Marketing Wisdom Archives - Page 25 of 38

SUCCESS STORY: ANGELIC APPROACH

October 16, 2013 by Scott Flood

How do you explain complicated planned giving strategies to ordinary people who don’t have a wealth of financial knowledge? That was the heart of the challenge facing the Catholic Community Foundation, the planned-giving arm of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

The CCF manages endowments funds for parishes, charities, and other organizations with the Archdiocese, and its messages needed to compete for attention among the many appeals local Catholics received from those groups. Complicating the issue was the fact that planned giving strategies such as charitable remainder trusts and charitable lead trusts tend to be complex financial vehicles that senior citizens and others with money to give might find confusing or intimidating.

LEGIBILITY FIRST, THEN BEAUTY

October 9, 2013 by Scott Flood

Two new retail businesses opened up just down the street. I passed them for a couple weeks with no clue as to what they offered. Then my curiosity got the better of me, so I walked over to see. One’s a hair salon and the other is a photographer.

Their signs are absolutely beautiful — and completely unreadable from more than ten feet away. That might be okay if their businesses were located on a quaint street in a tourist town, where visitors ambled back and forth at a slow pace. But they’re on a busy U.S. highway where the traffic often blows by at 40 mph.

SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT WITH A PIZZA WHEEL

October 2, 2013 by Scott Flood

Sometimes, companies are so focused on addressing a perceived shortfall or problem that they miss more important messages, or even send the wrong message to their stakeholders.

The newest commercial for Domino’s Pizza floored me because it’s a perfect example. Domino’s has been running a series of spots in which they admit that they haven’t been perfect in the past, but golly, they’re working on getting better. Most of the spots have been okay.

SUCCESS STORY: COMMUNITY SCAVENGER HUNT

September 25, 2013 by Scott Flood

Our Community Bank has been serving Owen County and the surrounding area for more than a century. But in these days of megabanks and cross-county competitors, consumers may be less likely to choose a truly local bank. After all, it’s tough to for a smaller bank to catch their attention.

To reinforce the message that OCB has been an important part of the community for such a long time, and that they understand the needs of community residents better than anyone else, we developed an advertising campaign that featured local landmarks. While those landmarks may not have been tourist attractions, they were the source of community pride — such as the bulldog statue outside Patricksburg Elementary School or the giant chicken that once decorated a Spencer eatery.

COPYCATS ARE AMATEURS

September 11, 2013 by Scott Flood

Ever tried to be cooler than a teenager? It just doesn’t work. By the time you hear and learn the meaning of the latest expression or newest tidbit of slang, it’s ancient history. The first time you try to use it in front of said teenager, you’ll get a withering look that will add decades to your age.

The same holds true for advertising concepts. When a major national campaign captures the public’s interest, it’s usually because of an amazingly clever or innovative approach. Unfortunately, many company decision-makers are too lazy or unimaginative enough to come up with their own clever or innovative approach, so they simply copy the popular approach.

SUCCESS STORIES: HANGING AROUND THE OFFICE

September 4, 2013 by Scott Flood

B2B companies want to be noticed, and they need to remembered, so that when a company needs their services, they’ll call. But how do you do that in today’s noisy, fast-changing marketplace?

Russell Martin & Associates is one of the IT industry’s most-loved training firms. Instead of delivering the standard, dull training presentations, they’ve developed an intimate understanding of how people learn, and they apply it to helping project managers and others in the IT world improve their efficiency, quality, and workflow (among other things).

LOOSE LIPS (AND POSTS) SINK SHIPS

August 21, 2013 by Scott Flood

That headline comes from warnings issued to Americans during the World Wars of the last century. It was a reminder that sensitive data that was discussed publicly could be overheard by those working for the enemy. Military and diplomatic history is full of tales in which a careless remark doomed a battle or other operation.

The same holds true for the business world. In my ad agency days, I remember working on a hard-fought effort to keep a large client. Several people in the organization’s marketing department disliked my agency’s team and hoped to replace us with another shop that employed their friends. The run-up to the selection involved weeks of late hours and anxiety, because job cuts invariably follow the loss of a large account.

CONSISTENCY IS CRITICAL

August 7, 2013 by Scott Flood

For some reason, consistency gets a bad rap from many people. You may have heard some brush it aside with a quote: “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” In other words, consistency is valued only by people who aren’t bright or creative enough to value variety.

Well, not quite. That’s a misquote of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who actually wrote, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Note that the word “foolish” appears before “consistency,” changing the whole meaning.

DOES YOUR BUSINESS REALLY NEED SEO?

July 31, 2013 by Scott Flood

As search engines have become the fastest and easiest way to gather information, many companies have invested a fortune in trying to be one of the first listings searchers see. Research supports the concept, noting that people are far more likely to click on listings near the top left-hand portion of the screen, which just happens to be where most search engines display them.

With that boom in search engines has come a boomlet of search-engine optimization (SEO) consultants. These IT wizards study how the search engines work and then retool websites to make them more attractive. Instead of focusing on the humans who read the information on the sites, they target the crawlers and spiders that lay the groundwork for search engines.

LESSONS ABOUT COPYWRITING FROM MY DAD, THE SALESMAN

July 24, 2013 by Scott Flood

I said good-bye to my father for the last time a couple months ago. His death wasn’t a surprise; his health had been increasingly poor for many years, and despite his doctors’ best efforts, his body just wore out.

Dad was a straight-commission salesman for nearly all of his adult life. In fact, he continued to sell well into his late 70s, when his health got in the way. He sold chemicals for industrial processes and maintenance. When a refinery needed to clean up after an explosion or a steel mill needed to degrease a rolling mill, he got the call. In his later years, most of his competitors were chemical engineering grads, but his customers placed more trust in his practical knowledge, despite the fact that he barely made it through high school. He was an extraordinary salesman, and that’s not just a proud son singing his praises — he received a constant stream of job offers right up until his retirement. (In fact, a salesman from a competitor once told Dad that his boss had instructed him to check the obituaries every morning, and if Dad’s name appeared, he was to target every one of his accounts. That’s praise, disturbing as it may be.)