Posts tagged branding
People imbue the tech brand
Nov 7th
by Andrew Berthoff
Back in the late-1990s I wrote a column for Computer Dealer News in which I somewhat facetiously contended that the Pope is the world’s greatest living spokesperson for a “brand.” I still think that, and was reminded of it after the recent passing of Steve Jobs.
Andrew Berthoff
I say living spokesperson, because most religions have a prophet who established the doctrine. We can point to central figures in Christian, Buddhist, Mormon and other faiths whose teachings guide the religion’s beliefs.
While I don’t want to wade into the murky waters of whether Steve Jobs led a quasi religion of Apple faithful, we can use his leadership to illustrate the pros and cons of an individual being closely identified with a company, or, conversely, the identity of a company wrapped in a single person.
As a reader of ITBusiness, you are most likely working with a company of some kind. Whether a large enterprise or a SME or even as a three-person consultancy, the essential tenets and risks of branding via personality remain the same. While products and services are brought to customers by people, at the end of the day they are products and services. They work or they don’t. They live on after the people behind them move on. The sellable goods provide a guarantee of continuity. Read the rest of this entry »
How to lose public trust and achieve international ridicule
Oct 31st
by Claudiu Popa
Talk to anyone in the world of business about their biggest hacking fear and you’re bound to hear that “embarrassment” ranks right up there near the top.
Claudiu Popa
Everyone knows that to do a proper job of alienating clients and embarrassing your organization you need to not just be good at, but excel at three things:
- amateurish planning in protecting against security and privacy problems
- boneheaded response once a breach has taken place
- abject failure to make sure it doesn’t happen again
I know what you’re thinking: “Hey! That sounds pretty difficult to pull off! I was hoping for an easy way to annihilate my audience and damage my credibility! I thought you were good! Can you at least give me an example?” Read the rest of this entry »
A new brand experience
Jul 20th
By Andrew Berthoff
I’ve worked in or, rather, with the Canadian technology industry for more than 20 years, first from the perspective of a journalist following and reporting on the scene, and then as a communications professional working alongside it.
Over the years I’ve worked with tech companies of every size and scope, from Fortune 50 enterprises to first-year start-ups; from B2C to channel to B2B and every sales model in between. And through all that every new client is a brand new experience.
Andrew Berthoff
Or, make that a new brand experience.
With a marketing hat on, I see Canadian tech companies – both native and foreign-owned subsidiaries – with a big picture perspective. As a journalist my perceptions of an organization were guided by the same tenets.
To me, the most successful tech organizations, almost without fail, understand the long-view horizon of their market when they communicate with their target audiences. Conversely, those that constantly dwell on speed and feeds and price look for short-term success. The marketing, messaging and communications strategies can be polar opposites.
Much has been said about the fickle loyalty of today’s customers. While I agree that allegiances change perhaps more easily than before, I also believe that loyalty is derived from organizations having a long-range view of their market. A consistent communications strategy that matches long-term corporate goals pays long-range dividends.
Let’s take a look at a few examples from the past in which companies don’t talk about product features directly, but instead connect with existing and potential customers by bolstering what their company and products represent. Read the rest of this entry »
5 ways to get more Twitter followers
Apr 26th
By Kristin Burnham
Twitter has evolved into one of the most popular, go-to tools when it comes to reaching broad audiences, whether you’re promoting content, branding yourself as an expert in a field or networking with individuals who share similar interests.
One way to expand your reach on Twitter is to obtain more followers–but it’s not as simple hitting the follow button and hoping they follow you back. Read the rest of this entry »
Why intellectual property is profitable
Apr 25th
By David French
The theme of this website is getting technology, to market. This is an honorable objective. Indeed, I would like to present why intellectual property is a key part of the business case for getting technology to market. And doing it right.
Intellectual property such as patents, copyright, trademarks, designs and corporate secrets, all have an important place in the modern business enterprise. Entrepreneurs who are founding a business based on a new product invariably see the patent right as key. Angels and venture capitalists look for the comfort of patent protection when considering whether to make an investment. But even in the absence of a new patentable concept, every business has to address choosing a trademark under which it will be known. So you have to get at least a little bit wet in the IP birdbath. Read the rest of this entry »
Why intellectual property is profitable
Apr 6th
By David French
The theme of this series is getting technology, to market. This is an honorable objective. Indeed, I would like to present why intellectual property is a key part of the business case for getting technology to market. And doing it right.
