There’s an old line in the classic car business worth thinking about: “Don’t buy the car, buy the seller.” Its meaning should be obvious. And it is only becoming more important now thanks to emerging technologies and the Covid crisis. People are buying collector cars sight unseen over the Internet. Of course, back in the ...
Years ago a good friend of mine was invited to speak at one of those big motivational speaker events. You know the kind – the ones that advertise celebrity speakers such as George W. Bush, Mr. T, and some famous Southern college football coach. They set the admission price really low to fill the venue ...
I like it when I see a collection of political candidate signs clustered together on someone’s yard. Especially when the assortment includes a sign for their preferred presidential candidate. That’s because as much as I try to stay up-to-date with local and regional politics, I often don’t know about a specific commissioner, judge, or state ...
Gloria and I were watching some music awards show where Bruno Mars was performing Amy Winehouse’s song Valerie. During the performance, the horn players were doing a little dance when all of a sudden they jumped up and did a coordinated dance move. Of course they did it at precisely the same time. If you ...
Do you think you’re smarter or more talented than the people around you? More to the point, do you think you’re smarter or more talented than you really are? If so, you’re not alone. The Dunning-Kruger Effect describes a specific cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their knowledge or ability. Simply put, it explains ...
There are at least 301 words with 11 or fewer letters in the English language that contain the word SHIP. How do I know? I went to www.WordFind.com, typed in S H I P, and added up the results. Sure, you can probably come up with another one or two – I’m not suggesting this ...
I think that Billy Joel is one of the greatest songwriters in modern American pop music. Joel stands along with Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Carole King, Jackson Brown, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Smokey Robinson, and Bruce Springsteen. Of course your list may vary. My favorite Billy Joel song? Summer Highland Falls, from his Turnstiles album ...
You know the old joke: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, man, practice. Here’s today’s version: How do you write a book? Write, man, write. At least once a week someone asks my advice about writing a book. The conversation usually goes something like this: Potential author: “Hey Bruce… you’ve published a bunch ...
Recently all of these storied brands have come under protest and scrutiny for being offensive: Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s, Mrs. Butterworth’s, Eskimo Pie, Barbie, GI Joe, the Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves. How about all of those Disney movies you grew up with? Jungle Book, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Or ...
Back in 1996 I was browsing the shelves of a bookstore (remember them?) when I happened across Caleb Carr’s novel The Alienist. I was already a big fan of historical fiction, especially concerning the Victorian age, and the book became an instant favor of mine. My memory of it was so strong that when I ...
What is an interrobang? Go ahead, I’ll give you a minute to rummage around in the dusty, musty recesses of your brain. Need a clue? Here’s what it’s not… An interrobang is not a new military interrogation technique. It’s not the definition of the whole process of an explosion. And it’s most definitely not a ...
We’ve all heard the old saying, “If you build a better mousetrap the world will build a path to your door.” Trouble is, that’s not true. If you build a better mousetrap, the world WON’T beat a path to your door. You will just wind up with a bunch of dead mice. The history of ...
Up on stage as the opening keynote speaker, I explained to my audience why their efforts branding their businesses by promoting the functions of what they sell or what they do was ineffectual. Instead, I suggested they should spend their time establishing an emotional connection with their customers. I showed them why this would both ...
How often have you left a negotiation or a personal meeting and thought you’d like to be a fly on the wall and hear what’s going on when you’re not there? Of course, it’s always been a reality for famous people. For example, when they act in a show or play a concert or write ...
If you’ve consumed any popular culture at all, you’ve probably seen some of the brouhaha Gillette’s new ad calling out Toxic Masculinity. The commercial appealed to men to ‘be better,’ over scenes of boys wrestling at a BBQ, men lewdly whistling and jeering at women, bullies pursuing a boy down the street, and males generally ...
Somewhere around Y2K, I was introduced to Susan Ford Collins. When we first met, Susan gave me a copy of her latest book, The Joy of Success. Because I’m a little obsessed with reading, I dove right in and polished off the book in a weekend. It was well written and full of good information, ...
Marketing Minute-MPEG-4 from Mo Moghari on Vimeo.
It’ll be on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Listen. Did you hear it? The opening shot of the revolution was just fired. And most of us pretended the sound was business as usual. A few years ago, way way back in 2008, Dave Carroll had his guitar broken by United Airlines. When the air carrier wouldn’t ...
Every bit of up-to-date business advice I read talks about how important it is to properly manage your contact list. Whether the author calls a prospect list “a community,” “a tribe,” “a database,” “a sales roster” or a “contact list,” the suggestions are usually the same: Use technology and careful editing to keep the list ...
Today’s battle between algorithms and elbow grease might just be the largest social experiment and reorganization of responsibility and renumeration humankind has yet experienced. But much like the mouse running around in a researcher’s maze, we don’t know which turn will get us to the cheese nor which one will lead us to a dead end.
Based on the simplicity and ubiquity of the First Amendment, Americans think freedom of speech is a basic right that we all enjoy. Unfortunately, the Florida legislature clearly thought otherwise when they voted against even discussing solutions to school shootings.
Because I travel so much, I spend a lot of time out of the office. It’s been a great opportunity to use – and further refine – all the travel hacks that make my journeys so much easier. If you spend a little time and effort on traveling with only what you need, you’ll find your journeys are less stressful and a lot more fun. Here's how...
My father used to say, “When opportunity knocks you can’t say ‘come back later.” But what do you do when opportunity doesn’t knock but instead blares its autobahn-tuned air horns asking to come in and purchase when your store is closed?
The Swan Oyster Depot does all this because after 115 years in business they know who they are and why their customers keep coming back. Whether they know it or not, the guys behind the counter have carefully aligned their products and services and their authentic truth, with their customers’ aspirational desires. They clearly and consistently talk their talk and walk their walk and reinforce their brand value.
Showing your customers not just how you can help them achieve what they want but how they can be who they want to be puts you in a singular position way above your competition.
Your consumers’ reasons for buying what you sell, as well as their ability to pay for those purchases, is changing faster than ever before. And whether your customers are soon-to-be-unemployed cab and truck drivers or household purchasers who have just discovered Amazon Prime, it’s critical for your messaging and sales strategies to change as well.
Do critical social media posts help or hurt your brand? The whole concept of online virality is based on the energy and actions of people distributing information to people who view it and pass it on and so on and so forth.
In this article I’m telling you a little bit about how I’m going to try to evolve in 2018. Or, as my friend wrote back when I reached out: “If you evolve anymore, you’ll be flapping your arms and flying.”
The way to futureproof your brand is to build it around the true emotional benefit you provide for your customers. By letting them know that their lives are better because they do business with you, you’ll be letting your customers know that they should continue to work with you because of — or in spite of — where technology takes us.
Are you operating from fear or are you looking towards accomplishing the things that will make you feel good about yourself and your life? Or are you a dancing bear, yo-yoing back and forth pain and pleasure or are you moving positively into the future? And even more importantly, are you writing resolutions that allow you to further express your authentic truth or are you using resolutions to force yourself into unnatural behaviors?
Each year we burden ourselves with lots of unrealistic promises that we simply know we’re not going to keep. Truth is, I think the less realistic we make the resolutions, the more easily we can ignore them. Perhaps we even subconsciously set ourselves up to fail. Here are some proven suggestions that can help you make the most of the new year.
Soon more workaday businessmen will start reaping the ills of their bad behavior. When that becomes commonplace, businesses in your own hometown — hell, even the company you work for — might have to start dealing with the long overdue fallout of sexual harassment. Remember that people make decisions based on their emotions and justify those decisions with facts. Brands that forget this simple truism do so at their own peril.
Savvy marketers are always looking for ways to interrupt your view, make you question your traditional activity or try something different. And whether you’re trying to sell crackers, direct clients to your investment company, or fill your cruise ships, disruption is still an effective way to reach your potential customers. Because unless you’re the market leader, lulling them to continue doing what they’ve always done is not the way to build your business. Getting their attention is.
Are you presenting your brand, your business, and yourself in simple terms that your customers can understand? Or are you wrapping yourself in acres of tiresome talk? Are you using big words when small ones will do? Are you using long rationalizations when simple examples offer more clarity? Are you writing an SAT essay when you should be tweeting a competitive advantage? If you are, you are squaring the circle.
Showing your customers not just how you can help them achieve what they want but how they can be who they want to be puts you in a singular position way above your competition. And making your customers feel good not about just what you can do for them but about themselves will secure your placement in their roster of critical contributors to their own success.
Like Dr. Doolittle’s Pushmepullyou, there’s no moving forward without cooperation. And in an effective relationships, there’s no giving without taking.
You need to not just understand your customer’s motivations but recognize their aspirations. Then, by creating your brand message to show them how they can express and accomplish their hopes and dreams with your help, your vendor/customer relationship can take a new and more profitable course.
To build desire, increase purchases, and expand your profits, position what you sell as an experience your audience will consume.
