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By Jerry Rackley
I recently attempted to dialogue with a journalist who was doing a story about out-of-the-box marketing ideas. I haven’t yet seen the story, but I was bold enough to make a prediction to her in my email:
“I suspect you’ll get fewer, quality ideas than you’d like because the companies that are really good at coming up with these ideas use them to gain a competitive advantage. They’re unlikely to pull back the curtain and let everyone see what they’ve got and how they do it.”
Or, as a former boss of mine used to say, you’re better off attending a presentation on best practices than giving one.
The greatness of out-of-the-box marketing ideas depends on context. I could come up with a fantastic idea (maybe two) for a B2B tech company that is senseless for a B2C, mom-and-pop retailer. And vice versa. The magic to developing “proven” ideas that are out-of-the-box is to consider what is unique about each product or service, the market for it and the environment in which it is sold.
Several years ago, I attended a large IT/tech trade show in Las Vegas. I had to use the men’s room, and when I went in, I discovered that some IT security company that was exhibiting at the show had placed customized strainers in all the urinals that said “How do you know the guy next to you isn’t looking at your downstream data?’” Absolutely brilliant, and I’m betting it didn’t cost very much. And as you can see from this example, this great idea would only work for a few companies and in a few settings.
The simple fact that someone in the media will publish a list of out-of-the-box marketing ideas will put them into broader circulation, ultimately reducing their effectiveness. So if you discover an idea with lots of appeal, my advice is to jump right on it before everyone starts doing it and it loses its cachet.
It is good to share out-of-the-box marketing ideas, and I’m certainly not above copying someone else’s brilliance. The advice I would also give is to copy not just the idea, but also the process or culture that produced those ideas. It’s just like the old adage: give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and he feeds himself for a lifetime.
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Editors note: this is the third post in a series we have invited some of our partners and members to contribute.
Mark Ogne is Marketing Leader – Transformative Content at Acxiom. Read more of Mark’s insights on his blog. He shares these exhortations for marketers for this new year:
Recommendations, trends and challenges will be well aligned in 2012. Empowered consumers, proliferation of media options and the torrent of data will make it very difficult for brands to identify and understand their high value audiences, to place media impressions at the right time and place, and distill insight as a byproduct of big data.
Three items I suggest that marketers keep in mind during the year:
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Founded in 1918, the Laboratory Products Association (LPA) serves over 100 member companies with market information, education and opportunities to network that enables them to succeed and compete in the global marketplace.
One of the ways the LPA has positioned its members for success is through a partnership with Demand Metric that provides LPA members free access to the Demand Metric library of marketing tools and templates.
Partnership Origins
The seeds for the LPA’s partnership with Demand Metric were planted during the 2008 LPA annual meeting. Through another organization, some LPA members had experienced the value of Demand Metric marketing tools. They recommended to Clark Mulligan, LPA President, that he explore providing these tools as an LPA member benefit.
“It sounded interesting,” said Mulligan. “Part of my job is to find new ways to provide more value to LPA members. I got in touch with Demand Metric, had a few discussions about developing a partnership and launched it to our members on December 19, 2008.”
Partnership Parameters
This partnership provides each LPA member company with free access to the Demand Metric library of premium content, over 350 marketing tools and templates. LPA members can also purchase additional services from Demand Metric at a discounted rate.
Partnership Performance
With Demand Metric, LPA members have access to tools that supplement their expertise and provide shortcuts to doing things like budgeting, managing products, creating marketing plans, assessing processes, creating RFPs, tracking metrics and many other marketing tasks.
In the years since the partnership was formed, Mulligan has received favorable comments about the benefits his members are getting from Demand Metric. “It has saved them money because they haven’t had to hire outside resources, or re-invent the wheel. It is providing value to our members, especially the smaller companies who don’t have marketing resources available.”
Mulligan knows of what he speaks. 
Each year, he surveys his members to find out where they’re getting value from the LPA. In the most recent survey, 70% of respondents indicated they have utilized Demand Metric tools in some way. “Our members are definitely using Demand Metric and finding value in it,” said Mulligan.
Partnership Value
That the LPA continues to provide Demand Metric access as a member benefit is a testament to the value it provides. “When the relationship began, Demand Metric offered 200 tools, now there are more than 350 – it has nearly doubled,” Mulligan concludes. “I like that Demand Metric continues to be responsive to its customers and expand its offerings through additional content. Demand Metric is a source of cutting edge tools and templates. Our partnership with Demand Metric is a great business resource we can provide our members to help them improve their operations and the bottom line.”
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Editors note: we have invited some of our partners and members to share their wisdom in the form of New Year’s resolutions for Marketers. This first installment comes from Stephan Sorger, Partner at On Demand Advisors. What would you share? Join the conversation – enter your comments below.
To look forward, it helps to look back. Therefore, I will cite six great quotes from the past, and show how they inspire six great resolutions for the future.
1. Lord Kelvin: ”If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.”
Resolution: Establish metric-oriented management. Set values that specify performance (completion time, sales rate, cost per unit, and so on) so you can track performance, and take corrective action as necessary.
2. Mort Zuckerman: “Before you build a better mousetrap, it helps to know if there are any mice out there.”
Resolution: Size the market before investing in it. In other words, look before you leap. I always recommend using multiple methods to determine market size. Don’t just look it up in an analyst report. Do top-down and bottom-up sizing to be sure.
3. Coco Chanel: “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”
Resolution: Differentiation is essential. Too many companies are out there making me-too products and services, claiming they’re “the next Facebook.” Stake new ground. Be different, as the old Apple ads used to say.
