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Tom Fishburne
Marketoonist Creator and Insightfully Funny Keynote Speaker
Tom Fishburne is the Founder and CEO of Marketoonist, a content marketing studio that specializes in using cartoons to engage audiences and convey marketing insights. He began his career by drawing cartoons on the backs of business cases while studying at Harvard Business School, eventually launching his first cartoon series in 2002, which has since evolved into a widely recognized platform reaching approximately half a million readers weekly.123
Career Highlights::
- Marketoonist: Founded in 2010, this studio focuses on creating humorous content marketing campaigns and internal culture change initiatives for various organizations, including major companies like Google, Adobe, and Microsoft.34
- Keynote Speaker: Fishburne is known for delivering insightful keynote talks globally, where he uses humor and cartoons to discuss topics related to marketing, innovation, and digital transformation.23
- Published Author: He authored "Your Ad Ignored Here: Cartoons from 15 Years of Marketing, Business, and Doodling in Meetings" and illustrated several business books with Deloitte.3
Fishburne's work emphasizes the importance of humor in business communication, aiming to make complex marketing concepts more relatable and engaging. His approach has garnered recognition as he continues to influence the marketing landscape through his unique blend of creativity and insight.24
Highlights
“Customer Journeys to Nowhere” - new cartoon and post https://lnkd.in/guhYVFjn
Earlier this year an editorial in the New York Times wondered:
“When did everything become a ‘journey’? Changing our hair, getting divorced, taking spa vacations — they’re not just things we do; they’re ‘journeys.’”
And of course, to marketers, there’s the “customer journey.” The customer journey is a handy metaphor to help us consider all of the interactions and experiences a customer has between point A and point B in buying and engaging with our brand.
But the simplicity of the metaphor can sometimes delude marketers into thinking of customers myopically on a dedicated, linear, transactional path to purchase rather than complex humans who don’t actually think about our brands as much as we think they do.
Two professors, Ahir Gopaldas and Anton Siebert, expanded the simple model of Customer Journeys in a Harvard Business Review article I found interesting:
“Too often [experts] tell companies to routinize customer journeys—to make them as effortless and predictable as possible. Our research shows that this advice is overly simplistic. In fact, following it can sometimes backfire on a company.
“Though some journeys might require little effort (for example, watching movies on Netflix or reordering meals on Seamless), others demand considerable mental or physical exertion (learning a new language on Duolingo or working out on a Peloton bike). Customers value both kinds of experiences.
“Likewise, some journeys tend to be comfortingly familiar (like using Old Spice aftershave or grabbing lunch at Panera Bread), while others are unpredictable, surprising, and exciting (like meeting and chatting with other users of the dating app Bumble or playing World of Warcraft with friends). In many circumstances, customers actually relish the unexpected.”
The two professors used this insight to sketch out four broad archetypes of customer journeys:
- The Routine: effortless and predictable (think Starbucks Pickup)
- The Joyride: effortless and unpredictable (think TikTok’s For You page)
- The Trek: effortful and predictable (think Duolingo)
- The Odyssey: effortful and unpredictable (think Adobe Creative Cloud)
Some brands may benefit from thinking about multiple types of journeys for different customers at different types. Ultimately, like most models in marketing, it’s not one size fits all.
By the way, this cartoon was partly inspired by my daughter’s friend who is hiking the Appalachian Trial right now (way to go, Camila — trail nickname Slip n’ Slide!)
For related cartoons and all the links in this post, click here: https://lnkd.in/guhYVFjn
To sign up for my weekly marketoon email newsletter, click here: https://lnkd.in/gbugugVn
#marketing #cartoon #marketoon
“Thinking Outside The Box” - new cartoon and post https://lnkd.in/gXtcNXYx
Conventional wisdom holds that creativity comes from “thinking outside the box”, but constraints are actually one of its key ingredients.
One of Google’s principles of innovation is “creativity loves constraints,” as Marissa Mayer once recounted:
“People think of creativity as this sort of unbridled thing, but engineers thrive on constraints. They love to think their way out of the little box.”
The concept of thinking outside the box originated in the 70s with a psychologist named J.P. Guilford and a famous nine-dots brainteaser.
J.P. drew nine dots in the shape of a square and asked study subjects to connect them all with four straight lines without lifting the pen. The answer (which only 20% figured out) required drawing the lines beyond the artificial boundary of the square — thinking “outside” that box.
J.P. turned that brainteaser into a sweeping theory on creativity problem-solving in general. His theory entered the zeitgeist with an army of creativity consultants. Thinking outside the box has been part of the way we talk about innovation ever since.
But this study was not only debunked in follow-up studies, the importance of constraints has long been overshadowed.
Researchers in an HBR article reviewed 145 empirical studies on the effects of constraints on creativity and innovation and found that a “healthy dose of constraint” was the great unlock.
In one representative example, they wrote about the origin of a particular GE Healthcare innovation — the MAC 400 ECG — which revolutionized rural access to medical care. GE credits the success of the innovation to tight constraints on cost ($1 a scan), form factor (fits in a backpack), time (18 month development), and budget (one-tenth of the previous product).
I like this insight from Jeff Bezos:
“I think frugality drives innovation just like other constraints. One of the best ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”
For related cartoons and all the links in this post, click here: https://lnkd.in/gXtcNXYx
To sign up for my weekly marketoon email newsletter, click here: https://lnkd.in/g9DBM6tD
#marketing #cartoon #marketoon
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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