Why else would the president insult the pregnant widow of a fallen soldier? Why else would he insult the Puerto Rican victims of Hurricane Maria? Why else would he go to war with the NFL over freedom of speech? It’s much too easy (and naïve) to write it off to him being a clumsy boor. What if there’s something else going on?
After Hurricane Irma left an 82-year old retired fireman homeless, we created a GoFundMe site to help him rebuild his home. Building Bob’s site taught me about how to use the GoFundMe app but it also taught me a lot about how to use social media as a promotional tool. I discovered five simple tips that can make your social media efforts more successful.
Unlike the little town of Lake Woebegone “where all the children are above average,” most people do not get exceptional results because most people do not do exceptional things. Average is average for a reason. If you want to build your brand, build your business, or build your life, one of the first things to do is consider zigging while everyone zags.
The Red Cross’s brand awareness has gone a long way to help it continue to collect large sums of money from a concerned and generous public. But a powerful disconnect between their internal intention and abilities and their external image will eventually weaken even a century-old brand.
Simple, direct, and to the point. Jim Fried understands the concepts behind an All About Them marketing strategy. Defensive, insensitive, callous. Jack Michel clearly does not.
We’ve spent the last few weeks talking about my four-word rules for business success. My goal remains simple: I want to give you easy to implement tools, tactics, and techniques to make your business better. Each rule is only four words long because often that’s all it takes to make a huge difference when you ...
To make your brand All About Them, and to make your business a success, remember that my Four-Word Rule for Success #9 is Hidden in Plain Sight.
The best way to build you brand value and demonstrate why you matter to your customers and your potential customers is to Understand Why You Matter to them.
Monetizing new technology and creating opportunities is why my four-word rule for business success #7 is “Old Things. New Combinations.” All you need to do to take advantage of this is to look at all the exciting new whiz-bang technologies and figure out ways they can fix old problems.
Mastermind Groups can provide new ideas, help vet concepts, provide accountability, and expose you to the honest support that can help you and the people around you achieve success.
Make Business Simple – My Four-Word Rules For Success. #6 in a series. We͛ve spent the last few weeks talking about my four-word rules for business success. My goal remains simple: I want to give you easy to implement tools, tactics, and techniques to make your business – and your brand – better. Each rule ...
If you understand what you do, what your client wants, and where those two things intersect, you already know where to focus your time and attention. Concentrate on the things you can affect and improve instead of busying yourself worrying about things that are out of your control. That’s what matters.
I had a client who used to say, “Don’t fix problems you don’t have.” It goes double for your customers and your clients. Instead you’ll find real success when you uncover the real problem.
Make Business Simple – Four-Word Rules For Success Success If you’ve been reading along, you know we’ve spent the last few weeks talking about the four-word rules for business success. My goal remains simple: I want to give you easy to implement tools, tactics, and techniques to make your business better. Each rule is only ...
Make Business Simple – Four-Word Rules for Success Over the next few weeks we’re going to be talking about the four-word rules for business success. My goal is simple: I want to give you easy to implement tools, tactics, and techniques that will make your business better. Each rule is only four words long because ...
Make Business Simple – Four-Word Rules for Success Leonardo da Vinci wrote, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Confucius said, “Life is really simple, but we insist in making it complicated.” Chopin believed, “Simplicity is the final achievement.” If those brilliant minds got it right, then why do spend so much time, money, effort, and heartache ...
Writing A Great Tagline Last night I noticed that Lexus has a new tagline. Even though I don’t drive one of their cars, I am a big fan of the company and their advertising. That’s because Lexus and their marketing professionals clearly understood the All About Them mindset. Launched in the United States in 1989, ...
Jeff Bezos has a lot to teach us. It has now been three years since online retail visionary, Jeff Bezos, bought the Washington Post. On NPR this morning I heard about how the tech entrepreneur has changed the newspaper. There are lots of things Bezos has done, but the major change will come as no ...
You Can do Anything. For a couple years now I’ve been writing about how the world has changed while you and I were sleeping. I’ve written about how social media put the power of the media in the hands of each one of us. I’ve blogged about how the handheld video recorder in your smartphone ...
The Streisand Effect and Your Brand Value. Photographer Kenneth Adelman took an aerial photo of Barbra Streisand’s Malibu mansion. In return, the singer sued him for $50,000,000 citing violation of privacy. Before the suit, “Image 3850” (the photo of Streisand’s mansion) had been downloaded from the California Coastal Records Project collection of 12,000 images only ...
The Key To Building Your Brand. “I blew out my flip flop, Stepped on a pop top; Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home.” Those aren’t just some of the lyrics to Jimmy Buffett’s 1977 song Margaritaville. They contain the secret message to his stellar success in music and business. Maybe it’s no surprise that ...
Do you know where good ideas come from? Don’t feel bad, I don’t either. Surprising, perhaps, considering I’m responsible for coming up with great ideas for our clients every single day. I know how to present ideas; I know how to sell ideas. And like the blind pig finding the occasional truffle, I even ...
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? The answer used to be "practice, man, practice." But today virtuosity is not enough. Today you need a brand.
Daskal says, “If you want to get your leadership right, you have to get yourself right… You have the power within you not to be imprisoned by your circumstances, or jailed by your setbacks, or shackled by your mistakes, or beaten by your defeats. Every single one of us has the chance and the choice to choose to stand in our greatness or not. What will you do?”
Self-Referencing Criteria You know the old story: Four blind Indian Fakirs are wandering down a path through the jungle when they bump into something blocking their way. The first Fakir grabs hold of what he thinks is a tree trunk. “We have wandered off the path into the forest,” he said. “We are being blocked ...
United Airlines has suffered serious PR hits over the last few days. But they are just the people to fix their problem, as they proved almost 30 years ago.
Success in the blogosphere requires knowing how to write, edit and promote your blog. But it also requires knowing how NOT to write a blog post.
1. What do celebrities owe the people who help make their successes possible? 2. Based on my belief that business and personal brands should be All About Them, how do the more successful balance their desire to relate to their customers with their need for privacy? 3. Is there a happy medium where everyone can feel both respected and respectful?
Monetize talent. Vincent Van Gogh died broken and penniless. He could not monetize talent. Takashi Murakami figured out how to monetize talent. He makes big money selling cartoonish figures and licensing his outrageous designs for $5,000 limited edition Louis Vuitton handbags. Murakami is so influential that in the last decade he was the only visual ...
Redefine Your Dreams Sometime in the early 2000’s, Dr. William Werther was chatting with my father. Bill was telling my dad that his greatest goal in life was to be a philanthropist. And even though Dr. Werther knew that he had helped scores of students throughout his career, his biggest disappointment was that he hadn’t ...
How you do anything means everything. Most business books could be simply described as thick bumper stickers. Why? Because despite their pages and pages of examples and illustrations, many of them can be reduced to one single thought. And that thought can be the theme of a 300-page book. Or it can be a bumper sticker. Here ...
Job Opportunities for Millennials and More Are you looking for job opportunities? You probably don’t need me to tell you that for certain groups these are unprecedented economic times. Our children are the first generation in living memory predicted not to do better than their parents. And this despite the history of our great country ...
Uber, San Francisco, CaliforniaAttn: Mr. Travis Kalanick, CEO Dear Travis, Congratulations. You had the great idea to create a ride sharing app. And you put in the effort to make Uber incredibly successful. Thanks to your hard work, your company has reached a very rarified status. Uber has become the company people love to hate. ...
Foreplay starts in the morning. I have a buddy who told me about a disagreement he had with his girlfriend. The two of them weren’t getting along and hadn’t been nice to each other throughout the day. But after dinner was done and the dishes were put away, he started to feel amorous. Hoping the day would ...
Transcend politics. Companies including Uber, Lyft, Under Armor, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Nike, and Anheuser Busch have all found themselves on one side or the other of the current chasm of political polarization. Celebrities including Beyoncé, Steph Curry, The Rock, Tom Brady, Mike Tyson, and Dennis Rodman have too. Once upon a time it was business suicide to ...
When Coca-Cola and Budweiser are accused of un-American behavior (yet revel in the success of their advertising) you KNOW the Trump Effect is at work. And it’s something to which you’d better pay very close attention.
The Brand Battlefield The Trump administration banned immigration from seven predominately Muslim countries. Two days later Starbucks’ chairman and chief executive officer, Howard Schultz, marched onto the brand battlefield and promised the company will hire 10,000 refugees over five years across 75 countries. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick rolled onto the brand battlefield stating Trump’s order would, “affect ...
Gwyneth Paltrow, Green Eggs, and Vaginas. Gwyneth Paltrow has sold a lot of interesting products on her Goop website. For some reason, it seems like some of the most popular products have to do with her customers’ vaginas. Back in January 2015, the actress recommended that her readers squat over a steaming pot of hot ...
