I was recently interviewed by Content Marketing Examiner on the topic of content marketing and in this interview you get to hear the experience I have gained watching thousands of companies market successfully and unsuccessfully. You may think in order for a company to market in the most effective manner they need to spend the most money or have the most creative agency. The reality is many companies have these things but fail with the basics and as a result all that extra spending does not result in successful market penetration.

One of the nuggets you will learn on the podcast is How is Successful Marketing like a Successful 401K?

Take a listen and I hope you like it. I will also be presenting on a content marketing webinar tomorrow – so sign up now and listen live or to the archive.

Tags: content boost, content marketing, marketing Related tags: content marketing, successful marketing, marketing, successful, market, content

Follow me:
Facebook Profile
Google Reader Profile
Google+ Profile
Twitter Profile

One of the most interesting aspects of my career is watching the thousands of companies I have met over the years make it or not make it. For every success like Netflix, eBay, TellMe and Digium there are countless other failures – companies who seem to have a solid technology angle but somehow fail to communicate their message effectively.

I was reminded of this fact when I saw The Carousel from Mad Men. The video above reminds us how technology is not really exciting – neither are new products. What is exciting is how new ideas and solutions are weaved into a story which potential customers will embrace and be passionate about.

This is even more true decades after the above-scene took place because we now have social media which can instantly propel or destroy brands based upon how consumers feel about them.

When you are designing your new products and solutions be mindful of how you will communicate their existence to the market. Remember that the reason you are improving your products is to delight your customers – so they will hear your story, agree with it and in-turn tell it to others who will become new customers.

Quite often it is the story which the prospect remembers and this is what causes them to purchase from you. Remember this when allocating resources, figuring out where to focus and expecting a solid ROI.

---

For more on content marketing check out the latest from the Content Boost blog. Here are some of my recent favorites from the Content Boost team:

• A Brand Above the Rest?
• Grading MySpace’s Comeback Ad
• Top Fashion Designers Make Content Marketing This Year’s Hottest Trend
• Content Marketing and Flying Sushi
  

Tags: advertising, kodak, mad men, marketing Related tags: content boost, content marketing, content, story, products, marketing

Follow me:
Facebook Profile
Google Reader Profile
Google+ Profile
Twitter Profile

It’s been a busy week regarding NFV and the software telco (R)evolution. First off Dialogic had some solid thoughts on six of the network elements ripe for NFV – they are routers, SBCs, media servers, softswitches, signaling nodes and DPI/WAN acceleration solutions – it is worth pointing out that on this last area the company’s Jim Machi says they are a “maybe”. You can read his thoughts for the details.

Cisco had some news in the space as well. The company’s Kelly Ahuja SVP, GM, Mobility Business Group spent about an hour discussing the impact of NFV on the company’s business. The bottom line is Cisco expects the move to software to be less lucrative but the flipside is they expect to expand their business into many other areas as part of the carrier transition to software on COTS servers utilizing network functions virtualization.

The financial analysts on the call showed they really understand Cisco’s product line and moreover they are far more technical than many might have thought.

Bottom line – while NFV was developed in-part to allow many smaller players to provide carrier solutions, companies like Cisco have no plans of ceding the market and will develop organic solutions and make acquisitions as needed to grow market share as this new space emerges.

Some of the slides from the presentation follow.








More:

• NFV video interviews
• NFV conference Software Telco Congress
• NFV resource center

Tags: cisco, dialogic, network functions virtualization, nfv, software telco Related tags: software telco, cisco, software, business, solutions, company

Follow me:
Facebook Profile
Google Reader Profile
Google+ Profile
Twitter Profile

The idea is if you have fewer customers, you have less pricing power which means lower overhead with means merging suppliers can eliminate redundant costs such as accounting, marketing, HR and other “synergistic” areas of the business.

Large carriers have also been known for choosing large suppliers for their hardware needs as they felt these larger companies were more likely to be around to support them in the future as they roll out their solutions. Carriers think in terms of decades and continuity is crucial when providing customer services.

