What To Do When The Sincerest Form Of Flattery Pisses You Off

I've been in marketing long enough to know that there's very little new under the sun. I get that almost everything being done creatively is a variation on something else. But when a competitor rips you off so thoroughly, so brazenly, and so shamelessly that they steal your photographic style, your product positioning, your selling messages and visuals, and even the basic layout and language of your website, what do you do? Sue them? Nah. Wouldn't be worth the effort. But the fact is, it really pisses me …

Content Marketing Make vs Buy: Why You’d Be Crazy To Do This All Yourself

Part 3 of a 3 Part Series OK, as you probably can tell by now, I'm a firm believer in marketers "owning" the process and end product associated with their content marketing programs and not abdicating this responsibility to an agency. Fair enough. But is that practical? Absolutely. Does that mean you're going to be able to develop and deliver everything you need with in-house resources? Nah, not really. Unless you are an over-caffeinated marketing automatron with a diversified team of in-house creative …

Content Marketing Make vs Buy: Do You Really Need To Hire An Agency?

Part 1 of a 3 Part Series When it comes to delivering the quality and quantity of digital and traditional materials needed to fuel content marketing initiatives, one of the first questions a lot of marketers ask themselves is: do I really need an agency? Which is usually followed by: can I really afford to hire one? The answer to both questions is yes. And no. It's not an easy decision. A lot of it has to do with your organization's ability to staff up with the talent necessary to produce the quality of work that …

Combine Clinical, Financial And Emotional Messaging To Jump Start Your Marketing Efforts

With so many stakeholders involved in the decision to purchase a new medical technology, it's not always easy to know what to lead with when framing your marketing message. Do you lead with a straight clinical sell? Incorporate a financial rationale right up front? Appeal to the emotions and emphasize why the technology will help clinicians make patients safer and happier? The short answer is yes. By incorporating all three product purchase decision drivers--clinical, financial, and emotional-- into a …

Measure What Matters. Which Marketing Metrics Really Matter To Your CEO?

I'll admit it, I didn't get into marketing for the analytics of it all. In fact, if truth be told, I had hoped to spend my entire career as far away from facts and figures as possible. I got jazzed by the creative end of marketing--by figuring out what made people tick, what energized and motivated them, and then working to deliver intrusive campaigns that grabbed an audience's collective attention and compelled them to take action en mass. And that, I thought, was done through a combination observational science …

Completing The Circle of Life, Brand Development Style

Like so many elements of marketing, the process of developing and articulating a differentiated brand is an ongoing one. Done right, it's a continual cycle of discovery, definition, communication, and evolution. At ICU Medical, we broke the process down into four easy to understand steps, each with its own set of strategies, objectives, and tactics that ultimately led to what we believe to be a sustainable brand that fits who we are today and has flexibility to extend to where we want to go tomorrow. In a …

Want to Know What People Really Think Of Your Brand? Look Around. All The Way Around!

The first step in developing a compelling brand for your product, service, or company is to know who you really are right now, and decide whether who you are now is who you want to be. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is—and it isn’t. All it really takes is an open mind and the ability to ask a few questions. But it also takes commitment to a process that requires you to set aside preconceived notions and be willing to accept the truth—even if it hurts. And since the truth can come in many forms depending upon …

Tell Me a Story. Why Medical Technology Marketing Doesn’t Have To Be Lifeless

Those of us who work in medical technology marketing are a pretty lucky bunch. We get to bring products and technologies to market that make a real difference in the lives of real people. Products that help doctors and nurses provide better care. Products that improve efficiencies and reduce the cost of care. Products that save lives. So why is it that so much medical technology marketing is lifeless drivel when we have such a powerful story to tell? I think some of it has to do with the long, involved, and …

4 Steps To Take When Your Sales Force “Doesn’t Get It”

As marketers, we spend a great deal of time and money developing brands and positioning products in such a way as to differentiate ourselves from our competitors and motivate customers and prospects to take action. We agonize over the details of each ingredient in the marketing mix, every link in the value-delivery chain, to make sure we turn interest into action. Global branding into gross margin. Sales promotions into sales leads. And when we’ve done our jobs well, those sales leads turn into honest-to-goodness …

Why Are Medical Technology Companies Slow to Embrace the Power of Community?

When I was interviewing for the head marketing job at ICU Medical a few years ago, Dr. George "Doc" Lopez, the CEO who founded the company in 1984, asked me: "what do you know about social media marketing? Do you think we need to pay attention to it?" After working for Doc for a while now, I realize that what he really meant was "I have been doing a lot of research into social media marketing and I think we need to get on board. Now." As usual, Doc was right. I agreed with him. I got hired. We got started. From day …

Branding Missteps: Stuff You Can’t Make Up, Volume 1

Global Branding 101 teaches that if you’re going to compete globally, make sure your brand translates appropriately. This weekend at a major medical technology trade show I came across a company that apparently never took that class. Say hello to Pajunk Medical Systems. Now, from what I’ve since found out, Pajunk Medical Systems is a German medical device company with a decades-long history of success, founded in 1964 by the brothers Horst and Heinrich Pajunk. And, according to the helpful fellow at the Pajunk trade …

Keeping it Simple is Harder than it Seems

Albert Einstein once said: “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Simplicity is a powerful differentiator. That’s why I decided to focus this blog on the four simple principles I believe are essential for building a successful brand. Whether you are running an established business or launching a start-up, the keys to branding and business success are the same. Simply put, you need to: > Know Who You Are > Be Who You Are > Show Who You Are > Grow Who You …