Rant on Wired

The two magazines I read regularly are Men's Health and Wired. They feed my brain in small chuncks and expose me to useful and/or facinating information. Wired is worrying me...

RANT:
Did you notice that Wired was a little skinnier last month? Not thinner, skinnier. The magazine is no longer an oversized publication. According to a note in the magazine, it now 'conforms' to industry standard size. I disliked it, but accepted it without too much thought at the time.

Today I get a mailing at work to subscribe to Wired for $10. Friggin ten dollars! I don't know what I used to pay, but ten dollars is chump change for something as great as Wired Magazine. I freaked out.

A great value? Yes. Will they sell more magazines at ten dollars? Maybe. Will they save money conforming in size. Probably.

But here is my realization: Obviously they don't think their magazine is special anymore.

What next? No more use of flourescent and metallic inks? No more infoporn? Wahh!!!

I don't want my ten dollars buying a shell of the magazine it used to be. I want it big, bold, beautiful. Unfortunately, I suspect that Wired has jumped the shark.

Set SMARTER Goals

Larry Hendrick brings us an improved goal-setting acronym, SMARTER:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time Sensitive
Enthusiasm
Reward

The interesting thing that Larry has talked about is that achieving a goal is not necessarily the same as a reward. Now he's improved his original acronym to include Reward as a separate item. How motivating to go set some new, smarter goals!

Get the details here: Motivation on the Run » SMARTER Goals
(and subscribe to his podcast while you are there!)

Do you have what it takes?

Jay Lipe interviews Marketing Headhunter Harry Joiner in this post:
Smart Marketing: Tips from a marketing headhunter:

"What are the top 5 things you look for in a person for any marketing job?"

1. Business orientation
2. Humility
3. People skills
4. Inquisitive
5. Track record

It's also a good review for doing your current job better. It probably wouldn't hurt to track Harry's blog to keep up on the mind of a recruiter.

Kudos to Martin Rowe

Maybe I skip over all the technical articles so I miss good reporting in trade publications, but this one stood out on a number of levels. Martin Rowe of Test and Measurement World reviewed new product offerings that change the configuration of oscilloscopes: Tall and Shallow or Short and Deep? Why do I like this article:

• Martin writes honestly about an decision that will frustrate buyers of new scopes. The article is talking about what engineers are talking about and Martin is acting like a peer.
  
• The article names brands and specific products.
• He talks to different engineers about it, from different perspectives. And what the engineers said was worthwhile, covering a lot of the factors that should be considered.
• He summarizes with his own opinion and a raises another potential issue that may be of more consequence (computer interface availability).

As a marketer, you might cringe a little to see a critique of the product offerings, but this is honest, worthwhile writing that engages the reader. And that's what trade publications should be doing, especially when they are talking about the products they cover. It may seem simple, but rarely do trade pubs do this well. T&MW did. Kudos.

One to watch: LabCorp vs. Metabolite

Circuits Assembly Magazine's blog posted What Can a Patent Cover? which alerted me to this case argued at the Supreme Court on Tuesday:

"Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings is suing Metabolite Laboratories Inc. over a patented method for diagnosing B vitamin deficiencies. After several years of litigation and appeals, the case has made it to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Why should the electronics industry be watching the outcome?
Because, for the first time in 25 years, the Supremes are listening to arguments over what can — and cannot — be patented. Its ruling could send shock waves through the industry."

I agree with Mike that this is potentially dramatic for industry (electronic and more). I am rooting for LabCorp because I feel that overly broad patents (where thinking could be infringing), or patents covering nature (rather than an application of such in a unique way) are endangering our patent system.

Is the brochure so-over?

Seth spells it out in his new Q&A format:

Q: What do you think of my brochure

A: The thing you must remember about just about every corporate or organizational brochure is this:
People won't read it.

But that doesn't mean that Seth thinks you should stop make brochures...read the rest of his post to understand, but at its simplist: A brochure is a statement and should be understood and produced with that in mind.

Opportunities for my readers

I don't get these every day, so thought I would put it out there:

Prescott Shibles is looking for staff for Prism Media's "New Media" online group. Sales Development, Audience Development, and Online Product Development.

