One of the keys to establishing a strong and meaningful brand is consistency. A surefire way to become inconsistent is by “suboptimizing” your brand by focusing on the parts, rather than the whole. Or, in other words, by having a tough time deciding “who you want to be.” Continue reading “Think Carefully About Suboptimizing Your Brand!”
Category: Marketing and Branding
Your Best Customers Are Your Best Customers
We’ve all heard it before, but somehow in our ongoing quest to add *new* customers, we have a tendency to forgot to focus attention on the ones we already have.
Datran Media, an e-mail services company, recently asked marketers to rank what advertising goals they considered most important for 2009. The results were: Continue reading “Your Best Customers Are Your Best Customers”
Should You Hire Employees Who “Fit” Your Culture?
The concept of “cultural fit” is a trendy one these days. But, is hiring for “fit” a good idea?
In 1999 I wrote an article for HR Magazine on hiring to fit your corporate culture. My thesis at the time was that doing so was a “slippery slope” in terms of ensuring non-discriminatory hiring practices. After all, Continue reading “Should You Hire Employees Who “Fit” Your Culture?”
When Awareness and Preference is Not Enough.
Not many people remember a product called Zima and that’s the point of this post. As a marketing professional I’ve always been interested in new product introductions and advertising campaigns in general – how well do they work? how long do they “run” (suggesting that the positive effects are continuing to produce results or, if nothing else, that the agency and client haven’t “pulled the plug” prematurely). Continue reading “When Awareness and Preference is Not Enough.”
McDonald’s vs. Starbucks – the Coffee Wars
McDonald’s recently announced that it will be serving specialty coffees like vanilla lattes and caramel cappuccinos at outlets across the U.S., at a fraction of the cost of the same types of drinks at Starbucks.
Wow! As this plays out it will be a great economics case study. Can you compete on price? What value is there in a brand? Will consumers continue to pay more for something that they can get for less someplace else?
Continue reading “McDonald’s vs. Starbucks – the Coffee Wars”
In The Minds of Consumers – Brilliant!
On the way home from teaching a class the other day I heard what I thought was a classicly created radio commercial from OnStar.
The attention-getting premise: “Are you counting on your cell phone to be your lifeline in a crash?” Well, yeah. That’s why I don’t need OnStar, right? Continue reading “In The Minds of Consumers – Brilliant!”
Writing Ad Copy – WIIF*T*!!
Okay – this headline is not intended to be an expletive. But, after recent experiences with a group of students in a senior-level, project-based, PR campaign class, I’m thinking that maybe the old copywriter’s acronym of WIIFM (“What’s in it for me”?) may be somewhat misleading and result in a lack of focus on the end user – THEM! The better acronym may be WIIFT- “What’s in it for *them*!”) I have been so indoctrinated into “selling” to people since my early childhood that I think I may take certain things for granted – one of which is that, if I want to “sell” or “persuade” somebody about anything – whether it’s buying a product, giving me a job, going to eat where *I* want to go eat, etc., I need to think about WIIFT – “What’s in it for *them*?” And, I need to…
Continue reading “Writing Ad Copy – WIIF*T*!!”
10 Copywriting Tips for Guaranteed Results!
Whether you’re writing a brochure, copy for a newspaper ad, a script for a radio announcement or a page or blog for your web site, there are some tried and true techniques that can help you make sure that your copy gets the results you’re looking for.
Think about writing copy as making a sales pitch to a customer. Your goal is to persuade that customer to do something – most likely to purchase your product or service. Here’s how: Continue reading “10 Copywriting Tips for Guaranteed Results!”