Every once in a while, I try to boil down 30-plus years worth of front-line advertising and marketing experience into 60-seconds* worth of wisdom you can actually use. These quick blog posts give you straightforward, practical advice on topics exploring the entire spectrum of marketing communications, and you get it short and sweet, with a dash of wit and without commercial interruption.
* Usually, this is calculated on my own modest reading speed. Sometimes, when I have a lot to say, I calculate it on my wife’s reading speed.
In the middle 1980s, the ad agency I worked for had a client who was a big fan of David Ogilvy, one of the truly seminal figures in advertising of the 60s, 70s and 80s. At the time, I chafed a bit under some of Ogilvy’s rules (never reverse type out of a dark color;…
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Marketing has changed dramatically since the dawn of the digital age. Websites, email and social media have largely — but not completely — supplanted printed trade magazines and newspapers and made a sizable dent in the number and scope of direct mail programs. But even though the marketing tools have changed, if yours is a…
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The essence of marketing is differentiation – separating your product or business from other, similar competitors in the minds of potential customers. Not exactly rocket science, but it’s astounding to me how many businesses of all stripes fail to grasp this fundamental precept. If you’re doing it right, your first marketing consideration is your competitive…
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Once your company grows beyond the number of employees you can casually keep track of in your own brain – and maybe before that – it’s wise to consider your own workforce as an audience needing and deserving special attention. Obviously, you need to communicate basic company-wide information such as changes to the vacation policy…
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Despite my youthful appearance, I am old enough to remember when Congress changed the copyright law in 1978. It was a sea-change in the way things like photography, illustration, music and copywriting are purchased for commercial applications such as advertising. Perhaps you know all this, but a quick refresher does no harm. The change Congress…
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