February 2008
39 posts
If your products stink, marketing won't help
Case in point: the Chevy Malibu. Here’s the story. For years, the most important car an automaker can have - the full-size, family sedan - that Chevrolet brought to the table was a half-hearted, ugly, unreliable car that paled in the face of it’s overseas competitors. It seemed that generation after generation of the blighted family hauler was a disappointment, getting failing grades...
Dunsity Award: Sports Authority
Please, please never let your small business do what Sports Authority recently did with an email offer, unless, of course, you’re looking to alienate and irritate your customers. Just look at this coupon the company sent to customers. The ad offers 20% off any single item, which sounds pretty good, until you see the 250 word legal disclaimer that says you can’t use the discount on...
5 things you can learn from Ralph Nader
Small business owners can learn some things by being more like Ralph Nader. How? Well, surprising news from the Presidential race came today with news that Nader is announcing his candidacy for President…again. It sure seems like an odd time for him to throw his hat into the ring, with the primaries well under way and most Americans feeling the race is down to four candidates (or three). ...
The Cheapest, Best Market Research You Can...
Market research can take many forms and price-tags. Some companies hire research firms to investigate the competition and marketplace, conduct surveys and hold focus groups, while other companies go for something cheaper simpler. But the end goal is the same: find out what people want and how you can be the best at providing it. So upon reading today that one of the globe’s largest...
What's with the floating logos?
Have you noticed this? It seems like lately more and more companies are using their logo as floating personalities in their TV advertising campaigns. There’s three I can think of right off: “I’m Thinking Arby’s”: Arby’s was one of the first to introduce floating logos in 2006 with their “I’m thinking Arby’s” campaign that featured a...
Three tools you can use to spy on competitors
Understanding your competition is one of the most important things you can do to develop your marketing program, and there’s nothing wrong with conducting some covert operations to gain some perspective. That’s why I compared three of the top used car websites, Auto Trader, Cars.com and Automotive.com using three tools and learned quite a bit about each site. Here they are. Tool...
Memo: New format, again. What do you think?
The evolution of this blog continues, but we’re really close to our final destination, so to speak. We’ve decided that a cleaner design with more white space and easier navigation is the way to go- hence this update. I’m sure there will be more tweaks to come but we feel this is certainly a step in the right direction. Any feedback on the new design is greatly appreciated!
Should your company name have "AAA" in it?
Why are there are so many companies with “AAA” in their company name (like this)? So they can be the first business that people find in the yellow pages of course. Phone books have had a huge impact on small businesses for several decades, not only in how they help bring in business, but in the entire approach small business owners have had with their companies. In fact, Most of the...
Should you axe your marketing spending in this...
Q&A with Beth Goldstein With the economy showing signs of a possible recession, many small business owners are starting to feel the pain and thinking about cutting back. Should your marketing budget be on the chopping block? I recently asked Beth Goldstein, small business marketing expert and consultant, and author of The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Toolkit, what small business owners...
Quote of the week: The next generation of...
“I’ll “friend” British Airways, which will say, “We see you’re going to Moscow next month. Why not fly through London and we’ll give you 10,000 extra miles?” I’m no longer in a bucket of frequent travelers, my privacy protected. I’m an individual with specific travel plans, which I intentionally make visible to preferred vendors.”...
Dunsity Award: Edelman Public Relations
This month’s award goes to one of the globe’s largest PR firms, Edelman, for their Global Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report, whose high handed talk flies in the face of what the firm actually does. I quote from their press release: “More companies are realizing that authenticity is the key to effective corporate responsibility communications,” said Peggy...
Awkward! The Marketing Motivational Speaker
“Are you holding yourself back from the success you deserve? Do you want guaranteed results—or better yet, guaranteed results fast? What if I told you you can do all this without spending a dime?” I’m sure you’ve heard this kind of talk before, and believe it or not there are motivational speakers like, Debbie Allen (a site to behold-pun intended), whose speciality...
Pure Genius.
If you can find a marketing person who can come up with things like this, your business will make money. Tul pens has developed a fantastic handwriting analysis tool that is interesting, entertaining, funny and has a subtle sales pitch. After completing an analysis of my own, I was told I hold back and am conservative, I have a strained relationship with my dad, and I’m poignant and...
Don't tell me you don't have a marketing budget
Why? Because customer service is the new marketing. At least, that was the topic of a conference in San Francisco yesterday that discussed the power of creating a good customer experience. Scott Rosenberg, who authors the Wordyard blog and attended the conference, offered some interesting insight. On Zappos’ great customer service, he said: “My anecdotal experience of great...
Entrepreneurs, Beware of Jack-Master Syndrome
With the economy showing signs of weakness (and investors acting like panic-stricken lemmings), now is a good time to address a prevalent problem among entrepreneurs and small business owners: Jack-Master Syndrome. This deadly sickness is one that, if left untreated, can lead to the demise of any small or medium sized business. You may be suffering from JMS if you have the any/all of the...
Case Study: How NOT to Handle Direct Mail
Not many small businesses dare to delve into direct mail marketing, sometimes for good reason. Take, for example, the mailer I received in my mailbox a few days ago from a carpet cleaning company. Be it known that I want to support small businesses and I applaud entrepreneurs who take on the risk of taking on marketing campaigns- albeit with a slipshod approach- but this mailer is painful to...