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Observations of a world filled with marketing
Don’t Ignore the 99%
Most direct mail programs are considered successful with a response rate around 2% 99% of those seeing your display ads in newspapers, out of home ads on billboards or bus stations, and 99.9% of your e-mail list don’t respond to your ad. Add in the ignored impressions...
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Nobody Cares About You
That may be the most important statement any marketer can learn. Sure, it took your whole career to develop that method, product, or perfect service that you provide. Behind what people buy from you is years of work, a huge infrastructure to assure quality and...
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Steve Jobs – Marketing iCon
Peter Drucker, one of the world’s most brilliant business management experts said “Innovation and marketing produce results. All the rest are costs.” If the head of your company respects that, you are most likely very successful. But what if the head of your company...
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Instant Branding?
Brands can't be created instantly. They have to be developed over time. You put a consistent thought into the audience's mind, and repeat it until that thought becomes synonymous with your brand. That is unless you have the budget to create one immediately. Throw in a...
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The Better Mouse Trap Myth
The saying goes “If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door”. It may be the worst advice ever to be passed as common knowledge. The fact is, mousetraps currently work just fine. More importantly, everyone knows how to set one, and despite...
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A Strong Brand Lets You Win with Even Minor Features
This Honda ad promotes the fact that their mini-van has a vacuum cleaner. I will admit that my immediate reaction when I first saw it was "who would want to make a big deal out of a vacuum cleaner in a car? Of all the meaningful differentiating features an automobile...
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Ice Bucket Challenge: Stone Cold Marketing Brilliance
How many marketing techniques can you fit into a single campaign? The ALS ice bucket challenge might set a new record. And they execute them all so well. The challenge employs: Celebrity endorsements - You can't help but see celebrities of all walks of life taking the...
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A Lesson on Differentiation
This is an old marketing gimmick, but I like it as a football fan and a marketer. First, the best thing Payton Mannning does while not on the field is to act like Payton Manning, even more than being Payton Manning. He enjoys acting more than any athlete I can...
read moreUnsure About Social Media? Then Your Problem is Strategy
There continues to be a lot of attention paid to social media. If you are not sure if social media is right for your company, your problems go deeper than whether your answer is yes or no. Despite the fact that social media requires a whole new way of looking at your...
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Sales Isn’t Marketing, Nor Vice Versa
The difference between sales and marketing is profound, but so frequently ignored. So why do I constantly see business card titles and want ads with a position called Sales/Marketing? You wouldn’t see someone with the title of Human Resources/Research &...
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Like It Or Not, You Have a Brand – You May as Well Control It
It just happened again. I met with a prospect to discuss a campaign. Their focus was on immediate sales generated, and how we could create enough interest with the creative we would eventually propose. My questions turned to brand, and they wanted to ignore the...
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Drink Beer: Learn Marketing
Everything you need to know about marketing can be learned from beer. I’ll do a late night article some day on what else you can learn from it, but for now lets settle for marketing. Look at beer ads. What has worked, what has not? What has been cancelled, what...
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Four Steps to a Profitable Brand
Deliberate development of your brand results in a brand that is more valuable to your customer base. That additional value allows you to charge more while growing a larger and more loyal following or increase market share without cutting prices to do so. To build your...
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The Cons Against Internal Marketing
As the economy improves (it is improving, isn’t it?) your company is starting to reinvigorate its efforts. That means more marketing programs and more aggressive ones at that. Among your decisions is whether to add an in-house marketing staff, or hire an outside firm....
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