One of the most important jobs of marketers is to question assumptions. In his book BrandSimple, Allen P. Adamson talks about Jerry Seinfield’s uncanny ability to point out things that don’t make sense but are never questioned. For instance he once said “It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every [...]
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John Wall from the Ronin Marketeer blog and Marketing Over Coffee Podcast recently opened my eyes to a firefox plugin called AdBlock Plus that is internet equivalent to DVR. I just installed it and it claims to eliminate 99% of banner ads. It’s scary good. Banners are often ignored anyways but if people start using [...]
Like Dave Barry said in the below quote, the commercialization of Christmas has partly distracted people from the true meaning of Christmas. You can’t escape the constant advertisements of sales by every retailer trying to leverage Christmas to help their bottom line. The other side of the argument would say that marketing is just facilitating [...]
The study of Psychology can really help marketers understand customers. I recommend two tremendous courses available for free on iTunesU, which offers many free lectures. I have been listening to Psychology 156- Human Emotion and Psychology 160- Social Psychology at UC Berkeley, two very relevant courses to marketing. Both lectures are by Dacher Keltner , [...]
For those who miss the interruptions of commercials you can now get your fix at Firebrand.com. You can watch a constant stream of random commercials or select specific categories. Sound like fun? Well it is. Everyone has at some point searched for a great commercial on You Tube. The buzz around Superbowl ads shows that [...]
I recently spoke to a co-worker who asked the common rhetorical question about marketing: “Isn’t marketing just about selling people things they don’t need.” I happily engaged in the intellectual sparring match, as I enjoy enlightening those unaware of how marketing makes our lives better. Granted, marketing is not as noble a cause as teaching [...]
As it becomes more difficult to communicate to consumers on traditional media, branding has become more critical to marketing success. Companies can not survive with questionable reputations, on the other hand a strong reputation can differentiate you from the competition. Bank of America recently bailed out Countrywide by purchasing 2 billion in stock which calmed [...]
Life After the 30 Second Spot: Energize Your Brand With a Bold Mix of Alternatives to Traditional Advertising by Joseph JaffeThe Elements of Persuasion: Use Storytelling to Pitch Better, Sell Faster & Win More Business by Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods… And How Companies Create Them by [...]
In a brilliant marketing and PR move, the British band Radiohead is offering their new album for download at any price you want. You just go to their site and fill in the blank. I paid 1.25 pounds for music I wouldn’t have otherwise bought, just because I could. This is a great innovation for [...]
Must Listens:PodtiniBrand Fast-TrackersDuct-Tape Marketing Marketing Over CoffeeThe Hook Other Good Business Podcasts:APM MarketplaceHBR IdeacastThe Cranky Middle ManagerWall street Journal This MorningTime Business PodcastsBusiness Week Cover StoriesEntrepreneurial Thought LeadersKnowledge at Wharton
Creating free content is one way to generate interest in your company and its offerings. That is why many companies are looking into producing their own podcasts and some companies have embraced podcasting. Business Week Cover Stories and Climbing the Ladder are just a few great podcasts that are part of the Business Week Podcast [...]
The Compromise Effect states that a consumer is more likely to choose the middle option of a selection set rather than the extreme options. For example, a car-shopper who is given three options: the low-priced basic model with no extras, a high-priced fully loaded model with all the extras, and a mid-priced model with some [...]
In Beyond Buzz, Lois Kelly argues that that buzz like the Subservient Chicken doesn’t work. Instead she suggests that firms should develop a strong point of view and something meaningful to talk about, such as Sun Microsystems’ philosophy that “sharing is good” or Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” that aims to build self esteem in [...]
A study by IHL consulting shows that self checkout at grocery stores can help people lose weight. They found that when consumers used self checkout their impulse purchases dropped 32.1% for women and 16.7% for men. IHL suggested that this was due to self-checkout lanes having less junk food displayed and lines were shorter, limiting [...]
In sports the best marketing is winning. Marketing a mediocre or consistently bad team is tough. So when Appalachian State defeated Michigan in the upset of the decade in college football, they had a great opportunity to recruit students to their school. One of the advantages of winning football programs is that it attracts great [...]
I just finished Al Gore’s book Assault on Reason and he has some harsh things to say about marketing. One of his points is that candidates can buy votes by simply purchasing 30 second ads. He recounts a story about when he was running for a senate position and his adviser told him that if [...]
NBC’s move to remove their shows from iTunes is a terrible misjudgment. iTunes is able to get people to pay for a product that is offered for free. It’s like selling water. People are willing to pay for the convenience. JP Morgan Analyst Spencer Wang, estimates that networks make a revenue of 1.44 per downloaded [...]
Here’s a crazy story from dvorak.org/blog. KFC is piloting an “scent-focused” campaign that will deliver food filled mail to corporate mail rooms at the lunch time mail drop. The mail will contain chicken, a side item, and a biscuit aimed to release the aroma of fried chicken throughout the office and trigger the cravings of [...]
