Polymer Studios::Web Consulting |

3. November 2008

Get a clue…again

I read the Cluetrain Manifesto when it first came out around 2000. It was eye-opening and inspiring at the time, and there was plenty of buzz around the main concept that markets are conversations and businesses need to get involved. I haven’t read it since and recently just ran across the Web site (via Jeremiah [...]

30. October 2008

6 Comments

SM 4 B2B

Hey folks, this is a query for ideas. I just had lunch with a friend who is a marketing exec at a major bank. Not on the retail side, which sells checking accounts and car loans, but on the institutional side, which sells things like investment management and multi-million-dollar financing packages to big corporations. They [...]

19. October 2008

0 Comments

Killer interactive demos: less features, more context

Interactive demos are a great way to give your customers and prospects a good idea of what your product is and how it can benefit them. Demos are usually associated with demonstrating features of software or consumer products. And they’re just as effective for selling complex services or conceptual ideas. Demonstrate how your product solves the [...]

7. October 2008

0 Comments

Recession-proof marketing – Part I

All this talk of economic downturn has gotten me thinking. Are we in for a repeat of the ugly years of ‘02 and ‘03? I don’t think so. If you recall, during the last downturn, companies froze in their tracks and virtually halted all marketing activities. Advertising plummeted. So did investments in marketing infrastructure. It was a [...]

6. October 2008

0 Comments

Market recovery

At the exquisite Thai food blog of photographer Austin Bush, I found this video of the Samut Songkhram market, which is set up over the town’s railroad tracks! Watch how the vendors quickly get back to business after the train passes. Could this be a lesson on how to cope with disruptions in business? See the [...]

5. October 2008

1 Comment

An amazingly right technology for the times

Yet more from the latest Minnov8 podcast… Graeme Thickens (start at 23:40) reacts to the suggestion that as companies tighten their belts and start questioning costs, social media will be put on the chopping block: “Social Media doesn’t cost a lot of money. It takes participation by an individual or more than one individual within a company, [...]

5. October 2008

0 Comments

UnSummit reviewed on Minnov8 podcast

Woo hoo! This week at the Minnov8 podcast, Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson review both the MIMA Summit and the UnSummit. As some of you know, Phil led the “Social Media Reality Check” session at UnSummit and later blogged about the experience. Graeme attended the MIMA Summit and blogged about it [...]

5. October 2008

0 Comments

Touching the third rail of business

When I was a grade schooler, my dad was in sales. I don’t know if he was any good, but he had some immutable rules about business that he would share with me, the most important of which was “Don’t ever mix religion or politics with business.” This election season, however, I’m amazed how many professionals, [...]