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Category: Marketing Insights
December 31st, 2012
When entrepreneurs approach venture firms, they come bearing questions. Lots of questions. Questions like: “Do these people care about me?” “Do they have any expertise in my field?” “Are they going to be hard to work with?” …and so forth. This is natural. You’d feel the same way if you were showing off your pride-and-joy to a boardroom full of strangers. So we’ve always found it strange that most VC firms tend to settle for saying “Look at us! Look at all the logos successful companies we’ve worked with!” as if that’s supposed to be some kind of substitute for telling people who they are and what they stand for. To us, both ends of the VC/entrepreneur relationship are driven by – surprise – ideas. The entrepreneur has an idea, and the VC firm has (or at least ought to have) more than one thought on how to bring that idea to life. So we’re clearly very pleased to see Battery Ventures’ new Mortar-built website place a premium on ideas – the good ones entrepreneurs have had, the innovative ones Battery has used to promote them and of course, the results.
It’s a smart conversation to have. (And a rather stylish-looking presentation, if we do say so ourselves.)
November 26th, 2012
We’ve been accused of taking too long to get to the point. ⬆ This is the point. ⬆ Read the post anyway.
So we’ve spoken before about brands and Radical Honesty. We’re going to speak about it again, as this is a lot for marketers to get used to. Remember, we’re the same people who used to go home and sleep like babies after a hard day of telling the world about Camels satisfying your T-zone. But so many nice folks sent us links to this Daniel Baylis article in Fast Company, that we figured we’d better pipe up once again.
It’s a good little article with a couple important takeaways. Like this one:
“The biggest misconception is that brand perfection is necessary before honesty is a valid brand strategy.”
That’s nice, right there. It reminds us that people, for the most part, want to like you. They’re not only looking for a reason to buy, they’ll even help you make your case. “But baby, we need that 75,000 BTU grill! For the children! Won’t you think of the children!?”
This one, too:
“In a recent report on transparency in corporate reporting among the 105 largest publicly listed multinational companies, it’s surprising to see that oil companies such as BP and ExxonMobil (also far from perfect) rank much higher in transparency than popular tech companies such as Google and Apple. And in terms of integrity, public perception of Google and Apple continue to fluctuate. If I were a PR executive at these tech companies, my palms would be sweaty.”
Excellent point. Say what you want about BP and ExxonMobil – they’re evil, but they’re reasonably on the up-and-up about it. Meanwhile, Google and Apple, two brands that once possessed halos as bright as supernovaas, now battle it out to see who can embrace the dark side of the Force more quickly.
Our point? We go on and on about Conversation Marketing because we believe your brand is part of a conversation. Moreover, we think you ought to be a good conversationalist. You already have impeccable etiquette – we’ve seen your posture and your Latin declination – don’t forget to use it. Be honest about yourself – customers have highly-developed bullshit radar systems. Have a sense of humor about yourself – better to beat the world to the punch. In general, be someone you wouldn’t mind being stuck in the corner at a party with.
The big finish? This – Mr. Baylis spent a whole lot of column-inches full of words telling you the following: Be honest. Be nice.
Thanks for reading.
October 26th, 2012
Thank you to all who took our survey last month. We’re tickled to learn that some of you actually read (and even enjoy) the crap we write. You gave us some great feedback and ideas, and we’re gonna do our darnedest to incorporate them as we gallop down this golden, blogpost-covered road.
Massive congratulations to Deanna Flores, winner of the $50 Amazon gift card. We can’t wait to see what she buys with it. 25 chip clips? A gently used Chewbacca costume? The possibilities are, in a word, endless.
October 2nd, 2012
Did you hear in Pennsylvania, they were trying to make people show their ID before they could vote? We’re sure glad they put the kibosh on that.
Heck, here at the Mortar we’ll practically pay you to vote. In fact, we’re conducting a little survey-thingamajigga to find out what readers like you think of the MortarBlog. And if you complete the survey by October 12, you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card.* Sounds like a worthwhile investment, don’t it?
Take the survey here.
Hooray for surveys, and Amazon!
*Free money? Considering that you can buy anything from solar-lighted garden gnomes to a full-sized bassoon to a 12-pack of bacon-wrapped sirloin steaks on Amazon – yes, this is essentially free money that we’re giving away. Just answer all the survey questions (truthfully, we repeat) by midnight PST on Friday, October 12, and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card. The gift card does not expire, and can be used to purchase anything on Amazon.com or its affiliated websites – like half a Kindle, for instance. Read Amazon’s full gift card terms and conditions here.
August 31st, 2012
Remember Pigs In Space?
Our pals at Bacon Salt did. And, from the Department Of “Damn, We Wish We’d Thought of that,” it inspired them to redefine the term “product launch.” As in, Bacon Salt is blasting into frickin’ space.
(OK, more like, “they tied a cooler to a weather balloon.” Still…pretty rad.)
Behold Spacon-1, Interstellar Pork Delivery Vehicle – coupled to a 100,000 ft-rated weather balloon, equipped with a parachute system for re-entry, GoPro camera to record flight and GPS tracking device for recovery.
Sadly, the launch vehicle suffered a mission failure. (It popped.)
 
But still, they got to wear spacesuits.
We especially enjoyed Mission Control’s reaction to the vehicle failure:
Mortar salutes you, Bacon Salt. Today, bacon has reached out, and touched the face of God.
(Who, quite likely, would now liketh a washcloth.)
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