At first glance, boosting Facebook posts seems like a good way to increase awareness. But think twice before you pay to reach some of Facebook’s one billion users. Let’s talk about why…
The ironic Chinese curse was, “May you live in interesting times.” Today’s Experience Economy corollary could be, “May your life be half as interesting as it looks on Facebook.”
Forgive and forget. I just read this post from my parenting guru, David Altshuler, and I thought it was meaningful and important enough to share with you. Next week we’ll get back to the subject of building brand value and making it All About Them, this week TurkelTalks is all about relationships. Forgive and forget? A twenty-five ...
Do You Know What You Want To Do? When I went to college I wanted to study art and design. But after a lot of thought I decided I’d be better off getting a business degree. It wasn’t until Introduction to Accounting with professor Doug Snowball that I discovered just how wrong I was. A few weeks ...
Even Idiots Don’t Like Being Told They’re Idiots. Years and years ago I came up with a brilliant idea for attracting new business. In my daily scouring of newspapers, magazines, and other media (thankfully this was before the Internet) I’d look for advertising that I thought was poorly done. I’d rip the offending page out of ...
Change Before You’re Forced To Change. To understand the need for change, let’s review the history of the advertising industry. The business was started in the 1800’s when the publisher of a farm journal realized tractor manufacturers, seed companies, and the like couldn’t get reach all the farmers themselves but they could reach them by ...
It’s the way your brand makes your customers feel about themselves that creates both value and desire. And that’s how to differentiate yourself from the clueless companies by simply thinking about your customers. After all, it’s not like they can’t find what you do somewhere else. And as we’ve said so many times before, in today’s connected world the function of your business is simply cost of entry.
eBah Humbug. I readily admit that this post is going to piss some people off. Especially the ones who were nice enough to send me the gratuitous greetings that inspired this rant. But please bear with me and read on. You’ll find there’s something valuable here to learn about building your brand. Each year about ...
Function is Cost Of Entry The simple truth is in today’s world of computerized production and globalized distribution products work better than we expect them to. If you do a little digging, you’ll discover that many of the components that make up the different products that we purchase all come from the same factories or ...
Here’s a weird bit of time travel: You’re reading this post on Wednesday morning or sometime after the presidential election is over. That means you already know who our next president is going to be. But I wrote this post before the election. And even though it was pretty clear to me who would prevail, there’s no way to know for sure.
Midcentury Modern is More Popular Than Ever. Midcentury modern is a style of architecture, interior design, and product and graphic design that was created from roughly 1933 to 1965. Its development was the work of architects and designers including George Nelson, Eero Saarinen, Richard Nuetra, Arne Jacobsen, Charles and Ray Eames, and more.You know midcentury modern ...
Travel Technology. Greetings from Faro in the heart of the Portuguese Algarve. We just spent a week in Lisbon and Porto. Now we’re touring the southwest corner of the country before we drive across the border Portugal shares with Spain. We’ll be heading on to Seville and Malaga next. I’m sitting on the balcony outside ...
Branding the President of The United States Can you take off your partisan hat long enough to discover something so vital it will substantially improve your performance and your business? If you’re nodding yes please read on. Every four years Americans (and those who pay attention to American politics) are treated to one of the ...
Trump and Samsung. By now you’ve probably heard the joke about Trump and Samsung: What do the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and Donald Trump have in common? One overheats for no reason, spontaneously bursts into flames, and is creating a disastrous situation for its stakeholders and supporters. The other is a smartphone. I know, I ...
Prioritizing Time. One of the most difficult challenges I deal with is prioritizing time. I’ll bet you have this same problem. Of course there are days when prioritizing time is easy because my clients have problems that take all my attention. There are days when prioritizing time is easy because I have critical deadlines. And ...
L.M. Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables wrote that the most powerful sentences in English are three words or fewer: “He is gone.” “She is dead.” “Too late.” The advertising industry seems to back up a count of three words as well: “Just Do It.” “Think Different.” “Got Milk?” And successful political campaigns, too, ...
Local Politics Because “all politics are local,” today I want to talk about local politics. It’s easy to understand that between state congressional races, city and county commission seats, judge appointments, and more, local races can be very confusing and hard to follow. Often the most important thing a local political wannabe can hope for ...
First an admission with some very strange timing: Anthony Iannarino wrote a new book that you simply have to read. Why is the timing strange for this recommendation? Because as you’ve no doubt seen, I’ve spent the last few weeks incessantly promoting my new book, All About Them. I’ve been on Facebook and Twitter, interviewed ...
Today it’s time to talk about the third P of creating an All About Them brand, positioning. After all, once you’ve dealt with Price and Product, it’s important to understand what your product stands for. Here’s what your product doesn’t stand for: the function of what you do. As we discussed yesterday, function is cost ...
You’ve spent almost all your time getting really good at what you do. College, maybe graduate school. An internship, entry-level job, moving up the ladder – learning, improving your skills, sharpening your abilities. Now you’re running your own business or movin’ on up the the C-suite and you’re on the top of your game. Making ...
Charge More Money and Get More Business. In the retail world, price only stands for the price of a product. But in the marketing world price stands for so much more. Because once your brand is established and your customer is interested in purchasing your product or service then price has as much to do ...
Selling Books. Selling books has gone from “If you build it they will come,” to “If you write it, will they come?” It used to be that if you wrote a book people would read it. After all, there weren’t that many books out there to begin with and there weren’t that many other ways ...
How do you get a Bestseller? How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, man, practice. How do you get a bestseller? Sell a lot of books. I want to remind you that my newest book — All About Them — is available for preorder. If you order right now you will get great bonuses, but don’t wait because these ...
All About Them is a damn good manifesto for marketing in the new world. It will show you how to promote your business to new levels of success. But with all the other great stuff you’ll simply for ordering now, it’s a no-brainer. What’s the catch? Just this: this deal ends at midnight on September 6th, 201
I could have written All About Them to help friends and readers like you tackle the new world we all find ourselves in. Of course I could have written it to serve as the post-modern guidebook for businesses, professionals, and entrepreneurs to learn how to not just survive but to thrive in today’s increasingly connected environment. And yes, I could have written it to show you proven, step-by-step techniques to build a powerful brand. But c’mon. We’ve been blog friends now for as many as nine years and we’ve always been honest with each other. The reason to write a book was to make my mother happy.
All About Them is all about selling yourself by using proven, albeit counterintuitive, techniques to build your brand and build your business in today’s uncertain new world.
Believe In Your Brand I’m sitting with a potential client who is building a nascent software company that might – or might not – be the next great discovery in his particular industry. The problem is Mr. Entrepreneur just got back from his investment road show and he’s still in sales mode. That means he can’t ...
I know next to nothing about buying stocks, shorting stocks, investing or speculation strategy. And until now, shorting stocks has always been something worth doing against my investment recommendations. But what I do know how to do is build brand value. And I also know when that value is about to come crashing down.
Just as nothing will bring back the lives and marriages damaged by the affairs Ashley Madison facilitated, nothing will bring back the company’s initial success either. Because once the company failed to live up to their authentic truth of discretion, they cheated on themselves and created a new business model that’s answering the question nobody’s asking.
The Three Questions Every Professional Needs to Ask. As service professionals we all do the same thing. Sure, I create branding programs and advertising plans and you write screenplays, reconcile trial balances, argue court cases, engineer air-conditioning schematics, run a convention and visitors’ bureau, manage finances, diagnose health issues, or whatever it is you do. ...
When you see something you don’t understand and you exclaim, “WTF??!!” understand that those initials do not stand for “What The F@#k??!!” but instead mean “Where’s The Future??!!” Because each time your intuition tells you that something odd is going on, it’s also telling you there could be unintended consequences in the making. That could mean that there’s a potential opportunity brewing too. It’s up to you to find it.
The real value of branding lies in its proven ability to improve your business and make you money. Because when there’s a clear alignment between your company’s authentic truth and your customers’ aspirations, and when your brand can truly make your customers feel good about themselves, the value of branding becomes invaluable.
There are as many motivations for building brands as there are people who build them. But if you step back from your marketing efforts for a moment and truly look at the why of what you do you’ll probably find some insight into building a better brand is based in one of five critical brand motivation drivers.
Unless Bernie Sanders can appeal to the Democratic Super Delegates’ sense of fairness and get them to reconsider their commitments based on the outcome of the most recent state primaries and caucuses, our November presidential contest will be between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. As I see it, this election is an incredible opportunity for ...
One Word Brands. The Key to Donald Trump’s Success. Of the estimated $2 billion dollars in free media Donald Trump has received during the 2016 presidential campaign, lots of it has been dedicated to explaining his surprisingly successful rise as the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee. Some pundits acknowledge Trump’s mastery of today’s most influential media. As ...
Brand Positioning. Positioning Brands. Have you seen someone wearing a down jacket made by The North Face lately? Perhaps you noticed – and wondered –why their logo was not embroidered in the usual spot over the left front breast pocket. Instead The North Face logo is emblazoned on the back of the jacket, directly over the wearer’s right ...
