How Referral Fees Make You Look Bad And What To Do Instead
On the surface, referral fees make sense, right? Rewarding a customer for sending you business. Seems reasonable. But...
Smelling Your Way to Good Vibrations
It is your job to have a strategy to incorporate the five senses for maximum effect on memory and feelings. Your job to build your story is entrusted to, as a 90’s kid would say, “the vibe.”
Empire Builders #001: The Story of the Drybar Blow Out
How Drybar turned this simple idea into a salon empire that grew from one single shop to a business that was recently acquired by Helen of Troy Ltd. for $225 million.
This Simple Formula Makes Truly Presidential Presentations That Inspire Action
The principles that Manley preaches are ESSENTIAL to capturing and holding attention. Be it short ads, long copy, presentations, or public speaking…
Military Positioning as Marketing Strategy
Your company is the newcomer. You’re the young upstart that has innovated and is generating significant buzz. How can you expect the leader in your business category to react?
Ira Glass On Advertising, Part 3
Ira’s third video on storytelling is by far the most popular. He's describing the positive side of the Dunning-Kruger effect. I think this video speaks to: Linear, no-threshold thinking, Minimum Effective Dose, and Cumulative Effect.
The media is NOT the message.
I remember a Marshall McLuhan quote of “The Media is the Message.” So I asked Roy, what about McLuhan? The skies darkened, the floors parted, and a fiery hell appeared as Roy screamed.
Ira Glass on Great Advertising, Part 2
“The amount of time finding the decent story is more than the amount of time it takes to produce the story… I think that, like, not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.”
Tipping Point of Retail and the S-Curve
A dozen years from now 50% to 60% of transactions will be occurring online. And a surprising advantage will go to stores who sell online but advertise locally.
Lotteries, Investments, Patience and Inversion
Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger made money by using a strategy that passed the test of time. At 97 years old, Munger attributes two things to his success: patience and inversion.
The Worth of a Dali
A picture is worth a thousand words. Confucius told us that. Or did he? Actually, Fred Barnard made up the saying to promote the use of images and called it “a Chinese proverb so that people would take it seriously.”
What Matters is What’s Remembered
When you advertise, you typically make bullet points of what you “want customers to know.” Giving a customer an education so he’ll have no choice but to pick you is as fanciful as it is arrogant.
Ira Glass on Great Advertising, Part 1
The first video covers Ira’s two basic building blocks of storytelling: the Anecdote and the Moment of Reflection. And in advertising terms, these are roughly analogous to Relevance and Credibility.
Your Competitors Are Bastards
Business is like writing. You have to find your own style and stick to it. Stop worrying about what the competition is doing. They're all bastards. Get inspired by things they don't understand.
The Marketing Funnel Cloud
I hate funnels. The thing we call a Marketing Funnel is really just a shorthand to remind us that no customer goes from “I don’t know who you are” to “here, take my money!”