“Greed is good” may be the signature line from Oliver Stone’s 1987 film Wall Street, but there is another observation from corporate tycoon Gordon Gekko that has more bearing in today’s market.
Michael Douglas’ Gekko explains to Charlie Sheen’s impressionable Bud Fox, “The most valuable commodity I know of is information.”
It’s as true today as it was 20 years ago. The more informed you are about the market, its trends, its players and customer needs the smarter your decision-making. In a world that pushes companies towards commoditization, industry insight and intelligence are the truly defining competitive advantages.
Of course, the fragmentation of information sources has made the process of collecting and evaluating intelligence quite daunting. News media…analyst reports…blog musings…competitor announcements; the one sure bet is that the intensity of information flow will only continue to accelerate.
This month, Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) announced a new partnership with Infoition News Services, a provider of customized media intelligence. Founded by a former Capitol Hill staffer, Infoition tracks real-time media information from thousands of sources and provides an early morning news summary tailored for corporate executives. They leverage advanced tracking technology, backed by an editorial team providing the industry expertise and context for each story inclusion.
Our relationship with Infoition enables us to provide our clients with a more comprehensive set of services and true insight into the business impact of our public relations results. It’s also a great complement to our partnership with creative strategy and design firm AXIS Communications.
February 2, 2007, 7:06 pm
Gekko's Power of Information
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December 6, 2006, 8:13 pm
Power to the Market Definers
ERP…CRM…SFA…BPM…SaaS…BI…KM…ka-ching!
There’s tremendous equity in being a market definer because your company will grow sales and valuation faster than its competitors. This is especially true if you work for an emerging growth company or if you are launching a product or service for a more established player. The credibility conferred by a market-accepted category builds comfort in the minds of prospects, partners and investors.
Market categories can be product specific – think enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer relationship management (CRM) – or defined by an attribute of the product. For instance, Salesforce.com delivers its software to customers using a hosted model, thus their leadership in the much touted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) space.
Branded markets typically share one important characteristic – a following of journalists, analysts and other influencers who track and rate players in the market, identify trends, and promote best practices.
Several years ago Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) was tasked by export/import software vendor Vastera to help define the international trade logistics market. Vastera was the first to introduce a complete, integrated trade solution and, as such, a market creation strategy would differentiate them from a suite of competitors.
Through aggressive industry analyst and trade media outreach, Strategic introduced and defined the market, and then validated its growth and momentum using customer win announcements. True market acceptance was achieved when Vastera’s me-too competitors incorporated international trade logistics into their own marketing and sales efforts.
But for them, it was too late. Vastera had captured leadership in this new segment and, as a result, was the only international trade logistics vendor to successfully tap the public markets.
Category creation in today’s market presents challenges and pitfalls because of media fragmentation and the rise of bloggers. There are simply a greater number of influencers to reach and an overall skepticism to a vendor hawking something all new. Consider the confusion around what some in the industry are trying to brand Web 3.0.
Here are a few suggestions if your company has aspirations to define its market:
--Engage influencers early to make the process collaborative. For one of our top prospects, Strategic has recommended the creation of an open forum to target bloggers, analysts and journalists to both coin a term and demonstrate market acceptance.
--Identify champions to validate your market category. Customers paying for your solution are always best as they have truly bought in.
--Put your category in context by defining how it relates to already accepted and understood markets. Salesforce.com is a perfect example as they gained considerable traction with a CRM solution delivered to customers in a new and innovative way.
--Be aggressive in promoting both your company and its market category, and prepare to defend yourself against naysayers.
There’s tremendous equity in being a market definer because your company will grow sales and valuation faster than its competitors. This is especially true if you work for an emerging growth company or if you are launching a product or service for a more established player. The credibility conferred by a market-accepted category builds comfort in the minds of prospects, partners and investors.
Market categories can be product specific – think enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer relationship management (CRM) – or defined by an attribute of the product. For instance, Salesforce.com delivers its software to customers using a hosted model, thus their leadership in the much touted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) space.
Branded markets typically share one important characteristic – a following of journalists, analysts and other influencers who track and rate players in the market, identify trends, and promote best practices.
Several years ago Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) was tasked by export/import software vendor Vastera to help define the international trade logistics market. Vastera was the first to introduce a complete, integrated trade solution and, as such, a market creation strategy would differentiate them from a suite of competitors.
Through aggressive industry analyst and trade media outreach, Strategic introduced and defined the market, and then validated its growth and momentum using customer win announcements. True market acceptance was achieved when Vastera’s me-too competitors incorporated international trade logistics into their own marketing and sales efforts.
