MarCom Professional

Have you noticed how everybody in the company has expertise in their own field but also is an expert in communications and marketing? And then there are the snide remarks about “just how hard can it be to produce a brochure or run an event”?

I must admit that there are many times when I suspect that smoke is streaming from my facial orifices as I try to calmly explain exactly how marketing actually shortens the sales cycle or why a company that provides network infrastructure to telecoms operators doesn’t need to do television consumer advertising… let alone mentioning how much a single prime time TV advert costs!

In short, I don’t pretend to be an expert in other functional areas like programming or finance, so why does everyone else feel that successful marketing is merely intuitive and doesn’t require skilled knowledge! And I seethe when I see the job specs for “sales and marketing director&rdquo More...

Five years ago we all looked in awe as the first camera phones rolled off the production lines at Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Following a succession of fast-paced improvements in colour screen technologies, these devices seemed to hold entire business strategies in their power. They would be single-handedly responsible for hockey stick upward curves in data traffic revenues, changing the way consumers interact with their handsets. Not only would they put traditional camera makers out of business but users would inevitably all send each other all of their exciting holiday snaps, thereby driving data traffic through the roof...OK, so we now know that despite the popularity of camera phones MMS has not taken off as expected or as hoped, but it may not be such an impossible dream. More...