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Velocity: The B2B Marketing Blog - A Joyride Through The Mean Streets of B2B

Topic results for "Branding"

Do the British prefer ‘muddling through’ to evidence-based B2B marketing?

I was at a meeting the other day with the CMO of a leading cloud-based software vendor. Why, he asked, was it so difficult to get the lead machine working here in the UK. Three reasons sprang to mind.

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| April 6th, 2011 | 4 comments

Real women don’t sell

Ultimo, the lingerie maker, has launched a new line of evening dresses. Interesting bit of diversification there – I suppose it makes sense for company that makes bras to also make outer garments. Hopefully the dresses will be designed with the logistics of bra-wearing in mind...

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| July 14th, 2010 | no comments

What hugging cruets and joined-up marketing have in common

Answer: Econsultancy. Let me explain…

Econsultancy have a brilliant new event called JUMP (which we helped launch a few months ago). It’s the most exclusive “online meets offline marketing” event…

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| June 22nd, 2010 | 6 comments

Join the iClan

Just when you thought the Apple Cosa Nostra couldn’t have its fingers in more pies (or i’s) the iPad arrived to fill the void in your life that you didn’t know you had.

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| June 11th, 2010 | no comments

Try to contain your excitement

Roger Warner, friend of Velocity and all-round PR guru, has flung open the doors to the Museum of Social Media. Before you all start planning an office field trip…

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| May 24th, 2010 | no comments

An antidote to all the hype

There's a lot of crap talked about the power of social media and how it's transforming marketing. Check the Ad Contrarian blog for a bracing, acerbic and amusing antidote to all the hype.

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| April 20th, 2010 | 2 comments

It’s not what you said, it’s the way you said it

The general consensus out there seems to be that French Connection’s new ad campaign is a right royal triumph. If you’ve been living under a stone for the…

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| April 1st, 2010 | no comments

Why clients hate marketing agency folk

I just stumbled over a piece from Canada's Marketing Magazine called " Here's to 2010: Industry experts share predictions for the year ahead" and read this, among other forecasts.

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| February 4th, 2010 | no comments

The Disruptive Idea: that’s what it’s all about

Disruptive ideas are not the only way to build a successful business. Sometimes just doing lots of little things better than the other guys is enough. But a disruptive idea is probably the single most powerful weapon in the marketing arsenal. And most marketers spend far too little time generating them.

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| March 24th, 2009 | 4 comments

Drop-down positioning at the Royal Opera House

Check out this very funny drop-down menu from a Royal Opera House web form. Did the ROH construct this delightful list of titles to avoid annoying its Earls, Dukes, Barons, Sultans and Rabbis (they must HATE having to choose Mr) or is this just a clever bit of subliminal positioning?

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| December 15th, 2008 | 4 comments

Opt-Out: Digital Marketing’s punch in the stomach

Marketing used to be all about the upside. You fired off a message; some people responded; others didn't. Net gain. In the digital world, there's a downside that's as painful as any upside: the dreaded Opt-Out. Here are some ideas for dealing with it...

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| December 8th, 2008 | one comment

Evel Knievel, corporate positioning & corporate message development

Engineers take the leap from tech features to Big Business Benefits like Evel Knievel approached the Snake River Canyon: they fall down. Our Hierarchy of Benefits gives you a better way to do corporate positioning and corporate message development. It provides a practical solution: the Bridge (or, for the Tarzan in all of us: the Vine).

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| November 25th, 2008 | no comments

Your new content may not be as relevant as your old

All the best B2B tech marketers are mini-publishing houses -- they never stop cranking out thought-provoking content on the issues their target market cares most about. But even the best thought leaders often follow a simplistic content promotion strategy that completely ignores the idea of a sales cycle. Basically, they pump out some new content, promote it, and repeat. What they're doing is burying the best under the newest...

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| November 18th, 2008 | no comments

A really good newsletter

We know we 'big up' Pär Almqvist, the Marketing Dude at VNL, quite a bit. But we thought you'd like to see what we consider a really, really good eNewsletter that Pär briefed in and designed (we wrote it for him).

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| November 13th, 2008 | no comments

Microsoft’s baffling “I’m a PC” campaign

Apple got a lot of attention with its "PC vs Mac" commericals. They were simple, funny, well-scripted and seemed to capture the essence of what Mac people love about their Macs. Clearly, they got under Microsoft's skin, because the crack Seattle Rapid Response team has leapt into action (what, three years later?) with an expensive riposte: the "I'm a PC" campaign. The result is wrong in so many ways, I can't summarise them all in a blog post.

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| November 10th, 2008 | 11 comments

Branding as body language

A friend of ours who also happens to be a God of Branding sent us an article he wrote ten years ago but could have been written yesterday. He's Axel Chaldecott, co-founder of HHCL, now the top creative on the global HSBC account at JWT. The article's central metaphor is that a company's visual identity is its body language...

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| November 4th, 2008 | no comments

I beg you: don’t bore the bejesus out of me

Marketing is communication. B2B marketing is bad communication. That's how your audience thinks about everything you put out. Their expectations couldn't be lower. They've waded through thousands of case studies and brochures and web pages from people just like you and IT'S NOT FUN.

