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Roundup of Google + Reviews

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Google + reviews

This week Google launched their Google + social sharing platform, which many are characterizing as a warning shot across Facebook’s bow. The consensus is that it’s way too early to tell  if this is a flash in the pan like Buzz, or a legitimate rival to Facebook and Twitter. It’s in limited release right now, but many influencers in the digital and social marketing sphere were granted access, here is a roundup of first impressions.

David Meerman Scott wanted to hate it, but just couldn’t pull himself away, read his thoughts here.

Chris Brogan says it’s way too early to know where it will go, and lets us know his impressions on whether it will work for business or not.

Ian Lurie pontificates on the reasons it might be a winner, and why it could be a loser.

Mashable has a straightforward review of the many features available in Google +.

As most of these folks have summized, it’s pretty early in the game to envision the impact that Google + will have. The rest of us will just have to wait and see for ourselves once it’s in full release.

Marketing Lessons From My Daughter

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Every morning I wake up with my little girl, we head out to the living room Marketing Lessons from My Daughter
and sometimes we play together, sometimes she plays with her toys while Daddy works, and sometimes I play a little music for her on the ukulele or mandolin…many times it’s a combination of all three. It is by far the most enjoyable part of my day, and I’m amazed by how much she has grown, she’s doing new things all the time and her personality is developing right in front of my eyes. The other day I was working on another marketing project while she was banging around the living room floor, my mind started to wander and I started to think about the lessons she could teach me about being better at marketing.

“Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.” ~ Robert Hunter

Adventure:

Every day she is trying new things and so should we. Part of successful strategic marketing is a willingness to take risks, and I’ve noticed the most successful people in our field take risks every day, whether that be starting a new blog, writing a book, conceptualizing a new campaign, finding a new strategic focus, or just challenging conventional wisdom (of which there is plenty). In marketing, as in life there is a lot of value in thinking outside the box and putting yourself out on a limb, it takes courage and you might fail, but you’ll never know until you try it!

Curiosity:

My daughter is relentlessly curious, she loves ceiling fans, gadgets, electrical sockets, coffee mugs, our dog’s tail, books, paper, etc. She is constantly learning about the environment surrounding her. Marketers need to take the same approach. It’s not enough to be well versed in the latest tactics. To truly be successful we need to read about all kinds of topics, not just marketing. Subjects like psychology, management, general business, philosophy, personal development, art, and science can really round us out and make us more complete professionals. Of course it’s not just reading, attending webinars, listening to podcasts, reading blogs, and writing are all good ways to “sharpen the saw”.

Awareness:

Somehow she seems to be aware of everything going on around her, nothing gets by.  Like it or not, marketing is hard work. There is a lot to do and only so many hours in which to do it, we have big projects, key strategic initiatives, and ongoing tactical activities, all while having to manage the small stuff that comes up every day. Being conscious and in the moment can help us focus on getting done with our most important tasks while putting us in a position to handle other inputs and prioritize. When things get out of hand, slow down, take a deep breath, and prioritize your tasks.

Falling Down…and Getting Back Up:

My daughter is constantly standing up, only to fall down again and again. In marketing or any other endeavor we inevitably fall down, the campaign didn’t get the results you had hoped for, the event you worked so hard to plan hit some unexpected snags, there were technical difficulties in the webinar…whatever. The important thing is to get back in the saddle and ride, knowing that you did the best you could and persevering through the challenges is a major key to success in marketing…or just about anything else. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably not making anything.

Kindness:

Lastly, my daughter is incredibly sweet (for now), and her smile can light up even the darkest heart. Try to be kind. This might sound a bit trite, but in order for marketers to be successful we need a lot of help from other people, whether that is the sales team, financial, legal, Sr. Management, product development, vendors, etc. Things can become overwhelming at times and we all need help at some point in order to move the ball across the goal line. But, it’s not just a matter of being kind, we have to be genuine in our kindness, by sincerely caring about the problems of others and always looking to help when possible, we put ourselves in position to succeed.

Have you learned marketing lessons in strange places?

Marketers Need Tough Skin

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Marketers need tough skinMarketing isn’t as glamorous as many people think. While its rewarding work and I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else, it’s difficult, complex, and it requires tough skin. I have a long way to go, but I already know the path to being a truly great marketer is through constant education, a willingness to take risks, an open mind, and putting in a lot of hard work. It’s tough work and it inherently leaves you exposed to criticism. You can’t do it all and you can’t please everyone, you have to do what you can, focus on the areas that will make the largest gains and move forward a little bit each day.

So why do marketers need such tough skin?

  • Everybody thinks they “get” marketing
  • Marketing is the most visible (and visual) aspect of an organization
  • Being creative takes guts
  • There’s always a different way to do something
  • Good marketers take risks, sometimes they don’t work out
  • A new, senior person comes in and has a different (perhaps better) approach
  • People don’t realize how much work goes into a particular project
  • It’s easier to criticize than offer solutions
  • Marketing spans many aspects of a company including product management, sales, communications, and culture
  • Executives think they know more and push marketers to make questionable decisions
  • Techniques and best-practices move quickly, you need to keep up
  • People often want you to make promises about results when there are variables out of your control

What are some of the challenges that you’ve faced in the past? What did you do to keep moving forward?

Thoughts on Growth

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Growth is usually painful.Thoughts on growth

Growth requires us to think long-term.

Growth forces self-reflection.

Growth often requires self-sacrifice.

Growth can be frightening.

Growth makes us better.

Growth is essential to move our lives forward.

If we’re not growing, we’re dying.

 

Building a Brand Pyramid

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Lately I’ve been learning a lot about branding, some of it is conventional wisdom that many marketers know but some of it is new to me, and it might just be new to you too. As we’ve been examining our current positioning and brand strategy at my day job, we’ve been approaching this new effort in the context of a “brand pyramid”.  This is a very structured way of crafting a communication strategy that creates brand synergy starting with the features and attributes of a product or service all the way up to the “brand idea”. The “brand idea” being the essence of what you provide to the marketplace, distilled down to one word if at all possible.

Brand Pyramid Template

Level One: Attributes and Features

This is where the heavy lifting begins, especially if you offer a complicated product or service. I’ve found it helpful to separate your product or service features into categories, then focus on those attributes that are most desirable and/or that provide differentiation.

Level Two: Functional Benefits

Identify the tangible benefits that consumers will experience by using your product or service, ie: ROI, cost savings, time savings, enhanced productivity, whiter teeth, a flat stomach…you get the idea

Level Three: Emotional Benefits

This is where the fun really begins, now identify the intangible benefits that consumers will experience, ie: Happiness, confidence, more time, peace of mind, more attention, etc…

Level Four: Brand Personality

Based on what you’ve done so far, think about what your brand personality is. This is where the magic starts to happen. Your brand personality will dictate how consumers respond to your brand on an emotional level. It manifests itself in human characteristics such as sincerity, competence, or fun, just to name a few.

Level Five: Brand Idea

This is the essence of your brand, distilled down as succinctly as your product or service will allow, this is the idea that you want your customers to think of every time they hear or see your brand.

Starting with the foundation of your attributes and features you will needs to roll each level into the next creating a synergistic relationship between each level of the pyramid until it ends with the true essence of your brand. You can use this same structure to build a messaging strategy for different segments of your audience; this certainly applies if you are selling into a B2B situation where people in different roles will experience different benefits from your product.

Of course, this is just one method for clarifying a branding strategy, what are some other methods you’re using?