3 things to truly change your business

We hear it all the time - “You’ve got to be different to make it in today’s business world.”
In other words….
Be a Zagging, Purple Cow in a Blue Ocean (a gold star on your forehead if you understand that phrase).
“BUT HOW?”, lament many frustrated companies. It seems like you make a product and BAM! [...]

Sequins and soul

Sequins are important to us (and no, I’m not talking about the clothes that Richard Simmons wears). They are the flash, the shiny things that catch our eye – a cool direct mail piece, a sleek and metallic colored stereo system (mostly men fall for this one) or a great sale.
But there [...]

Lame advice: Build brand loyalty

Lame advice: Build loyalty to your brand.
Not exactly. I may commit heresy as a brand/marketing guy, but here goes nothing. People are not loyal to brands. Before you threaten to take away my first born and pour lemon juice in my eyes (ouch!), please hear me out.
A brand is nothing more than a [...]

Are you compensating?

No amount of success to your bottom line can compensate for failure of your trust.

Seinfeld on Marketing: Being Jay Leno’s chin

In this episode of Seinfeld on Marketing, Jerry and Elaine are discussing why no one is visiting the newly opened “Dream Café” across from Jerry’s apartment:

JERRY: He’s serving Mexican, Italian, Chinese. He’s all over the place. That’s why no one is going in.
ELAINE: Why do you keep watching?
JERRY: I don’t know. I’m obsessed [...]

2 ways to over deliver on your promises

Over delivering on your promises to your customers can be a very powerful thing. As I see it, there are two ways to over deliver:

Exceed current expectations. The near billion dollar online shoe retailer Zappos.com usually surprises customers by upgrading it’s free, four-day shipping to next-day shipping. Free, four day shipping ain’t bad. [...]

Seinfeld on Marketing: A call for quality

And we’re back (sorry for the delay in posts). In this episode of Seinfeld on Marketing, George bought a new (used) car:

JERRY: Hey! Did you get the Volvo?
GEORGE: No, I decided to go with an ‘89 LeBaron.
ELAINE: A LeBaron?
JERRY: I thought Consumer said Volvo was the car.
GEORGE: What Consumer? I’m the consumer.
JERRY: Alright. Seems [...]

Seinfeld on Marketing: 5 steps to becoming a buff

My friends, it’s Friday. I’ve got a great Seinfeld episode lined up for you today. Remember the episodes with Keith Hernandez (the “second spitter” theory done to the likes of JFK the movie)? Well, in today’s Seinfeld on Marketing, Jerry and George spot Keith for the first time:

GEORGE: Wow, Keith Hernandez! He’s such [...]

Where your treasure is…

If you want to find out about your co-worker’s life outside of work you can browse the many pictures on her desk, the collectables taking over her shelf or the artwork from her three-year old hung proudly in her cube.
But how can you find out about her work life while visiting her home? Does she [...]

What you’ll get (and not get) from customer feedback

Starbucks just announced the launch of it’s website MyStarbucksIdea.com, designed to generate “revolutionary and simple” ideas. Customers can submit ideas and then they can vote on the ones that they think are the best. Here’s the deal with asking your customers for innovative ideas:
What you’ll get: A lot of incremental ideas that make [...]