Intrinsic Strategy consulting
Intrinsic Strategy is a marketing, product and brand strategy consultancy. The firm’s principal, Frank Catalano, works with a wide variety of companies in digital technology, content and services, primarily in education and consumer markets.
Intrinsic Strategy has developed creative and practical strategies for new initiatives on both a retained and interim-executive basis. Clients, large and small, have included Apple, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, MetaMetrics, Corbis, Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door and the Toy Industry Association, among others.
Frank Catalano is also an industry analyst, author and veteran media commentator. For more on Intrinsic Strategy, see the About page. To reach Frank, see the Contact page.
Marketing advice
The Intrinsic Strategy blog covers marketing and branding strategy. Highlights:
- If I (only) had 100 marketing dollars Where edtech startups should spend limited marketing budgets.
- Build a web presence ecosystem Thinking of real-time social media as part of a greater whole.
- When “leading” trails Avoiding lazy, content-free marketing speak.
- Myths and realities of marketing Five connected essays on marketing in a recovery.
- Naming the no-tears way A straightforward process for naming any new product, service or company.
Technology insights
Frank Catalano’s essays about personal technology’s impact on consumers and education appear on other websites, and he writes a regular analysis and commentary column for the tech news site GeekWire. Additional highlights:
- Three drivers of the digital classroom Key tech trends, not obvious to those outside of education, that are changing K12 (Strategic News Service)
- Seattle’s invisible tech industry Why education technology companies are virtually invisible on the home turf of the Gates Foundation. (TechFlash)
- Bartering in the personal information economy “Free” on the web really is a business transaction. (TechFlash)
- How science is destroying my childhood Pluto’s demotion is only the latest example of how science continues to ruin childhood memories. (TechFlash)
- What teachers want in digital tech Teachers want five things in digital classroom technology — and educational publishers to catch up with them. (EdNET Insight)
- Perfect, perfectly useless tech What was cutting-edge a decade ago isn’t desirable, or even understandable, today. (TechFlash)
Additional resources
Follow @FrankCatalano on Twitter for updates on interesting education and crossover consumer technology.
Download detailed edtech conference notes and analyses from the Conference Notes page (including SIIA’s 2011 Ed Tech Industry Summit) and the full PDF version of his in-depth essay summarizing digital education and education technology trends from the influential Strategic News Service newsletter, “Three Drivers of the Digital Classroom.”
Frank Catalano is a frequent public speaker, serving as the opening keynote of the Education Industry Association’s 2011 EDVentures conference and leading a general 
session of the Association of Educational Publishers’ 2011 Content in Context Conference. Meet Frank in 2012 at SXSWedu (March 6-8, Austin) and the Software and Information Industry Association’s Ed Tech Industry Summit (May 6-8, San Francisco).
