If your marketing strategy is inspired by observations of Madison Avenue, I can pretty much guarantee you’re making this mistake. Most Mad Ave strategies seem to be based on the above simple (and idiotic) equation. And because trust in advertising is at historic lows, we’re seeing a comparable increase in ridiculously inflated claims.
My favorite […]

Ever since marketing great Jack Trout wrote Differentiate or Die, businesses have fallen over themselves to adopt the religion of differentiation. They want to look different, sound different, act different, and generally push the creative envelope to chart new territories in search of difference.
The problem is, difference, in and of itself, counts for nothing.
“Yeah […]

In response to the post, Does Your Newsletter SUCK?, Dennis Dilday and Dani Nordin brought up some excellent points about the nature of sucky versus great marketing. I think though, that it all centers around one of the great marketing fallacies afflicting businesses large and small: The Sock-Puppet Fallacy. I just made […]