By Francis Moran
Last week, I tackled the assertion I all-too-frequently hear from technology executives that everybody could benefit from their product, and so the whole world is their target customer. This week, I’d like to demolish an equally hoary shibboleth that isn’t really a corollary statement but that goes hand-in-hand with the everyone-is-our-customer myth so regularly that maybe it ought to be.
It’s the notion that you have no competition.
“Nobody does what we do,” is the proud boast of every self-respecting technology venture. And they may well be correct. That doesn’t mean they don’t have competition — probably even fierce, well-entrenched and irresolute competition.
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This is the next entry in our “Best of” series, in which we venture deep into the vault to replay blog opinion and insight that has withstood the test of time. Today’s post hails from July 2011. We welcome your feedback.
By Francis Moran
At the time my PR agency,inmedia Public Relations, was founded, I worked out of a large integrated agency in the city and some of the account executives there loved to push my buttons by declaring that media relations was free advertising. They especially liked to do this in client meetings because they knew it would prompt me to mount a fevered defence of the merits of PR and all the ways in which it differed from advertising.
I knew they were only kidding. I knew they really knew better. I knew it was all a bit of harmless fun.
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By Francis Moran
Two weeks ago, with more than a deliberate nod to Valentine’s Day, I wrote about why I love working in technology marketing. I have spent most of my 25-year career in this exciting, dynamic and challenging sector, and with good reason, so the benefits obviously outweigh the detractions. But every coin has a flip side, and today I’m going to talk about some of the things I truly dislike about tech marketing.
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Thank you for being with us for the eighth month of our new blog. In case you missed them, here is a recap of our posts from September.
Last month, we concluded our Commercialization Ecosystem series and launched two new series, Technology Marketing 101, which features anecdotal stories about how a successful marketing program was developed, executed and measured, and A Startup’s Story, which will explore individual startups as they work to bring their technology to market. We welcome your feedback.
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Thank you for being with us for the seventh month of our new blog. In case you missed any, here is a recap of our posts from August, beginning with, in chronological order, the latest installments in our series, The Commercialization Ecosystem.
August 2: Getting university IP to market: How Canada falls short by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
August 4: Is your invention novel enough to warrant a patent? by David French
August 10: Getting university IP to market: Who needs to step up? by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
August 15: Getting university IP to market: Levering youthful ambition by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
August 22: 30 considerations for getting tech to market: Part 1 by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
August 29: 30 considerations for getting tech to market: Part 2 by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
August 31: File early, file often to accommodate changes in U.S. patent law by David French
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