At some point in every successful start-up’s evolution, even ones with the best technology and customers who most ardently don’t want to be marketed to, founders will need marketing to sustain or increase their growth. If you work for one of these start-ups, take heart. Marketing is not a dark art. It requires both creativity and […]
It’s true that bad headlines grab readers, even in the world of email newsletters and research reports on technology, digital and social marketing. It’s also true that while many of these stories emit the faint aroma of bad news, they also reveal all sorts of silver linings upon closer inspection. Last week, Forrester Research’s Thomas Husson published a blog […]
If you subscribe to a newspaper or magazine, do you read every issue cover to cover? Or, do you read just the articles that interest you most, as I do? I get The Wall Street Journal every day, and I bet I do not read 80 percent of it. I ask because among all the […]
If you’re like me and you work in the technology world, last week gave us a lot to digest. Microsoft (full disclosure: this is my employer) gave a meaty and well-received update on Windows 10. News spread that revenues generated by mobile entertainment almost matches what we spend at the new movie box office, a […]
In October 2014, comScore released a report showing that smartphone owners spend 88 percent of their time using apps. While that might sound like the death knell ringing for mobile websites, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, or IAB, has urged us all not to leap to that conclusion. In this report, the IAB notes that mobile […]
A friend of mine forwarded me an interview that former Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo gave in March of last year in which he explained the company’s fall from dominance that happened on his watch. I took an interest for two reasons. I worked for Nokia, coincidentally for nearly all of Kallasvuo’s years at the helm. I, […]
In my 15-year business career, I’ve had my share of challenging moments. I’ve been on the receiving end of obscenity-laced tirades authored by disagreeable senior executives. I’ve stood on stage in front of hundreds of people, dazzling PowerPoint presentations on towering screens behind me, as technology I had planned to demonstrate failed utterly. With a […]
In November, 2012, I started writing this blog in a hospital waiting room. As I anxiously awaited the outcome of a loved one’s surgery, I knew that Judge Judy couldn’t give me the distraction I needed. Instead, I snapped on some noise cancelling headphones, registered this blog on WordPress, and cranked out my first three […]
“Now, our parents will understand what we actually do.” This was the refrain around the office of the company formerly known as Infogrames, the Lyons-based video game maker with a name that looked like a typo. After it acquired the Atari moniker from Hasbro, Infogrames wisely decided to change its identity to the brand known for […]
Ask yourself this question. “What’s the more powerful emotion: pleasure or relief?” Marketers and product managers love working somewhere along this axis, but I bet most prefer the “pleasure” pole. That’s because it’s in our natures to seek out the positive about our products and services, e.g. it’s better, it’s more fun, it will make […]
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