Dear readers of DISPATCHES and Marketing Matters, DISPATCHES and Marketing Matters are publications of Brand Development Network International. The purpose of each is to contribute to helping make marketing matter more through sharing our perspectives—honed from decades of brand marketing experience with Fortune Top 100 Companies throughout the world—on marketing excellence. Our writing is founded on […]
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We need to make our brand messaging meaningful if we expect to generate favorable results. What is a meaningful message? Well, first and foremost, it depends upon your chosen target customer. What’s meaningful to one person may not be meaningful to another. So, you must be strategically astute and select your target customer carefully. (Your target […]
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We want Key Copy Words (KCWs) to stick, like a Post-It-Note in our target customers’ heads. What better way to do it? Sing it! Have you ever experienced an “earworm?” You know, a tune that keeps popping up in your head. Try as you might; it just won’t go away! Well, jingles are like that, […]
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As I wrote in the last Marketing Matters article, “Key Copy Words” are essential to memorable and compelling advertising. They convey the strategic benefit in emotive customer language and complete the Campaign Idea. I shared how the cigarette industry used KCWs to differentiate one brand from another. It starts with the strategic benefit, what we […]
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We recently had our neighbors over to our home for dinner. One of them brought up the subject of “taglines.” I explained that there’s a difference between taglines and key copy words (KCWs). Do you know the difference? “Key copy words” are essential to the advertising. They convey the strategic benefit in clear and compelling […]
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This video is a continuation of my discussion with Bill Weintraub, former CMO of Kellogg’s, Tropicana, and Coors, regarding advertising. This is Episode 3. We talk about what categories, companies, and brands are creating effective advertising in delivering sales growth and some of the factors contributing to their successes.
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Today is Memorial Day. It’s a very special day. Memorial Day does not just mark a holiday weekend or the unofficial start of summer. It is a time when we remember and honor military personnel who sacrificed with their lives that we might enjoy life, freedom, and a world of lasting peace—people like my Grand […]
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(This Marketing Matters article is an excerpt from Chapter 11, Lack of Ideas is the Mark or a Dull brand, of my most recent book, AVOIDING CRITICAL MARKETING ERRORS: How to Go from Dumb to Smart Marketing.) A BIG idea is one that generates a significant impact in the marketplace. If your brand does not […]
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Growth rates slow for various reasons, particularly if we fail to renew a category’s or brand’s lifecycle. Principle reasons include a brand not delivering on its promises, or the brand’s promise isn’t for everyone (nothing is for everyone!), or there’s an attitudinal barrier that we must overcome to reignite growth, among many others. I can […]
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More companies are appointing Chief Commercialization Officers or creating specific commercialization roles for new product launches. The word “commercialization” is an interesting one. According to Siri, commercialize means to “manage or exploit (an organization, activity, etc.) in a way designed to make a profit.” In many organizations, the role or purpose of commercialization is to […]
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