Musings of a Marketing Maven

In case you’re curi­ous about me… Dur­ing my “day job” I advise clients on strat­egy and mar­ket­ing, span­ning both the B2C and B2B are­nas, and have done so since 1994. My firm is Inform­ing Arts, based in the Seat­tle area.

My clients lever­age the Inter­net to cre­ate prod­ucts and ser­vices to be used by peo­ple (as opposed to mid­dle­ware). They are, or aspire to be, lead­ers in cat­e­gories such as dig­i­tal media, online adver­tis­ing, casual games, Inter­net ser­vices, etc. My clients are both early stage firms as well as busi­ness units within pub­lic corporations.

Before becom­ing an inde­pen­dent con­sul­tant, I held senior mar­ket­ing and prod­uct man­age­ment roles at Apple, Aldus (now Adobe), HP and Visi­Corp. Friends laugh and say my T-shirt col­lec­tion could be a visual record of the PC indus­try… (Pro­fes­sional bio.)

Because of my his­tory at Apple and Aldus/Adobe I have domain exper­tise in elec­tronic pub­lish­ing, graph­ics and dig­i­tal asset management.

Why This Blog

Here I share my per­spec­tive on what it’s like to use cer­tain tools and tech­nolo­gies in my work, or expe­ri­ence brands as a con­sumer, a Boomer and small busi­ness owner. From time to time I’ll com­ment on new com­pa­nies or prod­ucts that might be of inter­est to oth­ers — as long as I can do so with­out infring­ing on confidentiality.

And for those who make time to read, I’ll share what’s on my book­shelf these days.

I look for­ward to hear­ing back from you when these top­ics intrigue you.

Pub­lic ver­sus Pri­vate Persona

In my pro­fes­sional life, I’m an inde­pen­dent con­sul­tant and small busi­ness owner in the Seat­tle area, active in some of the local orga­ni­za­tions for entre­pre­neurs, includ­ing Ser­aph, a net­work of women angels.

Pri­vate per­sona: mar­ried, no chil­dren; hiker, tan­dem cyclist, kayaker, and yoga prac­ti­tioner. A pro­lific reader. Spo­radic Face­book poster, as a way to inter­act with friends and extended family.

When we can get away, my hus­band and I enjoy kayak­ing or sail­ing a clas­sic sail­boat in the warm coastal waters off Cape Cod, or relax­ing with our East Coast families.

To our friends’ delight, we have made artisanal-style wine from pre­mium Wash­ing­ton vari­etals for more than 10 years. And yes, we’re active in local wine tast­ing groups.

—Chris­tine Thompson

Con­tact Info

Email Chris­tine.

Fol­low my occa­sional tweets: @Christine_T.

Office: 206–232-7919