CREATING MARKETING SUCCESS

Establishing relevant, meaningful differentiation that drives “preferentiation” is essential to creating marketing success in the absolute and relative to your competition. But what does this marketing principle mean? Relevant Differentiation without relevance is meaningless. Worse, it’s odd. It’s weird. Prospective customers will ignore it at best and turn them off at worst.  Relevance speaks to satisfying […]

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TRIBUTE TO THOSE WHO GAVE (AND GIVE) THEIR LIVES

Today, 30 May 2022, is Memorial Day. Memorial Day is not just a long holiday weekend for our pleasure. It is a time when we remember and honor military personnel who sacrificed with their lives so that we might enjoy life, freedom, and an elusive world of lasting peace—people like my Grand Uncle, Joseph Giardina. […]

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RESIST DRIFT

I cautioned my client about the need to “resist drift.”  We completed the development of alternate Brand Ideas. The next step is to investigate the appeal of each in the absolute and relative to each other. This step often requires translating the Brand Idea into a familiar framework for the research organization and client company. […]

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AVOID PLAYING THE BLAME GAME

The blame game is perhaps one of the most popular and widely played games in the world. It is front and center daily in politics. Is it not?  Consider, for example, the rampant inflation that our nation and others are experiencing. What is the cause? Our “leaders” are blaming it on their predecessors; they claim […]

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SHOWING UP FOR (MARKETING) SUCCESS

I’m not bragging. I’m just proud of myself for doing what I didn’t believe I could do. My doctor wants me to add five pounds of muscle for better metabolic health—specifically to enhance my insulin sensitivity. “No way,” I told him. How does a 74-year-old who has exercised his entire life going to add muscle? […]

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MARKETER+ INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD CZERNIAWSKI

The latest issue of MARKETER+, a Polish publication, is now available. In it, you will find an interview Lukasz Murawski, host of the podcast “Let’s Talk Brands,” conducted with me. However, you probably won’t be able to read it unless you read Polish. No, I don’t speak or read Polish. Well, a few words, but […]

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MY EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH A “TOP 10 CEO OF ALL TIME”

Last week I wrote a DISPATCHES article, “The Values and Practices of One of the Top Ten CEOs of All Time.” I profiled James E. Burke, the late Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, an authentic leader.  This Marketing Matters article shares my direct experience with Jim Burke when I was a young Product […]

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WHY OPTIONS ARE BETTER THAN …

In the world of investments, an option is a contract to buy or sell a stock at a specified strike price on or before a specified expiration date. Now that we have that out of the way, I’m not referring to these financial instruments.  Instead, I’m referring to the necessity of creating choices in developing […]

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PARALLELS BETWEEN A LASTING MARRIAGE AND RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR ORGANIZATION

February 21 was President’s Day. It also marked my wife’s and my 52nd wedding anniversary. She was 10-days twenty when we married, and I was just shy of my 23rd-birthday. We were kids. The Navy granted me only 2-days leave on a long President’s Day weekend to get married. My senior officers informed me that if […]

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THE ONE QUESTION YOU SHOULD BE ASKING YOURSELF, THAT NO ONE ELSE WILL, ABOUT SUPER BOWL XLI ADVERTISING

The kick-off for Super Bowl XLI is several hours away. Yet tomorrow morning, when this issue of Marketing Matters is published, the question, “who’s the best team in football?” will be answered. There will be only one team that reigns supreme from the contest. However, the question, “what do you think is the best Super […]

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