One of the big hardware mergers of the last decade was a joint venture between Siemens and Nokia which moved the carrier product divisions of each into a new company called NSN or Nokia Siemens Networks. Joe Rizzo reported last week on TMC’s TechZone360 that Siemens is considering buying Nokia out and taking control of the carrier division once again.

It’s worth pointing out that generally the telecom market is still in consolidation. Gary Kim in fact wrote yesterday on TMC’s sister-site Mobility Techzone that the market is rife with potential acquirers of Canadian wireless firms.

It’s worth pondering a situation where a company is looking to turn (pictured NSN hiT 7100) back the time on a joint-venture. One possible explanation is NFV has the potential to change the current world of telecom equipment manufacturers into telecom software developers. This may mean that by taking more direct control, Siemens will be able to navigate the new world of software in a more rapid fashion. This may mean the ability to spin-off assets more quickly.

In an NFV white paper from ETSI the authors mention the following as one of the benefits of this industry move:

Enables a wide variety of eco-systems and encourages openness. It opens the virtual appliance market to pure software entrants, small players and academia, encouraging more innovation to bring new services and new revenue streams quickly at much lower risk

The document further explains that by creating further abstractions, faster innovation is enabled.

There are likely arguments to be made as to why NFV is good and bad for incumbent companies serving  communications service providers but it is likely more instructive to focus on the fact that software companies are generally more creative when they are smaller and nimbler.

Furthermore, carriers are telling the market they want to buy from nimbler suppliers.

This should make us ponder what the future will bring when it comes to M&A in in the carrier equipment market. It is possible that larger organizations will be able to benefit from scale as they sell their software which will run on virtualized servers but will such large organizations be able to keep up with the faster development cycles needed to effectively write the best software possible?

Time will tell but is certainly worth wondering if NFV-based software telcos will change telecom equipment M&A economics. If the industry moves in the direction the carriers want, it will need lots more companies producing solutions and this means additional equipment M&A could hurt the resulting players rather than help them.

More:

• NFV video interviews
• NFV conference Software Telco Congress
• NFV resource center

Tags: at&t, etsi, nfv, sbc, sdn, software telco, wireless Related tags: telecom market, software telcos, joint venture, telecom equipment, software, market

Follow me:
Facebook Profile
Google Reader Profile
Google+ Profile
Twitter Profile

The web interface displays a message when the phone is registered so you know immediately if you put the SIP credentials in correctly. I have to say, I really loved how every change I made DOES NOT require a reboot. I've never tested a phone that didn't require a reboot, especially after putting in the SIP settings. Even after putting in the SIP settings on the SIP-T28P, I didn't have to reboot. It auto-registered immediately.

• TI Aries chipset and TI voice engine
• Dual-port Gigabit Ethernet (Router & Switch)
• Supports IPV6
• Power over Ethernet
• 4.3” TFT-LCD, 480 x 272 pixel, 16.7M colors
• Color Picture Caller-ID, Screensaver, Wallpaper
• Convenient and intuitive user structure
• Headset, EHS support, LCD Expansion module
• 6 VoIP accounts, Hotline, Emergency call
• Call hold, Call waiting, Call forward, Call return
• Call transfer (blind/semi-attended/attended)
• Caller ID display, Redial, Mute, DND
• Auto-answer, 3-way conferencing
• Speed dial, SMS, Voicemail
• Message Waiting Indication (MWI) LED
• Direct IP call without SIP proxy
• Ring tone selection/import/delete
• Phonebook (1000 entries), Black list
• Call history: dialed/received/missed/forwarded
• Soft keys programmable

Tags: color lcd, dhcp, ethernet, gigabit, ip phone, sip, t-38g, tom keating, voip, yealink Related tags: gigabit ethernet, phone registered, color screen, network setup, phone, gigabit

Follow me:
Facebook Profile
Google Reader Profile
Google+ Profile
Twitter Profile