In recent posts I’ve talked a little about the marketing challenges small businesses face. There are a lot of businesses out there that could seriously use some marketing expertise. The guerrilla approach can work for ultra-small businesses, but there’s a transitional period somewhere between this stage and IPO that tends to take bootstrapping and compromise [...] Finish Reading »
The dynamic between the client’s Marketing Director and their ad agency can be strange. In theory, the Marketing Director is the supreme being responsible for all things marketing related on the client’s side of the equation. This includes brand management, demographics, developing products that integrate with the brand and serve the needs of the target [...] Finish Reading »
To the detriment of the budgets I get to play with, I’m drawn to working with small businesses. My entrepreneurial juices are much stronger when I have the opportunity to directly improve the financial lives of working owners and employees. This is especially true when clients are passionate about their business. Passion tends to be [...] Finish Reading »
I don’t know what it is about branding these days. Maybe I’m more attuned to it because I started an advertising agency in the last year. Maybe it’s the advent of “personal branding.” Maybe it’s just en vogue. I dunno. What I do know is that I read a lot about branding. I read books [...] Finish Reading »
When I started using “The Competition Is Boring™” as a test tagline for Jet Atomic, I wondered whether “The Competition” would be interpreted as my competition or my clients’ competition. Fortunately, almost every business organization is boring so the answer ended up being irrelevant. Your competition is boring. It’s interesting to me that just saying [...] Finish Reading »
If you were to visit a smattering of websites of design companies, you would find an overwhelming percentage claiming to do “branding”. This spans a range of designers including freelance graphic designers, web designers, and design companies. While branding has been defined by a multitude of definitions, one thing is certain; Design Is Not Branding™. [...] Finish Reading »
Which other industry can count salesmanship, film, design, strategy, audio, insight, digital, painting, design, writing, and video as core competencies combined with the primary objective of making other businesses successful? When I first started my education at the Art Institute of Seattle, my degree program was simply referred to as Multimedia. When people asked me [...] Finish Reading »
Here’s the scenario: Inc. Magazine – September 2009 issue. Page 86. From their “Leadership” category. Title: “Lighting a fire under them” Sub-title/Headline: “Why urgency – not panic – is the key to getting ahead in a recession” If you’re looking for an in-depth, point-by-point skewering of the article, warm up your Google finger. I didn’t [...] Finish Reading »
It’s very easy to attempt to make a powerful statement more accurate while actually rendering it virtually meaningless. You can feel very strongly about something and still kill the meaning by committing either of two insidious sins. They’re easy traps to fall into because they are achieved simply by continuing to add truthful information. Despite [...] Finish Reading »
Ever watch the USA Network? I don’t know what kind of reach it has, but it’s was a less than premium channel on cable in the United States a few years ago. I’m not going to look up if/how much the ratings numbers have changed over the last few years for this blog post. In [...] Finish Reading »