Intellectual property such as patents, copyright, trademarks, designs and corporate secrets, all have an important place in the modern business enterprise. Entrepreneurs who are founding a business based on a new product invariably see the patent right as key. Angels and venture capitalists look for the comfort of patent protection when considering whether to make an investment. But even in the absence of a new patentable concept, every business has to address choosing a trademark under which it will be known. So you have to get at least a little bit wet in the IP birdbath. Read the rest of this entry »
Twitter comes of age but still has room to grow
Mar 24th
The ITBusiness.ca staff has written a great piece on “5 memorable Twitter moments as service turns five,” as well as produced a neat video rewind to celebrate Twitter’s 5th birthday.
Gadjo Sevilla
It is hard to believe that a nerdy social media service that forced people to think in “140 characters or less,” has outlived a lot of its contemporaries like Google Buzz, Jaiku, Plurk and Pownce and created such a vibrant, speedy and robust micro-blogging ecosystem complete with link shortening services and photo and video workarounds.
What started out as a rather mundane way for people to share what sandwich they were having for lunch has, for the most part, evolved into the world’s best leveler and given hundreds of millions of users a voice. The culture of celebrity has taken over Twitter as the best way for personalities to stay in touch with their public and for their public to communicate back.
Twitter has also made it possible for consumers to whine about poor customer service or unfair business practices and get a quick and public response from companies. Small and large businesses have responded in part by hiring staff to man their Twitter feeds and provide customer service via Twitter.
Twitter has also been the best service for taking an “opinion pulse” or crowd source certain topics and ideas. It is also the fastest way to get news. By the time you’ve turned on your TV and fumbled your way to CNN, you could have all the news headlines on display on your Twitter client.
The instantaneous nature and hyper-fast speed of disseminating information has been Twitter’s greatest strength. It has also proven to be an indispensable tool for social change helping people organize and keep in touch during the recent calamities in Japan and New Zealand as well as mobilize during the political unrest in Egypt and Libya.
On the flip-side, Twitter has also been ground zero for the propagation of hoaxes, spam, morbid death rumours and wholesale trolling and hate messages as well as fake accounts.Then there’s the inevitable outages and “Fail Whales” that let users know the service is overloaded and inaccessible.
Twitter has been improving but we feel it is still the Wild West out there with a lot of room for improvement.
What are your thoughts about Twitter? Has it been a useful tool or a time waster? We would love to know, in 140 characters, or less.
Gadjo Sevilla is a Toronto-based writer who reports on technology and writes reviews on consumer and business gadgets. He is also a blogger and community manager for ITBusiness.ca.
Welcome to Rebecca Black’s Friday
Mar 18th
By Nestor E. Arellano
Who says you can’t buy fame in the social net? Well I did, last year. And I guess I’m having crow for dinner.
Tens of thousands of teenagers on March break will probably be cranking up Rebecca Black’s iTunes hit single Friday anytime to herald the weekend – not withstanding, or perhaps because, of the fact that it has been called the “the worst song ever.”
Nestor Arellano
When Rebecca’s feel good ode to the final day of the work week aired on YouTube in Feb. 10 it garnered a few thousand views. By this Thursday, “Friday” had hit more than 12. 7 million views on YouTube, had been the among the top trending topics on Twitter for more than three days and at 99 cents a pop was among iTune’s number 69 top selling songs. Read the rest of this entry »
Why my pony tail ain’t my brand
Mar 17th
By Francis Moran
One day last week, I tweeted the message you see to the right because I was tickled by the email that came in. In my haste, however, I added a snappy hashtag and thereby made the same common mistake I often accuse marketers — even branding experts — of making.
The prospect who sent me that email remembered how I look. I will be the first to admit that a red — okay, rapidly greying — pony tail, full-but-tidy beard and what used to be a curly moustache do tend to set me apart from the average corporate consultant, even in the less-buttoned-down realm of marketing. Based on how I look, he was able to easily remember who I am. Read the rest of this entry »
Ignore your evolutionary history at your peril
Feb 27th
If you are interested in why people do what they do, why they buy what they buy, or why they behave like they do, then my contributions to IT Business Blogs may be for you.
If you are interested in learning what science has to teach about the best ways to convince, communicate and motivate people, then you should also see benefit in future posts.
Or, if you’re intrigued with why the so-called smartest species on earth, whose rational thought is capable of glorious invention and sophisticated insight, is also prone to individual and group behaviour that is at times mind boggling, my posts will definitely interest you. Read the rest of this entry »
