Distinctiveness vs. Differentiation vs. Bonding
Branding aims at de-commodification: getting the customer to see you as the better, worthier option. And there are three ways of pursuing this goal.
The Biggest Waste in Advertising (a Case Study)
Advertising in the bigger community to draw customers to your smaller community is as futile as trying to make the water in a river defy gravity.
An interview with a small business that applied the Wrigley formula
He does not sell gum. He sells used RVs and he applied the lessons from Wrigley’s and is growing like crazy.
“Emotional” Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means
“Emotional campaigns are 30% more likely than rational campaigns to show large profit effects" — Binet & Field, The Long and Short of It
Persuading Individuals vs. Persuading the Crowd — Why Not Both?
We are social creatures, and what others think and believe profoundly affects what we think and believe.
Winning the War for Talent – An Advertising Strategy for Service Companies
This is why character and story-driven advertising not only accelerates branding success, but recruiting success as well.
Putting Funny Ads To Work For Your Boring-Ass Business – Ordinary to Extraordinary
None of these products were inherently interesting, yet their ads have been enjoyed hundreds of millions of times.
Eyeballs, hope and steaming piles of crap
I get asked a lot about the effectiveness of advertising and which ones are the most effective. The buzz for entrepreneurs these days is social media.
7 Modern Marketing Myths & Why They’re Dangerous Even When You’re Not Falling for Them
Following the zeitgeist is easy. Good branding is hard.
How Does One Educate a Customer? Part 1 of 3
“Everyone needs our product,” said Bob. “All we need to do is to tell them about it.” He thinks advertising problems in the water supply is an excellent way to attract potential customers to his business.
The Most Bizarre Brand Mascot (That Worked) In the Last Twenty Years — And Why You Should Care!
It permanently impressed itself on the tender psyches of millennials and they still whine about it decades later.
Learning From the Legends: The Ronseal Phrase
Don’t be deceived by the apparently artless, “just tell it like it is” nature of the ad. The slogan even made it into the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms and was repeatedly used by then-Prime Minister David Cameron.
SEO-ing the Search Engine in the Customer’s Mind — Association Design for Fun & Profit
You must create and cultivate a rich network of mental associations linked to your brand. It starts with three elements...
Pat Weaver Changed the Face of Advertising Forever
You have not heard of him, but if you've ever run an ad on TV or Radio then you have him to thank. Learn the key to controlling eyeballs (and your own destiny).
The Most Important Search Engine Isn’t Google — And Why Local Businesses Need to Be Optimizing For It
It’s actually an “omnipresent” rather than online-only search engine.