Remember this. Marketing is not the corner office with the cool posters on the wall. It’s not the person running your LinkedIn page. It’s not the trade show booth with the shiny graphics and the bowl of candy.  Its not that logo that you spent a 100 hours on. Marketing is a discipline. And if […]

Most companies think marketing is what happens before the quote. They think it’s the website. The trade show booth. The LinkedIn posts. The clever tagline. The email campaign. Then the RFQ shows up. And suddenly marketing disappears and math takes over. Wrong. Your quote is marketing. In fact, it might be your most important piece […]

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard someone in our industry dismiss marketing as “fluff.” You know the tone — a little smirk, a little condescension, and the implication that “real companies” don’t need marketing. They say: “We make a great product. Our work speaks for itself.” No, it doesn’t. Not anymore. […]

Let’s talk about pricing — not the math, not the spreadsheets, not the cost-plus formula your finance guy loves — but the real game: perception. Because in the world of printed circuit boards, just like in every other business, customers don’t buy the cheapest. They buy what they can justify. That’s right — nobody brags […]

Why Building a Strong Personal Brand is Critical We’ve all heard the saying, “Your reputation precedes you.” It’s one of those clichés that happens to be entirely true. Whether you’re stepping into a room full of potential clients, meeting a new colleague for the first time, or connecting online, people often know something about you […]

Here’s a hard truth most companies don’t want to hear: your brand isn’t struggling because of your pricing, your website, or your competitors. It’s struggling because it’s boring. You’ve blended into the beige background of your industry so perfectly that no one even notices you anymore. You’re safe. You’re polite. You’re professional. And you’re invisible. […]

And why you need to get to know him if you are serious about modern marketing techniques. When I was in the Iconnect booth at IPC APEX EXPO 24 a few weeks back I was tremendously pleased to see a photo of my marketing hero Seth Godin flashing on their large screens. To me that […]

Let’s have some fun! We’ve been pretty serious lately, delving into ways to be better and make our companies better and our customers love us. It’s time to loosen that proverbial tie (when is the last time you saw someone wear one of those?) and talk about some fun marketing stuff. I did my homework […]

People who resort to counting clicks on their web site as an indication of the success of their marketing efforts and advertising campaigns really don’t have a good handle on what marketing truly is. In fact, taking any too narrow view of a campaign by focusing on just one aspect of the program is a […]

For a great long-term synergistic relationship – actually partnership – with your customers, it is much better to sell the company than just the product. Selling your company’s culture, getting your customers in love with doing business with you, is the very best way to develop relationships. We have all heard about companies that have […]