PowerBlog Review: MaxBlumberg.com

Editor's note: we are very pleased to present the forty-seventh in our regular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs.



Just when you think there can't possibly be a different approach to a marketing blog, one comes along to prove you wrong. MaxBlumberg's Positioning Game takes a different angle to blogging.



Oh, this blog certainly writes about marketing topics, and it's all very interesting. But what's unique about it is the "Positioning Game."



Max Blumberg walks selected small and midsize business owners and managers through a strategic exercise to assist them in properly positioning their business. So how this is different from what any marketing consultant worth his or her salt would do? Well, rarely is the positioning process carried out on a website and open to all to see. That's an unusual, but highly interesting, use of a weblog.



Readers get to watch the positioning exercise. We get to watch as Max asks questions to understand the situation and as his advice unfolds.



As of this writing, Max is in the middle of a positioning exercise for a corporate events business. The summary of the output so far from that exercise (it's not completed yet) is here.



Only on a blog or blog-like site could the Positioning Game take place. You need two-way conversations with readers, chronological format, and ability to easily update the site. Without these features the Positioning Game would be simply too cumbersome.



The Positioning Game originally started out here on Ecademy, the business networking site.



Max says he blogs as a way for readers and prospective clients to decide whether they like the way he thinks and his approach to marketing strategy. And as he says "The benefit to readers is that they can get professional opinions on global business news that are normally available only from the large investment banks and expensive research houses."



Few blogs offer the kind of strategic commentary on marketing issues for big business, that Max also provides on this blog.



One of the questions I've started asking of PowerBlog Reviewees, is the value they get out of blogging. Max replied by pointing to this exchange with well-known ad copywriter, Bob Bly, in which they chat about the benefits of blogging, and Max concludes that blogs are primarily a means of PR.



Max himself has a varied, intriguing background. He has been a professional musician, an Accenture consultant, and an entrepreneur who started and sold a large technology distribution business. Currently he is working on his PhD.



The Power: The Power of the MaxBlumberg.com blog is in its use of the unique attributes of the blog format (two-way conversations with readers, chronological format, easy updating) to solve a strategic marketing challenge for a real live business. It's interesting and instructive all at once.