But for them, it was too late. Vastera had captured leadership in this new segment and, as a result, was the only international trade logistics vendor to successfully tap the public markets.
Category creation in today’s market presents challenges and pitfalls because of media fragmentation and the rise of bloggers. There are simply a greater number of influencers to reach and an overall skepticism to a vendor hawking something all new. Consider the confusion around what some in the industry are trying to brand Web 3.0.
Here are a few suggestions if your company has aspirations to define its market:
--Engage influencers early to make the process collaborative. For one of our top prospects, Strategic has recommended the creation of an open forum to target bloggers, analysts and journalists to both coin a term and demonstrate market acceptance.
--Identify champions to validate your market category. Customers paying for your solution are always best as they have truly bought in.
--Put your category in context by defining how it relates to already accepted and understood markets. Salesforce.com is a perfect example as they gained considerable traction with a CRM solution delivered to customers in a new and innovative way.
--Be aggressive in promoting both your company and its market category, and prepare to defend yourself against naysayers.
Posted by jeffM
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November 14, 2006, 12:46 am
Siren Song of the Integrated Marketing Firm
Many a corporate executive have been taken in by the siren song of the integrated marketing firm. Unfortunately, the resulting communications program typically crashes into the rocks of waste and mediocrity.
I realize comparing integrated marketing companies to the Seirenes in Greek mythology is a bit extreme. In fact, I buy into the value proposition hyped by these consultancies. By helping a client manage communications across multiple channels – advertising, public relations, graphic design, Web development, etc. – the purveyors of integrated services promote consistency in messaging to improve results.
Moreover, they are more agnostic than specialized firms when it comes to recommendations. Talk business opportunities with an ad agency and the recommendation will be to advertise. The same opportunities presented to a PR firm would no doubt result in a public relations plan of attack.
There is just one fundamental challenge when it comes to delivering integrated marketing services: great in theory, difficult in practice. That’s because most of these consultancies were built on a single core competency as a foundation and then tried to glum on other services through hiring or acquisition. Think of a PR firm that buys its way into advertising. Or, a graphic design shop that hires a creative director and is suddenly transformed into a marketing communications firm.
As a result, integrated marketing companies are typically sound within their core competency, but marginal outside it. And marginal doesn’t cut it for clients in competitive markets.
Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) sticks to its core – public relations and business development services for growth-focused companies that target business-to-business and business-to-government markets. We’ve taken a partnership approach to help our clients execute their communications in other disciplines.
Check out news this month of our relationship with marketing design firm AXIS Communications. Karen Work and Peter Roth of AXIS share our philosophy of focusing on core competencies and, as a result, their firm is exceptional at strategy, branding and design – both traditional and Web.
The synergy between our respective companies has been validated through our collaboration on behalf of clients Techbooks and Trace Systems .
Is there an integrated marketing firm that delivers on the promise? Or are they all merely deceptive sirens?
I realize comparing integrated marketing companies to the Seirenes in Greek mythology is a bit extreme. In fact, I buy into the value proposition hyped by these consultancies. By helping a client manage communications across multiple channels – advertising, public relations, graphic design, Web development, etc. – the purveyors of integrated services promote consistency in messaging to improve results.
Moreover, they are more agnostic than specialized firms when it comes to recommendations. Talk business opportunities with an ad agency and the recommendation will be to advertise. The same opportunities presented to a PR firm would no doubt result in a public relations plan of attack.
There is just one fundamental challenge when it comes to delivering integrated marketing services: great in theory, difficult in practice. That’s because most of these consultancies were built on a single core competency as a foundation and then tried to glum on other services through hiring or acquisition. Think of a PR firm that buys its way into advertising. Or, a graphic design shop that hires a creative director and is suddenly transformed into a marketing communications firm.
As a result, integrated marketing companies are typically sound within their core competency, but marginal outside it. And marginal doesn’t cut it for clients in competitive markets.
Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) sticks to its core – public relations and business development services for growth-focused companies that target business-to-business and business-to-government markets. We’ve taken a partnership approach to help our clients execute their communications in other disciplines.
Check out news this month of our relationship with marketing design firm AXIS Communications. Karen Work and Peter Roth of AXIS share our philosophy of focusing on core competencies and, as a result, their firm is exceptional at strategy, branding and design – both traditional and Web.
The synergy between our respective companies has been validated through our collaboration on behalf of clients Techbooks and Trace Systems .
Is there an integrated marketing firm that delivers on the promise? Or are they all merely deceptive sirens?