Style hints from web 2.0

Okay, I'm a cynic about this whole Web 2.0 thing, too. But that doesn't mean that we can't learn from their style of hip and approachable brands and websites. After all, our customers are going to be getting used to seeing more sites that look like theirs, and perhaps we will start to look dated.

For a good post that connects us to the Web 2.0 look, go to article at Web Pages That Suck (see not everything Vincent posts is a train wreck):

So you wanna be a rock 'n' roll star? You gotta look like a Web 2.0 web site.

"The hot web design style right now is the Web 2.0 aesthetic. What is this aesthetic? Just look at any Web 2.0 site on this list and you'll see lots of white space, big type, bright colors, and rounded logos."

And because WPTS doesn't have an archive, here are the links from the article:

• Explanation of all the required elements of a Web 2.0 web site.
• Web20generator site generator.
  
• What goes into having a Web 2.0 logo (with plenty of examples).

Fix Google, please

Let's back up Danny Sullivan's diatribe: 25 Things I Hate About Google.

The search world is getting some potentially better choices and I don't own any Google stock to worry about. I've already changed the default search tool on Firefox to ASK at work and Yahoo at home. I'm also interested in Listable and Rollyo.

Update: Looks like David Shaw was jumping on this train already, inspired by a post at if:book with this line:

"what i can't figure out is: why isn't there a movement to develop a nonprofit, open source search engine? we have mozilla, we have wikipedia, we have linux. where is the people's search engine? isn't it time?"

My further comment: The point is that Google, like King David, is getting distracted by the pretty things that it has the power to seduce or buy. Searching at Google hasn't changed significantly over the years and I think that there is plenty of room for innovation.

Back to Basics: Final Case Study

I hope you enjoyed my little foray into "Back to Basics Week". It was fun to review some of the strategic issues that we don't face every day. As I posted last week, we marketers are mostly engaged in tactical elements.

But suppose you had a new product to launch. You've got your strategy and product all set, just need to do a market test to get things going, and get buy-in of the rest of the organization. This final case study (complements of Big Picture Guy) is as much about politics as it is about marketing or strategy.

"My latest frustration is based on a market test we did conduct. Operations wanted to ensure the costs were borne by Marketing. Any unsold product, they insisted, would have to be the responsibility of the product managers. Finance, always seeking to keep working capital low and turns and GMROI (gross margin return on investment) high, pushed to have a small run so that, in the event of an unsuccessful launch, only minimal quantities would be left to languish in our warehouses.

The sales group screamed that they cannot and would not sell out of an empty wagon. Without a commitment from a bearish Bull Terrier, the likelihood that we will reach the volumes needed to justify a launch is diminished. Which, in turn, means that payback period and IRR (internal rate of return) targets are likely not going to be met. So General Ledger, our under-reaching accountant with the over-arching ears, refuses to include the project in our budget calculations. The senior management team is unsure it wishes to back a project that is not even in the budget. It is all nickel-and-dime stuff."

Read the rest here: The Waters Wear the Stones

It's not an easy situation to resolve. BPG sums up that the situation "reminds me of this Bulgarian proverb: If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water."

Clearing the blog cache

I've accumulated a number of blog posts I want to link to. I'd like to talk more about each of these, but why don't you check them out yourself? You might find a couple new blogs to follow:

Wetpaint Makes Wiki Development Friendly and Simple By John Blossom points to a new wiki tool and ponders where this wiki thing is going. I've been pondering how to take advantage of wikis in a number of ways.

Pixel Button Generator from the Generator Blog: The button is generated with the desired text and colors and is converted into an HTML code. So cool, but no use for it right now.

The Pizza Paradigm from Infocommerce Group: Russ ponders whether we really want a cell phone that'll find us the closest pizza shop.

About invalid clicks from Google's Inside AdWords crew. Such honesty, straight from the source, is amazing.

Business Intelligence vs. Business Espionage by Mike Smock gives us a scale of intelligence gathering techniques ranked by ethics. (Surprisingly, not on the list is calling your competitor and pretending you're a college student writing a paper.)

