  Thinking to myself "CEO? Bill Gates is the CEO - why are they advertising for a CEO position?" After looking into a bit, I found that the position was Chief Evangelist Officer - the person who goes out and convinces the world that "this" product is the best, will solve all your problems, etc.

At the time, I thought it was ingenious, that every company in the world should have a C"E"O. But, as years passed and I moved from company to company, I saw that this position didn't exist in any company (for that matter, I don't know if Microsoft has this position any more - probably too confusing for the investors).

Why didn't companies have an "evangelist" position? They had spokespeople, most of them being Product Managers and "C" level people, but, why not a full-time person that "evangelized their products. Their only job was to speak to others about what problem their product solves and why it is better then anything else out there.

A part of me always says that a spokesperson for a company does the same thing, but, not really.  Every spokesperson that I have ever met, also had another job, usually in marketing. They were responsible for advertising, or promotions, or event marketing, or whatever else. I have never met anyone that has the sole responsibility of speaking to the world.

First, what would be the benefit? Recently, I had the pleasure of being a spokesperson for a company. Only a spokesperson, or, in an ideal world, an evangelist.  I was hired for one year to only go out and speak about the benefits of the product and the company.  Which I did.  When I wasn't speaking about the product, I was doing research; on the competition, on "perimeter" products (ones that don't compete but definitely affect the market), on people who use the product and who don't (and why they don't), etc. Within six months, I new the complete market, from stem to stern. Yes, there are research analysts out there who study the market, but, they don't speak publicly about it. So, no benefit.

Second, why should a company want to do this? As mentioned above, you now had an expert on the product, that was trained in the complete market, and knew how to position the product in that market.  Of course they were media trained and could speak to the media and analysts, but, they could also speak in arena's that weren't specifically media related. They could speak at conventions and seminars about "where" the market is going, "how" the market will get there, etc.

As a side note, a previous company I worked for allowed me to start down this path, where I was speaking about the market, where the market was going, etc. After about a year, someone from the company actually decided to attend a conference and listen to one of my presentations. Sadly, they were very upset, because I was speaking about the market five years in advance, where the company only thought I was speaking about how their product would affect the market today. So, they stopped me from speaking about the future (which an evangelist should do!). (By the way, everything that I predicted for the market has come true - I get emails from people who remembered what I said and write "You were right! Why didn't we listen to you", or "You were right - hope you bought stock in our company when you gave that speech."

So, back to being an evangelist, or, more importantly, having an evangelist in your company.

Since I primarily deal with small companies and start-ups, you won't have an evangelist, you will have a spokesperson, that doubles as a product manager or whatever. But, when you get big enough, seriously think about bringing someone on that can be your evangelist. You don't have to be a multi-billion dollar company to have this - in fact, it should be done much sooner - because if you make that evangelist a part of your company, and that person stays around long enough to start and see their "preachings" come true, that company will only have a successful future.

Posted by blaine at 04:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Has your budget been cut yet?

So, the economy is not doing well - from total depression to a slight recession to whomever you are speaking too - but, there is a money crunch out there and consumers are looking at their dollars a bit differently today then they were three years ago.

Which gets to the point of this posting.  Companies, large and small (mostly large though), start looking at how their dollars are spent and the first place that the executives (and board) look at is Marketing.  As discussed in previous postings, marketing is the hardest area to show a ROI - how can your PR activities be turned into a dollar value? How can a TV advertisement show an increase in revenue? Yes, both of these activities can be "turned into" a ROI chart, showing how many people saw the advertisement or read the story in the magazine. Yes, you may see a spike in sales after a release is published or an advertisement runs, but, when compared to sales, it is hard to justify.

Why wouldn't a company put their limited budgets into sales rather then marketing? It sounds like the correct thing to do.

But, don't you agree that the ceasing of building your brand, of advertising your new product, of introducing the new product to the world could (and probably would) affect the long term sales of your product or building of your brand? It really isn't a "probably", it is a fact. How many companies seem to "disappear" during times like this? And then, when the economy comes back, they "reappear"? But, instead of being ten steps ahead, they are all the way back at the beginning again.

