A quick search for Engagement Manager roles,on Indeed shows about 12,000 live vacancies. A long way short of the 58,000 results for Marketing Manager roles, but a substantial number nevertheless for what is a relatively recent concept.
We used to talk abount customer "loyalty". "Engagement" is a far richer, more purposeful term. Some seem to be hedging their bets ("Marketing and Engagement Manager", "Loyalty and Engagement Manager"), but that smacks of tautology."
Marketing" has always been a bit of a portmanteau, blanket concept that covers pretty much everything a business does. Engagement covers the core of what I'd want a Marketing Manager to focus on - the customer's relationship to the product.
Is it the beginning of the end for the "Marketing Manager"?
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Celebrity Endorsement
Boris Johnson dropped by my daughter's Young Enterprise stall in Kingston the other week. Of course pictures soon appeared on their website, as well as in a local news website. Great publicity.
These girls had achieved something that my business hasn't achieved for many years - celebrity endorsement!
It got me thinking, why is it that companies are so bad at getting celebrity endorsement (on the whole) when charities are so good at it (on the whole)?
Yet celebrities have never been more accessible. Last weekend I got a direct tweet from Matthew Pinsent in reply to something I sent him. And Lord Sugar retweeted an item from a businesswoman "I'm a mother of 4 and the founder of this business... please retweet." By retweeting he not only gives great immediate exposure to the business - he has 1.7M followers! - but gives an endorsement that can be heavily highlighted in all their communications.
It couldn't be easier: 1. Decide who you'd like to endorse your business 2. Ask them!
If you liked this, please tweet it!
These girls had achieved something that my business hasn't achieved for many years - celebrity endorsement!
It got me thinking, why is it that companies are so bad at getting celebrity endorsement (on the whole) when charities are so good at it (on the whole)?
Yet celebrities have never been more accessible. Last weekend I got a direct tweet from Matthew Pinsent in reply to something I sent him. And Lord Sugar retweeted an item from a businesswoman "I'm a mother of 4 and the founder of this business... please retweet." By retweeting he not only gives great immediate exposure to the business - he has 1.7M followers! - but gives an endorsement that can be heavily highlighted in all their communications.
It couldn't be easier: 1. Decide who you'd like to endorse your business 2. Ask them!
If you liked this, please tweet it!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Facebook, Path and Notportunities
I feel sorry for Path. After all, we've all done it - said to ourselves, "The thing I dont like about Facebook is.." We do it all the time, because frankly there is so much not to like!
But the danger starts when you say "Let's build something that is a like Facebook but includes THIS great feature..." You get a lot of money behind you and you build it.
That is what sadly happened with Path. Launched in 2010 with $2.5M of first round funding from Shawn Fanning, Ashton Kutcher and others, it lays all your activity out in a vertical path, to give the sense of life as a journey. Oh, it has other distinctives too, such as allowing a maximum of 50 friends, to emphasis the value of real friends, whose currency Facebook has devalued so evidently. But that isn't really a killer idea, and anyway Facebook has groups which can do much the same.
Of course people liked Path. But unfortunately so did Facebook! Enter Timeline, a flattering imitation. Suddenly the strategic opportunity is gone. Because it was never an opportunity at all, just the illusion of one (- a "notportunity"?).
There a lesson here. If you see a limitation in a mega-site like Facebook you have to ask yourself how fundamental a flaw it really is. No strategic idea that based around a design flaw is really a business opportunity. If your improved version succeeds, and people like it, it will soon fail because the big boy will imitate it. And all you will have left for your millions is the kudos of being the people who got Facebook to introduce Timeline... Be wary!
Any other examples of notportunities out there?
If you like this please tweet it!
But the danger starts when you say "Let's build something that is a like Facebook but includes THIS great feature..." You get a lot of money behind you and you build it.
That is what sadly happened with Path. Launched in 2010 with $2.5M of first round funding from Shawn Fanning, Ashton Kutcher and others, it lays all your activity out in a vertical path, to give the sense of life as a journey. Oh, it has other distinctives too, such as allowing a maximum of 50 friends, to emphasis the value of real friends, whose currency Facebook has devalued so evidently. But that isn't really a killer idea, and anyway Facebook has groups which can do much the same.
Of course people liked Path. But unfortunately so did Facebook! Enter Timeline, a flattering imitation. Suddenly the strategic opportunity is gone. Because it was never an opportunity at all, just the illusion of one (- a "notportunity"?).
There a lesson here. If you see a limitation in a mega-site like Facebook you have to ask yourself how fundamental a flaw it really is. No strategic idea that based around a design flaw is really a business opportunity. If your improved version succeeds, and people like it, it will soon fail because the big boy will imitate it. And all you will have left for your millions is the kudos of being the people who got Facebook to introduce Timeline... Be wary!
Any other examples of notportunities out there?
If you like this please tweet it!
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