How To Create A Name. When I was a kid I worked in one of my parents’ restaurants. We sold pizza and hotdogs and sodas and soft serve ice cream. On the weekends at the busier stores we were go go go from open to close, handing food across the counter and grabbing bills and ...
Did I Do the Right Thing? Last week I posted a blog entitled, Prince – The Brand. The article summarized Prince’s career and then talked about his brand developed across the 40+ years Prince was in the music business. My simple point was that even though Prince was an international superstar who sold over 100 million ...
Prince passed away last week and the whole world mourned. Even my mom called to ask what I thought of Prince and his music. Of course everyone was surprised by Prince’s untimely death. He didn’t appear to be a troubled soul like Kurt Cobain. He hadn’t been battling cancer like David Bowie. He wasn’t diabetic ...
The key to brand building, then, is to make sure your brand is All About Them. That is, make sure your brand communicates most directly and empathetically with the people you want to do business with.
The old school way to build a brand was to work on sales pitches. The better you pitch, the more you sell. But today it’s essential to uncover the essential truths that will help you construct an offer that consumers will be compelled to choose. Because as I’ve talked about so many times before, the key to building a powerful brand is to discover your authentic truth and express it to your audiences by showing them how your brand resonates in their lives.
Managing expectations is a great way to build and reinforce a brand image but it does require operations to live up to promises.
Knowing how to create a brand requires two components – the talent of the creator AND the resources of the patron.
What is a brand? My pal (and incredible drummer and very funny guy) Allen Lynch bought me a wonderful present for my birthday. Allen actually found a company out west to handcraft a genuine branding iron with my company’s logo on it. It’s a… “Turkel Brand.” Since I have no intention of heating the brand up ...
How To Build A Brand I’m sitting in a very comfortable reclining chair somewhere between Beaumont and Houston Texas, somewhere around 35,000 feet. I’m in a brand new American Airlines 777-300 in business class seat 13D. I’ve got in-air Internet access, a bottomless glass of good red zin, and I’m about three hours away from LA. ...
Turning liabilities into assets. I’ve talked about it many times right here. Every four years we get the opportunity to watch the most important branding contest anywhere. And if we can just pry off our partisan hats for a little while we can really learn from the best of the best. Of course I’m talking ...
While it may be intimidating to look at well-established brands and wonder how you’ll ever create such notoriety, it’s not nearly as difficult if you break down the scary whole into lots of manageable little bits.
Dealstorming is a scalable, repeatable process that any B2B sales team can use to encourage a breakthrough on a tough sale. Tim’s plan suggests including every person who has a stake in the sale, questioning existing assumptions, and channeling the collective experience of the group, to uncover creative solutions and achieve a stunning 70% close ratio.
The success of the movie Deadpool and candidates Sanders and Trump is telling us that things are changing and that the time has come for the observant risk takers amongst us to make our move.
200 years ago Alexis de Tocqueville already understood that the future Trump’s strength would be that his brand would validate the feelings and sentiments of an unfulfilled constituency.
Building a better brand is like building a life. Both grow based on an ongoing series of conscious decisions, opportunistic occurrences, and reactions to unplanned events. Plus they both benefit (and potentially suffer) from a bit of luck and a lot of serendipity. That being said, there is one thing that can make creating both ...
Knowing your authentic truth and knowing how to present it to your customers is the way to both incorporate your intrinsic talents into your personal and professional lives and get better at what you do and to enjoy it more than you do already.
David Bowie passed away on Sunday at the age of 69. And even if you didn’t really know him, you just lost a vital role model. Bowie was a lot of things: Musician. Rock star. Fashion plate. Gender identity activist. Businessman. Songwriter. Record producer. Multi-instrumentalist. Painter. Actor. Arranger. Dramatist. And the ultimate zeitgeist cypher of ...
Manufacturers must never stop innovating lest they lose their competitive advantage and they must never stop developing their brand and cultivating their audience lest their buyers go somewhere else.
The world is changing at an almost unimaginably rapid pace. Technology has forever changed the way we do things. I hope the coming new year is full of lots of enjoyment, opportunity, and happiness for you and everyone who you hold dear. And make sure you do hold them because it’s gonna be one hell of an exciting ride.
If you smile through your fear and sorrow you’ll see the sun come shining through for you.
Products are sold NOT for what they can do but for HOW they make consumers feel. While it’s easy to believe that good feelings would sell more products, the amount of marketing based on fear suggests that just the opposite is true.
Do We Know What Trump, Obama, Ross, and Goebbels Have in Common? The power of WE. Painter to the people Bob Ross died in 1995 but his legacy and his business is bigger than ever. “The majority of people who watch Bob have no interest in painting,” the woman who persuaded Ross to take his ...
As sensitive as I am to someone asking me to knock out a “quick logo,” or “just a little speech – won’t take you anytime at all,” I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve been guilty of this same crime. I’ve devalued more than one person’s knowledge, effort, and experience by asking for a quick solution to a problem that deserved all of the skills and attention a professional could rally. But not surprisingly, when I have done this I’m never happy with the results. Not necessarily because my chosen professional didn’t make the appropriate effort but because I callously undervalued their abilities and achievements.
This is a rant on the presentation of creativity and how it’s received by people who are not in the business of looking at new ideas. If you resemble any of these remarks—and you’ve sat with me lately—I’m sorry. It’s not you. It’s me. I WANT SOMETHING NO ONE’S EVER DONE BEFORE. DO YOU HAVE A SAMPLE OF ...
Last week we were all shocked and horrified by the tragic news coming out of France — almost 150 innocent people killed during four different coordinated terrorist attacks throughout Paris. Just days earlier a suicide bomber detonated their vest in a café in Lebanon, ending 43 lives. And barely a week before that a Russian Metrojet ...
By now you’ve probably seen the Emirates video. In it Jetman Dubai pilots Yves Rossy and Vince Reffet fly alongside an Emirates A380 airliner. If you haven’t watched the Emirates video yet, click HERE. It’s exciting and dramatic. In fact, it’s so good it looks fake. But according to the myth-busting website Snopes.com, it’s not. ...
Do you remember the first time you ate sushi? I’m not talking about after the Japanese cuisine became a common choice in cities and suburbs but when sushi was still an oddity in the US and you were still a bit squeamish. “What??!! Eat uncooked fish? Me? Are you crazy?” If your experience was anything ...
When the little swimmer’s head ducked under the waves and didn’t pop right back up his grandmother started running towards the lifeguard station screaming, “My grandson’s drowning, my grandson’s drowning. Help! HELP!!” The strapping lifeguard scanned the ocean with his binoculars in the direction the hysterical woman was pointing. After a quick moment he spun ...
I’m sitting on a panel in a university auditorium listening to one of my fellow panelists talk about how to improve your image, the subject of our conference. I’ve already prepared my answer to the question asked by the group so now I’m looking up and out into the crowd sitting in front of me. ...
Sometime near the end of seventh grade I got my first report card with all As. This had never happened before because of my abysmal performance in phys. ed. It would never happen again because along with pimples and puberty, eighth grade introduced me to the Pythagorean theorem. Algebra and trigonometry became the bane of ...
From the September 2015 issue of Men’s Journal: “In a new Danish study, recreational runners who ran 10 miles per hour versus a slow jog of five miles per hour put 80 percent less stress on their knees. ‘Although running faster increases the load on your knee with each step, you take longer strides, so ...
By now everyone on the planet knows about Volkswagen’s troubles. Quite simply, Volkswagen knowingly and maliciously installed software in their “smart diesel” cars designed to provide false emissions readings to government testers around the world. Estimates are that Volkswagens pollute at levels 40 times greater than U.S. government rules allow. Not twice as bad or even ...
SPOC My mortgage company made a mistake. For some reason they did not have record of my windstorm insurance certificate on file and went out and bought windstorm insurance for me. As you can imagine, windstorm insurance is very important in South Florida where we’ve had some devastating hurricanes. It’s also very expensive, especially when ...
If you first target the reporters by their ability to influence your true customer (the point of this article in the first place) you’ll find that their articles will help you reach your goals and market your business.
Do you have a business idea that you think about incessantly? Do you noodle it around until you’ve looked at it from every possible angle? Do you obsess over every detail, agonize over every possible eventuality? Or maybe you already run a business or a division or a department and that’s what jerks your eyes ...
I’ve stayed in a lot of Marriott hotels lately. Plenty of the conferences I attend and speak at are organized at Marriott properties and I’m a member of the Marriott affinity program so the collected room nights earn me free breakfasts and occasional upgrades. But even though I’m a frequent guest at their hotels and ...
Traveling light is the perfect way to make your summer vacation plans as pleasant as possible. The less you carry, the less you have to worry about, and the easier it is to make likety-split decisions to follow your whims and hop on a standby flight, change hotels or add or subtract a destination from ...