Yes, if your company is financially strapped, then, you have to cut budgets - but, marketing is what tells people what to buy, where sales shows what to buy. One is displayed at a non-retail place where the other is only shown at a retail location.

Think of it this way - with the economy being this way, people don't just "go" to a retail establishment anymore to "shop" - they go because something has "pushed" them there - and that "push" comes from marketing, not sales.

Good luck.

Posted by blaine at 08:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

SEO's and you

So, you think you need a SEO?

Well, do you? If you go to Googles SEO pages and read all of their information, they even ask you the same question.  Do you really need it or, do you need to pay alot of money to a SEO firm, or, does your firm have the experience and quality that is needed to be SEO'd?

You must always list your company on the search engines.  But, do you need to pay alot for this? No - you shouldn't be spending over $1000 a month (this is for a $1M or less company). Of course, also determine if you really need to be listed? If you are the only bakery that sells cookies in Butte, Montana, then don't spend the money, spend it on more traditional marketing campaigns.  But, you can list your company on the search engines, FOR FREE; don't believe what SEO companies tell you.

Back to Google - if you look at their help site, they consistently come back to something that ALL marketers should have and do, and that is "trust your instincts".

My point is this - there is alot of hype and excitement over SEO, from "hiring" marketers that can do and know SEO to "hiring" firms that do SEO.  It reminds me of a perfect analogy that all of you can relate to, and that is "do I need to go to this tradeshow or not"?  How many times did you sit and try and determine if you needed to go to a tradeshwo or not - it came down to ROI and brand building. It is the same with SEO - how much will it help you and what will the ROI be?

Posted by blaine at 03:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What is it?

Pragmatic Marketing is a unique way to "look" at products before they are born. If you go to www.pragmaticmarketing.com, you will see the "steps" and "ways" to do this.

The question is, why is this new or, more to me, why is this needed, in this way.

As I say to my wife all the time, THIS IS MARKETING.  Taking something that we do every day and making it into something that has to be purchased.  If not purchased, you are something lessor than other individuals.

So, pragmatic marketing is doing focus groups (they don't call it that), talking with buyers about why or why not they will want this product, planning a branding and communications campaign, working with all the various divisions that will affect the product, expecially sales, and so on.

To me, pragmatic marketing is doing what any real knowledgeable marketer would do to make a product successful.

I can see why this would be useful to a marketer that a) doesn't know marketing, or b) is new in marketing. But, if you have at least 10 years of marketing experience and you don't know or do everything that pragmatic marketing "teaches", then, you shouldn't be in marketing.

In conclusion, don't judge someone if they aren't "certified" with the pragmatic marketing certificate - they probably have been doing what it teaches for longer then the term has been in existence.

Posted by blaine at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Was reading an article about how tv ad's are going to be replaced by internet advertising as "the" place where all the money is going to go (for your marketing dollars).

I have to disagree. Yes, internet advertising is definitely a place that you "have to" advertise on and that you need to get those eyeballs to see your brand. But, how effective has it been? Look at all the research (and articles) about how billions are being spent (and much of it being wasted) on internet advertising and how advertisers don't understand why there isn't any ROI.

I don't want to go into all of that, I just want to mention that tv advertising won't be dissappearing - as long as there is March Madness, the Superbowl, Dancing with the Stars, and so on, all on tv, money won't stop going in that direction.

Until advertisers learn HOW to advertise (& communicate) to their web-surfers, the money will always go to the TV...and don't be surprised if you continue to see money leaving the web and going back into more traditional advertising.

NOTE: Yes, there are millions of teens on Facebook, yes, there are millions of potential purchasers of product on ESPN's site, and so on (especially being forced to "watch" ads before watching video or playing a game or whatever). I, like so many others, don't look at an ad and search for the "skip" button (if forced to see an ad) faster then the ad can be ran.

Don't forget TV - yes, Tivo has hurt the ad business, but, remember, if your ad is upbeat and on-target, people will watch it.

Posted by blaine at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)