Archive for October, 2008

Among the many things that fascinate me is the art of slight-of-hand, popularly known as close-up magic. Nobody’s every going to confuse me with Blackstone, Mark Wilson, or the other magic greats, but I can do a number of coin tricks that are good enough so that I don’t embarrass myself. Back in the day, I worked my way through college, playing guitar, singing, and doing table magic at restaurants. It was fun, and, oddly enough, taught me some valuable lessons about marketing. So in the vein of the book Everything I needed to know, I Learned in Kindergarten, here are my thoughts regarding lessons learned in magic that can be applied to marketing… Read the rest of this entry »

My wife’s car, her pride and joy – a U.S. Marine red Jeep Liberty – was sideswiped this morning by person or persons unknown. We suspect that the damage was done in our health club parking lot. Not much damage to the vehicle, but the paint job is seriously pooched. Given what I know about automotive painting, we’re probably going to have one of those claims that’s big enough to go past our deductible, but not much more, making even filing a claim a difficult decision. 

What kind of person scrapes up somebody’s car, then doesn’t take responsibility for it? No note, no appology, no nuthin.’ That’s aggravating, but it begs the bigger question – why is it okay to walk away from your responsibilities today, where it once was not? Read the rest of this entry »

This is probably going to sound like a “no, DUH!” rant, but have you ever stopped to think about how you market to your market?

In my job as a wanna-be Design Police Commissioner, I see a lot of bad design, good design, and everything in between. Same for marketing. I’ve seen some pitches that would melt hearts, and some that wouldn’t sell a starving man a steak. But the good pitches and designs all have one thing in common – they all target their market with a look and feel – and message – that is appropriate for the people they are trying to reach.

Think about that for a second.

That is actually huge. It is actually possible to miss your target because you didn’t market to them appropriately. Case in point: packaging. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you addicted to exclamation marks? Many marketers are. There seems to be a trend! toward! use! and overuse! of exclamation points! to try and pump up the volume! of marketing! copy!!!

But there’s hope. 

For just pennies a day, you can help save a marketer from this dreaded overuse of exclamation marks, and in turn, save a marketer from themselves. Help us now, before we have to take the drastic step of removing the ! key from keyboards everywhere. 

Because a bang is a terrible thing to waste. Read the rest of this entry »

So, campers – make it through Monday without jumping out of a skyscraper? Good for you. The worst is yet to come, but don’t let me be a wet blanket. Plenty of blame to go around, too. No matter who wins in December, we’re really only electing somebody new to shoulder the blame. 

Now that we have a grip on reality, how’s your marketing looking? If you’re like me, you’re in the process of rethinking everything. I count among my clients a restaurateur. He thinks nothing will change, the old “people gotta eat” theory. That may as well be true, but the truth is, when people don’t have money they do still eat – but they don’t eat out, at least not as much. I have another client, a sporting goods shop. Will a recession threaten his business? You bet, if we’re talking about the price of ammo. I used to shoot 50 rounds a week, minimum, just to keep my skills up. Not now. I’m looking at buying a 22 pistol, just because the ammo is so much cheaper. I’ll bet his charter vacation business, ammo sales, and big-ticket items will be down. 

So what’s a marketeer to do? Read the rest of this entry »

Saw An American Carol today. Good flick. What I find interesting is that I even heard about it, and that it hasn’t been burried yet by the mainstream media. What’s cool about the movie is that it is un-apologetically conservative, and relentless in it’s desire to shoot every sacred cow in sight. Read the rest of this entry »

Slogans. Gotta love ‘em. Good ones are designed to elicit emotions, specifically to communicate how a company wants you to feel about them. I’ve seen some brilliant slogans – and some really bad ones. Ford Motor Company has gone through a bunch in the past few years, some good, some…not so much. Here’s a sampling:

Ford has a better idea.

Quality is Job One.

Have you driven a Ford lately?

Drive One.

Um…yeah. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always been a big fan of intelligent discourse on marketing. 

Way too often, marketing seems like 1 part mysticism, 2 parts voodoo, 2 parts common sense, and an extra-large dolop of B.S. People that think things through, explain the rationale behind things, and provide a framework for determining what’s good – and what’s bad – in marketing do our entire industry a service. 

One of the most influential (and dare I say brilliant) marketers is actual a family of marketers. The Ries family has been pioneering common sense in marketing for years, first with a series of books by Al Ries and Jack Trout, then with Al and his daughter Laura Ries Brown. Books like Positioning, Marketing Warfare, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, and The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR have altered the ways marketers think about their craft. I don’t necessarily agree with every position the famiy Ries stakes out, but I always find their work to be thought-provoking, and, more often than not, find myself agreeing with them. Read the rest of this entry »

As frequent readers of this blog (and it’s sister publication, Captain Digital Speaks! – www.captaindigital.net) I’m a big fan of commercials. Good commercials, that is. I don’t know if I’ve related this here, but my parents tell me that, as a toddler, I would run into the room for commercials, and leave the room when the shows came back on. That may sound weird, but not if you think about it for a second. Most national TV spots have the same production values, budgets, and talent as a 30 minute sitcom or in the cases of national brands, a one-hour drama.

Recently, I’ve seen a couple of spots that have been able to penetrate the general noise level and get my attention. They’ve done so, largely for a couple of reasons: Read the rest of this entry »