Legendary head coach Joe Paterno led the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 to 2011. In 2007 Paterno was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 2011 Paterno won his 409th game, becoming the winningest coach in Division I college football history. To people who lived in University Park or attended Penn State, ...
There was once a store in your neighborhood with the name Strictly Tennis. Everyone knew what Strictly Tennis did and what they sold. But then enough kids started playing soccer that the owners decided to also carry cleats and jerseys and changed their name to Strictly Tennis and Soccer, which worked just fine until jogging ...
Think about the things that you want to change in your life – drop some weight maybe, or get in shape? Perhaps you want to write a book, start saving for retirement or learn to play a musical instrument or another language? Truth is you already know how to get things done – you just haven’t quite ...
I was recently asked a question that really got me thinking about how we describe ourselves and ultimately create our own personal brand. I was getting ready to make a presentation at a Fortune 100 company’s annual innovation summit, and the person responsible for the conference program asked me the following question about my personal ...
Frank Kiick was one of the best-dressed men I ever met. His shirts and suits were always immaculate and precisely tailored to fit his lanky frame. His beard was perfectly trimmed and he always got his accessories – tie, cufflinks, watch, shoes – just right. So imagine my surprise when I walked into the headquarters of ...
The heroes we hoist up on a pedestal will let us down. But life's lovely ride—and the people we ride it with—is all we have. And YOU are the real life hero.
Each time I get off the plane at San Juan’s International Airport, my favorite PR shoeshine entrepreneur is there, waving crumpled passengers to his little polish parlor. I’m so fond of the five minutes I spend in his chair that I even make a point of wearing shoes that need a bit of touching up ...
Technology continues to provide many new tools for brand building. Over the next few months I’m going to talk about different apps and sites that we’re using for our clients and our own online marketing. I think you’ll find these recommendations eye-opening and very useful. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now or if you’ve been ...
Remember the village idiot? He was the only one person who watched the naked emperor parade down the street and pointed out that the emperor wasn’t wearing clothes. Everyone else fumfered and mumbled and looked at their feet. Only the village idiot dared mouth what everyone else was thinking. Apparently I’m the village idiot because ...
Dear Jeb, A few weeks ago I wrote a post evaluating the logos of most of the candidates for president, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Hillary Clinton. All but one of the logos got low votes. I was expecting better from you, Jeb. Let me explain: Yesterday Jeb Bush threw his hat in the ...
Ogden Nash is known for short, glib poetry such as “The Turtle:” The turtle lives ‘twixt plated decks Which practically conceal its sex. I think it clever of the turtle In such a fix to be so fertile. And “The Canary:” The song of canaries Never varies, And when they’re molting They’re pretty revolting. And ...
With no discernable brand value built into Taco Bell and Pizza Hut’s new menu changes, regardless of what it costs them to make the revisions, no one will care and sales will continue to drop.
First a customer service confession: I forgot to pay a bill. Got no good excuse, just didn’t see it when I sat down to do my monthlies and it slipped my mind. Don’t judge, don’t hate, let’s just move on… I didn’t recognize the number on my cellphone but I answered it anyway – hey, ...
Listen to enough writers talk about their Muse and sooner or later it’ll dawn on you that while the act of writing is thought of lots of different ways, few of them are pleasant. Ernest Hemingway found looking for his Muse torturous. According to legend, Papa described it like this: “There is nothing to writing. All ...
Please take a minute to think about the words IF and BUT. Such little words but they can have such a big impact on your brand. Do you realize that if you add the words IF or BUT to an apology it demeans the sentiment and neuters the meaning? “I’m sorry IF you thought I ...
Bruce Jenner was interviewed by Diane Sawyer on 20/20 last week and told the world about his journey to become a woman. Bruce Jenner explained about how he’s felt and what he needs to do to fulfill his life. Thanks to the interview we were exposed to something we don’t usually see on national television, ...
Have you made bouillabaisse lately? It’s the traditional Provençal fish stew from the port city of Marseille. To make one you fill a pot with all kinds of fresh seafood including fish, mussels, clams, octopus, and langoustines and a whole mess of vegetables such as leeks, onions, tomatoes, celery, tomatoes, and potatoes. The whole mix ...
Cribbing from Barack Obama’s success in the polling place in 2008 and 2012, it seems virtually every candidate in the 2016 election wants to develop a presidential brand and has released a campaign logo. Leaving our varied and ardent opinions of the candidates behind, I thought it would be interesting to review the logos with ...
We lost a great big piece of business. We lost a great big piece of business we should have won. The relationship started really well. We know the travel and tourism industry inside and out. We had exquisite experience and were able to demonstrate the great results we had achieved for similar clients. Our ideas were ...
A recent story on public radio talked about the logistics of pursuing smugglers of coveted black rhino horns. The officer interviewed made the point that the discoveries made in this case also helped uncover smugglers of guns, drugs, and even human traffickers. His point was that the skills needed to bring in the banned aphrodisiac ...
On simplicity: Many years ago I was in an office with a tattooed art director who dressed in Hell’s Angel denim, leather, and chrome long before it was fashionable. Despite his intimidating appearance he was fiercely soft spoken about his work. One day, dressed in his best Easy Rider regalia, he presented a beautiful campaign ...
Last weekend Gloria and I were in the right place at the right time when we went up to Washington DC to celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary. Our daughter came down on her spring break and our son had just moved to Washington to find a job in the political arena so it was a ...
Smart Luggage for the Connected Age promised the title in last week’s New York Times. It featured a company that’s releasing “smart luggage” packed with up-to-the-minute features including “a Bluetooth-enabled lock, GPS tracking, and a USB port for recharging a device. It has a built-in scale, too.” Samsonite is also getting into the smart luggage act with ...
925<247365 2,400 years ago Socrates said, “ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ.” (For those few of you who don’t read Greek, Socrates’ statement translates to something like, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”) Thanks to the computer’s limitless ability to compile measurements and metrics, companies and professionals now have a way to apply ...
I just left a message for a highly successful buddy of mine. Or at least I tried reaching him. His receptionist was so busy, so stressed, and so rude that her best customer service was to tell me to “call back later.” Now as it happens, I will call back. And it won’t be a ...
Sometime between World War II and The Korean War, private first class Leonard NMI Turkel was returning a truck to the Pensacola Air Force base when he misunderestimated a blind curve and swerved off the road. Although the private was adept at driving trucks from his days delivering laundry in the Bronx, he wasn’t used to ...
Last Friday’s edition of The New York Times included two stories on the trouble with transparency that few readers probably connected even though the problem affects all of us. One article was about how Brian Williams “misremembered” his flight on a United States military helicopter that was forced down by enemy fire in 2003 under the headline, “With ...
Brian Williams is toast. Brian Williams is not going to return to NBC Nightly News. He is not going to reenergize his news career. He’s not going to make a comeback. Brian Williams is toast. Williams has promised to get back on the air, saying, “Upon my return I will continue my career-long effort to be ...
When I went to elementary school on Miami Beach there were just four or five African-American kids in our group. I remember this only because I found out later that there were very few black families living on South Beach and the kids in our class were the children of teachers on Miami Beach that ...
The Folly of Function: We were about eighteen minutes into our morning run when Jen’s running watch and my running watch both started beeping. “That’s two miles.” I said between gasps for air. “Reassuring that the two GPS watches measured our distance exactly the same.” “Yeah,” Jen answered, not nearly as out of breath as I was. ...
Q: When is the best time to plant an oak tree? A: Twenty years ago. Or today. Happy New Year! 2015 is a brand new year and we’re right in the middle of New Year’s resolution month. That means not enough time has gone by to break the resolutions you’ve already made and there’s still ...
My dad was a lot of things. High school basketball center. Air Force navigator. Civil rights leader. Developer. Entrepreneur. Musician. Community advocate. Superhero. And of course, husband, brother, son, and father. A true Renaissance man. As Jeremy Mikolajczak, executive director and chief curator of the MDC Museum & Galleries of Art + Design wrote so ...
Bah Humbug. Pardon me for being a skeptamist, but does anything say, “I did as little as possible” more than a generic e-mail holiday greeting? I just received this one (amongst many) and am reprinting its touching message here in all its insipid entirety to make my point: “As the Holiday Season is upon us, ...
In hindsight it wasn’t such a good idea. I had already tossed my blue box of fishing hooks and lures down into the boat next to my rods. Instead of climbing down the ladder after them, I had the bright idea to jump the three feet from the pier to the floating dock below. I ...
I finally finished writing my next book. As much as I enjoy writing the books, the thing I don’t like to do is write the proposals for the agent and publisher. Even though I know how important proposals are to the process, it seems silly to me to spend time writing an overview instead of ...
Cyber Monday’s business press was all atwitter looking at that day as well as Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Technology Tuesday. Makes me wonder when they’re going to celebrate WTF Wednesday, too. But this year something new happened. All of a sudden Cyber Monday sales figures are coming in wonky. And experts are falling all over ...
