Join me for the first ever D/C Strategic Marketing University Intensive.
The goal: take 12 indie professionals and turn them from confused and out-of-date marketers to lean mean Word-of-Mouth MACHINES… in just 30 days.
The Intensive will consist of four two-hour sessions over the course of a month. To maximize your progress, you will be given an […]

Here’s a great commentary from Brand Autopsy on creating competitive advantage:
Some highlights:

Don’t Just Get Bigger, Get Unique
Why Compete? Create New Markets
Obsess about Customers, Not Rivals

The big message is this: You choose your competitors. And you can choose to have none at all.

This ain’t your daddy’s marketing strategy. Heck. It isn’t even your older sister’s marketing strategy.
Unless you’re incredibly perceptive or a wonk obsessed with understanding the fundamental nature of marketing, you may not be aware of the profound changes going on in the world of marketing.
The change began with the advent of the internet […]

Tully’s Coffee provides us with an excellent opportunity to compare two schools of marketing.
On one side we have the creativity-driven 3:21 Wake-Up Call campaign.
On the other side we have the concrete benefits-driven “Tully’s has Free Wi-Fi.”
The Wake-Up Call campaign was an attempt to position Tully’s as the solution to the slump people tend to feel […]

I would have to write a big-ass book to explain how to design a good marketing strategy. But it would take only a short blog post to tell you how to know when you’ve got a bad one.
There is one absolutely positive, 100%, every-single-time indicator that your marketing strategy (barring some phenomenal piece of […]

Here’s a great post about what it takes to succeed in the new economy: 5 reasons why you tube and flickr are successful
Some highlights:
1. Do Something Better
2. Believe in What You Do
3. Community is Everything
4. Be Soulful
5. Be Authentic
Why it’s important
Flickr and YouTube are phenomenally successful and they got that way […]

Rachel from Writing With Meaning recently posed this question to the D/C Think Tank:
I love this site and your blog articles. I agree with all you have to say about word-of-mouth marketing, but I am completely stumped at how to start the WOM ball rolling.
I’m a sole proprietorship and the service I offer is […]

For today’s post, I’ve asked local copywriter, Chris Haddad, to illuminate for our dear readers, the critical yet misunderstood role of the marketing copywriter.
For a marketing strategy to work, all the components have to work together, amplifying and enhancing each other, to build a bridge between you and your target market. One of […]

Quick. What’s the most powerful marketing force known to mankind?
That’s right – Word of Mouth.
Fortunately for all of us alive and marketing today, word-of-mouth is now easier to generate and more powerful than anytime in human history. And, best of all… it’s frick’n cheap!

So, how can you wield the raw power of the WOM? (It’s […]

Here’s an article about a Seattle company that really understands the power of the niche.
Wearing faith (subtly) on their sleeves
The company, Vox Sacra, designs high-end Christian apparel — complete with scriptures and symbols. This guy’s not playing it safe. Not going for the middle ground. Not aiming to appeal to the masses. […]

Safeway brings us yet another marketing lesson.
Mercifully, they’ve dropped the “Ingredients for Life” campaign. In its place we have a benefits-oriented campaign focusing, at least in part, on produce. The new tagline: “Our fruit is not just picked, it’s chosen.”
That’s great! Now that’s a good reason to choose Safeway. I mean, […]

For those of you who never took Psych 101, Pavlov was this researcher who rang a bell every time he gave his dog some food. The dog, upon seeing the food would start salivating. Eventually, much to the canine’s chagrin, the good doctor would ring the bell, present no food, and the dog […]

Here’s a great example of the power of a business blog –Blogging with the Whales.
For more reasons to start your own blog, read my post, Why You Need a Blog.