4. Steve Jobs: “Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It’s about saying NO to all but the most crucial features.”
Resolution: Just say NO to excess. Speaking of Apple, Steve Jobs showed restraint in the product road map (just a few products, but all great) and the feature set (elegant, not excessive). Find out what your customers crave, and make those features great.
5. Arnaud de Bourchgrave: ”I’ve learned that any political forecasting has made astrology look respectable.”
Resolution: Be wary of “Hockey-Stick” forecasts. I advise clients to show caution when they forecast rapid (or even exponential!) adoption, especially for radical new products and services. The Hockey-Stick forecast, which climbs unrealistically quickly, can set up false expectations and doom an otherwise promising strategy.
6. Scott Roeben: “Sex is like art. Most of it is pretty bad, and the good stuff is out of your price range.”
Resolution: Show savvy in pricing strategy. Pricing is more important than most people think. It is tempting to just take the cost and add 20%, but you are doing yourself an injustice. Look at the price premium commanded by great brands such as Apple, Louis Vuitton, and Rolex. Pricing plays a pivotal role in their go-to-market strategy, and it should in your company, too.
Here’s to a happy and prosperous 2012!
Stephan Sorger is a Certified Management Consultant and Partner at On Demand Advisors, a strategic consulting firm. He is also an instructor for UC Berkeley at their San Francisco extension, and author of the new book, “Marketing Planning: Where Strategy Meets Action.” Learn more at www.StephanSorger.com.
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So you have just finished a round of 5 interviews, and most of the candidates seem to be competent enough; how are you going to select the right person? With so many factors influencing hiring decisions, and so much risk of making the wrong hire, you need a method for quickly, effectively, evaluating each of the candidates. Use Demand Metric’s Interview Evaluation Matrix to eliminate the guesswork.
What are Decision-Making Criteria for Hiring?
Action Plan:
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The earth is about to complete another orbit around the sun, and the turning of the calendar page is a good time to reflect on what transpired in 2011. True, plenty of momentous events grabbed our attention this year – the British Royal wedding, the release of the final Harry Potter movie, a new iPhone – but we’ll leave the analysis of that stuff to other members of the media. We’ll stick to what we know best: marketing and the Demand Metric community.
There were many changes at Demand Metric in 2011. Now, let’s look at what won’t change in 2012:
The only thing left to say about 2011 is “thanks!” Demand Metric exists because of and for its members, and the Demand Metric team is grateful for them. As the members succeed, so will Demand Metric. We promise not to lose sight of that connection! Happy 2012!
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“Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t.”
Polonius, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2
I’m certain Shakespeare wasn’t referring to marketing in this scene from Hamlet, yet I find application to our work. So much of what we marketers do is artistic and creative. How dare the uninitiated even think about regulating our processes with a methodology! Yet, we realize that a formula and some structure is indeed very helpful for completing our work. This is particularly true when we’re a little short on experience for doing some of the big things marketers must do, like develop a comprehensive marketing strategy to present to the board. A method, nay, a methodology, is very helpful.
For over five years now, Demand Metric has published tools and templates that help marketers get things done and save time in the process. The underlying assumption is that the user always knows what to do with the tool. So if you’re overhauling or just fine-tuning your marketing engine, we provide the tools and assume you know what to do with them. But what if you’re not an experienced marketing mechanic? The tools aren’t as helpful then.
Out of this understanding, the Demand Metric methodologies were born. 
This is a new, free content category that provides step-by-step instructions to help build strategic processes. It helps put many of our tools into context by wrapping them in a broader process. So, Demand Metric methodologies combine expertise and “Best Practices” with Demand Metric tools & templates. They lead users to build, execute and measure Product Development, Public Relations, Product Marketing Planning, Marketing Strategy and other mission-critical processes.
Demand Metric methodologies are ideal for:
Demand Metric methodologies are free and available for download and sharing from the Demand Metric website. To use one, simply download and review it. All the methodologies are broken into stages, each containing a sequence of steps that when followed, leads the user through research, planning and implementation tasks to build a process. Completion of many of the steps is aided by the use of other Demand Metric tools.
Analyst assistance is available for organizations that need help implementing any of the topics covered by the Demand Metric methodologies. For learn more about Demand Metric methodologies or to get help using them, simply contact us: info@demandmetric.com.
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Enterprise Software Sales is Dead. Long Live Enterprise Sales.
January 23, 2012
By Charles Gold, Demand Metric member
For a very long time, software companies have gone to market in the same way. Using a combination of field reps, inside sales, and telemarketing they targeted decision makers and endured long sales cycles. They traveled to customer sites and took people to dinner. They used Powerpoints and glossy sales collateral to communicate their message. They teamed up with marketing to generate and process leads. They invested months in building relationships and were (often) rewarded with six figure wins. And the system worked. Billions of dollars of software have been sold this way.
But here’s a secret: This model is dead. Over. Done. But it’s dying slowly — especially within large, established software companies. Startups are innovating, not just in technology, but in the way they go to market.
They’re selling at lower levels in their target organizations, they’re enabling bite-size purchases, they’re letting prospects sell themselves via free trials that deliver real value. In short, they’re transforming the way software is purchased — in a new customer-centric way. Customers are buying the way they want to buy — not the way the vendor wants to sell.
This new system is working — incredibly well. If you’re selling software, you should pay attention — the world has changed and it’s time to get on board. Read the full post at http://bit.ly/Az3QVd
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