marketing strategy

A visit to the CBS vault

The U.S. government has Fort Knox, families have safety deposit boxes, and gym-goers have lockers--sacred places where valuable things are stored and protected. To extend the analogy, content companies like CBS have libraries; catalogues of hits old and new that represent the foundation of the entertainment business and the source of current and future income. We call ours the content vault. Check it out in the above video.

In any business, the key to long-term success is seeing beyond the flavor of the month to consistently create and sell a stellar product. At CBS, our biggest asset is and … Read more

What does Google really know about advertising?

Google has been following me around lately.

I'm not sure if I've made one inadvertent comment too many about my liberal lords and masters, but whichever Web page I happen to visit in order to seek some temporary respite from my complicated life, there I find an ad suggesting I should buy a Nexus One.

Actually, it's hard to call these things "ads." They're little pictures of the Nexus One. Some have no message to speak of. Others enjoy lines such as "it's ultra-light." This is a line I associate most … Read more

A movement for meaning-driven business?

Frog Design's promised series on “Meaning-Driven Business” is taking shape. After introducing the concept of “Chief Meaning Officer” in the “Power” issue of design mind, we are going to formally launch this new forum in our upcoming special TEDGlobal issue (to be released on Sept. 21, 2009) as well as on a special microsite to be launched in a couple of weeks.

For the first round of essays, we are delighted to have received contributions from three industry and thought leaders: Beth Comstock, chief marketing officer of GE and one of the world's most influential Fortune 50 marketing executives, will take the economic crisis as an opportunity to make the case for marketing-driven innovation. Werner Bauer, Nestle's chief technology officer and head of innovation, will describe his company’s concept of “Shared Value” and how it enables a more socially responsible business. And Dev Patnaik, founder and chief executive of innovation consultancy Jump Associates and author of the book Wired to Care, will illustrate how “high-empathy organizations” of all kinds prosper when they tap into a power each of us already has: the ability to reach outside of ourselves and connect with other people. Stay tuned!

The conversation is continuing in other outlets, too, and some pundits want “meaning” to not only be an abstract concept, but a movement. Economist Umair Haque is one of them. His "Generation M (as in “meaning”) Manifesto" stirred some controversial reactions (just read the comments on his blog)--from unconditional endorsement to accusations of arrogance and naiveté. It is one out of many manifestos that have recently been published on the new “new economy”--this, too, is a sign of the times. Manifestos indicate an increased need for ideological alternatives – and meaning.… Read more

The path forward for Linux is child's play

Linux has been growing in importance for years in the darkened server closets. In the server world, Linux's cost and performance benefits have trumped its early weaknesses (Ease of use, etc.), making Linux the heir apparent to the Unix throne.

But that's the server, where geeks write software for other geeks. In the consumer world of personal computers and mobile devices, however, Linux hasn't fared particularly well precisely because the developers of Linux differ so markedly from the vast majority of the user population.

Linux developers, in other words, scratch very different "itches" from those … Read more

Who comes up with tech marketing breakthroughs?

Let's face it, high-tech is not known for its stellar marketing.

Sure, there's Dennis Carter's Intel Inside branding campaign, Steve Jobs' iMac, iPod, iPhone, iWhatever, and Michael Dell's direct-marketing concept. Aside from the obvious characters, even folks in the business--like me--have a hard time naming great high-tech marketers.

That's because much of high-tech marketing happens behind the scenes. Like Broadcom somehow managing to nail almost every market it enters, Google turning a great search engine into virtually limitless ad revenue, or Intel defining a next-generation microprocessor four years in advance of its launch.

That's a whole lot different from coming up with an ad campaign to sell beer or batteries.

You see, high-tech marketing is so interwoven with the technology that it's often unclear where the technology ends and the marketing begins. As we discussed in a prior post, marketing's job is to turn technology into successful products. But that statement doesn't imply or require that the transition from technology to product is either distinct or simple. Therein lies the rub.… Read more