Archive for the ‘Design & Copywriting’ Category
A Discount Recovery
In the last two weeks of August, a muse article called “The Discount Dilemma” was the third most popular topic read by thousands of people who visited the Muse page on our Web site.
Discounting continues to be a topic of interest, especially as we are about to enter the busy 4th quarter retail season. What will drive holiday shopping? How much discounting can you expect as a consumer and will you do as a marketer?
Since I am on vacation this week, I thought it would be beneficial to take another look at “The Discount Dilemma.” So once again, as you look at price-cutting as an answer to slumping sales, or a way to gain a competitive edge over others in your market, consider the ways discounting can Read more »
Radical Change
Mention General Electric (GE) and the name that comes to mind most often is Jack Welch. Rarely, if ever, will you think of Lawrence Bossidy. Bossidy was a contemporary of Welch, but never garnered the same degree of fame. It was Bossidy, however, who guided the growth and success of GE’s financial division, GE Credit Corp. As the COO he doubled the assets to $16 billion in one five-year period.
Bossidy operated on the premise of, “Show me a great company and I’ll show you one that has radically changed itself and is looking forward to the opportunity of doing so again.” He embraced adaptability.
Adaptability should be at the core of your marketing strategy for 2010.
To be a leading brand in your market or product category will require Read more »
Nothing to Fear
Thomas Edison holds more than 3,000 patents. Many are for items we now take for granted such as electric lights. Edison was a man who achieved immense success. He was quick to acknowledge that success comes as the result of persistence. Edison himself claimed, “I have never failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.”
Discovering what doesn’t work is part of the process that leads to achievement. Fear of failure, however, often prevents people from taking the necessary risks and time to do the things that will ultimately lead to their fortune.
This is true in all disciplines, from scientific invention to marketing. In marketing, I have learned much from the successful campaigns I have worked on or created. I have learned even more from Read more »
The Red Dress
In 2006 Delta Airlines unveiled some new looks in flight attendant uniforms. Among them was a red dress. The dress was designed to provide attendants with a classier, and somewhat sexier, look. But there is a problem. It seems that the dress is only made up to a size 18 and now the union representing the flight attendants wants it made to a size 28.
The fact is, a red dress in a size 28 is a different image than a red dress in a size 18 or smaller. And every company should be able to put forth the type of image it feels best represents their brand. Image is one of the key elements in marketing and branding.
In the case of Delta, the significance of the color red for the dress is important. Red exudes power and sex appeal. Color is the Read more »
Put Your Marketing to the Test
In 1961 Dick Benson founded the first advertising agency specializing in direct mail. Eight years later he turned it into a consulting organization and worked with companies across the U.S.
Copywriter Chris Stagg said of Dick Benson, “They risked his bark and his bite because the rewards were so great. They listened, they learned and they followed all the way to the top.”
My path crossed with Dick Benson in the 1970s when the company I worked for hired him as a consultant. Of the many lessons I learned from him, the most important is the value of testing. He preached it relentlessly, and he practiced what he preached.
Testing can increase your advertising effectiveness 400%. Testing can open a new market that delivers Read more »
Sins of Omission
It happens all the time in the world of print advertising. Ads are created to be flashy, bold, edgy, and innovative. In the broadcast world, commercials are created to be entertaining, funny, provocative or shocking.
What gets tossed aside in this maelstrom of innovation is the heart of what advertising should be – information. The radicals, rebels and revolutionaries of the creative world see their challenge as one of art and not communication. Yes, there are times where advertising is art and art is advertising. Andy Warhol did more to build the Campbell’s Soup brand than the Campbell Twins ad campaign.
Realistically, however, most businesses prefer that their advertising delivers customers and ROI rather than be perceived as breakthrough creative or artistic excellence. Rarely are advertising awards given for results. In these lean times a front page article in Ad Age Magazine, in discussing the recent international advertising awards show held each year in Cannes, proclaimed “it is no longer about being flashy but is about solving problems, building brands and building customer relationships.”
The truth is, it has never been about being flashy. Great advertising is always, and has always been, about Read more »
Power Words
The cover of the April 6 New Yorker is a funny look at what might be called advertising hucksterism at its most obvious. It’s the April Fool cover done by popular artist Roz Chast.
Chast’s combination of ad cartoons promise “Lottery Winning Secrets! This Could be You!”, “Finally: A Candy Bar that Burns 500 Calories as You Eat It!”, ‘”Vitamins That Make You Smarter!” and other enticements from investing to amazing sex to eternal youth.
Of course satisfaction is guaranteed or double your money back. That promise always boosts response. The words you use in Read more »
Low-Cost Ways to Boost Cash Flow
Feeling the pinch? Looking for ways to keep your brand alive and healthy during a sick economy?
To fight the blight of a tight market, it’s time to pull out guerrilla marketing strategies. With guerrilla marketing, instead of the big-budget, splashy ad campaigns you might use when cash is flowing, use stealth marketing to motivate consumers without looking like advertising as usual.
Quite simply, guerrilla techniques are the unconventional, innovative and imaginative approach for reaching customers in ways and places that are Read more »
Matching Your Brand with the Right Type
Access to a bounty of type fonts has created a new breed of freewheeling, devil-may-care, users of type. They are unschooled in the basics of type functionality and purpose, resulting in acts of offensive visual miscommunication.
Too many people are having far too much fun with type. They are not being discriminating. Any type will do. It seems that the more offbeat and funky the type, the better! The result is a marketplace of signs, billboards, ads, and brochures that are almost unreadable.
The importance of type in communication is being sacrificed in the attempt to be different or unusual. From point size to case usage; stretching letters to condensing words; to margin justifications that leave large unexplained gaps between letters and words.
Why is this important? Think about the amount of money you Read more »
Creating A Compelling Reason
It was a small book with a big promise. If you bought the book you would have all the information needed to buy and sell stocks, on your own, and make your personal fortune.
Who wouldn’t want a personal fortune? Why wouldn’t everyone buy this book? The cost of the book was minimal. Little did the author know that the path to success in selling his book had less to do with the actual content delivered, than with the advertising message used to make the sale.
The outcome is one of Read more »
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