Marketing - Monday Morning Muse - Excelsior Marketing

Not What it Seems

Yesterday in my mail I received a “pre-approved guaranteed” $5,000 from a finance company. It wasn’t the misleading offer that got my attention. It was the address on my mail.

Nearly 20 years ago I was married to someone with the suffix Jr. on his name and we had a joint credit card account. When the account was dissolved, the credit card company erroneously appended my name with Jr. The finance offer in yesterday’s mail was addressed to Carol Aubitz Jr. That erroneous suffix on my name is still entrenched in data banks after nearly 20 years. I have moved three times and am no longer married to the “ex Jr.” yet the suffix on his name continues to follow me.

That is the problem with information in data banks. The person isn’t always what he or she seems to be. Marketers use the information over and over, multiplying the error so many times it is impossible to extract it and permanently correct the records. While most of the data collected about us is entered and stored accurately, there are many ways that the data Read more »

Published on: September 28th, 2009 | Posted in: Lead Generation, Marketing, Target Marketing

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 »

Published on: September 7th, 2009 | Posted in: Branding, Community Marketing, Customer Loyalty, Design & Copywriting, Marketing, Sales & Service, Strategic Planning, Web Marketing

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 »

Published on: August 24th, 2009 | Posted in: Design & Copywriting, Marketing, Strategic Planning

The Irrational Consumer

There is a seduction scene in the Hitchcock movie North by Northwest with Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant. Exactly who is seducing who depends on your point of view. It is during this scene when Saint whispers to Grant that as an advertising man, he gets people to buy things they don’t really need and do things they shouldn’t do.

Although Saint states it a little strongly, the fact is that advertising is about persuasion. The more persuasive the message the better the advertising works.

To be really persuasive requires an understanding of how we manage our emotions. The only place for logic in great advertising is to justify the emotional decision that’s already been made.

Nowhere is this explained so well and in so many different Read more »

Published on: August 10th, 2009 | Posted in: Lead Generation, Market Research, Marketing, Sales & Service

The Disappearing Act

It’s a sure thing that belts are being tightened at all income levels. Consumer and business spending is being carefully calculated, pondered and restrained. Only the government seems to be on a spending spree.

Perhaps the product segment where this is the most significant is in upscale brands and luxury products. Until the recent plunge, average American households were acquiring luxury brands. In fact, the “average” American home was a haven of luxury compared to the average standard of living one generation ago.

No longer content with 2-car garages, our homes needed space for 3 or 4 cars. Newly built McMansions had entrance halls larger than the living rooms of a generation past. Each member of the family required his or her own personal bathroom. It was this feeling that we were all entitled to the luxury lifestyle that Read more »

Published on: August 3rd, 2009 | Posted in: Community Marketing, Lead Generation, Marketing, Strategic Planning

Doing the Unexpected

Open a copy of Entrepreneur magazine and you’ll see ads for business opportunities. Flip through the pages of Vogue and you’ll find ads for designers, perfumes, and cosmetics. Most people would agree that matching the message to the media and the reader is common practice and good advertising.

After all, what better place is there to sell golf clubs than in a media source that is read, watched or visited by people who play golf?

That is giving people what they expect. Dig deeper into the research of behavior and psychology, however, and you’ll start to uncover this fascinating truth. If you Read more »

Published on: July 27th, 2009 | Posted in: Community Marketing, Customer Loyalty, Lead Generation, Marketing, Web Marketing

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 »

Published on: July 20th, 2009 | Posted in: Branding, Design & Copywriting, Marketing

Mastering the New Media

Nikola Tesla, Philo Taylor Farnsworth and Tim Berners-Lee are three names not typically associated with advertising. Each, however, is credited with the invention of a new form of communication and technology, each of which eventually became an opportunity for merchants to hawk their wares to an increasingly bigger and broader marketplace, changing the face of advertising.

Advertising is the opportunity that knocked with the invention of radio (Tesla), television (Farnsworth) and the World Wide Web (Berners-Lee).

As with all new technologies, it took many years for the mastery of each to be developed as a source of advertising. We can Read more »

Published on: July 13th, 2009 | Posted in: Branding, Marketing, Media Integration, Strategic Planning, Web Marketing

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 »

Published on: July 6th, 2009 | Posted in: Design & Copywriting, Lead Generation, Marketing

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 »

Published on: June 29th, 2009 | Posted in: Design & Copywriting, Lead Generation, Marketing

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