Saturday, September 29, 2007

Management Summary

Where are the cliff notes for management?

You've heard people quote this strategy, method, or theory - Porter's Five Forces, BCG Matrix, Balanced Scorecards, etc. -- and want to know what the hell they're talking about.

For an excellent summary of hundreds of approaches to management the 12Manage site provides 1 page summaries organized in a spectrum of categories. Well worth a visit.

So the next time a consultant or job applicant spouts off "I'm a proponent of using Ohmae's 3C's Model tempered by Kapferer's Brand Identity Prism to develop a profitable CRM strategy" -- you can call their bluff.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

New Visualization Element Discovered

How many ways can we look at data?

The folks at Visual Literacy summarized a wide range of visualization techniques in a periodic table format. It organizes approaches into data, information, concept, strategy, metaphor, and compound visualization. It covers 100 techniques ranging from the bar chart to the affinity diagram.

I submitted the data cloud (see previous post from August 02) for submission; might have a "discovered" a new way of presenting information.

Campaigning is Not Marketing

Just what do they think they are doing?

The coming onslaught of commercials, billboards, radio spots, banners, search jacking, etc. focuses on the immediate and short term world of getting a vote. It might be called advertising, PR, bullying, or just plain silly --- but it is not marketing.

Marketing takes (well it should) the long term view of what need needs to be satisfied. In the world of products, and what politician isn't a product at the end of the day, the prevailing wisdom is to focus the needs of a single user defined by a persona. This is our target market - nothing more - and the features align specifically to her. The trouble with the political and election process is that there fundamentally isn't any way to focus on the needs of one segment and still win an election. This flaw creates wish washing, flip-flopping, and some of the best sound bytes that don't really say much.

In marketing we should be able to clearly articulate a benefit statement -- politicians work hard to avoid that in fear of alienating some other group. No wonder they often fail in satisfying our needs.