I spend a lot of time telling people how to build credibility but I don’t think I’ve ever talked about how to destroy credibility. Fortunately, the National Association of Realtors created these ads (click on “Watch the TV Commercials”) to illustrate a quick and effective method for doing just that.
Whether deserved or not, Realtors […]

The New York Times recently had a great article on the role of WOM in political campaigns.
Here’s the article: Loose Lips Win Elections
And here are some highlights:
“Public trust in all kinds of communication is eroding, with a notable exception: word of mouth. A Roper poll found the number of people who said they get […]

Some of you may recall a post I wrote a while back on this very same subject. Well, here’s more evidence that the marketer’s dream of mind control is alive and twitching.
Introducing the mutant love-child of Neuroscience and Marketing: Neuromarketing. (bet you didn’t see that coming).
Evidently the whole Creativity thing didn’t pan out as […]

Whoop, There it is!
Thank you Robert Stevens (founder of Geek Squad) for summing it all up.
The quote can be found in this article in Business Week. The article is so fundamentally, profoundly dead-on, there’s little need to add my own commentary.
I will, however, offer some highlights:
“The best stories of well-marketed businesses and brands […]

According to the National Association of REALTORS® and their new ad campaign, REALTORS® get “Results” and have “Reliability.”
But do they have “Relevance”?
If you’re like 90% of the population (the other 10% are real estate agents) you’d think these ads are all about encouraging you to hire a real estate agent. Oh, but you […]

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 […]

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 […]

As if 3000 commercial messages a day wasn’t enough, some clever folks came up with a way to pack in even more. Come September CBS will begin egg advertising. That’s right, eggs with ads.
What’s most fascinating is not the desperation it signifies. It’s how gleefully out of touch CBS is about the […]

Researchers say we’re exposed to 3000 commercial messages every day.
Pretty impressive considering that we’re only awake for 960 minutes a day (16 hours x 60 minutes). That averages out to a whopping 3.125 per minute!
At some point you reach saturation and people start tuning it out. And if you ask me, I’d say […]

Intuitively, viral marketing makes sense. It’s free exposure. People like it. They tell their friends. It gets covered in USA Today. With thousands of people aware of your business, how can it not turn into clients?
How indeed.
The problem with this thinking is the same problem with traditional marketing. It’s the belief […]

The marketing world has an unhealthy fixation with creativity. Billions of dollars and countless hours are spent to develop and disseminate witty words and fancy graphics. They labor and they spend as if it actually worked; as if their creative genius somehow subverts our will and compels us to buy.
Look at the […]

The marketing world is struggling to understand the new marketing landscape. The old ways are crumbling as a new marketing order emerges.
Maurice Levy, chairman-CEO of the venerable Publicis Groupe, summed it up nicely:
“The way the consumer is changing is something that has never been seen before. It’s not just a change in […]

Seriously now. “Ingredients for Life”
Safeway! What were you thinking? Or more precisely, how could you let your ad agency get away with that?
Imagine that breakthrough meeting. The “creatives” struggling deep into the night. Wringing their brains over Chineese food and Red Bull. In the absence any “Big Idea”, it comes in […]

They’re everywhere. Leering insurance agents… who can save you “up to 40%.”
State Farm Insurance put them there — on busses, on billboards. Creepy looking insurance agents, complete with their phone numbers.
This is a case study in irrelevant advertising.
First of all, is anyone impressed by the “up to 40%”? That just means, “You […]