Marketing
Another Untimely Greyhound Ad
Given the last few rough months that Greyhound’s been having in the news, I wasn’t too surprised today when I heard a radio ad for them today driving home from the office. What did surprise me was that they carried on as if nothing had happened. After extolling the virtues of riding Greyhound, the spot [...]
Gorilla Marketing with Webkins
If you’re a sizeable zoo struggling with low enrollment for summer programs. Here’s an idea:
Partner with Woodbridge Ontario’s Gantz toys, makers of Webkinz for a special edition Webkin that is given only to kids that enroll in the zoo’s summer camp program. The special edition ZooCamp Gorilla (or other endangered species) unlocks special games based [...]
Green Marketing: Of Sins and Scoring
This post has been sitting as a draft for a while now, so I figure its not getting any better sitting and gathering dust.
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to attend a CMA Ottawa presentation on The Six Sins of Greenwashing with TerraChoice’s President and CEO, Scott McDougall. Scott discussed the research his [...]
Bald is the New Black
I was at Chapters a little while ago, and while browsing through one of the isles, when something struck me. There were two books, both bestsellers, both featuring bald heads on the cover. A coincidence maybe? At first I thought so but then I began to wonder if there was more it, if i was [...]
Marketing: So Easy A Monkey Could Do It
Almost everybody thinks that marketing is easy, that just about anybody could be a marketeer if given the chance. People figure that because they’ve spent so much time watching TV and scrutinizing ads in the subway that this gives them a qualified opinion on the subject. Unfortunately, having on opinion on marketing isn’t the same [...]
The First Rule of Marketing is…
Never talk about your product.
Not ever, not even once.
Talk around it, talk over it, talk under it but never about it.
Why not talk about your product? Simple. You’re too close to it. No one will believe you. So talk about what other people are saying, experiencing and sharing about your product instead.
I’m not talking [...]
Top Ten Marketing Lies & What They Really Mean
Have you ever read a disclaimer or a condition that comes with a a marketing offer and wondered what the $*%# does this mean? Well so have I, and after figuring these things out (the hard way), I’ve decided to spare you, my dear readers the same agony by putting together a little translation [...]
Why Are Companies Afraid to Hug Customers?
When was the last time you told your mobile service provider that you love them or the maker of your cell phone?
There is nothing a company wants more than to cultivate a love affair with customers. Now what’s wrong with that sentence? Well nothing really, besides the fact that its usually a LIE, [...]
What Do Trend Spotting & Where’s Waldo Have in Common?
A few weeks ago I read an article about a rather iconic maker of parkas that I’d never heard of before. The company is called Canada Goose. They’ve made a name for themselves outfitting polar explorers and now produce very durable, warm and fashionable parkas. Naturally, I thought “if these parkas are so great how [...]
Ipod Touch: $399, Firmware Upgrade: $20, Getting Suckered by Apple: Priceless
So yesterday was Macworld and Macophiles from all corners of the known universe descended upon San Francisco with cult like devotion to hear High Priest Steve Jobs preach the Gospel of Mac. I listened fairly intently to the keynote and one thing struck me as worth writing about. No it’s not the Mac Book Air [...]
