Conifer Consulting

Discover the power of "Persona"-driven Integrated Marketing

Be Buyer Aware: Persona-Driven Integrated Marketing for Maximum ROI

via norcalbma.org

Come Discover the Power of "Personas" in super-charging you Integrated Marketing efforts from two experts at the March 18 Roundtable I am hosting in Palo Alto.

You can find all the details here: http://bit.ly/w3EvE

I look forward to seeing you there.

Why we take Marketing seriously at Conifer Consulting

Read my interview here where I talk about it in the context of why "Marketing is the Soul of well-run Business"*: Interview with Reena Kapoor.  Please write and tell me what you think.

*that's an original quote of mine in case you're wondering!

Ever wonder about Personas?

Come join me for breakfast and learn more at this exciting product marketing roundtable I am hosting on March 18th in Palo Alto:  Be Buyer Aware: Persona-driven Integrated Marketing for Maximum ROI.

Success in today’s competitive market is awarded to those businesses that understand – even anticipate – their buyers the best. Yet, it’s still very easy for marketers to fall into the trap of placing the product in the center of the universe.  Come to learn and explore how Persona-based Integrated Marketing methodology can help you avoid such traps and instead build empathy and “connectedness” with your target prospect 

5 C's of great positioning!

Cogent, Coherent, Customer-focused, Credible, Consistent! 

Think of other characteristics that are essential?  Write me.

NorcalBMA - Product Marketing & Management Roundtable

How To Tear Apart Your Competition!

Competitive Analysis remains an underleveraged – yet – powerful tool in the product strategist’s arsenal. Most companies know who their competitors are. Yet competitive analysis is rarely done in an in-depth manner and usually only covers feature checklists of similar products. This presentation will cover how to examine every aspect of your competition so that winning strategic plans can be put in place. This includes a four-step process for developing competitive analysis for both internal and external audiences and topics such as SWOT analysis, Porter’s five forces, channel, team/company, product features, funding and others.

via norcalbma.org

Want to learn how to tear apart your Competition? Come join me on Jan 21st for breakfast in Palo Alto.

Interview with Reena Kapoor » Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship

Reena Kapoor is the principal of Conifer Consulting, a marketing consulting firm based in Silicon Valley. A native of India, Ms. Kapoor came to the United States in 1988 to attend graduate school, received her Master’s degree from Northwestern University, and went on to work at Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods before starting several businesses of her own. We met with Ms. Kapoor in Los Altos, California to explore her thoughts on culture and entrepreneurship and marketing strategy for entrepreneurs.  Kaizen: It is a long way from India to Silicon Valley. Where in India did you grow up?

via www.ethicsandentrepreneurship.org

Re-posting this interview which was done last Feb; I get asked these same questions about what is marketing and why it matters, all the time... Hope you enjoy my answers.

Social Media Predictions For 2010

Jimmy WalesJimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia thinks the most important changes ahead will be forged by the “next billion people coming online, mainly in India and China.” He discussed the cross-cultural impacts as people from various backgrounds, cultures, and linguistic heritages “mix and match in amazing ways.”

via inventorspot.com

What's your prediction? Mine is that Social Media will be much more pervasive and much more "social" on e-tailing sites!

e.g., sites like Amazon will allow customers to interact - discuss, recommend, microblog, share (acquire visual bookshelf?), and use info about their readers to create groups/profiles, etc over and above simply review/rate (perhaps by integrating with FB Connect?)
What do you think?

The Big Money Facebook 50 | The Big Money

The Big Money Facebook 50 | The Big Money

Posted using ShareThis

Black Friday | Social Media Tracking for Apple, Dell, Blackberry, Gap, Louis Vuitton, H&M, Overstock, Amazon and Etsy | Gershoni

Our Black Friday Engagement Engine tracks a set of recognizable brands as buzz builds leading up to this critical day. Scouring social media in real-time and then filtering out the meaningless noise – the engine tells the story of a new era of communication and how it drives the way we buy.

via www.gershoni.com

Gershoni is a creative agency I helped hire for one of my clients and I've always been impressed by the degree of creativity they bring to their work. They've done it again with this incredible Black Friday Engagement Engine they've built to monitor "conversations" in this age of the n-to-n communication, on retail's most important day! Check it out.

Inc. 500 CEOs Use Social Media for Business

via www.inc.com

Useful data on what/how Inc 500 CEOs are adapting to and with Social Media.