Merge Marketing Group

06/08/2016

What's a B2B Marketing Conference without touching on one of the "Key Premises" of the work we do: Differentiation. One of my favorite presenters on this subject was Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy Officer for Corporate Visions. Though he was concentrating on the sales side of the business, he did make a great point about how your sales force can "differentiate" themselves from the sea of other alternatives. Taken straight from the playbook of marketing, he suggested you might want to bring an "Unconsidered Need" to the attention of the prospective client. This unconsidered need should be something the prospect could use to boost growth and revenue. When you've unveiled this gem of insight it would also uncover "Your Companies Unknown Strength" vs. that of your competitors. To see more about this methodology, check out Tim's book: http://amzn.to/1XFxBzg

Big Takeaway: Have a solution that only your company can provide. An example used was when United Rentals developed a software that allowed fleet managers to know when they needed more or less equipment. The rub was they stood to sell less equipment, but the good news is they became the "preferred vendor for countless Fleet Managers. Brilliant!

06/08/2016

The BIG IDEA of this year's ANA/BMA: Masters of B2B Marketing Conference was to do all you can to know how to "Disrupt" the status quo of business processes, knowledge acquisition, marketing strategies and tactics ... and on and on it goes. It was the core topic of the opening session presented by Linda Boff, Chief Marketing Officer for GE. In fact, she shared that she oversaw what she called a "Disruptive Lab". This lab consisted of employees that spend their full-time looking for new technologies that can provide avenues into their customer's buying journey. The fact that customers complete 90% of their buying decision by the time you get to them makes for a good reason to find them sooner so you can provide the kinds of information they need to help with their buying decision.

Big Takeaway: Those people that can reach their customers first are those whose companies and revenue will grow.

06/08/2016

Just back from a fun and exhilarating learning event: Masters of B2B Marketing Conference. Being the plodding intellect, wanted time to digest the content and value it holds for both the Agency and more importantly, our clients. Lots of great new insights

Click to view. What do you think?

09/24/2015

Good things happening in the World of Green and Sustainability. Powerful, collective structure being formed to merge ALL USGBC Chapters from around Texas. Hats off to the North Dallas Chapter for all their hard work and commitment.

We are at a point of great organizational change - markets are moving, the face of nonprofits has evolved, and volunteer engagement has dropped. The Texas Chapters of the USGBC are making bold strides to conserve resources and deliver long-term operating performance through a statewide merger schedu…

10/23/2014

Texas strong! Enjoying visiting with my fellow North Texas Chapter of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) members. We're out here adding our strength and energy to the green building effort! Go Texas!

10/22/2014

MMG is at the Greenbuild Expo in New Orleans. What an exciting exhibition of mankind's ingenuity in adding to the world of sustainable products and services. Between the exhibitors and educational sessions one is buoyed in hope for a green built environment!

05/30/2014

What a great learning event I had the privilege to attend. In the sharing of a few key highlights, I begin with "The Who's Who" of sponsors for the 2014 Business Marketing Association's Global Conference.

01/10/2014

A Happy New Year That's Out of This World!

A great way to start the New Year is to bring you a story that inspires you to really think "Outside the Box." In fact, forget the box...let's push ourselves to think outside the planet. No wait, let's be bold and think—OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSE!

Well, as much as I'd like to lead that revolutionary parade, one of our competitors already got the jump on us. Yes, they created a marketing campaign that borrowed the prowess of aliens to encrypt a key marketing message via the staid and dependable: Crop Circle.

So, if you plan on flying anywhere in the New Year, let us know so we can crop circle our client's brand into your awareness. “Voila!”

An elaborate crop circle that appeared last week in a grain field in California was a stunt by chip-maker Nvidia, the company's CEO said on Sunday in Las Vegas.

02/20/2013

Look What We Found In Our R & D Closet:

I’ve always admired professionals and companies that have the courage, fortitude, and vision to remake themselves. Remake is a tall order, especially for someone that’s one year short of being 80 years old, be it person or company.

Enter: FUJIFILM Corporation. Now these guys hit remake out of the park. In fact, let’s kick it up to revolutionized their company.

Let me explain. Fujifilm, the Japanese company of pre-digital film fame has retaken the International stage as a skincare company. Yes, skincare is what I said.

Now how they did it was impressively bright. A lesson we can all learn from should we, or our clients, ever need to reinvent ourselves. The short version is they took their R&D assets, a library of 200,000 chemical compounds and 4,000 antioxidant samples, and applied them to one of the biggest trend markets of the future, anti-aging!

Okay, that’s like me taking my advertising/marketing experience and repurposing it to become a brain surgeon. Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. But Fuji’s change is along that line of unbelievable.

Innovation Lessons from Fujifilm's Makeover/SmartPlanet Daily: http://smrt.io/W2Fyj0

01/08/2013

The New Year begins with our welcoming our newest member of the team: MacBook Pro, Born: January 3, 2013, Time: 11:54 AM, Weight: 5lbs. 6oz., Length: 15 inches. First words: "Here to serve!"