Covert Competitive Intelligence

Yet another agreement on alleged covert competitive intelligence, this time, "WestJet Airlines says it’s sorry that members of its management team covertly accessed a confidential Air Canada website, and has agreed pay $15.5 million. In a joint news release from the two carriers, WestJet said that in 2003-2004, members of their management team "engaged in an extensive practice of covertly accessing a password protected proprietary employee website maintained by Air Canada to download detailed and commercially sensitive information without authorization or consent from Air Canada."

It's worth noting that Air Canada was actually aware of the security event, knew when it happened, and managed to trace it back to their competitors. Today's competitive intelligence does include unethical information gathering whether in-house, or "outsourced" practices, as DDoS for hire still make the headlines, compared to the many other still undetected insider leakages years ago. It's also impressive how Dumpster diving still remains a serious threat -- so make sure you shred your secrets! Continue reading →

DIY Marketing Culture

Problem - big name advertising agencies, and self forgotten copywriters easily turn into an obstacle for a newly born startup, the way marketing researchers can easily base your entire service/product development efforts on a single survey's results. Generating content, thinking content is the king, trying to sense and understand your customers' needs or where the market is heading to for the sake of responding with profitable propositions, I think is a self-centered, in-the-box mode of thinking that would cease to exist with customers becoming more informed.



Solution - Don't get too "product-concept" centered, instead solve a problem profitably and retain their satisfaction for as long as possible. Let your customers dictate the rules, and perhaps even generate your entire marketing promotional efforts themselves -- literally. Did you know you could get yourself custom printed MM's? I recently found out I can, and I'm already expecting the packs.



Or how the successfully positioned as a secure alternative to IE, FireFox browser actually invested pennies in spreading the word about it? Moreover, a $5000 bounty can indeed promote creativity, given they are comfortable with the idea, and with the 280 user-generated ads generated at FireFox Flicks I think they did it again, no wait, their users did it. Take your time to go through the flicks, it's worthwhile.



Question the concepts, rethink them, and disrupt with whatever the outcome. Continue reading →