I recently posted a comment on Gideon Gartner’s new blog and ended it with an invitation to let me know if he is ever in Tel Aviv to meet up. The next day I got an email from Gideon that he was in Tel Aviv and would I like to meet him for coffee. Whereas some people would get excited at meeting a rock star–for me–an AR Consultant and pioneer in Israel–Gideon Gartner is my rock star. I met him and his lovely wife Sarah in Tel Aviv and we had an extended chat that included his questions about how I stated my AR business in Israel, the origin of the Magic Quadrant as an internal not an external document and logistics of getting to the local TedEx event. I expressed my opinion that the Gartner model has huge brand value but the real threat to that model will be the new,open models like RedMonk and others and not a competitor like Forrester. Only time will tell and I wait eagerly for Gideon’s book to hear more gossip and tidbits on the creation of one of the best brands in history.
Archive for the ‘branding’ Category
A Conversation with Gideon Gartner
Saturday, May 1st, 2010The Future of PR–Social Media
Sunday, March 21st, 2010This post is from 2009 but reveals the future of PR which is the Social Media engine which may change and use different tools but will remain the catalyst for the new future of PR. http://mashable.com/2009/06/19/teaching-social-media/#
Paul Bradshaw, senior lecturer of online journalism and magazines at Birmingham City University, said the most basic tools that students should know how to use are Wordpress for blogging and site building, Twitter for live updates, Facebook for posting articles or videos, Delicious for bookmarking, Flickr for photos or videos, and YouTube for video. All of these can be used from the field with a smart phone or laptop.
The biggest problem is that once these students get out of school the game will have changed again. Probably the best tool they can be taught is how to track the evolution of PR and Social Media and be ready to learn something new on a regular basis.
However there is no doubt about the need to have these skills today and tomorrow.
Why Marketing is So Much More Important than Technology
Monday, February 16th, 2009All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin–a brilliant video of a lecture to Google personnel about Google and why Marketing is so much more important than Technology….
A Review of Accidental Branding by David Vinajamun
Saturday, April 12th, 2008I have been asked to review the book Accidental Branding by David Vinajamun.
It was a well written and enjoyable book about how “accidental marketers” break the conventional rules of marketing to create very successful companies. Some of the entrepreneurs interviewed were from companies like: Burt’s Bees, Clif Bar and J. Peterson & Company (a successful catalog company who tried a different, more personalized approach to marketing).
Vinajamun’s 6 rules of accidental branding/marketing are:
1. Sweat the Small Stuff–pay attention to details
2. Pick a Fight–take a stand against the existing brand
3. Be your own customer–keep your initial customer instincts
4. Be Unnaturally Persistent–this is probably the hardest part of the game
5. Build a myth–tell a story that appeals to some basic instinct of the target consumer
6. Be Faithful–keep in view your faithful fans and followers even when you become famous
As the author interviews different entrepreneurs, he realizes that many of them starting the product because they were trying to solve their own problems–they were all personally involved with the creation of the brand and they continued to keep the ability to think like real consumers.
He applied three test to create a definition of an Accidental Brand:
1. An Individual who is not trained in marketing must create the brand
2. This individual must experince the problem that the brand solves
3. The individual must control the brand for at least 10 years.
The author also does not discount the influence that luck and timing also had on these brands and gives many examples. One of the examples he gives to illustrate the trait of perfectionist is at Disney World. “You’ll see horses in the parades at Disney World, but you will never see any horse droppings. Why? Because Disney realizes that they are creating a fantasy world and that horses doent make a mess in a fantasy world. A lot of work goes into getting these small details right. Disney has networks of tunnels running under all of its properties to the guy with the shovel can inconspicuosly dieappear afer he has–ahem–made the mess go away.”
The book gives many real life examples and tries to point out the lessons learned if you want to be an “Accidental Marketer”. In this world of new rules for Marketing—there may be lessons in this book for all Marketers.
