“This factor, ‘telling behaviors,’ adds valuable texture to the strategic Target Customer definition. It thereby provides us with a deeper understanding of our prospective customers. It consists of, and results from, direct observation of what else they do consistent with treating the condition, their life-stage, or occasion relative to the category.” –Competitive Positioning, Czerniawski […]
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No, this isn’t going to be about the purpose of the overview when coaching, but the purpose of the meeting in which you will be called on to provide it. I’m focussing this musing on the latter subject because an overview needs to be consistent with the purpose of the get-together, coupled with your appraisal […]
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The results from the poll to inform the selection of the book cover design are in and have been tabulated (without the help of a top accounting firm). It has been an interesting experiment. I learned as much about your preferences as much as I did about how you assessed the designs. Thank you all […]
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Many marketers are not entirely clear on intended target-customer behavior objectives. In practice, many marketers don’t even consider “behavior” objectives when undergoing marketing planning. It’s truly a big miss when they don’t because, plainly stated, “you don’t make a sale without generating a customer behavior.” Said another way, “stimulating the customer behavior rings the cash […]
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The role of marketing is to “create brand loyalty.” We’ve made this our mantra. We hope you will make it yours too! There’s a lot contained within these three words. Create means bring a customer into existence. It’s about generating sales, incremental sales. The brand goes beyond the physical product to encompass a constellation of […]
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Some say you can judge a book by its cover while others say you cannot. I believe they are both correct. How’s that possible? It comes down to who is doing the judging and the criteria used for assessing the book cover. As you may remember from an earlier Marketing Matters musing, I created a […]
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Dear readers. This week we are publishing a special edition of DISPATCHES to honor those brave men and women, and their families, from all peacekeeping nations, who sacrifice their lives that we might enjoy freedom. The regularly scheduled DISPATCHES – Insights from the Marketing Front, will return next Monday, 3 June, along with Marketing Matters […]
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I’m currently engaged in design development for the cover to my upcoming new book AVOIDING CRITICAL MARKETING ERRORS – How to go from dumb to Smart Marketing. I’m taking two routes to creating the book cover. One is to use one designer, who created the cover for COMPETITIVE POSITIONING, to focus on the assignment. The […]
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I’m working from my local Barnes & Noble, sipping a Starbuck’s decaf tall Pike’s Peak coffee. (I’ve already consumed a pot of the high-octane stuff and any more would have me bouncing off the walls.) I had to leave my home office as my realtor is holding a second “realtor open house.” I could say […]
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Within PepsiCo for many years there were two—and only two—overarching practices demanded, without exception, of its marketers: exhibiting Thought Leadership and Personal Leadership. Without both of these constantly at work, everyone knew that neither the exceedingly high business growth rates nor the (commonly expected) speed of one’s career advancement would happen. Brand Managers were well aware of the […]
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