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| October 31st, 2008 | no comments

Buff Your Pitch Up. Google Suggest & B2B Content Marketing

Often we marketers are our own worst enemy when it comes to marketing 'ideas'. In my time I've had the pleasure of conceiving some truly dreadful 'opinion' pieces in the name of trying to grab people's attention. The fault usually lies in believing our own hype. Here's some Google-inspired ideas on how to avoid falling into the trap...

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| September 9th, 2008 | no comments

A Different Kind of Growth Equity Investor Needs a Different Kind of Web Presence

Don't know about you, but it's Friday afternoon and we're offski. Peroni awaits. We're celebrating the launch of a brand new web site for Kennet.

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| July 18th, 2008 | no comments

Marketers everywhere – get a little mobiThinking

...check out mobiThinking.com, which was launched today to help the world's marketing community to better understand the opportunities and challenges presented by mobile marketing. (Note: it's web marketing Jim, but not as you know it.)

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| June 16th, 2008 | no comments

ShipServ.com Goes Live: a B2B Before and After

We're proud to say that shipserv.com launched successfuly this morning. May all who sail in her find reasonably priced shipping supplies from a broad (and competitive) selection of maritime vendors....

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| April 15th, 2008 | no comments

Whose Tipping Point is it Anyway? A B2B Perspective…

There's a great piece in this month's Fast Company that asks if Malcolm Gladwell's 'Tipping Point' is fundamentally flawed. It's compelling stuff, but what's the point of 'tipping' and the pursuit of 'influencers' in a B2B environment..?

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| February 1st, 2008 | 2 comments

Pico-Branding: New Rules for Marketing

How does Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, blogging, and every other web 2.0 BlaBla service change what we need to be doing in marketing, and what are the concepts that matter? If you really want to know then read on...

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| January 15th, 2008 | 5 comments

How NOT to sell yourself online

I was just uploading some images to our Flickr stream when I caught sight of the one of the most useless, intrusive banners of all time...

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| December 13th, 2007 | no comments

Why Web Usability Matters

You know the scene. You or your boss thought it’d be great idea to build a new web site and it’s the first planning meeting. Across the table someone shouts: ‘No! It’s gotta feel sharp!’

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| December 11th, 2007 | no comments

Your 2008 marketing plan: the B2B Svenn Diagram dilemma

Aside from tinsel and cheap booze offers, it’s that planning time of year again. A special place where you need to create futurama fireworks out of Powerpoint...

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| December 8th, 2007 | one comment

What’s the freakin’ (Power)point!!??

What's the point of Powerpoint? A crutch to help you through an uncomfortable challenge (public speaking)? A useful visual aid to convey stories? A pain in the butt, killed to death, hackneyed, eyesore, head-f**k for boring people to death?

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| November 26th, 2007 | 2 comments

Hot potato: the holy trinity of technology marketing

To celebrate the launch of a whole new Velocity, Doug (our Creative Director) has put pen to paper to get a bunch of important stuff off his chest...

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| November 18th, 2007 | no comments

Going vertical: you can’t fake authenticity

We’ve seen a bunch of companies try to take generic software into specific vertical markets.

They succeed to the degree they can achieve authenticity.

So instead of looking, feeling and…

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| October 10th, 2007 | no comments

Marketing whole products

Just unpacked my new Apple MacBook Pro.

A great example of a whole product: the hardware, operating system, bundled applications (about 30), utilities, web & phone support, set-up wizards, web-based…

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| June 30th, 2007 | no comments

What’s in a (domain) name – part deux

See here another list of domain naming snafu’s. Note to all – before you book that domain name, write it down on a piece of paper and scan it real…

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| May 15th, 2007 | no comments

Fair Isaac

Tech company names are usually pretty bad.

All those coined words ending in ‘a’ — Plectra, Placenta, Adeptra, Conceptra, Integra, Concentra…

But I’ve always loved the name Fair Isaac.

Stands…

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| April 13th, 2007 | no comments

Logos we love: IBM

Few logos have stood the test of time better than the IBM logo.

Created by Paul Rand in 1972, it hasn’t changed much in, what, 34 years.

Still strong. Still…

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| April 10th, 2007 | no comments

What’s in a (Domain) Name?

It’s usually best to think these things through – in this instance by writing a url string down on paper before getting hitched to it.

God knows, the penny MUST…

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| March 23rd, 2007 | no comments

Recent papers

The B2B Content Marketing Tutorial

A roll-up-your-sleeves guide for marketers

If you’ve read the B2B Marketing Manifesto or the Content Marketing Workbook, you’re already hip to the power of B2B content marketing.

But you need a bit of practical help on the process side of content…

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| March 28th, 2011 | 14 comments

The B2B Marketing Manifesto: Five Imperatives and Six Staples for Winning the Battle for Attention

There’s never been a more exciting – or a scarier– time to be a B2B marketer.

It’s not about social media, the web, or email. It’s about a completely new mindset, new buyer behaviours and a shiny new set of tools to address it all.

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| September 20th, 2010 | 104 comments

The B2B Content Marketing Workbook

Content Marketing is probably the single most important weapon in the B2B marketing arsenal. This eBook takes you through velocity’s approach to the art. Download it and see what you think…

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| June 9th, 2009 | 24 comments

A B2B Social Media Checklist

You’ve just published a great piece of content. Don’t just stick it on your website. Use social media to drive people to it (and vice versa). Here’s a one-page checklist to help you socialize your content, driving traffic and downloads…

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| March 12th, 2009 | 2 comments