Lots of people quote the old bromide, “All PR is good PR” but few people actually live it. Recently I had a friend tell me that not only did he believe this saying but he wanted to promote his brand on radio and TV as I’ve done. So after arranging some media training and making ...
Victoria’s Secret UK showed a lineup of beautiful young women wearing their lingerie under the headline “The Perfect Body” and generated over 26,000 angry signatures. Protesters complained that the campaign “offensive and damaging to women.” The uproar was not enough to get Victoria’s Secret to apologize or scuttle the campaign but they did reissue the same ad ...
A good friend of mine got the opportunity to speak at a very prestigious event. Besides the honor of the invitation, my friend was hoping to attract a big crowd, sell some of his books, and generate some buzz. Unfortunately, the organizers had some challenges—and a comedy of errors ensued. My buddy’s name was misspelled ...
Competency Is Table Stakes. Many people complain about the various forces keeping them from success. But it’s becoming more and more clear that the things that hold us back from success are not external factors but our own fears, insecurities, and concerns. As Pogo the Possum said, “We have met the enemy and he is ...
Last week we talked about disruptors. This week we’ve got a great example of disruption called Babyfonics Genius. And if you have a child or grandchild who’s learning to read, you’ll really enjoy this post. New mother Heidi Dobbs was busy teaching her pre-school children to read when she had a brainstorm — what’s the ...
The two guys sitting next to me on the plane disrupted my peace and quiet by chattering away like old friends. I couldn’t open up my laptop until we “reached a comfortable cruising altitude of 10,000 feet” so I was stuck listening to them even though I really didn’t want to. Turns out the first guy ...
The more I write about how critical it is to discover and express both your authentic self and your customers’ deepest desires in your brand, the more questions I get. Many are about how one can discover the true self they should be promoting, or how to know exactly what their customers want. Clearly answers ...
Road warrior and brand expert Bruce Turkel travels as a competitive sport. The CEO and executive creative director of marketing consulting firm Turkel Brands travels lightest. by Robert Hackett @rhhackett OCTOBER 1, 2014, 10:00 AM EDT I travel almost every week, but in fact I’m not traveling this week and it’s kind of shocking. Last week I was ...
I need three hundred thousand dollars. Come to think of it, maybe I need half a million dollars. I’m not really sure. I just know I have to own Singer Vehicle Design’s restored, reimagined, and reborn Porsche 911 and that’s about what they cost. The price is variable because the cars are completely custom. And ...
Those of us who use the Internet to send marketing materials run the risk of sending unwanted emails – SPAM – to our distribution list. Sometimes it’s inadvertent – people sign up for all sorts of things they later decide they don’t want and often people sign up their friends or relatives without telling them. Sometimes ...
Josh Mayer is a nice guy who runs a wonderful advertising agency in New Orleans with his brother Mark. Josh also has a good enough marriage that his younger employees come to him for advice when they’re thinking of getting married. Josh’s advice is simple: “Don’t marry for money. Money comes and goes. Don’t marry ...
Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg, there’s a lovely little park in front of the Macy’s New York flagship store on 34th street between Broadway and 7th Avenue. I lucked upon a garden table and chair shaded from the sun by a big patio umbrella and cooled by the wind rushing between the buildings. With Macy’s free ...
The Ice Bucket Challenge? By now everyone who’s not living under a rock knows about the Ice Bucket Challenge. It’s a brilliant viral stunt that combines coerced altruism, mild sadism, mischief, social media, and a good dose of revenge to get people to donate to the ALS Association. The Ice Bucket Challenge is working spectacularly well. The explanation on ...
There’s always one in every group and our harmonica master class was no different. Each time the instructor would ask if there were any questions, “That Guy” would raise his hand. “Little Walter was the best. And I read somewhere he used a 1940’s Astatic taxi dispatcher’s microphone. So I tracked one of those mics down and ...
Last week, Melissa Francis at FOX Business did a story on BuzzFeed’s review of fast food marketing. The site created a sliding scale format that compared the pictures of fast food presented in advertising with the actual items you’d be handed across the counter. Even though there’s a big disconnect between what you see and ...
Last week we talked about what happens when critics judge new ideas too quickly and often risk sentencing great ideas to obscurity; in that case, Airbnb’s new logo that was compared to “certain female anatomy.” (Branding Gone Wrong) But what happens when the creative process is killed before great solutions can even be developed? This ...
Airbnb, the online vacation rental service that now controls more hotel rooms than all of the major hotel companies combined, introduced a new logo last week. The response from the blogosphere and myriad branding experts” was immediate and negative. Apparently, the responses were so bad that Fortune magazine titled their article on the fiasco, “Branding ...
I was sitting in the audience at the The National Speakers Association annual meeting listening to Jay Baer, the author of the social media how-to guide, Youtility, talk about how to promote blogs. After hearing Jay list many of the things I’ve been doing with this blog for years, I elbowed my seat neighbor Scott Halford ...
Eggs used to be good for you. Along with some crispy bacon and toast with butter, they were part of a healthy breakfast – or so they said. Then all of a sudden eggs were bad for you. Too much cholesterol. Then the yellows were bad for you but the whites were good. Now our perception ...
We jogged past the Matheson Hammock tidal basin and reached the bay just as half of the giant sun poked above the horizon and Biscayne Bay reflected a brilliant orange carpet straight to the shore. Neither Bob, Tim nor I had our phones with us so the scene will have to live in our memories ...
Did you see what China just did? Amidst cries of outrage and scads of adverse attention, they managed to shift the negative news they’ve been receiving away from their cultural and politically significant aggression and toward fuzzy pandas. After all, everyone loves pandas. Time Magazine and The Wall Street Journal reported that China is backing ...
How difficult is it for you to keep up-to-date with your to-do list? In 2010 I wrote a blog on my to-do list problems and it’s turned out to be one of my most popular posts to date, so I’ve assumed that to-do list problems are pretty universal. Funny thing is the article really wasn’t ...
When my son was little, my wife got a call from his teacher. She was “very concerned” and wanted to schedule a parent-teacher conference right away. Of course we were very concerned too and rushed to the school, terrified of what we’d find out. Finally, after what seemed like hours of agonizing pleasantries, Danny’s teacher ...
If you’ve read my blog before you know I’m obsessed with traveling light. That’s because a minimalist mindset makes travel more enjoyable and stress-free. Also I believe there are only two kinds of luggage – carry-on and lost. I’ve written about this before, listing a bunch of road-tested travel tips HERE and HERE. My business ...
When I was a kid growing up on Miami Beach, the public service announcements we saw regularly were about the evils of littering and the dangers of silos and rock pits. Because of the constant brainwashing I received, I am a virulent anti-litterer. So much so that when I see someone litter I actually have ...
Are you mature enough to remember when radio was a significant influence in your life? I wasn’t old enough for the golden age of radio – Amos N Andy, The Thin Man, Tommy Dorsey, and the like – but for me radio was the soundtrack of my childhood in the sixties and seventies. Numerous musicians ...
With his dark sunglasses, slicked back hair, and untucked short-sleeve shirts, Mr. R was the coolest dad in our Miami Beach neighborhood. He’d pick us up in his enormous navy blue Lincoln Continental, and let us slide across the slickly mink-oiled cordovan leather bench seats while he screeched around the corners. He’d never even ask ...
Walking into a meeting, church or synagogue, or maybe a theater, I’m sure you reach into your pocket and turn off the volume on your phone. But because not everyone is as thoughtful and considerate as you, a phone invariably rings during the presentation. Sadly, that’s no surprise. What always is a huge surprise is ...
You’ve all seen the sordid headlines by now—there’s nothing useful I can add. LA Clippers’ basketball team owner Donald Sterling made disgraceful racist remarks, and now the team’s market value is plummeting and the NBA and others are scrambling for a way to rescue their failing brand. But let’s look at the big picture for ...
Randy Gage taught me how to deliver a keynote speech. His main theme? A keynote speech is a speech about a single thought you want your audience to follow, understand, and learn. His supporting evidence? The name keynote speech. According to Gage, the name “keynote” explains exactly what the presentation should be – a speech ...
You’d have to be living under a rock not to notice that the Catholic Church has gone through some cataclysmic shifts of late. From the horror of “pedophile priests” to Pope Francis’ refreshing reframe, the seemingly immovable institution has changed plenty. But surprisingly enough, a strong reaction to where the Church’s brand has been heading ...
I am sitting in the audience of a breakout session at the NSA (National Speakers Association – the ones who talk, not the ones who listen). An online expert is putting on a fascinating presentation about how to generate web traffic. Right now he’s demonstrating his theory on how to build a powerful podcast. His ...
Sarah’s question: “Hi Bruce, I have a personal question regarding social media. In a nutshell, I’m working to hone my social media skills; keeping up with the ever-changing industry and learning everything there is to know so that I can become an expert in the field. I want to know everything! But, as you know, ...
