Crying At Work

Some of the most emotional managers/execs
I have worked with have been men. 
Why? 
Because they can get away with it. 

A recent study shows that
women are judged more harshly
than men for crying. 
Not only crying but
also for anger issues. 

Women are initially assumed to be emotional
and must prove that they are rational.  
It isn’t fair. 
It isn’t right. 
It simply is. 

So don’t cry publicly at work
(that is why there are doors on bathroom stalls). 

The Halloween Focus Group

Tomorrow, a hundred target consumers
will knock on my door and ask for a favor. 

I’m talking, of course,
about the Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating. 

We, marketers, have an opportunity to ask
only one question while giving out the candy. 

If you’re a beverage manufacturer,
that could be “what is your favorite drink?” 
or if a toy retailer,
“what is your favorite toy?”
(perfect for the upcoming holiday season). 
After getting the answer,
I reply “well, I don’t have a sticker of xyz 
but what about this one?” 

Happy kids and one happy marketer.

The Digital Photo Frame

I predict the hot toy for adults
this holiday season to be
the digital photo frame
I’ve already picked one up for
my baby boomer Mom’s November birthday. 

Why? 
Because she, like most boomers, 
is moving into her nostalgic period. 
She tried scrapbooking. 
Too much work. 
Only wrote a page or two of her memoirs.  

The digital photo frame, however,
will capture her life in one filled card and
display it on the wall for all to see.   
The perfect solution and
the perfect present.

Not Just Pizza

The chain Just Pizza
is an example of how NOT
to name a business venture. 

The intention was good. 
Capture a niche and hold on. 

Except that tastes evolved. 
Or the company needed to grow faster
than the category. 
Or… 

Just Pizza is now not just pizza. 
Its salads and subs and wings.  
And the name is a constant reminder
of the short sightedness of the founders. 

Build flexibility into your business name.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

The Top Four Enemies Of Businesspeople

In his book Get Smarter,
billionaire Seymour Schulich talks about
the top four enemies of business people,
Ego, Greed, Alchohol and Drugs, and
Assistants With Big Breasts. 

Of the four, Ego ranks as number one. 
“This one destroys more people
than any other single thing.” 

How do I keep the ego in check? 
By trying new ventures or assignments. 
Nothing makes me as humble as
going into a placement knowing
I don’t know what I’m doing. 

Madrid Masters Model Ball Girls

What interested me about the Madrid Masters
using models as ball girls
wasn’t the debate over whether or not
that was the right image for professional tennis. 
It was the idea of turning something
that was usually invisible to the customer
into a WOW. 

How many of us notice the ball girls or boys
during tennis games? 
Not many. 

But at the Madrid Masters,
we do.

What aspects of your product
are customers not seeing?
How can you turn them into a WOW?

Published
Categorized as Marketing

California On Fire

Saw a great spot promoting California last night. 
The playful commercial “Work”
grabbed my interest, entertained,
educated, and
left me with a deep desire to re-visit the State. 

There is only one thing holding me back… 

California is on fire

That is one of the issues with marketing. 
You can come up with a great promotion, 
implement it at the perfect time
to the perfect target, and
have an incident undermine all that planning. 
Luck does play a factor.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Mindless Buying

The closer people are to food,
the more they will eat. 
Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating,
told CNN why
“every time we see it,
we have to make a decision. 
Do we want to eat it or not?” 

But this doesn’t only work with food. 
It works with every purchase. 

That is why Coca-Cola’s mission statement 
includes the words “within an arm’s reach of desire.”

Can you move your product
closer to your customers?

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Running With Success

Last year I ran an event
for a not-for-profit organization. 
I came up with the idea for the event. 
I managed it. 
I promoted it. 

It was a roaring success,
the most successful event the organization held. 

This year the organization decided that
it was too important an event
not to be run by the executive. 
I am not on the executive and so
am excluded from the event management. 

This happens in companies every day. 
And the results are the same. 
The founders get ticked and
take their abilities elsewhere. 

Let your people run with their successes. 
Give them extra resources,
extra training but keep them involved.

Knowing Where To Fish

On one of my blogs,
I’m spicing up content by
posting more interviews with experts. 

At first I was finding these experts
with simple Google searches. 
Took time and
I didn’t have a very good response rate. 

Then I realized that I was searching in the wrong place. 

I went to an article directory. 
Here were a list of experts writing content for free,
all in hopes of publicity. 
Suddenly my response rate increased
to pretty close to 100%. 

Are you also searching for customers
in the wrong place? 
Are you buying ad space for online ventures offline? 
Are you trying to sell romance novels to poetry readers?

Published
Categorized as Sales