The Accidental Marketer Podcast

Our new season tackles an often-heard question: is marketing an art or a science? Certain parts of a marketing strategy require more science than art, while other pieces of a plan are the opposite. Knowing when you need to dial up the science, and when artistic instincts should lead the way is a key to success. The team breaks down the bigger picture and provides helpful analogies – including why...

There are many advantages to creating a new category, but it doesn't solve all of your marketing problems. In this episode, we look at the issues that a smoking cessation product team faced — and overcame. See how these innovative marketers changed strategies to effectively address a formidable competitor and reap the full rewards of creating a new category.

Expanding your marketing to reach a new set of stakeholders can have an effect similar to creating a new category. These new stakeholders may help you position your product or service in an entirely new way. Mary, Tom and Sean discuss how Wyeth Nutrition, a premium-priced infant formula maker, successfully expanded their stakeholder focus in a way that ultimately led Nestle to purchase them for se...

Companies entering a new category are often intimidated by their more experienced competitors. This episode highlights how being naive to a category can become a competitive advantage. The team describes the significant lessons that B2Bs can apply in many category creation situations. You'll also hear how segmentation can be used to make rapid inroads even if you are competing in an existing categ...

Our season on category creation continues with some of our best advice for doing it! A discussion that starts off by looking at newly-created categories of food items leads to interesting case studies that show how to re-position any type of product. Listen in as the team highlights the circumstances that are conducive to category creation. You'll learn some key principles and strategies that comp...

We kickoff a new season on category creation by looking at a common B2B marketing problem: your analysis tells you that your product should be performing better than it is. What is going wrong? Listen to a deep discussion into the top three reasons this could be happening — viewed through the lens of the smoking cessation product Chantix. If you are in a similar situation, you can apply their lear...

This seasonal finale of "The Dark Side of Marketing" focuses on something once called "pure, white and deadly." It's not cocaine — it's sugar! Several decades ago, the Sugar Lobby found some unscrupulous ways to cover up the deadly consequences of its own product by pointing to another food ingredient as most detrimental to health — fat. What can be learned about the Sugar Lobby's tactics that can...

This episode's topic discusses the thin line between propaganda and marketing. Sharing information with the intent to persuade is a common objective of both propaganda and marketing. However, effective propaganda has one characteristic that marketers sometimes miss. What can be learned about effective propaganda appeals that marketers can use for good?

This episode's topic features "The Pharma Bro" — a now-jailed pharmaceutical executive who limited the supply and raised prices of rare drugs. It worked for awhile, but ended badly. From this case, ethical marketers can learn how to evaluate their opportunities to improve price without alienating customers, the public and regulators.

We continue analyzing the dark side of marketing by studying the Opioid Crisis. The villains in this tragedy, Purdue Pharma, executed a joined-up marketing and sales plan that led to untold suffering. We want our listeners who are marketing highly-valuable - and sometimes even life-saving products -  to put these approaches to use for good purposes!

In this episode, we continue shining the light on the dark side of marketing by studying the "The Social Dilemma." What can B2B marketers learn from this popular Netflix documentary that explores controversial aspects of social networking? What can you put to use in your markets for the benefit of your customers?

In season 7, we are shining some light on "the dark side of marketing." People with less-than-wholesome ideals sometimes use marketing brilliantly. What can "the good guys" learn? In this week's episode, we discuss the $100m business of Ashley Madison — an online dating service that specializes in hooking up people who are already married!

In this week's episode, we discuss customer acquisition costs and how to make a "reverse ROI argument." A reverse ROI argument aims to prove that marketing's efforts made a downturn in revenues less dramatic than they could have been had marketing done nothing at all.

Digging deeper on the last episode's discussion of customer-level ROI metrics, the team unpacks a variety of ways to measure —and more importantly — grow your share of every target customer's business. "Is your company just stapling together your strategy, or is it more coordinated than that?"

Marketers can’t be content to be judged by short-term campaign metrics only. Mary, Sean and Tom outline a host of longer-term metrics that are great for the overall health of a company—and help marketing investments be evaluated more fairly. "Marketers who aren't measuring customer lifetime value are missing an opportunity to get financial types off of their back."

As the marketing function becomes more strategic in a company, it becomes harder to discern its impact. The team talks about how marketers can solve this dilemma. "Marketers need to look for opportunities to take partial credit—or partial blame—for other functions results if they are to be thought of as orchestrators of a company's strategy."

We start a full season of podcasts on the topic of Marketing Return on Investment (ROI). For a number of reasons, many marketing departments struggle to justify their spending on programs and headcount. Mary, Sean and Tom provide advice on how marketing departments can better insulate themselves from being at the top of the chopping block.

The second topic in this episode (after the team discusses a segmentation dilemma) is very topical: should you raise or lower prices in a pandemic? Sean, Mary and Tom outline what your considerations should be as you make this very crucial pricing decision. Listen--or watch here (https://theaccidentalmarketer.com)-- and refine your thinking about your own pricing strategy.

We continue discussing "surprise" marketing topics. In this era of CSOs, CDOs and CXOs, Mary asks if businesses should have a Chief Disruption Management Officer (CDMO). This person would be on the look out for your industry's next big innovators and challengers, and craft proactive strategies. An interesting debate ensues. You can now watch our podcasts here: https://youtu.be/r44qPuAogNM

This season we surprise each other by throwing out un-rehearsed marketing topics and debating them. The second topic on this podcast is one that is on a lot of business people's minds right now: Are virtual business models as good as live ones? Listen as the team debates the pros and cons of each approach in light of the current pandemic. Also, you can now watch our podcasts here: https://youtu.be...

*NOTE: This podcast was recorded prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Sean wrote an article on Linkedin regarding 10 trends that shaped the decade. It's a fitting backdrop for our season finale, where several of these trends are examined for their ongoing relevance to the world -- and to your B2B business! Here is the link to Sean's article on Linkedin: inkedin.com/pulse/ten-trends-shaped-decade-sea...

*NOTE: This podcast was recorded prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Brand heresy is the practice of established brands promoting in ways that are very different from their past positioning. For example, when an airline advises "think twice before your book a flight" something strange is going on! Mary, Sean and Tom share examples of brand heresy, and discuss if and when a strategist should commit...

*NOTE: This podcast was recorded prior to the coronavirus pandemic. The trend of gamification applies aspects of game-playing to business, in order to invite more customer interaction on your website, help you invent new products, and even get employees to go the extra mile to take care of customers. The team discusses what you can do to leverage fun and games in your business!

Our Season 4 podcasts were recorded prior to the Coronavirus pandemic. This special edition podcast was recorded on April 14, 2020 and focuses specifically on how to plan for the uncertain future spawned by COVID-19. The team puts this event into historical focus, discusses implications, and generally aims to help B2Bs be proactive in jump-starting their post-pandemic planning processes.

*NOTE: This podcast was recorded prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is not a new idea, but B2B clients are starting to demand a more coordinated approach by their suppliers. The team discusses what ABM is (and is not) and describes several helpful tools that can make effective ABM a practical reality for your company.