Strategy is not Tactics

I’ve said that strategy is one of four essential elements of product marketing. But you have to know what strategy is…and what it is not.

To illustrate the difference between strategy and tactics, it helps to differentiate between abstract, long term goals and concrete, short term goals.

If your goal is to better the world, that’s a strategy.

If your goal is to excel in a particular industry, that’s a strategy.

Although strategies can change. Those who know of Nokia as a telecommunications company, and those who remember Nokia as a phone supplier, are not old enough to remember Nokia’s beginnings as a pulp mill in 1865.

If your goal is to secure business from a specific prospect, that’s a tactic. Or it should be.

Fleming Companies secured a 10-year contract in 2001 as the main supplier of groceries to Kmart, accounting for 20% of Fleming’s revenue. Kmart cancelled that contract when it declared bankruptcy a year later. Fleming filed a $1.4 billion claim in Kmart’s bankruptcy case…but only got $385 million. Fleming itself ended up in bankruptcy court in 2003.

But Fleming’s strategy was to excel at food wholesaling through acquisition and innovation.

It’s just that one tactical blunder upended that strategy.

Whether Bredemarket pivots from biometric content to resume writing (not likely), I am presently equipped to address both your strategic and tactical product marketing needs. If I can help you, talk to me at https://bredemarket.com/mark/.

The Transitive Property, Technology, Biometrics, Content, and Product

Follow along.

If I am the technology product marketing expert

…and if I am the biometric product marketing expert

…and if content marketing and product marketing significantly overlap

…then I am not only the biometric content marketing expert…

…but am also the technology content marketing expert.

I’m claiming it all.

The Longer List of My Products

In my Saturday post “Technology Product Marketing Expert,” I listed several of my strategy, go-to-market, and sales enablement projects.

That was the SHORT list.

Here are the products I mentioned in Saturday’s post, along with news articles about a couple of them.

A long list…but it could have been longer. Here are the products I removed from the list.

  • Series 2000.
  • Omnitrak.
  • MorphoWAVE.
  • The SIGMA Series.
  • Driver’s license and mobile driver’s license services.
  • Enrollment services.
  • Adobe consulting services.

Why did I remove them? As I said on Saturday:

“But my past isn’t as important as your present challenges.”

Speaking of your present challenges, if Bredemarket can help you as a consultant, book a free meeting to discuss your needs at https://bredemarket.com/mark/

The Favor of a Share

I’ve written up a description of my technology product marketing expertise and repurposed it to four platforms: my consulting blog, LinkedIn, Substack, and Instagram. Actually more platforms than those four, but these are the biggies.

If you are on one of these platforms, and are so inclined, feel free to share this with any technology marketing leaders in your circles. I am open to both employment and consulting opportunities.

Technology Product Marketing Expert

(and elsewhere)

Technology Product Marketing Expert

Are you a technology marketing leader, struggling to market your products to your prospects for maximum awareness, consideration, and conversion?

I’m John E. Bredehoft. For over 30 years, I’ve created strategy and tactics to market technical products for over 20 B2B/B2G companies and consulting clients.

But my past isn’t as important as your present challenges. Let’s talk about your specific needs and how I would approach solving them.

Consulting: Bredemarket at https://bredemarket.com/mark/

Employment: LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/in/jbredehoft/

Technology product marketing expert.

I Love You, I Pay Your Rent

“Think about it – If you can’t fix it, mod it, or sell it without someone else’s permission… Did you ever really own it?

“Every example we’ve seen so far points to the same reality: the balance of power has shifted. You pay for the device or software, but they decide how it works, what it can do, and how long it will last.

“This isn’t just inconvenient – it’s a slow erosion of freedom and control.”

From “The Death of Ownership: Why Your Tech Isn’t Really Yours Anymore” by Mohib Ur Rehman (SK Nexus, Substack)

https://open.substack.com/pub/sknexus/p/the-death-of-ownership-in-tech

Icing Translations With Axon

The first paragraph of this Newsweek article is puzzling:

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) no longer requires new recruits to take a five-week Spanish-language training program, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).”

Until you get to the fourth:

“Axon, a company with a $5.1 million contract to provide Homeland Security with body-worn cameras, advertises that its latest body camera includes real-time “push-to-talk voice translation” in more than 50 languages.”

You may know Axon by its former name, TASER International. Needless to say, its product line has evolved.

Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/ice-immigration-spanish-language-new-recruits-2114110

Axon: https://www.axon.com/products/real-time-translation

(Picture from Axon)

When Prospects Ask Technical Marketers the Tough Questions

Some technical marketers are expert at spinning soft fluffy stories about how their AI-powered toilet paper can cure cancer…which can be very persuasive as long as the prospects don’t ask any questions.

  • For example, let’s say you’re telling a Chick-fil-A in Kettering, Ohio that you’ll keep 17 year olds out of their restaurant. Are you ready when the prospect asks, “How do you KNOW that the person without ID is 17 years and 359 days old, and is not 18?”
  • Or let’s say you’re telling a state voter agency that you’ll enforce voter ID laws. Are you ready when the prospect asks, “How do you KNOW that the voter ID is real and not fake? Or that it is fake and not real?”

Be prepared to answer the tough questions. Expert testimonials. Independent assessments of your product’s accuracy. Customer case studies.

Analyze your product’s weaknesses. (And the threats, if you’re a SWOT groupie.)

And call in the expert help.