Great that you accentuate the importance of being great. Too much marketing seems to forget that marketing starts with great work.
Indeed, I'm coming to the conclusion recently that all marketing can be boiled down to: Do great work, tell people about it.
But HOW do you tell people about it? And where? And how much to pay to do it? That's the tricky part. Like people say about chess: Minutes to learn, a lifetime to master.
That's as it should be, and you need to be prepared to anticipate negatives. If brand advocates become mere cheerleaders, their opinions count for less.
Good point Kim. A number of vendors have sent their advocates to write reviews of their products on our site (www.itcentralstation.com). The interesting thing is that while they give the product a 5-star rating, they usually also cite the weaknesses and other criticisms they have the product. Very seldom do you see someone say "There are no faults or weaknesses with this product". When you give people a professional forum to exchange opinions, even the "advocates" will provide balanced opinions.
These can be very useful, but best to use a light touch in encouraging them to spread the word. Some brand advocates are sensitive about being viewed as such, and will start looking for faults if not treated as independent.
We're shopping for a new TV and, while browsing the online ads and seeing different retailers, have come across quite a few negative comments about various retailers. Those that remain unanswered are a little scary, but when companies respond and do a good job of explaining the situation that led up to the customer's negative comment, we don't necessarily strike them off our list. After all, we recognize that some customers are impossible to please. We also know that sometimes a product is a lemon--which isn't the fault of the store. But how the store chooses to respond IS up to the retailer. Informing prospective customers about the steps you took to satisfy this unhappy client can negate the nasty comments or low number of stars -- and actually improve your standing in the prospective customer's eyes.
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Recently, the Obama administration has been of two minds where privacy rights are concerned. On one hand, you have an administration that vowed to veto CISPA and mandated open data for government websites. On the other hand, you have an increasingly out-of-control Department of Justice on a fishing expedition at AP and demanding legislation to let the FBI wiretap private, encrypted communications and levy fines if a company fails to comply.
The apartment and house sharing service, Airbnb, now requires members to verify their identities by demonstrating a presence on the web, and by either scanning a government ID or entering detailed personal details. Other enterprises should take a close look at Airbnb's verification policies.
Facebook advertising is a lightning rod. It seems neither brands nor consumers are 100 percent happy about the social media site's policies, placement, or procedures. But the real controversy about Facebook ads and promotions is over whether they work.
By now, you've most likely heard about the 3D-printed gun that Texas-based Defense Distributed demonstrated last week. But we haven't heard the last about the censorship war that began soon afterward.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Subsidized handsets, rather than locked handsets, should be the focus of regulators. We're not getting good deals, not fostering innovation, and weakening our power as buyers.
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