res-o-lu-tion (noun) – decision that reflects a determination to accomplish something important to you Happy New Year! We’re back with an article we’ve rereleased and revised over the last few years to kick off the New Year! In the right frame-of-mind! We hope you enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to a terrific 2020 and […]
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“Why does your organization exist? Why do you get up in the morning? And why should anybody care?” SIMON SINEK, TED Talk, 2010 Coming up with a winning brand marketing strategy has never been a paint-by-numbers affair. Like Marketing itself, any kind of competitive marketing strategy depends upon a blend of art and science, creativity and informed […]
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Dear Friends, We’re taking time off from writing and publishing both DISPATCHES and Marketing Matters this week to celebrate our Thanksgiving holiday in the US with family and friends. It’s the one day established to express gratitude for our many blessings. However, we did not want this opportunity to pass without wishing you a Happy […]
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We need feedback to grow. According to John Hattie, Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, “The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback.” I concur, and I’m not alone. Many leaders from all walks of life—business, education, sports, the military, among others—believe […]
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“But couldn’t any other brand in the category also say that?” Familiar Marketer Critique From time to time in the past, we have proposed that perhaps it was time to replace the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) with a newer, more expansive (and competitive) leader-role: the Chief Differentiation Officer (CDO). And we identified a few areas, beyond the […]
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We’ve recently begun work for a client in a therapeutic category where the right treatment can mean the difference between prolonging life or dying prematurely. As we do with every assignment, we review the client’s and their competitors’ messaging. In this case, there are 14 brands (including therapies with multiple brands) and 26 ads—14 targeted […]
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Age of ATTENTION – Age of ATTRACTION – Age of ADVOCACY – Age of ABSORPTION About fifteen years ago or so, Advertising Age ran a one-page article entitled “Living in the Age of Attraction.” The gist of the article was a contrast between America’s longstanding “attention economy” (roughly running from the early 1950s through the early 1990s) and its new and distinctly […]
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When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all … Paul Simon Many organizations recognize the need for marketing training to grow skills and enhance performance. After all, given the plethora of product choices available to target customers, and sameness in their offerings, […]
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If you’re a regular reader of DISPATCHES, you know that from time to time we like to go digging into our brand-building files from yesteryear—with the intention of recalling to mind a timeless principle or two. Since we both spent (and took so much from) our earliest “yesteryears” while at Procter & Gamble, it’s no […]
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“The goal isn’t to do business with people who need what you make; the goal is to do business with people who believe as you believe.” Simon Sinek, TED Video, September 209 We continue to be convinced that the most common and costliest brand positioning blunders occur in targeting. Most common because way too many in […]
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