Services Archives - Mountain Stream Group, Inc.

Is your website mobile-friendly?

2015-03-31/in By the Numbers, Marketing Communications/by Jeff Klingberg

If not, it needs to be — by April 21st. Why?

Google will begin penalizing your mobile search rankings if your site isn’t mobile-friendly.

Why is being mobile-friendly so important?

Because 25% of all search queries are now on mobile devices, according to BIA/Kelsey, eMarketer estimates — in 2014 — 129.9 million US consumers used a mobile phone to search the internet at least once per month, and Google states 9 out of 10 mobile search users have ‘taken action’ as a result of a mobile search, with over half leading to a purchase. Read more

Marketing is an investment in your company’s future success, but knowledge and closing the loop are needed to maximize its efficiency and effectiveness.

2014-02-21/in Marketing Communications/by Jeff Klingberg

Lately, we’ve received a lot of inquiries from trade publication writers asking for tips and tricks on how businesses can cut their marketing budgets and eliminate waste. While I applaud these writers in their quest to more efficiently and effectively utilize a business’ marketing expenditures, the premise of their articles assumes that marketing is a line item expense that can be cut like it were office supplies.

The reality is that marketing is an investment in the future success of your business, just like investing in the stock market — or investing in one’s education — goes towards the future success of an individual.

Is there waste in utilizing the marketing funds allocated?

Absolutely, but this is due to the fact that for most businesses’ marketing is an open-loop function.

An open loop is similar to driving your car to get from Point A to Point B at a specific time, but there are unknown elements like weather and traffic congestion that impact your ability to achieve your goal. While driving, you’re listening to the radio for traffic reports or using a smartphone app to spot problems and navigate around them. You’re occasionally glancing at the clock or your watch to check the time. And, you’re constantly glancing at the speedometer checking your speed, pressing or relaxing the accelerator based on the car’s current speed and your assumed time and distance from other vehicles.

Whew! Wiping my brow. Writing the last paragraph made me sweat. The same thing happens to businesses when using open-loop marketing.

Industrial Marketing: Can Social Media Play a Role? Can Social Media Work?

2011-07-21/in Marketing Communications, Uncategorized/by Jeff Klingberg

These and many similar questions are being asked and debated across the industrial marketing spectrum. And, there is no clear consensus.

The following is a look at why the answer might be maybe.

1. Fear is holding back adoption.

In general engineers don’t have a lot of spare time on their hands. Part of the reason for the lack of time on their hands to engage in social networking can be attributed to their inability to get to social media. The SAE International’s Do mobility engineers use social media? study surveyed nearly 1200 members and found only 55% said they use social media for work and only 52% of companies permit social media use during business hours.

Additionally, MarketingProfs What Works in 2011: B2B Marketing report finds that the number of companies restricting social media use is growing. Facebook, while the most popular of the social networking channels, is also the most blocked by companies.

Security and over exposure of information are the Top 2 fears of companies according to McAfee Inc.’s Web 2.0: A Complex Balancing Act – The First Global Study on Web 2.0 Usage, Risks and Best Practices Report. The study found over 60% of the respondents stated their company suffered losses averaging of $2 million related to security issues.

Four Keys To North American Success For Foreign Corporations

2010-02-03/in Management Consulting/by Jeff Klingberg

North American success for foreign corporations can be elusive. A recent LinkedIn post asked for experiences from foreign national corporations who have had trouble introducing their products and services to the North American market.

From our experience in this area, foreign national corporations typically encounter the following issues.

1. Send a foreign national to open the operation just because someone believes there is a large untapped market in North America, but no research is done and no North American success plan is formulated before coming.

2. They attempt to apply their current sales policies and distribution channels they utilize in their home country in North America, which typically is unsuccessful.

3. They send people to manage the North American operations who have little to no understanding of the culture, and given limited time and resources to learn it.

4. If they hire a Canadian or United States national to manage their operation, there is a communication issue between the North American operation and the home country. Typically, the reason is the North American operation does not have a seat at the executive table when decisions are made, and little training or effort was given to introduce this person to their new employer.

5. Very limited financial and human resources are allocated for operations, sales and marketing — especially sales and marketing.

6. No or limited inventory of product is on hand in Canada or the United States and long lead times to get product sold to North America.

7. Cut and run. For as much as foreign corporations talk about managing for the long term, they tend to apply short term thinking when measuring North American success, which leads to huge turnover of employees and management teams — ultimately resulting in cutting their losses and closing shop after 3, 4 or 5 years.

Marvelous Inventions And The Men/Women Who Created Them. Who Should Be In The Design Hall Of Fame?

2009-07-27/in Engineering/by Jeff Klingberg

What’s your top 10 inventions? Who are your top 10 designers/engineers?

