Getting it right first time

It is now 20 years since the advent of the World Wide Web but like most inventions ideas had been mooted, tested developed and improved as far back as WW2 for a network to share knowledge. It was coincidentally also 20 years ago when we started to map out the rationale for marketing in the world of engineering, technology and b-2-b in general. Many of the emerging technologies were indeed to prove vital to what we later termed technical marketing but it was a further 10 years before we publicly promoted the philosophy. 

The technologies enabled by the world wide web and Internet although important are merely useful tools, but without an under pinning purpose cannot be effectively used for marketing. Although people have enthusiastically embraced the hardware and software of personal computing and mobile communication what few have grasped is that to be effective they must control these devices and not be ruled by them. In short to have a clear plan designed to achieve objectives. In the absence of a marketing rationale, a formal plan and clear business objectives the tendency is to simply be 'busy fools' rushing about, attending meetings, forwarding e-mails, making calls without purpose while creating the impression of being very busy.

In the early days of building web sites it rapidly became apparent that gathering the content material was actually the most difficult task often because few clients fully 

understood all aspects of their business. This lack of clarity was brutally exposed by the 

engineering reality of building a web site without a valid business model and relevant content 

that would lead to building, rebuilding and modifying the site as missing content dribbled in 

and existing content changed. Despite counseling clients to plan first, collate content, then 

build and do it just once,it usually proved impossible to achieve in practice.  Take another example - display advertising. Doing it once by negotiating and booking an annual plan avoids being 

dragged into a piecemeal plan reacting to incoming advertising space sales offers, rushing to 

meet deadlines and generally spending more with less effect than from a planned approach. 

The same is true of other marketing tools and techniques. Don't react to people selling 

exhibition space, direct marketing, advertising and the rest, have a formal marketing plan that determines which marketing tools will be most effective to you, then negotiate with suppliers instead of having them sell to you. In short have clear objectives, a marketing strategy that details how the objectives will be delivered and how the appropriate marketing tools will be deployed and integrated to optimum effect. 

Working with a marketing company that understands the importance of a technical marketing approach can not only help companies clarify their own aims, but bring in new ideas, wisdom and experience to change the culture to one of being in control of marketing.

Protecting investment in photography and artwork

Not so long ago artwork was stored on film and photography as transparencies, while for even quite large marketing departments a 4-draw filing cabinet would suffice for storage and indexing. Then gradually images came on CDs and DVDs and for a while artwork on optical discs. Then digital cameras were churning out 100 shots instead of one or two before and suddenly managing all this material became a problem. Enter the Image LIbrary.

An Image Library or Image Bank is created to protect the company’s investment in photography and design work by providing an online resource for the storage, search and retrieval of images and finished artwork. 

• Image storage: We found that clients did not often have a systematic process for storing images and artwork. As company personnel change, the details of the subject or purpose of an image maybe lost with their departure. There may also be copyright restrictions that limit or restrict how and where the image can be used. It may be a requirement that a credit should be given to the photographer, or a particular caption has been authorised. 
  
• Search: With the advent of digital photography the volume of available images has increased dramatically. Consequently there is a need to search through a library to find a particular image. The search works by using text notes and keywords, date etc attached to each image file at the time it is archived. The system also allows a client to store images at different sizes and resolutions such as thumbnails or index size through to high resolution. It also allows company marketing teams in other countries, dealers and agents to find suitable images for their local promotional material and for a corporate marketing department to control access.
  
• Retrieval: Once identified and selected, images can be downloaded by any authorised person with Internet access and authorised level of access. Corporate marketing may wish to control access e.g for reasons of copyright and only show a thumbnail image requiring that high resolution images are only supplied on request for restricted purpose.
  

The Image Library is a web server based system to store, manage, document and access a company's collections of digital images and artwork. It works like a Library index system that provides information about each image and includes links to where the images are stored online.To store images it is usual to first create the different standard levels of resolution that the company wishes to have available and post these images to a server. Images may for example be for press use, use on a web site, in a brochure and can be in most standard formats including high resolution PDF.

