In this Holiday week, let’s give pause to thank Google for getting a lot of things right. When Google was first founded, their motto was “Don’t Be Evil.” While they’ve dropped that, it does highlight that generally speaking, Google is trying to do right by their two major categories of customer. Millions of businesses depend… Read More »
(with thanks to Ella Fitzgerald) Why are some commercials awful, and others make you want to reach for your wallet? If you are in the business of selling things, you’ve got to have someone to talk to, someone who might buy your product or service. Now sometimes that is just about getting your product in… Read More »
The power of a title can light the internet on fire. News came out recently of Facebook’s decision to work on a dislike button, a feature Facebook users have been requesting for a while now, and the internet went bonkers. Some rejoiced and some were staunchly against the decision. Some were excited that they could… Read More »
Steve Jobs has stepped down from running the show at Apple. He didn’t explain why, but the assumption is his health is deteriorating and there is no expectation it is going to get better. In short, that he is dying. The articles about this read like obituaries which is surely a bit premature. It is… Read More »
My current reading is “Twenty Ads That Shook The World,” the first chapter of which is about P.T.Barnum. Coincidentally, I went to the circus last night. Barnum never said “There’s a sucker born every minute” but he DID invent the slogan “The Greatest Show on Earth”. More than 150 years later, Ringling Bros. and Barnum… Read More »
When you see grocery store coupons, when your receive a direct mail promotion, when anyway talks about measuring results in marketing, the promotion of benefits over features, the use of preemptive positioning – homage is being paid to Claude C. Hopkins. He either invented or developed to a science each of these. Born in 1866,… Read More »
Marketing has a history. I mean, it wasn’t suddenly invented in 1997. Or 1957. Over the last 150 years, there have been great marketers. Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy, Al Ries, many others. Some of them are even still alive. My point is that great marketing is not just a matter of a great idea. There… Read More »