A number of years ago I tried to figure out why our ad agency wasn’t quite as successful as I would have liked. It finally dawned on me that we had been trying to sell something our clients might not have been interested in buying. Quite simply, we were trying to sell better design work ...
Walk into Junior’s in Jupiter, Florida and you might be surprised at what you find. The walls are painted with graffiti. The furniture is constructed from industrial diamond plate steel, and red and black leather. And the proprietor is wearing a Harley-Davidson mechanic’s shirt, with short sleeves of course, to show off his fully tattooed ...
“When one door closes, another opens.” “The universe will provide.” “If you can conceive it you can achieve it.” [Parental warning: I hate insipid bromides. If these are sayings you appreciate, things you hang on the wall or slather on your coffee mugs, please don’t read any further. You’re not going to be happy, and ...
Want to be on National TV? One of my favorite producers at FOX Business is producing a question and answer session on taxes. She’s looking for video selfies of people who have questions about their taxes. If you’re interested in being on National TV, here’s your chance. Needless to say, if they pick your bit ...
Spend enough time talking to online marketers or digitally savvy traditional advertisers and you’ll hear lots of conversation—and consternation—about the power of online reviews. According to these marketers, the comments and critiques on review sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp are key to either their company’s success or failure. But according to a fascinating new ...
I travel so often that it wasn’t until my daughter was 13 or 14 that she figured out that shampoo comes in large bottles too. Because so much of that travel relates to building compelling tourism brands for destinations around the world, I often sit in the plane on the way home and think about ...
…those who get it, get it anyway. Those who don’t, never will.” Have you seen the ad for the new Cadillac ELR? It features a very smug 40-something actor, Neal McDonough, strolling through his Dwell magazine-perfect house, kissing his beautiful wife, high-fiving his beautiful kids, and showing off all his tastefully extravagant belongings while pontificating ...
The flight to San Juan was scheduled to leave at 7:25 AM, so my mental math looked something like this: “Want to get to airport an hour early, that’s 6:25 AM. Thirty minutes to get to airport, that’s 6:00. Half an hour to get ready, gotta get up at 5:30.” But here’s what happened: Was ...
Unless you’re a Seattle Seahawks fan, Super Bowl XLVIII wasn’t much of a game. I’ll bet most Super Bowl parties broke up before the fourth quarter was over. Yours probably did too. Unless you’re a hardcore advertising fan, the Super Bowl ad show wasn’t very entertaining, either. Other than a few stalwarts and outliers, the ...
It wasn’t until I spent three weeks in Southeast Asia with my family that I really learned the true importance of brands. It shouldn’t have been that way because for the last 30 years I’ve been running a brand management firm that helps our clients create and build their brands through advertising, design, strategic planning, ...
The Power of Patterns My friend and the lead guitar player for The Southbound Suspects, Phil Allen, put himself through law school at the University of Florida by singing and playing his guitar in bars around Gainesville. Years later Phil still wows audiences by performing his prodigious repertoire of songs. People are amazed at all ...
What goes next in the following sequence? Skywriting, Calendar, Pen, T-Shirt, Super Bowl, Side Of A Barn, ____________ . Give up? Don’t be too hard on yourself; even that smart kid in high school (you know the one I’m talking about) doesn’t know the answer. Let’s review our fundamental understanding of advertising and branding and ...
At first glance, cooking and baking seem to be different sides of the same coin. They both require various edible ingredients. They both require skill and knowledge. They both call for cutting, chopping, mixing, and stirring. And they both can create good things to eat. But the actual processes of cooking and baking are often ...
Rabbi Mitchell Chefitz told me a wonderful story about a presentation he made at a program for Jewish cub scouts. Chefitz had all the boys sit around a circle with a big tom tom in the center. He would beat a particular rhythm on the drum and then ask the boys who wanted to try it ...
A few weeks ago my wife and I were enjoying a quick vacation in the mountains of North Carolina. We needed a few things to feather our nest so we ducked into the local Walmart. While Gloria was searching for the Cuban coffee and other things she can’t live without, I busied myself looking at ...
Last Thursday I was a guest on the O’Reilly Factor on FOX News. The subject was “The War on Christmas” and the controversy over the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center’s ad being rejected by ESPN. If you’ve ever watched Bill O’Reilly’s show you can already figure on two things: 1) Bill and I didn’t agree ...
All new media is porn. Whether it’s because of our endless fascination with sex or the media creators’ desire to monetize their inventions, each time there’s a new way to reach people, one of the first uses is distributing the pornography of the day. Way back in prehistory, cave paintings often depicted sex scenes. Sure, ...
There’s an old joke that says, “The key to relationships is honesty and sincerity… and if you can fake that, the rest is easy.” Paraphrasing slightly, many companies believe that the key to branding is authenticity… and if they can fake THAT, then the rest is easy. Today’s younger consumers, the choice 18 – 29-year ...
The other day someone asked my brilliant friend John DeMarchi what he thought would happen in the NFL scandal. “Which NFL scandal?” DeMarchi asked, “the bullying scandal, the suicide scandal, the racial slur team name scandal, the concussion conundrum scandal or the guy who shot his girlfriend in the stadium parking lot scandal?” Seems like ...
It happened again! You blinked and the world changed. Don’t feel bad if you didn’t notice (it was hidden in plain sight). But whether you saw it or not, all of a sudden the planets realigned, the tectonic plates slipped, the paradigm shifted. While you were dealing with your day-to-day affairs, function and competency took ...
In 2008 we pitched a piece of business that we really wanted and needed. The new business effort was a hard-fought battle and after numerous presentations our potential client told us the committee had narrowed it down to us and one other agency. The problem was we were more expensive than our competition. “As much ...
Brand value is the degree to which an individual or organization’s identity is recognized and valued by others. As such, it is not a single static measure. Rather it’s a dynamically fluid asset that is constantly increasing or decreasing. A good way to illustrate the ever-shifting dynamics of brand value is to liken it to ...
When was the last time you reread the classics? Catcher in the Rye, maybe, or The Great Gatsby? Frankenstein or War and Peace? Whiz up and down through the centuries and you can add almost anything by Shakespeare, Faulkner, Twain, Bronte, Hemingway, and so many more to the list of books you ought to read—or ...
[Please note: I am on vacation this week and sharing one of my favorite posts from a few years ago. If it’s new to you, I hope you enjoy it. If you’re reading it for the second time, I hope you enjoy it again.] Do you know how to read musical notation? If you do ...
Do you remember the first time you rode a bike by yourself? I remember when I did. I hopped up on the shiny blue two-wheeler I got for my birthday, and my dad ran alongside me holding onto the saddle while I furiously pumped my legs and struggled to control the wobbling handlebars. At some ...
People are constantly asking ‘what is a brand?’ and ‘how a brand is defined’. Most business people and consumers are savvy enough to understand that a brand is not a logo or a trademark, it’s not an ad and it’s not a sign, website or brochure. Instead many people define a brand as every communications ...
Have you upgraded to iOS 7 yet? If you’re an Apple iPhone or iPad user you know what I’m talking about (if you aren’t an Apple user, indulge me please and read on. You’ll catch on quickly.) iOS 7 is Apple’s chief of design Jonathan Ive’s first public shot at overseeing the entire ecosystem of ...
Do you understand how speakers bureaus work? I never did either. In fact I was starting to believe the old adage that the only time speakers bureaus need you is when you don’t need them. Then I became friendly with a few speakers bureau owners and started working with them and learned a little about ...
My friend Phil Allen, brilliant lawyer and blazing lead guitar player for The Southbound Suspects, told me this story: The defense attorney was questioning the prosecution’s star witness. “So you say you actually saw my client bite off the victim’s ear in the bar fight?” “Yes I did,” the witness answered nervously. “But it’s a ...
I don’t usually use this space to rant. I try to be thoughtful, even-tempered, and even a bit circumspect in what I write about here. But today I’m typing this post with my teeth firmly clenched together and my fingers smacking the keyboard. A few months ago I spoke to an industry group about how ...
The Internet bubble burst right after Y2K and the real estate bubble burst after the middle of the decade because people believed that with all the new technology and opportunities the old rules simply didn’t apply anymore. But the history of fads has shown us that even when the tools change drastically the rules remain ...
This email showed up on my phone this morning (yes, the name was changed to protect the hapless): Can you believe it? This person wants to showcase their portfolio, wants to work with us, and ultimately wants to generate revenue, and this is what they send? Why not just write: Did I go ...
Last month I presented the keynote speech on building brands at the NSA Annual Convention in Philadelphia. Before you glance over your shoulder or check if your phone is tapped, this NSA stands for the National Speakers Association NOT the National Security Agency. Or as someone at the conference pointed out, “We’re the ones who ...
What was going through your mind on 9/10/01? I’ll bet you don’t remember. I don’t remember what I was thinking about either. Life was just sort of buzzing along like it usually does. I was aware of some of it and much of it went by unnoticed. But I sure remember what I was thinking ...
