http://marketingplaybook.com/ Marketing Playbook. Making the world safe for humans in marketing en-us johnza@qimingventures.com Tue, 30 May 2006 17:45:20 -0800 http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/05/30/new_media_playbook_5_rules.html Back in March, I gave a talk entitled “5 Rules for Marketing in a New Media World” at the Economist Branding Summit in Shanghai. It was how to cope, as a marketer, with all growing choices and complexity of new... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/03/22/pickle_theory_proof_and_perceived_value.html As marketing people we have often emphasized the power of proof. As venture capitalists, one of our jobs is assessing the value of companies that do not have a public market (and hopefully also maximizing that "value" in the final... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/03/22/sf_bags_the_art_of_the_upsell.html I love SFBags or Waterfield Design. They have the best most versitile laptop computer bags. I also love some things they do in their site. Especially the build-your-own section. They ask you a bunch of questions to customize your... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/03/16/economist_roundtable_shanghai_march_2829.html Really excited to be speaking at the Economist's Third China Branding Roundtable: Standing out in a crowd. It's at the Pudong Shangri-La, Shanghai on Tuesday March 28th 2006 - Wednesday March 29th 2006. To find out more, click here.... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/03/08/complexity_in_motionmsft_repackaging_its_all_my_fault.html Once again simplicity is shown to be both so powerful and so easy to stray from. By now many of you have seen the recent spoof video that shows how Microsoft would transform the simple, powerful, elegant packaging of... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/02/17/new_venture_firm_qiming_venture_partners.html We just announced a new fund in China. It is called Qiming. It is a partnership with Ignition and some terrific, seasoned China investors: Duane Kuang, Gary Rieshel and Ed Zhou. We could not be more excited, both by... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/02/16/can_you_tell_me_what_your_job_is_in_3_seconds_read_this_before_you_write_your_resume.html "If you can't describe your job in one sentence, you are either a nuclear physicist or your job shouldn't exist." Recently read a great article in the FT by Lucy Kellaway, entitled "Waffle and waste of money are hallmarks of... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/02/16/if_nothing_else_ads_can_be_entertaining.html Despite all our commentary about how questionable the impact of big ad dollars might be, I have to admit commercials can still be a a heck of a lot of fun to watch. We loved the Big Ad. We... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/01/27/read_all_about_it.html "NEWS is what someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising.” - Reuven Frank, former head of NBC news The Economist has a very interesting survey of the PR industry. You should take a look. As all of us... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/01/06/practical_segmentation_continued_more_paul_wang_thoughts.html Paul Wang really is amazing. Another approach he outlines takes his simple segmentation a step further. In How to Manage Customers he first outlines a segmentation approach based on lifetime value and then marries this with a stunningly simple and... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/01/05/now_youre_ready_for_a_very_good_tagline.html I have bemoaned the lack of good taglines for some time. I have always thought that less is more and that if you can get the essense of your marketing down to 1-5 words that really work and aren't... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/01/04/leveraging_the_optimal_synergy_of_maximal_nonsense.html I just got this wonderful book as a gift: Why Business People Speak Like Idiots : A Bullfighter's Guide, by Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway, Jon Warshawsky I know a lot has already been written about this but boy, it... http://marketingplaybook.com/2006/01/04/paul_wang_a_god_of_customer_segmentation.html Several years ago I went to a lecture at the excellent Northwestern School of Integrated Marketing Communications. It was by this young guy, Paul Wang, and the down to earth, insightful and practical things he had to say about... http://marketingplaybook.com/2005/12/02/three_vehicles_one_planet_zero_clarity.html Was walking through O'Hare airport yesterday and was barraged by huge banners and signs everywhere for Toyota's new campaign pushing their Hybrid Synergy Drive. The banners and adds had the above huge logo and only four words: Three Vehicles... http://marketingplaybook.com/2005/11/08/beauty_gets_real_in_china_too.html We have already written and talked about how much we like the The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. It is cool to see them extend it and localize it around the world. They are doing much the same in...