10 Great Ideas for Marketing Innovation
Calibre Communications presented a lively session on great marketing ideas for knowledge organizations at the 2008 Stanford Technology Ventures Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education (REE) in Sydney, on 19 June 2008.
Award-winning science and technology marketing veteran, Judith L Mercure, provided snapshots of her ten favorite tactics for marketing technologies and R&D outputs, with examples of how those tactics have been used successfully in knowledge organizations in the USA, Europe and Australia. The presentation grouped the ideas into two categories:
- Marketing from the Inside Out: Five great ideas were suggested that can encourage the culture, ownership, and skills needed to help everyone in the organization market scientific and technological outputs effectively.
- Marketing from Prospect to Partner: Five great ideas were suggested to increase awareness of and interaction with potential partners, leading to profitable and enduring relationships.
The session offered the opportunity for participants to share their own best ideas. Entrepreneurs and educators from Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong, as well as the US and Australia, offered stimulating insights into how entrepreneurship cultures differ in countries in the Asia Pacific region from the highly successful Silicon Valley example so often used as a model. A network of regional entrepreneurs might result in a more culturally nuanced model, representatives said.
Each of the ten ideas presented has been adapted by Calibre Communications to the needs of knowledge organizations, both within the context of projects and Science Marketing Clinics and training programs. For more information on Science clinics, training programs and consulting activities, please contact us at calibre.consulting@bigpond.com.
The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) hosts four annual international conferences for entrepreneurship educators. These conferences are called Roundtables on Entrepreneurship Education (REE). They are designed to stimulate communication and collaboration between business, science, and engineering faculty who teach high-technology entrepreneurship in universities around the world. The 2008 REE Asia event was co-hosted by MGSM Macquarie University's Graduate School of Management in Sydney, Australia. For more information, see: http://ree.stanford.edu/.
Download the presentation (PDF).
Marketing clinic focuses on new digital marketing tactics
Marketing Clinic Focuses on Better Project Management, New Digital Marketing Tactics to Meet Stakeholders’ Fast-Changing Needs
Together with partners, TII, RedOTRI, and ProTon Europe, Calibre Communications has offered another of its popular one-day knowledge transfer specialists’ Science Marketing Clinics to a capacity audience.
This year’s clinic, Effective Marketing Communications from Prospect to Client: A Project Management Approach, drew 22 participants to Valencia on the day before TII’s annual conference to review new evidence, consider new ideas, and to exchange their own experiences about how to meet the fast-changing information needs and increasing demands for input and interaction of clients and other stakeholders.
With most of us encountering over 245 ad exposures and potentially thousands of brand messages daily (Advertising Media Inter Centre April 2008), it has never been more important for knowledge organizations to have effective marketing communications. Knowledge organizations not only need to transfer knowledge quickly and credibly to help move potential clients up the ‘Customer Loyalty Ladder” but also they need to meet the changing needs of different critical stakeholder groups. The clinic reviewed credible mechanisms that influence prospects and clients as their information needs change and suggested tactics to more effectively use those mechanisms.
The clinic facilitator, Judith Mercure, drew attention to how some innovative knowledge organizations are using new digital marketing tactics. Despite the high reliance on digital media, websites and email, many knowledge organizations are not actively using interactive tactics like search term optimisation, blogs, wikis, podcasts, permission and viral marketing, among others, as part of their communications toolkits. The clinic used a six-stage approach to project managing website (re-)development to illustrate how to develop genuinely strategic, audience-driven communications projects and campaigns.
How valuable was the clinic? All participants enjoyed the casual climate and fruitful discussions; most felt that what they learned was very important to critical for their jobs. One participant commented after the workshop, “I see we need to review our stakeholders ’interests and needs and create a new strategic marketing plan!" Another commented, “Our website could be much more strategic and interactive!”
For nearly a decade, TII has regularly co-hosted science marketing clinics with Calibre Communications that are tailored especially to the needs of knowledge professionals. Each clinic offers the opportunity for participants focus intensively on a topic that addresses the special marketing needs, opportunities and constraints of knowledge organizations. For more information or to suggest potential topics for future Science Marketing Clinics, please contact the TII Secretariat at www.tii.org. For information on Calibre Communications’ inhouse courses, useful workbooks and other publications, visit the website at www.calibrecommunications.biz.
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