B2B Marcom: An Unmitigated Disaster by Rick Short. Rick is a genuine in-the-trenches marketing manager/blogger like me, although his blog is actually a sanctioned corporate blog. He likes to give out a dose of reality, like I do:

"To me it just doesn't make sense that smart people can deliver educated, researched, and persuasive campaigns only to consistently lose market share - unless there are other factors at work. And there are always other factors at work."

The Worst Web Design Techniques Featured on Web Pages That Suck in 2005 by Vincent Flanders. I've been a fan of WPTS for years and here is a good summary of what you missed last year. If you like train-wrecks, you should add his blog to your feeds.

What Would You Do from Sales and Marketing Magazine's Sound-off Blog: Now you can take the challenge they publish in their magazine on-line. This time their is a marketing manager left out of a sales promotion program. Don't you think the guy deserves a trip to Tahiti?

Back to Basics: SWOT and more

While I had a couple articles tagged to continue the Back to Basics series, today's email from MarketingProfs delivered a great piece titled How to Test Your Competitive Market Strategy. This draws on many elements of strategic analysis, quoting top-shelf names like Jeffery Pfeiffer and classic tools like SWOT:

The basic 101 lesson:
"There are no silver bullets when it comes to competitive strategy. Like the development of most plans, the benefits of models or frameworks, such as SWOT, often come in the act of completing it, not in the final plan or model. The SWOT process is a good jumping-off point in terms of identifying which areas require a more in-depth, strategic analysis. The resulting strategy should be flexible, anticipatory, and focused, not static."

The 600 level discussion:
"There are many ways to determine the attractiveness of a market, including understanding its size, its growth trends, and its potential. However, regardless of that information, if it's full of strong, deep-pocketed competitors, it may too costly to gain a foothold. The nuance there is that a number of unattractive markets can be profitably exploited through various 'disruptions' or innovative business models."

The article's length corresponds with the complexity of the subject matter, but I think it is a great piece to read or reread if you are going looking at basic business analysis/strategy. If you are looking to go with the 600-level distruptive exploit, I'd recommend Kathy Sierra's Equalizer Slider concept for breakthrough ideas.

Back to basics: plan better

I should have made it 'back to basics for two weeks', but that doesn't really have the same ring to it. But I've run out of time to make any more posts. I stayed home with the kids yesterday (school closed due to minor ice storm), and today I have a big meeting that wasn't planned. And, honestly, there are a couple other things on my mind.

I will post at least two more pieces in the Back to Basics series next week.

(Side note: Does anyone out there have experience with business/product strategy software? Someone I know has some interest in this 'expert' software right now and asked for my help. Drop me a line. Thanks.)

Back to Basics: why go vertical?

Remember Dr. Seuss's The Lorax where the Once-ler invented the Thneed? "A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need!" he told the Lorax. And the Once-ler was lucky enough to be right (at the cost of the Truffula trees).

Unfortunately, we all don't sell products that All-People-Need. B2B marketers especially are marketing vertically. Vertical marketing refers to targeting a specific industry or application with a specific solution. (Comparable to niche marketing in B2C.)

The Basic 101 lesson from Smart Marketing Blog: A great example of vertical marketing:
"Companies are now beginning to understand that when you vertically market to a population segment you improve the focus of your efforts and messaging. For example, I have seen the Segway transporters for a while now, and always wondered why I would need one."

The 600 level discussion:
We all thought the Segway was cool when it came out, but who would use it? They did target postal carriers initially, which was vertical, but maybe a bit misplaced. Targeting golfers is a great second try, as it reaches for a demographic that is fussy about their game and is willing to spend money on it. (In a B2B sense, the Segways would be sold to golf courses, who then rent them out.)

Vertical doesn't always make sense in every case, but it is an important strategic decision. Sometimes its smarter to start vertical and then expand. Yesterday's local paper featured the Speed Stacker cup-stacking game that the inventor started by selling to phys-ed teachers. This fall, Wal-mart will be carrying his cups.