Ryan's Blog

 Last week, we reviewed principles of formulating and executing a plan to bring a new product to market, focusing on the MVP, or minimum viable product.  We already talked about the features and attributes that denote an MVP, so I won’t delve into that one again.  We’re all assuming that we didn’t run into any production or presentation glitches (Yay!) and that the material goods or services were well-received by the targeted consumer population (Super!).  So, our hypothetical startup has experienced some market success – the logical next step is to expand toward the demand ceiling, right?  No.  Full stop.  The referenced text ( Ascend your Startup , for those not following along) identifies this point as another critical friction or failure point for budding businesses. I can totally see why someone would ride their own hype wave into a poorly thought-out expansion strategy.  You’re sitting on cloud nine with a great initial roll-out and wan...

 I figured I’d jot down some notes about a web post I just finished reading that definitely aligns with skillset development and future-proofing strategic thinking in the advertisement world.  To be honest, I didn’t just stumble upon it while surfing the web. This was recommended in a course I’m taking, but I don’t think that takes away from its relevance at all.  Here’s a Link to the post in question.  My take: Bottom line is that the information age and the advent of social media has fundamentally transformed the most effective methods that businesses use to communicate with their consumers or clients.  The post quotes Jill Rowley’s comments about a specific social media platform; “LinkedIn is no longer an online resume.  It’s your digital reputation.”  While I agree with the premise, I’m not sure that limiting the scope to LinkedIn is the right answer here. My brother works in the digital communications realm, and his organization is reliant on the...

Ladies and gentlemen, we are presenting a chapter of Guerilla Marketing that is the bane of every procrastinator on the planet: COMMITMENT. Now don’t get me wrong, the idea here actually outlines an effective strategy to overcome such “personality deficiencies”, but it doesn’t mean it’s not extraordinarily, mind-numbingly, pulling-your-hair-out difficult for some people to execute.  I say this tongue in cheek, since I most certainly fall into the category.  I like to think of myself as “deadline-oriented” instead of a hopeless procrastinator. I spent at least an hour looking at memes for this image instead of finishing my blog today. "Image Source" . So, let’s talk about how we get around this.  Set multiple deadlines!  Yes, nothing crushes the soul of a procrastinator more than realizing that development milestones should have their own deadlines.  So how do we do that?  With a plan!  The book puts it in no uncertain terms; build a plan and commit to...

  I’m very intrigued by Guerilla Marketing , much more-so than the other readings in my current marketing coursework.   I feel like this book really nails what I expected to study in a marketing and advertisement management course, while also riding the “cutting edge” of future marketing strategy.   I did have a bit of an issue absorbing the points this week, however.   Partly because I’m in the middle of a role transition in my job, and partly because the material seemed overly complicated.   Not necessarily irrelevant, but I think several items could be consolidated, since the concepts are interconnected.  I found a great article from Marcus Miller ( link here ) that simplified the principles.  This is also where I found the excellent visual below!   Image Source. The chapter described the 16 secrets to success in guerilla marketing. The first five revolve around dedication; commitment to the program/plan, investment to meet program resourci...

 Having a solid, logical business plan when moving product to market is an essential piece of the pie chart of success.  As it has with other preparatory actions, Ascend your Startup maps an approach to such a problem set.  It’s absolutely critical to nail product roll-out, since attracting consumers or clients is the core source of revenue in any business.  Both the initial startup and operational growth present friction points that new businesses need to be prepared to deal with. Image Source. A central theme of chapter 3 revolves around how your startup needs to leverage sector experience when executing these activities.   Industry veterans have the “on-the-job” know how that can’t be fully expressed through academia.   Establishing a strong support network that can critically evaluate strategy and decisions can pay dividends and can spell the difference between a successful startup and another lesson in failure. The book describes four types of lea...

The third chapter in Surfing the Tsunami talks about industry perspectives on the potential impacts of artificial intelligence on how we approach business operations in the future.   This isn’t just related to marketing; better A.I. can translate to a huge variety of automations in all sorts of disciplines.   The book describes three general categories of said perspectives: optimism, pessimism, and realism.   Honestly, these three could apply to pretty much any personal viewpoint. The optimists tend to focus on the potential benefit of A.I. influence, whether it be lightened workload within the industry, reduced operational costs and lower consumer prices.   Their viewpoint might miss some of the concerns of the pessimists, however.   They’d forecast issues such as a tighter job market as artificial intelligence replaces flesh-and-bone workers, or less flexibility to react to changes in the business environment since automations are often hard to adjust. ...

 There were a couple of points which came up in my research this week (reading Guerilla Marketing and Ascend your Startup ) that have me rethinking my approach to business debut.  It won’t be enough to just share some pleasant landscape photography and describe experience activities – I need a legitimate assessment system to look at the feasibility and acceptability of potential venues.  In other words, what are the baseline, MVP products that I want to offer, and do they scale for patrons who might want more detailed or complex events?  Referencing the image below, I need to find the offering that fits into the middle of the diagram. Image source.   I’m brainstorming something a little outside the box – in line with tactics described in Guerilla Marketing .  Much of my current academic pursuits circle around leveraging the tech industry and social media to build an advertising system, so what if I applied the same to market research?  I could si...