Knight's Vision

A Marketing Blog by Kip

Submitted by Kip on

While a growing number of businesses today are starting to use social media in marketing their business, there is always a risk of putting execution before strategy. This is a real danger with social media because too many businesses realize too late that once you begin a social media initiative (such as a Facebook Fan Page, Twitter account or YouTube channel), you’ve got to refresh it with new content on a regular basis as well as monitor it for comments and spam. Otherwise, you would have been better off not doing anything.

Submitted by Kip on

When you live in Silicon Valley like I do, you can’t help but be amazed how quickly what you hear as a rumor turns into a consumer reality for sale at your local retailer or online. This is especially true for consumer electronics that are currently undergoing an unprecedented explosion of innovation and change. I wanted to reflect on seven consumer trends I believe will drive continued growth and change in this multi-billion dollar category:

Submitted by Kip on

I create and teach customized marketing seminars for a wide variety of businesses that cover diverse topics ranging from marketing strategy, social media and all things digital. Given the rapid changes taking place in the marketing world today, I sometimes have a tough time keeping up with what’s happening and what merits being included in my latest seminars.

Submitted by Kip on

YouTubeI had the pleasure of being interviewed by Mary T. Morgan during the recent P&G Alumni Reunion held in Toronto, Canada. Mary and I worked in Brand Management together at P&G.

Submitted by Kip on

With all of the continuing hype surrounding social media and digital marketing, there is a strong temptation to try to tune it all out and focus on building your business instead. But that would be a big mistake for you as well as your company’s future growth.

Why? Simply this: consumers have an unprecedented ability to learn more about your business than ever before as well as sharing their opinions and perspective (both favorable and negative) with the entire world. And they can do this with the simple hit of a “send” button.

Submitted by Kip on

Sometimes things don't go like you planned....and sometimes that's a pleasant surprise. About four years ago, I was still working at eBay. I had about 30 people on my team in marketing and every quarter we would schedule some type of team building event.

We had a lot of great team events, including the usual team building activities a lot of companies engage in (i.e. bowling, offsites) as well as what you'd expect a California company to do as well (i.e. wine tour, Segway tour) but frankly we'd run out of activities that we could get very excited about.

Submitted by Kip on

I’ve been working with Thomvest Ventures (a VC fund based in Silicon Valley) for about a year as a Venture Partner and it’s been a very enlightening experience. After working in the corporate world as a marketer for almost 30 years, it was “back to school” time for me to fully understand and appreciate the role the critical role VC’s play in funding social media and other start-ups.

Submitted by Kip on

I love Virgin Atlantic.

One of the reasons I do is I believe they really, really do care about their customers. As proof of this, one time back in 1994 I had a problem with one of their flights and wrote a note to Richard Branson to make him aware of it (this was back in the days in which you still wrote letters that went through the post office).

Submitted by Kip on

 I just got back from my first ever SXSW event. They are celebrating their 25th year as a Music Festival and 15th year as an Interactive Gathering (the “Davos of Digital”).

Submitted by scgadmin123 on

It’s fair to assume strategic planning for most business leaders is similar to planning to go to the dentist (i.e. they know it’s important to do it but they are worried how much it’s going to hurt).

The term “strategic” is a power word often used to intimidate others –that’s a real shame. Making sound strategic plans and executing them is something we’re all capable of doing if we put the appropriate amount of time and focus against doing it right.