Casual Fridays

Are you spending all of your time trying to convert people to your product, service, church, organization, or political party?
Get ready for the long, hard road ahead.
I’m not saying that it won’t work, I’m not even saying it won’t be worth it. It is just a very difficult, yet strangely widely accepted, road to [...]

The Gap by any other name…
Could this be the same retailer that dominated the ’90s with its basic, casual attire? Well, yeah. It was just a little too easy for competitors like Target and Costco to replicate (and discount) button-down shirts and blue jeans. The Gap’s first response was to try to jazz up its [...]

The Book of Cool

Ingenious.
The Book of Cool is actually a set of DVDs and a book which document how some of the world’s “coolest people” perform their “coolest tricks.”
This is like the Cliff Notes of cool.
The concept is wicked smart in my opinion. It implies two things:
1. THESE tricks can make you cool.
Are these [...]

With a couple of presentations and significant client work lately… I’m a bit tapped out. The creative juices aren’t flowing as readily and I’m looking forward to the Christmas break as an opportunity to recharge.
But this is a time of giving, right? So, in that spirit here are a few links to some [...]

So, as it seems most ad agencies feel the answer to the dilemma of floundering response rates is entertainment… why haven’t we seen response rates increase as advertising has become more and more entertaining? Maybe it is because entertainment doesn’t imply a noticable investment.
I used to have a whole life insurance policy. [...]

‘Tis the season for giving, correct? Well here’s a couple of posts on whether to “give it away.”
First is Garr Reynolds’ take over at Presentation Zen. He gives his philosophy on giving away presentations and/or services:
Give it away give it away give it away now…
“Eat like a bird and poop like an elephant”
My [...]

Belief is a powerful thing. It is essentially the driving force behind all of our actions.
In order to understand how to market and brand your company (or product/service), you should have some understanding of what people believe. Am I saying you must become a theologian of all religions? No. What I [...]

Practicing our telepathy, John Moore (of Brand Autopsy) and I struck a similar chord on our most recent posts. Citing an Adweek article, John takes issue with RadioShack’s VP of Marketing and Brand Communication, Kieran Hannon.
“We want to entertain [consumers] and make RadioShack relevant and exciting again for people [...]

I attended a marketing association meeting yesterday. I don’t usually attend this group’s meetings because they tend to focus on only one of the 4 Ps of marketing - Promotion (go figure). This time looked different though. The summary of the presentation was as follows:
Let’s face it. Our marketing world is [...]

Lately, there’s been something churning inside of me. A feeling that there’s something bigger going on.
Have you ever felt that? It’s a sensation that there’s more to what you’re doing than just marketing products. More than just writing blog posts. Like a bee retrieving pollin from flowers in order to make [...]