A filing 'card' is completed for each image. Categories can include:-

• Section - e.g. product, project, press release, artwork, logo etc.
• Date - last updated
• Image title
• Where used - e.g. press release, web site, data sheet, advertisement etc.
• Details about the image
• Caption and photo credit
• Notes
•  Keywords for search purposes
• Image file name - e.g. photo777.jpg
• Server host
• Image type - e.g  - .jpg, .bmp, .png, .pdf
• Full path link
• Guide for use - e.g. copyright   

There are two levels of access for the Image Library:

1. Viewing

This is the normal route for browsers to search, view and download images. Access can be given to authorised staff to view at a url.

 

2. Viewing and editing

This access route provides control of the data shown for each image (title, location, filename, captions etc). Access is intended for Marketing department only and is at a different url.

 Authorised staff can view and search the Image Library database and download images for company approved use.

 Where use of an image is restricted, or subject to owner approval to publish, an automatic option offers a request email to be sent to the person or department e.g. Marketing Manager/Marketing Department, managing the Image Library.

 Marketing additionally has access to edit and publish descriptive content associated with images.

 Marketing also has access to add new images (thumbnail, low resolution index & high resolution), or this can be outsourced.

If you think an Image Library would be useful for your company, then contact Technical Marketing Ltd with an initial indication of how many images you have.

Fast forward

A new breed of marketing managers has emerged that manage mainly by forwarding e-mails.

In reality switching e-mails between people that actually implement work, who create, provide information and content, adds very little value to the marketing process. At best the intermediary marketing manager provides a useful link between an outside agency and people within the organisation that can provide the information required. Time and again we see an e-mailed request for information simply forwarded, often from an i-Phone, with a simple note added such as 'please answer this'. They then reply and the marketing manager forwards the response along with the whole chain of e-mails back to the original person requesting the information. Quite often this reveals interesting internal information that probably should not be sent outside the company. It also tips off who in the company is actually the relevant person to contact in future.

Of course at either end of this process someone needs to actually do some real work collating the information within the company and turning this into marketing collateral. The savvy marketing manager will however review the raw content first to check if it is appropriate and add a marketing insight that is consistent with marketing policy.

Is technology devaluing creative services?

A post on a site visited by photographers exposed a series of cases where photographers were expected to work for free. This quickly got picked up on other sites and struck a chord with other creative people, in video, design and web site building to name just a few. 

One correspondent on the Milton Keynes Media Circle pointed out how technology was allowing this and explained, 

"The bottom line is that technology is empowering. At the advent of Desktop Publishing three elements came together to decimate the Pre-Press indusustry, one with many hard links to the technologies in photography. Apple Macintosh, Photoshop, Quark Xpress. Suddenly we could empower a secretary to do page assembly, rudimentary scanning and proofing. The plain fact is that 85% of the colour pre-press didn't NEED the extended qualifications of the trade houses so the work dried up in MONTHS. The phrase GOOD ENOUGH COLOUR was coined and the rest is history." 

Another correspondent volunteered that,

"I partly blame the sophistication of current technology and availability of cheap but reasonably capable equipment on the high-street. It encourages those with little or no experience or training and almost non-existent skills to set themselves up with fairly basic equipment and call themselves 'photographers' or 'videographers'(a term I hate). Because of their lack of investment in skills development and relatively small investment in equipment they often offer their services for free or very low-cost." 

They could have mentioned interns wielding all this equipment for free too. In the past the difference in quality would have been obvious and expertise, talent, skill and the use of professional equipment would be easy to spot. But dumbing down on quality is everywhere. We are all exposed to so much sub standard work that many people appear to lack the ability to distinguish good from poor and focus instead on price. The implication is that subconsciously customers will pick up on  cheap looking publicity material and transfer that expectation to the price and quality of goods the company is offering.