Grant Johnson

For many of us, the clarion call to become more customer centric is echoing throughout the halls; we all need to better acquire, serve, and retain customers.  While there are many avenues to customer centricity, one of the primary approaches to getting closer to customers starts with designing and implementing a Voice of the Customer program. Wikipedia defines Voice of the Customer as “the in-depth process of capturing a customer’s expectations, preferences and aversions.”  Forrester defines the term as “a systematic approach for collecting customer insights and incorporating them into business decisions.” Both definitions share the premise that the rigorous gathering of customer insight can improve a company’s ability to serve its customers more successfully.  The key of course is not just obtaining the insight, but acting on it.  Many companies start out the custo... (more)

Building High Performance Marketing Teams

When joining a new company, it’s critical to quickly assess the team you’ve inherited to determine what level of organization restructuring and rebuilding will be required to ensure functional success.  Before rushing to judgment and a rapid makeover, take time to understand – on a personal level - the structure, composition, talent, strengths and weakness of the team.  Besides the obvious gaps in competencies, under-performers and open positions, often there are more subtle clues to the most pressing organizational shortcomings as well as staff member potential. Misplaced.   In... (more)

Technology Brand Development Essentials

Having created and shaped several successful brands over the past decade, including FrontBridge (acquired by Microsoft) and FileNet (acquired by IBM), there are a few fundamentals that are key to successful brand development. It has to start at the top with the CEO supporting an investment in branding and disciplined brand management. Without that, it’s a non-starter. Given technology companies are continuously innovating and changing products, the brand strategy has to be differentiated and relevant to target markets and the executional guidelines have to be consistently applied... (more)

Sales & Marketing: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Over the past 15 years waging war in the technology marketplace, I’ve come to appreciate that the first battle for marketing is often the one fought inside a company between sales and marketing.  Let’s face it, the two functions are often at odds due to the he fundamental schism of one function primarily rewarded for delivering near term results, i.e. get sales this quarter, and the other function primarily rewarded for creating competitive advantage and building brand preference. It’s no wonder there’s a lot of finger pointing in the hallways and conference rooms across America... (more)

Is Your Brand Architecture a Foundation or a Façade?

If you haven't revisited your brand architecture in more than a year, it's likely what you're building is a façade, rather than reinforcing a foundation.  Because technology and innovation are inextricably linked, tech companies are continuously introducing new products and services, and in most cases, adding brands and sub-brands into their product portfolios.  Over time, even a sound architecture can begin to crumble under the strain of too many overlapping brand layers. It's not as if tech marketers are trying to create brand disorder and chaos, it's just that  inattention to... (more)