mommyjenlin

Well, our 2009 IDC Tech Marketing Barometer results are in; and if you missed the Telebriefing two weeks ago, here are some of the highlights: Marketing Investment: 0.5% Growth for Global IT Spending in 2009, while Average Tech Marketing Investment Drops 10%. Larger companies (>$1B in revenue) will take the greatest hit in marketing budget as they wrestle with significant revenue drops in key parts of their portfolios and continue to improve efficiency. Growth areas still exist within: enterprise social media, security management, mobile data, SaaS, Internet advertising, business analytics and IT outsourcing & BPO to name a few. (source: John Gantz's presentation at IDC's recent Directions event) Marketing Mix: The pendulum of investment swings to demand generation, with sales enablement closely coupled to this priority. (awareness building takes a "back seat", yet remains a key part of healthier companies' portfolios) We've been all talk as an industry...

Stewart vs. Cramer First this message. If you did not see the Jon Stewart's interview of Mad Money Jim Cramer from CNBC on Comedy Central Daily Show, you really need to see what everyone is talking about. I actually felt sorry for Cramer, but hey, CNBC needs to get its act together and figure out what their responsibility is in financial reporting. Yea for the little guy! Thanks Jon. http://blog.indecisionforever.com/2009/03/13/jon-stewart-and-jim-cramer-the-extended-daily-show-interview/ Now back to the regularly scheduled program........ Hospital Advertising, my favorite subject Seeing an increase in hospital advertising. Once again, it’s not clear what people are attempting to accomplish. That's because the strategic essence of marketing is missing. Look, anybody can create an ad. Anybody can hear the CEO, run out, spend some money and throw it up against the wall to see what sticks. How is your advertising supporting the business objectives? What is your brand message? Is a...

The press is filled with stories about the demise of traditional advertising and the in-person, public trade show. Sounds quite similar in fact to the predicted disappearance of the "brick-and-mortar" storefront, and the emergence of a new on-line world where we can do all of our shopping in our slippers from the comfort of our home. Well, IDC CMO Advisory's recent 2009 Barometer study does continue to indicate that our traditional marketing mix is in the process of permanently changing. In fact, almost 70% of technology marketers indicate that they'll be increasing their program investment in digital marketing in 2009, while 72% of companies will be decreasing their in-person events spend and 60% decreasing their advertising spend (print, broadcast and corporate sponsorships). What are the top digital marketing initiatives for technology companies in 2009? Corporate web site: No longer simply a marketing billboard, the corporate web site has become the window to...

$150 billion dollars for healthcare in the stimulus bill, $19 billion of which is for IT. Think everyone is trying to figure out how they get theirs? And I don't mean the hospitals and IDNs . I figure McKesson and Cerner are well on their way, including a host of other niche players (small and large) healthcare IT providers trying to figure out (as if they haven't already) what's in it for them. With all the different systems and no common standards will this turn into a really more expensive version of the Betamax vs VHS video tape format wars from the mid 1980s with that ancient technology of VCR? Now the budget contains another $600 billion plus for healthcare reform. All told, this totals in excess of $700 billion. Just the first down payment for fixing the system folks. I bet the AHA and AMA are busy figuring out how much they can get without having to change anything. Like I said in previous blogs, its all about politics. Obama being a veteran of Chicago politic...

Working with technology marketers on a daily basis, I hear much about the need to develop more relevant content based upon a solid knowledge of your target customer segments and their needs at different stages of the buying cycle. In fact, in our 2009 Tech Marketing Barometer study (results to be announced in the next week or two) marketers identified "content development" as one of the highest priority areas for improving sales enablement. However, are we as marketers getting the "biggest bang" from our content development investment?. . . . leveraging this content across multiple delivery vehicles and channels? With this in mind, I thought it would be valuable to hear a bit more about how to best leverage content from IDC's VP of Go-to-Market services, Laura Nurzynski. Take it away Laura. . . . My colleagues from IDC’s CMO Advisory Practice expect digital marketing investment to rapidly outpace investment in much of the more traditional marketing vehicles. (ID...

CGM, sounds like a disease. Well, it can be. It can be unknown. It can be helpful. It can be harmful. It can be your best friend or your worse enemy. Do you even know what it is? Is your marketing department aware of CGM ? Can they even tell you what this means? Simply put if you do not know what CGM means you and your hospital, physician practices, or any healthcare setting is at risk. CGM means Consumer Generated Media. It means that in the age of the Internet, disgruntled patients, unhappy employees, media, anybody- can write about their experiences, post photos, interview and show to the world how good or bad you are. Anyone with a computer and Internet connection can create CGM . Won't matter if what is written is true or false. The world does not care. But those who read it will believe it. Scroll through this blog and you will find plenty of examples of CGM : Silver Cross Hospital; Agfa Healthcare; Adventist; State of Illinois; etc. Look at: Comcastmustdie.com; Ihatedell....

How many times have we heard in the B-to-B marketing press the past several months about the importance of increasing content relevance to our prospects and customers, better engaging them through digital marketing vehicles and improving our ability to generate and qualify marketing leads? Yes, all extremely important priorities for us as marketers, however, if you're a $100M+ company none of this can be accomplished in an efficient and effective manner without the back-office infrastructure to support it. And we all know how difficult an infrastructure conversation is in this economic downturn. For the purposes of this conversation, let's focus on the area of database marketing. Even the best marketing organizations struggle with consistency in database marketing processes; consolidation of prospect and customer data across the multitude of databases in use across the world; cleansing of data to prevent a "bad data in = bad data out" scenario; and overcoming the comp...