Gelbart Kahana Global Marketing

Inside Gartner-Your own webpage

Nancy Shapira — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:35:08 +0000

Did you know that you could create your own personalized webpage in Gartner? Whether you are a member or not? As an Analyst Relations Consultant I have my own personalized webpage at www.insidegartner.com which gives me free content, webinars and reports. I recommend you set your own up especially if you are just starting out. It will help you get in the mind of the Gartner gorilla or elephant in the room as they call themselves.

Social Media is a must not an option for B2B

Nancy Shapira — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:00:21 +0000

If you are a B2B marketer and you still dont get why you should be using Social Media–here are some statistics: emarketer forecasts that B2B will be increasing their spend on Social Media by 60%!! in 2010 and that the main uses of Social media are to create Thought Leadership and Generate Sales Leads. Check out 7 predictions for 2010: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007416

My take on Forrester’s Purchase of Strategic Oxygen

Nancy Shapira — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 10:47:53 +0000

Although this didnt make the splash that Gartner’s of AMR acquisition did- it signals a move towards more go-to-market tools for clients. I believe that this is a move that makes sense to a lot of marketing people who need real tools to quantify their decisions. Unfortunately it will not be a part of Forrester’s membership so it comes at extra cost.. Some answers to your questions on the acquisition by Forrester: http://www.forrester.com/sofaq

Real Relationships Bring Referrals-not just Social Networks

Nancy Shapira — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:12:30 +0000

95% of our new Public Relations, Analyst Relations and outsourced Marcom clients today are direct referrals from people I know and who I have worked with in the past. We do use Linkedin as our main marketing tool to create and maintain our brand in the marketplace–but in the end of the day–most of my new clients have come to me because someone has given me a personal referral…So keep on learning about and using social networks–but dont forget real relationship building.

How to Influence the Influencers

Nancy Shapira — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:24:22 +0000

How to influence the Influencers: A great resource for how to influence the influencers: analysts, bloggers, journalists.:

http://www.interactiveinsightsgroup.com/blog1/how-to-influence-influencers-bloggers-tweeters-others/

One of the best sources is the Word of Mouth Associations Influencer Handbook: http://womma.org/influencerhandbook/2/

The Integrity of Analysts-and how AR can help

Nancy Shapira — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:51:20 +0000

An analysis of another argument about the integrity of analysts: http://technobabble2dot0.wordpress.com/

But the most important point for me is: “We have to accept that the firm with the best technology does not always win (see Betamax vs. VHS) – for a company to be successful, they will need to have a great product that is complemented by a sound go-to-market strategy. Luckily for us this is where AR can help.” and I would add Marketing also..

Check out what Forrester Says about Google’s New SiteWiki Tool

Nancy Shapira — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:02:33 +0000

As a huge fan of the coolest company in the world, I have downloaded Google’s new SiteWiki Tool. Forrester predicts it will be big…

http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/09/dealing-with-googles-sidewiki-land-grab.html

Getting the New Product Launch Right

Nancy Shapira — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:27:51 +0000

I found this post on the Frost and Sullivan website with important information and guidelines to use BEFORE launching a new product. This is geared to technology companies and unfortunately is a step that is skipped by too many people. Investing time and money in doing market research first does pay off in the end.

Many new products are launched into the marketplace with little prior planning for targeting the customers, creating a sales strategy, developing a distribution strategy, training the sales force, and integrating the competitive strategy. This mistake significantly reduces or eliminates any potential profit the product may have, and greatly increases the sales development time. These problems must be avoided if a company wants to survive in today’s competitive marketplace.

10 Ways Market Engineering Can Help Make New Product Launches More Successful

Identifying the best customer segments for penetration
Positioning the product successfully against competition
Optimizing impact of sales strategy
Creating a system to maximize sales leads while minimizing marketing expense
Basing sales strategy on customer benefits rather than features
Making the team market-driven rather than technologically-driven
Setting sales goals based on market potential, not staff’s guesses
Reducing sales development time and maximizing profit
Improving market efficiency
Identifying optimal mix of marketing tools and distribution channels to maximize sales

Market Engineering Checklist for Product Launch

Market Engineering cross-functional team training
Determination of Market Engineering Measurements
Completion of customer survey
Focus group performance
Beta sites on product
Selection of distribution channels analyzed
Sales targets based on market size and potential
Design of lead generation programs
Design of market-based pricing strategy
Lead tracking systems
Design of public relations strategy
Design of sales strategy
Design of marketing strategy
Competitive analysis and benchmarking
Design of customer database
Development of customer database
Design of market monitoring system
Buying, reading, and implementing Customer Engineering

Challenge Questions

Into what market will the product be launched?
What customer segments will purchase the product?
For what applications will the customer use the product?
Into what geographic segments will be sold?
What are the benefits for the customers?
What is the price/performance ratio relative to the competition?
Who are the principle competitors?
What will make your product unique in the market?
What percentage market share is targeted at end of year 1 and year 3?
What percentage of the customer base currently uses this product?
From what distribution channels do customers purchase today, by percentage?
What influences the customer’s decision to buy?
How will competitors position themselves against this product?
What is your sales strategy?
What is your marketing strategy?
What Measurement of Performance will you use to track success?

Are Analysts Becoming More Pay for Play?

Nancy Shapira — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:52:43 +0000

I have heard twice in the last week from clients and potential clients that they believe that analysts will only write about you, put you in the Magic Quadrant, Wave, etc. if you are a member. Although I have many examples of clients that were not members of analyst groups and still got great coverage–this opinion still exists out there…What is your opnion on this? Has the economic situation pushed the analysts towards a more agressive selling position?

Do you Know What’s The Social Technographics Profile Of Your Customers?

Nancy Shapira — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:53:30 +0000

Do you Know What’s The Social Technographics Profile Of Your Customers?

Forrester has a VERY cool tool to identify your target customer and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them.

Forrester’s Social Technographics® classifies consumers into six overlapping levels of participation.

http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html
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