2004 Commentary Archive

In 2004, liquidity exits (mostly M & A) became common. Some say it's 1997 all over again ;-) We were involved with one exit at YellowPages.com, where we helped sell the company for just over $100M! Not a bad ending to an interesting year. A Technology Marketing Org Chart Technology companies have unique needs. For example, product development must be driven by marketing to succeed. Here is an org chart that implements this and other classic requirements. An Online Marketing Prescription In the ideal online marketing model, there is very little human “sales persuasion” going on. The system is doing it. Here is a prescription for setting up the "system" - simple, scalable and successful. Mistake-Based Marketing I'm often asked if I conform to some formal process or other for product research and development. The answer is, yes and no. Yes, I strongly adhere to principles of quantitative market research and the proven positioning principles of Trout and Ries.But that alone doesn't do it. Here's the rest of the story, as I see it. Web Sales Weapons Internet hosting provider Rackspace claims that 50% of its new business comes from Web sales chats. Literally, web-based sales tools are Web Sales Weapons. But it's not just about web based sales chat. It's much more. How's Your Digital Marketing? Digital marketing (e-marketing) is a powerful tool, but there's one big problem: there's so much of it to do! Even the top marketers don't think their digital marketing efforts are all that great. What does that say for the rest of us?