Comments for The Dark Side

Comment on Practical Examples of a Positioning Statement in Action by Jeff Foley

Jeff Foley — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:07:47 +0000

Yes! You get it now, Sania. Exactly.

Your professor is right, though — if engineers focus solely on the technology then they won’t build things that customers want. It’s engineering’s job to be aware of the use cases — what does the customer actually need? But it’s also marketing’s job to provide some of that guidance and feedback by analyzing the market and collecting feedback, and it’s the sales team’s job to provide the from-the-field response from the customer so that engineering can iterate and improve their design. In addition to all the individual responsibilities each department has. It’s so easy for each group to focus on their own thing and do the worst of their stereotypes (engineers heads down on cool tech; marketers making pretty things no one wants; sales making up stories to get the sale) and then Bad Things Happen.

Comment on Practical Examples of a Positioning Statement in Action by Sania

Sania — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:49:32 +0000

Thank you for clarifying your point it seems i didn’t get exactly what you meant when you said “Then consider the alternative. What does all this marketing material look like when the engineering team doesn’t have a high level message in mind while they’re designing and building the product?”
It reminded me of what my prof kept saying “Engineers design for the sake of design, they fall so in love with their products that they forget about what the market wants or looks like thereby wasting millions on research an prototypes of things the customer would never use or afford”

I think your comment here puts this whole blog in an entirely different light, i’m almost tempted to mail my prof the link to it because it balances out what he says and gives marketers, sales and engineers all equal responsibility. Marketers should not only be able to direct engineers towards developing a desired product but also define their finished designs and put them in a perspective/concept the customer would be able to understand and thus be interested in. If the marketer himself does not understand or find purpose or reason for the product the engineer might as well forget about the project and maybe his job.

Comment on Practical Examples of a Positioning Statement in Action by Jeff Foley

Jeff Foley — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:18:40 +0000

Thanks, Sania, for your comment. One of the main points of me making this blog, as an engineer-turned-marketer, was to show engineers that marketing should not be something intimidating, and to empower them to call B.S. on their marketing counterparts if they’re not doing their job.

From your comment, it sounds like you think I’m making fun of engineers, and that’s totally not the case. If anything, I poke fun at the healthy tension between engineering, marketing, and sales, and show what happens when any one side of that three-legged stool fails in its responsibilities to the others. For instance, I end this post making fun of marketing if they don’t communicate with engineering — they make up a bunch of stuff that doesn’t mean anything, and the engineers roll their eyes when they see the marketing material. That shouldn’t happen, but it does at many companies on a regular basis.

Comment on Practical Examples of a Positioning Statement in Action by Sania

Sania — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:53:20 +0000

Thank you for the post I really needed a positioning statement example but the point in commenting is this:
If there is one thing I’ve noticed that is common between all marketers it is their common dislike for engineers. I mean they all deny it but i can almost create a template for any marketing blog/class/article:
1- Start with something totally useful include good examples
2- End with humor at the expense of some poor engineer who couldn’t think beyond design specs
I’m serious about this, i was one engineer in a class of about thirty-five business students in Mktg210 and every time the professor made an engineer joke (at least twice a week) all necks would pivot in my direction and zero on my face and i’d be all like “Don’t mind me i’m harmlessly sketching”

Comment on Humanizing copywriting by Tyson Supasatit

Tyson Supasatit — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:46:11 +0000

Newsletters and email pitches are perfect for this type of casual style. I love your blog, btw!

Comment on The Bad Guys Always Soliloquize: Tips for Presenting a Webinar by A Reminder of How to Build a Powerpoint Presentation « Patti And Media

A Reminder of How to Build a Powerpoint Presentation « Patti And Media — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:08:25 +0000

[...] major tip I wish I had known I found from Jeff Foley with DarkSideMarketing. One of his older blog posts from 2009 said to write out my presentation word for word from [...]

Comment on The Bad Guys Always Soliloquize: Tips for Presenting a Webinar by pattiandmedia

pattiandmedia — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:44:19 +0000

Thank you for the tips! I wish I had been told by someone that it’s okay to actually write out what you’re going to say. No one will know you’re reading it as long as you’re a good reader and can still do inflection, pausing, and emphasis. I think this is major! I’m sharing the tip in my own blog post this week: http://bit.ly/hOQPrA

Comment on The Positioning Statement as a Marketing Tool by What the writer wants from a product messaging document « Content Marketing for Technology

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:24:50 +0000

[...] The Positioning Statement as a Marketing Tool from the Dark Side Marketing blog [...]

Comment on Five Ways to Keep It Simple by Links for a Sunday evening

Links for a Sunday evening — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 17:03:03 +0000

[...] Five ways to keep it simple So, to simplify: take a look back at whatever you’re trying to say. Focus on your key message and cut away the cruft that stops your customer from understanding it. Put that engineering mind to rest: stop trying to be factually complete and exhaustive. Instead, make sure you’re not wasting anyone’s time. [...]

Comment on About the Author by Uncle Al

Uncle Al — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 23:13:22 +0000

Hi Jeff

I truly enjoyed “DarkSideMarketing”. Great Stuff!
Is Matt the journalist/business editor/my son, aware of your writing talent?
Hope you and your family are all well and enjoying the Halloween season.

Peace & Love