Since the dawn of time, humans have been full of curiosity. They’ve asked what if, and used their ingenuity to create products and machines that have solved a problem, and made people’s lives easier, more efficient or safer. Some of the millions of marvelous inventions that have changed world in small and major ways, include the steam engine, electricity, the telephone, the television, the radio, the microwave oven, air conditioning, the automobile, the airplane, the printing press and the semiconductor.

The designers and engineers — men and women like Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Leonardo Da Vinci, Johannes Gutenberg, Harriett Russell Strong, Henry Ford, Denis Papin, Ben Franklin, and Josephine Garis Cochran — for the most part have worked in obscurity and only became famous posthumously. In most cases, they never get the recognition they deserve because educators, students and the public at large don’t understand what engineers do.

In fact in a survey for the American Association of Engineering Societies, Harris Interactive found 61% of respondents didn’t consider themselves well informed about engineering and engineers, and 70% of respondents thought that the media did only a fair or poor job covering engineering.

Product Design and Development magazine feels that the design engineers should get the recognition they deserve for a lifetime commitment to the profession, and are creating PD&D Design Engineering Hall of Fame. They’re asking design engineers to email them with their top 10 list of design engineers. Upon compiling the submissions an advisory panel will select the first five inductees. Mountain Stream Group is proud to be one of a member of the advisory board.

To learn more visit PD&D at the following link. http://www.pddnet.com/blogs/2009/07/pdd-design-engineer-hall-fame

Before Leaping Into Social Media and Networking

2009-06-27/1 Comment/in Marketing Communications/by Jeff Klingberg

Six steps to your organization’s social media and networking success.

The Internet, more specifically social media and networking has changed the way people and organizations connect, create, stay in touch or seek help from others.

Citizen journalists are using social media tools like blogs, microblogs, and video sharing to inform the world of the events surrounding the 2009 Iranian election protests when traditional journalists were banned from the country. It helped to topple the Egyptian government and many other Middle Eastern governments in 2011.

Musicians utilize services like Myspace and YouTube to launch careers and connect with fans. Companies employ wikis to collaborate on product development, manage projects and customer relations, and provide technical support. E-tailers and restaurants apply reviews and opinions to increase traffic and drive sales because while 14% of people trust ads, 76% trust consumer recommendations* for purchase decisions. Furthermore, companies use Facebook to encourage fans to refer their products or services since a Facebook friend referral makes two-thirds of US Facebook users more likely to purchase a product or visit a retailer¹.

However, many organizations are jumping head long into social networking before they know what it is, how to use it, what platforms their stakeholders may or may not use, what social technographics define their stakeholders and what costs — direct and hidden — are involved for fear they are going to be left out.

Others leap in because it is going to be a ‘cheap’ way of marketing themselves without having goals, strategies and tactics established, knowing the human resource and time allocations needed to get results, defining a method for measuring results, and determining what message(s) they’re going broadcast. Read more

Without Knowledge Your Marketing Investment Is Worthless

2009-06-24/in Marketing Communications/by Jeff Klingberg

Business owners invest in their firms, not stocks is the headline AP Business Writer Joyce M. Rosenberg used for her article in Crain’s Detroit Business, June 24^th Small Talk section. It discusses how business owners, like you, are intending to invest in their businesses instead of the stock market, since it’s such a risk.

If business owners are truly going to (re)invest in themselves as the article states, then they really have to understand that a marketing investment is something they cannot do without. It’s one of the investments that, if done right, has the largest return-on-investment and impacts the business the most.

But sadly, I have to say, many companies start without any research. Many fly along by the seat of their pants. Many don’t have a clue who their competitors are, what their business structure is and how they are positioning themselves in the marketplace. Many don’t have an inkling who their stakeholders are, their customers’ needs and wants are, or how and where their customers get their information. Many don’t know what makes their own business unique.

If your business wants to gain the greatest return-on-investment possible, have the best conceivable brand image and awareness and have the largest sales increases attainable, you must do your due diligence before you invest. Hopefully, that is what you did when you invested in the stock market. So, the same principles must apply to your company’s marketing investment because without knowledge the investment is worthless. Read more

Wake Up Fluid Power Industry Or Prepare For Extinction

2009-06-20/7 Comments/in Management Consulting/by Jeff Klingberg

A recent post in the Hydraulics & Pneumatics magazine’s discussion group on LinkedIn asks: Is fluid power on the decline?

As a person who worked in the industry for 10 years and has provided consulting services to the industry for the past 16 years, I believe it is—especially in the United States. And, if they don’t wake up immediately, they’ll find themselves in the history books and museums alongside dinosaurs—extinct.

Like a precision military assault, the fluid power industry is getting hammered on several fronts: technology competition, the environment, government regulations and knowledge loss. The environment, government regulations and knowledge loss have teamed up to open a gaping hole in the fortress allowing a full frontal attack by technology competition.

And, like Great Britain during World War II, the industry has done very little to combat the forces working against them. While some have acknowledged defeat and quit the battle, most of the industry, it seems, have yet to realize they’re under attack or their survival is at risk. Read more