marketing
1,028 posts
Take Off Your Little Black Dress
Maybe you look amazing in a little black dress with no help from anyone. Very few people can pull it off without at least a leg wax, high heels and an airbrush tan. Think about why you wear that dress in the first place. Is it to make you feel good about yourself? Possibly…..or is…
20 Things You Need To Do More Than Google Plus
Any occurrence requiring undivided attention will be accompanied by a compelling distraction ~ Robert Bloch There is a shiny new toy in the social networking sand box and you can’t wait to get stuck into it. It’s only natural to want a piece of the action, to see what the 10 million early adopters o
Forgetting The Facts
We all know that love affairs don’t begin with facts Ric Bixter was given a college assignment; to take something boring, that you could buy for less than a couple of dollars and repackage it to make it more interesting and valuable. So Ric set out to tell a different story about elastic bands. One…
How Not To Name A Startup Or Anything
A brand name is more than a word. It is the beginning of a conversation. ~ Lexicon Everyone can agree that there’s nothing really objectionable about calling your business ‘Bargain World’. It’s an innocuous name and most people won’t hate it. And that’s the problem. If you’re going to name your busi
People Want What They Never Asked For
Everybody’s obsessed with finding a niche when what they should be doing is expressing a worldview. ~ Amy Hoy Have you ever been to a chocolate cafe? There’s a new one in town and we went to see what all the fuss is about. I’m not talking about a big franchise operation here— I’m talking…
The iPhone Doesn’t Matter To Everyone
“Ideas that spread win.” Seth Godin Seth is one of my heros, he’s probably one of yours too. But I’ve been itching to qualify this quote for some time now. Here’s what I believe. Ideas that matter spread. If you want anything you conceive, launch, or care about to ‘win’ then you’ve got to make…
What Is An Idea Worth?
“A single idea, the sudden flash of a thought, may be worth a million dollars.” Robert Collier If you’re here and reading this article you probably make your living, (or want to) by selling your art. You market your creative genius and your ideas. So what do you think one of your ideas is worth?…
The Strawberry Chocolate Box
It’s not how good they say you are, it’s how good you believe yourself to be. The community fair was in full swing. Proud gardeners and pushy mothers turned up in equal measure at every event. I had my eye on a prize. Having learned to bake at my mothers hip by the age of…
Ruby Slippers
Every single idea becomes what you can communicate. Dorothy’s ruby slippers were magical. They sparkled, they shone and everyone including the wicked witches with all her power coveted them without knowing exactly how they worked and why. Naturally you want to explain to everyone how to tap their he
The Goodbye Window
“Sure we need thrills, spills and big gestures, but we also need closeness, trust and intimacy.” Kevin Roberts. Lovemarks It might sound like a bit of a cliche but the small things really do matter, in business as well as in life. Children teach us that every day. We might think that they care about
Your Customer Is The Hero
“Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.” John Barth I know your products are beautiful. I also read on the packaging that your juice is packed full of vitamins. And anyone with an eye can see that your designs are amazing. Knowing all of the facts about how great you are and…
Different Enough
“If you’re trying to please everyone, then you’re not going to make anything that is honestly yours in the long run.” Viggo Mortensen Every cafe tells the same story (or tries to anyway); ‘we serve the best coffee.’ Every non- profit tells us how our money will make an impact and every box of deterg
How To Make An Idea Worth Spreading
“The only people in the world who can change things are those who can sell ideas.” – Lois Wyse Your new product, the non-profit you want to get off the ground, a life changing coaching program or that innovative design are worth spreading not because you say so but because other people believe they
They’re Telling Your Story
“We have to realise that the days of controlling the message are absolutely over.” Wendy Clark Senior VP of Integrated Marketing Coca Cola. You work hard to create an impression of your brand or business. To make your idea spread. You tell the story with your packaging, website design, logo, product
What’s The Most Important Marketing Question In The World?
“The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.” George Eliot Head down to your nearest Borders bookstore (while there still is one) and you’ll find hundreds of titles that all aim to help you answer this question. If Borders had asked the very same question and acted upon the answer they p
Do You Sound Like You Are Amazing?
Does your brand story give people something to buy into, to care about and to engage with? I’m not talking empty hype you could create, I’m talking about how you frame the truth. Some of the worlds best loved tiny brands took off for two reasons. Firstly they had a great idea and secondly they…
Understanding How To Spread An Idea
“Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.” Nolan Bushnell So how do you begin to make an impact and spread an idea? 1. Create something that people want to talk about. 2. Give…
How Will I Know You?
The 1915 design brief for the original Coke bottle was simple. The criteria were that it must be recognisable in the dark and if it was broken. The result; a timeless, elegant solution which plays a huge part in creating a memorable brand story. Think about how you could apply criteria like these to
6 Questions For Crafting Your Relevance
When was the last time something caught your attention? In our increasingly noisy world things that captivate us for more than a few seconds are few and far between. We have become experts at shutting things out, at not paying attention to anything that doesn’t hold relevance for us. In any market w
How Apple Succeeds By ‘Thinking Different’
“We’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. So we have to be really clear about what we want them to know.” Steve Jobs. Lots of people can do what you do as well as you can do it. If that’s not the case and you’re lucky enough…
