3 Things that will Impress Your CMO

Posted on August 7, 2012 by kaonmarketingguru

Have you ever tried to impress your CMO with REAL thought leadership? If so, you’ll know that it is difficult because it takes real courage to step out of the box and present new ideas that will change the direction of a marketing program. So what do you do? Many people have found success by focusing on these three areas:

1.)  Innovative Technologies
2.)  Marketing Cost Efficiencies
3.)  Expanded Marketing Reach

CMO’s are responsible for implementing programs to ensure that their message is communicated clearly and consistently everywhere sales, marketing and customers meet. While CMOs are typically strategists, they rely heavily on their internal teams to tactically implement their plan. That said, they are always looking to their team to make recommendations on ways to improve their programs. Especially, when cost efficiencies are involved!

Things to consider…

There is nothing worse than staying with the status quo. New innovative marketing technology should not just be ‘cool’, but should help better differentiate your message. This is important because using technology for technology’s sake can often hurt rather than help. When recommending a new technology, communicate how it will strategically help your marketing program and clearly outline tactical implementation.

Make sure your ideas help your CMO expand their reach cost effectively. With reduced budgets, CMOs are always looking to improve and expand their reach with limited dollars. Reuse of content for various channels, making marketing materials more accessible to sales teams, and expanding into global markets are a few hot topics that weigh heavily on their minds.

If you’re looking for a way to impress your CMO, think about innovation, cost efficiencies and expanded reach. These will provide the best avenues to become a thought leader in the eyes of your CMO.

Now that you know what your CMO is looking for you should be ready to present your ideas with confidence. It’s time to shine!

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What is “Interactive Marketing”?

Posted on July 3, 2012 by KaonTrendSpotter

Interactive marketing has emerged as one of the hottest marketing trends in 2012, with Forrester Research predicting that marketers across all industries will spend nearly $77 billion, roughly 26% of all advertising dollars, on interactive marketing by 2016. B2B interactive marketing is expected to reach $5.7 billion by 2016, with mobile marketing accounting for much of that rapid growth. But what exactly does the term ‘interactive marketing’ mean?

Interactive marketing is, by definition, marketing which engages the user to interact with the content in a personal, emotional or tactile way. Therefore, interactive marketing cannot be pigeonholed as only online experiences (although it would be remiss to discount the Internet as a major facilitator of interactivity). Many assume all interactive marketing is online only, and this implied definition does a huge disservice to marketers who understand that delivering interactive experiences is an imperative for every venue, offline, as well as online.

Interactive marketing allows customers and prospects to participate in the process of building a brand’s image, thanks to the customer’s ability to ‘interrupt’ a brand’s communications to complement or modify its messages to fit his or her perception. This removes the feeling of a canned, one-size-fits-all pitch or advertisement which can distance or even alienate prospects by making them feel undervalued; as if they are just another mass marketing target. Whether it’s through interacting with a virtual 3D product model on an iPad® or a conversation on Twitter, it is the individual involvement aspect of interactive marketing that captivates users and makes it far more likely that they will remember relevant information.

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Kaon Enhances 3D Product Marketing Applications

Posted on June 25, 2012 by kaonmarketingguru

B2B Product Marketers Can Now Give Better Visual Product Demonstrations On Mobile Devices, at Trade Shows or for Sales Demos

Kaon Interactive, the leading provider of 3D interactive product marketing applications, announced today new enhancements to its Kaon 3D Product Models and 3D Mobile Product App platform, bringing a new level of product detail and mobility when demonstrating and communicating complex products. With these new features, B2B marketers and salespeople can more easily differentiate products virtually to prospects, telling product stories more effectively and efficiently on mobile devices such as iPads and smartphones.

New Mobile Support Allows Sales & Marketing to Demo Virtual Products Everywhere
With its 3D Product App mobile platform (recently selected as a MITX Innovation awards finalist), Kaon creates interactive 3D product models that allow companies to demonstrate their products virtually, using interactive 3D product catalogs, anywhere at anytime, on mobile devices (such as iPads and iPhones). Using the touch screen on an iPad or iPhone, customers can rotate, spin and interact with 3D products, to explore options and features (e.g. remove components), all while controlling their own experience based upon personal preferences. The amazingly photo-realistic 3D virtual product models, communicate features and differentiators simply, and deliver more engaging interactive demonstrations that ‘show’ product detail like never before.  The mobile platform makes it easier for sales professionals, channel partners, and marketers to sell products and connect with customers, eliminating the high costs associated with physically shipping products to sales meetings or trade shows.

Better 3D Product Demonstrations and more In-Depth Product Information  – New enhancements to the Kaon 3D Product App mobile platform include video integration, collateral libraries and collateral thumbnails, helping companies get prospects better engaged with its products and more quickly understand the benefits, features and differentiators in a visual way. New features include:

  • New Video Integration – Kaon can now easily embed video within their mobile applications, adding yet another layer of communication to better tell product stories.
  • New Collateral Libraries and Thumbnails – Kaon has not only added collateral libraries to the Kaon mobile application, but has also added document thumbnails, which allow the viewer to more easily and quickly obtain relevant product marketing collateral quickly based on appearance rather than just title.
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