Learning from the Legends: What Can’t be Questioned?
Immediately following the launch of the Mr. Whipple campaign Charmin displaced Scott as the #1 brand in America.
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.
Secrets of a genius storyteller
Learn from the great Ronnie Van Zant from Lynyrd Skynyrd. Appeal to your audience by speaking to them in their language.
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
Should an Upwardly Mobile Zebra Shed Its Stripes?
Successful marketing, getting your company noticed, requires behavior that's not only risky, it runs counter to instinct.
Magical Thinking, Branding, and Chevy’s Christmas Ad
Your love for this small piece of commercial art, which you’ll likely share with others, can’t help but partially rub off onto Chevy.
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.
Put me in Coach, I’m ready to play
Are you doing it for the love of the game or some other reason? Without love, your customers feel it, employees abandon you, and competitors sense weakness.
Zen and the Art of Persuasion. Part 3 of 3
People avoid risk on three levels. The biggest risk is that they’ll purchase the wrong solution – that they’ll have spent the money and still have the problem.
The Poet and the Engineer
I was an engineer for most of my life. Engineers think logically and rationally but they can't stir desire like a poet. Are your ads written by the poet, or the engineer?
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.
Regrettably, I didn’t wear the kilt.
Celebrate your difference in the world. Stand out. Get talked about. You will be rewarded for your courage when you are true to yourself.