The Beginning, Middle and End

October 9, 2009

We tend to view our businesses as a collection of silos – direct marketing, sales, accounting, finance, creative, customer services ect.   However, our customers don’t.  To our customers, our brand is a continuum – a story. Think of the novels we’ve read: If a story has a poor beginning, we abandon it If the [...]

Read the full article →

Cups and Balls

October 3, 2009

Confession: Years ago on a busy side street in Paris, I fell for the classic tourist scam -  ‘the shell game‘.  During a long day of city wandering, I noticed three or four guys kneeling around another guy who was shifting a little ball around under three cups.  Curiously, I watched for ten minutes. The [...]

Read the full article →

Letters to a Marketing Student. Part Four: Study the Greats

September 20, 2009

This is the fourth and final posts in a series called ‘Letters to a Marketing Student’. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) I’m willing to wager that you’ll make it through your entire marketing degree without hearing the names of the great marketing minds of the past.  Given how potent of a learning tool it [...]

Read the full article →

Letters to a Marketing Student. Part Three: Your Professors Are Everywhere

September 13, 2009

This is part three in a series of posts called ‘Letters to a Marketing Student’. (Part 1, Part 2) During the last two years of my marketing degree two significant movements were underway online that would go on to represent the biggest shift in marketing thinking since the birth of television:  The eruption of the [...]

Read the full article →

Letters to a Marketing Student. Part Two: Step Out of the College Bubble

September 10, 2009

This is part two in a series of posts called ‘Letters to a Marketing Student’. (Part 1) The ‘College Bubble’ is this: Class, sleep, study, party, eat, repeat.  It’s accepting the lie that four years of university incubation is necessary before applying your craft in the real world.  This school year, challenge yourself to step [...]

Read the full article →

Series – Letters to a Marketing Student. Part One: The Most Valuable 10 Hours of Your Degree

September 8, 2009

This is part one in a series of posts called ‘Letters to a Marketing Student”. Today we look at what your degree means to the world and how setting aside 10 hours each week will amplify your value on graduation day. Confession: In university I wasted a lot of time. You will too – and [...]

Read the full article →

Marketing With Celebrities and the Power of Micro-local

August 29, 2009

A few trivia questions.  Don’t look online: Can you name Julia Robert’s husband? Can you name Denzel Washington’s wife? Chances are you can’t, because they’re married to mere mortals (small brand).  Unfortunately, the relationship between big brand and small brand doesn’t elevate small brand.  Instead, big brand outshines small brand. Now, continuing the metaphor: Can [...]

Read the full article →

Three Great Posts – Identity

August 23, 2009

On a daily basis I read really great pieces that offer new ideas or a fresh look at old ones. Sometimes these posts will resonate particularly strongly. ‘Three Great Posts’ is an occasional look at these articles and they come with my highest recommendation. This weeks posts are all about identity – for both our [...]

Read the full article →

Five Reasons Why I Wear a Tie

August 20, 2009

I began my career in sales.  At the beginning I was told to ‘dress like my prospects’ so as to not intimidate them.  Of course this is rubbish.  The correct approach is to dress better then they do to reinforce your role as a trusted adviser. Now as a marketer, I still wear ties to [...]

Read the full article →

Honesty Time – Do You Matter?

August 18, 2009

If you’re a leader or manager, consider these points: A tree falls in the wilderness: If you were gone tomorrow and succeeded by an average replacement would the team be considerably worse off?  If not, you don’t matter – and your team knows it. People are not FTE’s – they’re people: Do you know the [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes