Gallifant.com

Dispatches from the corporate frontlines: technology, business, and my personal musings.

Category: Digital Strategy

April 28, 2014

Emotion and Personal Value for B2B Marketing

by Caleb Gallifant

A fundamental difference between a B2B and B2C buyer is that a B2B buyer makes decisions on behalf of an organization (or group of individuals) while a B2C buyer tends to make decisions for one person (him or herself). This has led to the assumption that B2B buyers care more about the numbers, ROI and corporate alignment than whether he or she personally identifies or connects with the service or product offered. But the folks at Kapost want to challenge this notion arguing that B2B marketing may not be as pragmatic and left-brained as many have supposed. In fact, Kapost proposes that emotion, personal value and individual connection is a profitable tool to be wielded by B2B marketers.

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April 5, 2014

The Next Frontier in Digital Marketing: Customer Optimization

by Caleb Gallifant

So you’ve heard of big data, the internet of things (IoT) and other technological advances that are allowing businesses to know more than ever about their customers, but what does this mean for marketing as we know it? Well, if marketing is the effective promotion of a product, brand or service toward a profitable end, digital marketing, then, is a shift in the medium utilized to promote that product, brand or service. And if we combine the shift in medium and the shift in knowledge of our customers, then we’re in the midst of a much larger shift than you may realize. Thus, while we continue to grasp and leverage web-based innovations, social tools and mobile technology for marketing purposes, we cannot neglect the opportunity to maximize our marketing efforts through customer optimization. Funnel Envy’s infographic below  provides helpful insight on how we can do just that:

How to Generate Value from Digital Marketing
Source: How to Generate Value from Digital Marketing

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March 27, 2014

Your Winning Digital Strategy

by Caleb Gallifant

Moto 360 WatchWe’ve been told that 2014 will be the year of wearable technology or the year of the Internet of Things (IoT). Regardless of whose Kool-Aid you’re drinking, there is no denying that digital is the oxygen of our day. McKinsey & Company’s recent report on digital disruption is important, therefore, to develop a winning digital strategy that will appropriately harness the latest online and mobile technology. McKinsey notes that we must first understand six digital shifts:

1. Device Shift

2. Communications Shift

3. Content Shift

4. Social Shift

5. Video Shift

6. Retail Shift

Understanding these shifts sets the backdrop for effective digital planning. For example, a failure to understand the role of mobile and tablets in personal computing will leave your plan shallow and deficient. So how do we formulate a winning plan? McKinsey offers 5 considerations:

  1. Stay close to users by investing in customer insight. Customer behavior is rapidly changing, demanding strong market intelligence and customer insight functions.
  2. Build a competitive edge with deep analytic skills. As segments get smaller and more distinct, the need to use data to optimize product development and marketing will only grow.
  3. Make business models more robust to reflect consumer diversity. Focus and breadth are both needed.
  4. Ensure investments are clearly aligned with consumer shifts. Executives need to clearly communicate the “what” and the “why” of strategy and operations and tie this to current opportunities.
  5. Reward superb execution skills. A potential downside of big data and analytics is that the analysis goes on too long and the market opportunity evaporates or is seized by a competitor.

Read the full article here.

Image: Moto 360 Watch with Android – Credit Motorola

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August 17, 2011

What Can We Learn From Pixar?

by Caleb Gallifant

Peter Sims, whose latest book Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries, has written an insightful post on what Google can learn from Pixar. Some of Sims’ observations are worth noting, specifically as they relate to what we all can learn from Pixar:

Pixar is as close to a constant learning organization as there is, with a proven ability to reinvent and a genuine cultural humility. Google’s founders could learn from Pixar’s founder and president Ed Catmull’s prolonged and determined efforts to counter the natural human reactions to success by aspiring to proactively (and honestly) seek-out and solve new problems constantly, recognizing that he doesn’t have all the answers on his own.

Despite an unbroken string of 11 blockbuster films, Catmull regularly says, “Success hides problems.” It’s an insight Google should acknowledge and act on. Google’s leadership admirably tolerates failure on side-projects (and big projects as well), but what Pixar has that Google does not is a culture where the fear of complacency is a strong motivator, where new problems are identified, discussed, and addressed openly and honestly, all of which requires humility.

No no individual is exempt from this wise caution. Success hides problems. The Bible warns of something similar, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes…” (Prov. 21:2). May it be said of us that we are well aware of our tendency towards complacency and seek to learn from everyone and everything.

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