So much of what passes for marketing is really just a recitation of facts.  “Here are the benefits of our product or service,” they say.  “Choose us.”  What’s lacking so much of the time is any sense of personality, anything vivid enough to make the audience remember the message, or anything compelling enough to move…

In many companies, a number of people have to sign off on brochures, website copy and the like.  Do these folks believe their job is to assist in making the project as successful and productive as possible?  Or are they like the person, presumably an educated professional, who scrawled “crap” across one section of a…

At a recent workshop, one of the participants related a tale of poor service from her bank.  When she finished, someone else posed the question, “Is there a bank that’s any different?”  Everyone looked around the room, but no one answered.  In a room full of professionals and business owners, not one person felt their…

One of the reasons companies are embracing social media is that it’s “free.”  Of course, it’s not free at all.  There’s little or no cost to use the media, but unless you generate content worth reading and sharing, or start conversations people want to have, it does you no good at all.  The trick is…

VW’s Super Bowl commercial featuring a diminutive Darth Vader trying to get in touch with the force was a hit with viewers.  It’s also been a hit since then, jumping from about 11 million pre-game views on YouTube to nearly three times that number a week later.  Let’s say the spot cost $3 million to…

Research shows that about 90% of consumers read only the headline of an ad, article, e-mail or other marketing message, then move on.  If you’d rather not waste 90% of your marketing budget, you need to make that headline do the heavy lifting.  At a minimum, it should sell the benefit you need to convey. …

Most companies use social media to push their message out to fans, friends and those who follow them.  Britney Spears, on the other hand, uses it as a catalyst.  She was so effective in getting her followers and fans to tweet about her new album and single that she remained entrenched in the very top…

In a lot of industries, something less than 100% is viewed as “good enough.”  But what if those companies had to pay for the deficiency.  For example, the companies who sell mailing lists will tell you that all consumer lists are 85% – 90% accurate.  What if those list sellers had to pay the return…

If textbooks weren’t required reading, and all their sales had to come from competing side by side on retail shelves with other books on the same subject, how many do you think would become bestsellers – or even turn a profit?  For example, a marketing textbook and a “mass market” book on marketing are both…

If you have a cause to promote or a crusade to espouse, one of your best marketing moves is to give it a name.  Are you opposed to something?  Give it a name that will stir up like-minded people.  (It’s not Health Care Reform anymore; it’s “Obamacare.”)  Are you for something?  Give it a sympathetic…