We all believe that one thing causes another. Newton’s third law of motion states: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The Byrds sang Pete Seeger’s interpretation of a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes: “For every thing, (turn turn turn) there is a season.” One of the hottest new iPhone app’s ...
What do Pablo Picasso, the Rolling Stones, and this blog have in common? It’s not reach, it’s not renown, and it’s certainly not status. But all three do reach a particular audience, all three have been prolific, and all three have some hits and some misses. Plus there’s something else. Somewhere in the middle of ...
David and I were at the gym the other day talking about a race we had run in the Everglades. He was congratulating me on my performance when I pointed out how much better he did than I. “It was a great race,” he said, “You and I did the same thing.” “What are you ...
Some things get better with age — wines mellow and so does balsamic vinegar. Classic music, both symphonic and rock, sounds better and better each time I hear it. Jeans and khakis get more comfortable, running shoes do too. To my eye, older Porsches, BMWs, and Alfas look even better over time. Hopefully, we human ...
With summer finally showing its sweaty face, those of us who live in Florida are starting to hear about hurricanes again. Just this morning I heard about one of the first named storms of the year — Chantal — which is swirling its way out of Barbados and up towards the Greater Antilles. Newspaper, radio, ...
My friend Jimmy was filling his basket in the produce section when I ran into him. “What are you doing this weekend?” I asked. “Not too much, going out to dinner with Janet tomorrow night. How about you?” “Gotta work tomorrow but I’m sitting in with a guitar player at Tobacco Road tonight.” “I haven’t ...
Tom Brokaw wrote the book about the generation of Americans who grew during the depression and fought in World War II. In his preface, Brokaw describes the people he researched and wrote about this way: “These men and women came of age in the Great Depression, when economic despair hovered over the land like a ...
When I was in high school one of my part-time jobs was working as a bagboy at the local supermarket. Even though the walls were plastered with signs that said, “Carry-out is a Publix service. No tipping please,” we bagboys stuffed our pockets with the single dollar bills the neighborhood housewives slipped us for wheeling ...
This email exchange is almost all verbatim. I removed the names and identifiable facts. Potential Client: “It was a pleasure visiting your website and speaking with you today, Bruce. I have attached our ad agency RFP (Request For Proposal). We look forward to your proposal. If you have any questions please contact me.” Agency: ...
Have you read about Carnival Cruise Line’s latest woes? Of course you saw the bloated corpse of the Costa Concordia floundering like a beached whale off the coast of Italy, you saw the 2,758 stranded cruisers on the Carnival Triumph eating onion sandwiches and using the Lido deck for a latrine, and you saw 4,300 ...
My fifth grade teacher Juliette Polichetti used to say, “If you don’t know what you don’t know then you don’t know.” And while you could argue that that’s another way of explaining that ignorance is bliss, I don’t think that’s what Miss Polichetti had in mind. When I opened my first advertising agency 30 years ...
My father was a passionate proponent of architecture and design. Throughout his career he worked with some of the best in South Florida, including Gail Baldwin and Don Sackman, Roney Mateu, Frank Schulwolf, Jordan Barrett and Murray Gaby, and Manny Abraben. I don’t think my dad ever worked with Alfred Browning Parker but I know he ...
The Seinfeld TV sitcom was called a show about nothing. When they pitched the pilot to NBC, here’s how they described the concept: “Nothing happens on the show. It’s just like life. You know, you eat, you go shopping, you read.” Nothing actually happens. But I don’t really think the show was really about nothing. ...
When I walked downstairs to grab my mail today Shelly told me that I had “won the mail sweepstakes.” Sure enough, my mail slot held the biggest pile on any of the shelves. “Of course,” Shelly added, “most of it is junk.” But hidden amongst all the trash were three hand-addressed envelopes. Coincidentally, I had ...
In response to last week’s blog post How To Skin A Horse Of A Different Color, John Calia wrote, “A great modern day parable that explains the power of inductive reasoning. It’s McKinsey-level strategic thinking applied to everyday business and personal challenges.” Thanks, John. I just thought it was a simple explanation of a complicated ...
A friend of mine got into some trouble recently. He left a bar after having a few drinks, got in his car and headed home. On the way he was pulled over by a highway patrolman and arrested for driving while intoxicated. I’ll spare you the long and sad story of his journey through the ...
I am sitting in exit row seat 12C and looking out the window at the great Florida prairie. Led Zeppelin’s Heartbreaker is blasting through my ear buds and I’m thinking about the talk I gave last night to The University of Florida Ad Society. My talk was originally going to be about some of the ...
Our Monday morning run takes us through Matheson Hammock Park and out to the marina, a small spit of land that juts out into Biscayne Bay. If you stand just so, you can look out across the endless bay and see the same unspoiled vista that the Tequesta Indians enjoyed hundreds of years ago. Some ...
What the heck’s going on in the world of brands? If you haven’t been paying attention lately, lots of great companies are suffering significant headaches dealing with the body blows their brand images are taking almost every single week. Look at Nike, the sportswear company that has built its dominant brand on the broad backs ...
A couple of weeks ago I heard lawyer, orator, and FIU Law School Visiting Professor of Law George Knox define the word “WILL” this way: “Will does not mean should, will does not mean could, will does not mean might or maybe. Will is unequivocal. Will only means ‘will.’ The word will is so strong that ...
Last Sunday night about 110 million Americans sat around their HD campfires and shared in a traditional event – the Super Bowl. But this year something was different this year , and I’m not talking about the 34-minute delay caused by the Superdome’s super brownout. Instead, it was the proliferation of multiple screens people used ...
“The Dollar Auction game: a paradox in non-cooperative behavior and escalation” was published by economist Martin Shubik in the March, 1971 issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (I know, I know — you’ve got a copy laying around somewhere). Here’s how it works: An auctioneer says, “I’m going to give a dollar to the highest ...
At our advertising agency, we have a new service positioning called “Plays Well With Others.” It’s NOT a reference to our elementary school report card but rather a new business model we’ve been perfecting. Plays Well With Others is about us being the lead brand agency and working with our clients’ partners and vendors to ...
Do you know how to read musical notation? If you do, you know that when you’re reading music you’re actually reading at least two things simultaneously. Written music tells you what note to play and when to play it. Written language, on the other hand, only tells you one thing – what letter to pronounce. ...
TURKEL‘s new Miami campaign was featured on the front page of the Miami Herald recently. And although the story was brilliantly written by Doug Hanks, we thought we’d share some of the insight that made the campaign possible. Miami’s new positioning reflects our growing status as an arts, culture, and design destination. The campaign is ...
A spokesman from Eurostar claims: “The whole idea is that London is just around the corner. Belgians absolutely love the British and follow them closely.” “The adverts are meant to show how cutting edge London is, the amazing mix.” We’ll let you decide…
From the New York Times: FOR generations, advertising interrupted the entertainment that Americans wanted to read, hear or watch. Now, in a turnabout, advertising is increasingly being presented as entertainment — and surprisingly, the idea of all ads, all the time, is gaining some favor. Click here to read more.
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By now the entire advertising industry is buzzing with news of the new ways coming to rate commercials. While ratings have always calculated how many people (the industry term is “eyeballs”) watch a particular ad, the new system will report on how many people change the channel or turn the TV off when measured ads ...
Have you seen Australia‘s new tourism campaign — So Where The Bloody Hell Are You? If you live in Dubai, Singapore or Canada you probably won’t. That’s because those countries censored the ad for three different reasons. Canada doesn’t allow beer to be shown on air during certain hours. Singapore censored the word “bloody” and ...
We sell Miami as the hippest, hottest, most fashion-conscious place in the world, using beautiful models dressed in beyond trendy fashions enjoying themselves in a variety of uniquely Miami settings. And it works — over the last three years Smith Travel has consistently ranked Miami number one or two in growth for both hotel occupancy ...
By now you’ve no doubt read about Howard Schultz’s memo to Starbucks’ management bemoaning the loss of the “Starbucks’ experience.” It’s been in Forbes, BusinessWeek, on CNN and all over the blogesphere. It seems as if Schultz’s coffee memo is almost as popular as Britney Spears haircut or the search for the true father of ...
6. All Five Senses. Human beings are hard-wired to respond to visual and verbal stimuli. But human beings are also armed with three other senses (taste, touch, and smell) that can all be called upon to evoke an emotional response. Perhaps a certain color or phrase will provoke your consumer to recall a memory that ...
3. Make It Simple. How many times have you seen an ad and walked away thinking, “What on earth were they talking about?” If the message isn’t to the point, consumers simply won’t take the time to figure it out. They have much better ways to spend their time. Of course, making it simple isn’t ...
1. All About Them. Your consumer is your first priority. What do you know about them? What don’t you know? What motivates them? What keeps them up at night? The answers to these questions all come from understanding your consumer—their motivations, their lifestyle, their values, their concerns—everything in fact, that could effect their purchasing decisions. ...
