Michael Whitehouse
January 2010
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How does your brain get into a buying state?
posted by in
Mon 25th
Why did you buy your iPhone? On the surface, it’s simple. You responded to a clear call to buy at the Apple store downtown. But if you reflect on it, you’ll see that numerous persuasion threads came together over time to form the state of mind that made you ready and willing to party with your money in exchange for an Apple product.
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Godin’s extremist take on marketing
posted by in
Thu 21st
There are those who hold a very narrow definition of it. Marketing comprises a known and limited set of functions and activities: brand creation, selling proposition, logo, slogan, advertising, collateral, website, and so forth. Each of these discrete components has its owner; the component are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Though there is room for dynamism, in this view marketing is fully the sum of its parts. This is the traditional, and likely still majority, view, though one much derided by commentators.
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On pitching and seduction
posted by in
Tue 19th
But, sometimes, if you’re a bit good and a bit lucky, a funny thing happens in the middle of the seduction ritual. The masks fall off and people suddenly start sounding like people. That’s when the fun begins. Seduction meets persuasion when the bullshit is dropped. It’s a shame that it takes so long to get there, and it’s a shame that the path is often so diabolically convoluted.
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Does Google get real-time?
posted by in
Fri 15th
It looks like Google would prefer to have the beautiful immediacy of real-time mediated by a self-indulgent cabal of twitter elites, rather than freely flowing through empowered nobodies like you and I.
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How To Write a Winning Value Proposition
posted by in
Mon 11th
Blunt works with a lot of start-up companies on go to market strategies. One of the most important, yet most frequently overlooked, hurdles for a young company to clear is the articulation of a winning value proposition. Just how do you write a winning value proposition? Based on our experience, we’ve outlined five steps that every start-up owner should have in mind when crafting their company’s value proposition.
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How to pick a great website survey tool
posted by in
Thu 7th
No matter how big your company is, real voice of customer data can be an immensely powerful source of business intelligence for your marketing team. If you’re looking to take the plunge into voice of customer research, running a website survey is usually the first place to start. To help you in your decision making process, Blunt has outlined 5 points to consider. Follow these, and you’ll be on the right track to picking a great website survey tool.
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On Social Media Noise Reduction
posted by in
Mon 4th
Social media cleansing doesn’t have to mean a complete tune-out. With apologies to John Mayer and Matt Cutts and their Lent-like digital cleanses, a little noise reduction can be just as effective.
December 2009
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A Place for Enemies?
posted by in
Tue 29th
Welcome to social media 2010, where your lifestream testifies to who and what you are, and your audience is not always a friendly one. With Twitter largely public by design and Facebook on a forced march towards openness, people will increasingly have to stop to consider whether their contributions might be seen, tracked, or flagged by audiences that could use their words, opinions, and pictures against them.
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On Facebook’s waning value to local business owners
posted by in
Tue 22nd
If I were a local business owner, I’d be excited about Google’s shiny new toys, and I’d wonder if Facebook has the chops to keep up from an innovation standpoint, at least on this front. Cutesy business pages with pictures and wall comments were fine for 2008, showed their age in 2009, but they’ll cease to relevant if there’s no innovation coming in 2010.
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3 reasons why I’m ambivalent about social media in 2010
posted by in
Fri 18th
2009 started off with marketing consultants speaking about social media in almost messianic language. But as the year advanced, evidence emerged of a darker side to social media, and I’ve outlined 3 reasons why I am ambivalent about its future as we move in 2010.
How does your brain get into a buying state?
posted by in
Why did you buy your iPhone? On the surface, it’s simple. You responded to a clear call to buy at the Apple store downtown. But if you reflect on it, you’ll see that numerous persuasion threads came together over time to form the state of mind that made you ready and willing to party with your money in exchange for an Apple product.
Godin’s extremist take on marketing
posted by in
There are those who hold a very narrow definition of it. Marketing comprises a known and limited set of functions and activities: brand creation, selling proposition, logo, slogan, advertising, collateral, website, and so forth. Each of these discrete components has its owner; the component are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Though there is room for dynamism, in this view marketing is fully the sum of its parts. This is the traditional, and likely still majority, view, though one much derided by commentators.
On pitching and seduction
posted by in
But, sometimes, if you’re a bit good and a bit lucky, a funny thing happens in the middle of the seduction ritual. The masks fall off and people suddenly start sounding like people. That’s when the fun begins. Seduction meets persuasion when the bullshit is dropped. It’s a shame that it takes so long to get there, and it’s a shame that the path is often so diabolically convoluted.
Does Google get real-time?
posted by in
It looks like Google would prefer to have the beautiful immediacy of real-time mediated by a self-indulgent cabal of twitter elites, rather than freely flowing through empowered nobodies like you and I.
How To Write a Winning Value Proposition
posted by in
Blunt works with a lot of start-up companies on go to market strategies. One of the most important, yet most frequently overlooked, hurdles for a young company to clear is the articulation of a winning value proposition. Just how do you write a winning value proposition? Based on our experience, we’ve outlined five steps that every start-up owner should have in mind when crafting their company’s value proposition.
How to pick a great website survey tool
posted by in
No matter how big your company is, real voice of customer data can be an immensely powerful source of business intelligence for your marketing team. If you’re looking to take the plunge into voice of customer research, running a website survey is usually the first place to start. To help you in your decision making process, Blunt has outlined 5 points to consider. Follow these, and you’ll be on the right track to picking a great website survey tool.
On Social Media Noise Reduction
posted by in
Social media cleansing doesn’t have to mean a complete tune-out. With apologies to John Mayer and Matt Cutts and their Lent-like digital cleanses, a little noise reduction can be just as effective.
-
A Place for Enemies?
posted by in
Tue 29thWelcome to social media 2010, where your lifestream testifies to who and what you are, and your audience is not always a friendly one. With Twitter largely public by design and Facebook on a forced march towards openness, people will increasingly have to stop to consider whether their contributions might be seen, tracked, or flagged by audiences that could use their words, opinions, and pictures against them.
-
On Facebook’s waning value to local business owners
posted by in
Tue 22ndIf I were a local business owner, I’d be excited about Google’s shiny new toys, and I’d wonder if Facebook has the chops to keep up from an innovation standpoint, at least on this front. Cutesy business pages with pictures and wall comments were fine for 2008, showed their age in 2009, but they’ll cease to relevant if there’s no innovation coming in 2010.
-
3 reasons why I’m ambivalent about social media in 2010
posted by in
Fri 18th2009 started off with marketing consultants speaking about social media in almost messianic language. But as the year advanced, evidence emerged of a darker side to social media, and I’ve outlined 3 reasons why I am ambivalent about its future as we move in 2010.
