CoolMarketingStuff

I like the idea of generating tribes around your brand because it creates meaning around your product or service and appeals to our human nature to want to belong to a community. The internet helps people find others with similar interests, including interests in specific brands like Apple, Nike, the Red Sox, or Xbox. The challenge I think, is that companies can not create the tribes, they have to be created by passionate customers. The role of the company is to facilitate ... Read More

Do you think Microsoft is good at marketing? Here are some examples of why they are not good. This is a commercial made for an experimental product called Songsmith. I can't tell if this is an actual commercial or if it was an internal joke, but it is pretty ridiculous. Here's another example... The Microsoft ad campaign in which they filmed lap top buyers looking for a lap top for under $1,000. The problem was that Microsoft was being very inauthentic. CNet reports that Microsoft ad's ... Read More

World Wide Rave is the follow up to David Meerman's Scott's previous hit, The New Rules of Marketing and PR. I really enjoyed this book even though I downloaded it for free (people tend to value things less when they got it for free). It is about how to spread ideas, which is at the core of what marketing is about. In the book Scott shows us how we can use the new tools of social media to spread ideas about our ... Read More

I think a company that really understands the new digital marketing landscape is Best Buy. The CMO has a blog and twitter (@bestbuycmo) where he talks and learns from customers. Greg Verdino discusses engaging consumers with digital media and how Best Buy is building credibility for social media marketing. The importance of listening, and engaging with customers directly in an open and honest way. The growing importance of the mobile web and the ways it can empower consumers throughout the buying ... Read More

Placebos are a fascinating and incredible phenomenon that demonstrates the power of our minds to shape how we perceive reality. A patient who is given a sugar pill instead of an actual pain reliever can feel the same decrease in pain as if they were to receive a medication with chemicals that block the pain receptors at the cellular level. One explanation of the placebo effect is that we tend to experience what we expect. If you expect to hate a new ... Read More

According to Millward Brown's Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands of 2009 Report, the top 100 global brands have increased in value by 2% to $2 Trillion over the past year. Despite the global financial downturn, the top brands seem to be immune to the economic turmoil, if you trust Millward Brown's analysis. Some top brands seem to be excelling in the downturn like Apple and Amazon, while others have tumbled like Disney and Starbucks. One of the biggest surprises is Apple's success ... Read More

If you are a marketer of small to medium businesses, John Jantsch is someone you ought to be paying close attention to. Jantsch practices what he preaches and has built one of the strongest brands in small business marketing. In this podcast he goes into depth on how small businesses can utilize Twitter to market better and grow their business. Duct Tape Marketing Podcast website Read More

Social media is the hottest topic in marketing right now and larger companies are starting to test the social media waters. Home Depot has been one of the front runners and in this video from the Blogwell Conference Home Depot's Nick Ayers describes their successes and challenges in social media. Read More

Recessionary consumer behavior is discussed in this video with Professor John Quelch of Harvard Business School. He also talks about 4 types of consumers who are reacting in different ways to the economic environment, whether current consumer behaviors will become permanent, and when you should invest in marketing in a recession. Read More

I really liked Groundswell by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, for several reasons. It not only gives examples of how social technologies have been used effectively and made a significant impact, but also provides examples of when the best intentions in using social media have blown up. It discusses several possible uses for social technology in marketing, such as marketing research, customer support, providing information for customers in the middle of the sales funnel, building long term relationships with customers, empowering promoters, ... Read More

Groundswell is a really valuable read that discusses how and when companies should use social technologies to improve their marketing, internal communications, customer support and gain business insights. Here is author Josh Bernoff, discussing Groundswell business strategies. You should really read Groundswell, if you haven't. It's brilliant. Read More

When Fred Reichheld wrote The Ultimate Question, he argued that the best way to drive strong revenue growth and return on equity, was by using the simple question "How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague"? This question, goes right to the source of your business, the perceptions of the customer. According to Bain & Company analysis, "NPS(Net Promoter Score) leaders outgrow their competitors in most industries—by an average of 2.5 times" (1). Do you know ... Read More

The marketing landscape is currently undergoing a monumental shift that will change how products and services will be marketed for many years to come. Technologies such as digital video recorders, the internet, and mobile phones have fundamentally shifted how people consume media, which changes the relationship between company and consumer. Here are some eyebrow raising stats. There are 31 billion Google searches executed every month. In 2006, this number was 2.7 billion (1). The number of text messages sent per day exceeds the world ... Read More

Buyology is an interesting book because it describes a completely new approach to marketing research. Instead of traditional methods of research such as surveys, or focus groups, Buyology explores a new frontier in marketing research, neuromarketing. Specifically, Martin Lindstrom, describes scientific studies in which subject's brains are scanned to see what parts of their brain lights up when exposed to certain marketing stimuli such as a brand logo or an advertisement. When different regions of our brain are active, the increased energy requirement ... Read More

I once jokingly made the comment, "Starbucks is going to become the McDonald's of coffee". I don't think that is too far from the truth now based on recent events. Starbucks recently started promoting "value meals", a breakfast sandwich and a small latte for $3.95. They also started selling the instant coffee packets called Via for 3 for about $3. This may be part of a strategy to grow sales in response to the economic recession, but at what point does it ... Read More

By now many are realizing the tremendous potential of Twitter as a marketing vehicle to communicate to a community that has given you their permission and attention. According to TechCrunch, Jason Calicanis just offered $250,000, just to be listed on the suggested Twitterers for 1 year, and thinks a spot on this prestigious list will be as valuable as a superbowl spot within 5 years. Even Facebook wants to be like Twitter as demonstrated by their new profile page. Twitter has appeared ... Read More

Buyology explores the question of why we buy and this clip is of Martin Lindstrom explaining some of the things marketers do to persuade people to buy even though the individual might not even realize they are being swayed. ... Read More

In case you missed this, Seth Godin at Inbound Marketing Summit. 64:41 Read More

Good clip of Seth Godin being interviewed about marketing in a recession. Read More