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Showing posts from February, 2007

Overselling The Package

You can't sell the value meal until you've sold the burger, and you can't sell the package of goods until you've sold the primary component. Find the one thing that has the best shot at being bought by your potential clients. Sell it and then let it work. If it works for the client (and why would it not?), then you have already accomplished the majority of your marketing.

Rebel Without A Carpool Lane

Have you ever been driving on a highway when a police officer works his way into your little pod of traffic? Everyone slows down, afraid that they will be nabbed for doing exactly what they were doing when the officer was out of their eye sight (but not radar range, mind you). Does the same thing happen when your boss walks into a meeting? Both the officer and your boss are omnipresent. They both know you are repressing your instincts because of their presence. And most importantly, they both have the ability to hand you a little pink slip of paper that could cost you a lot of money. Civil disobedience is a right, so bend (or break) a law or two under the watchful eye of the man. James Dean would do it.

How Many Wireless Routers Do You Have?

My dad loves the fact that he "borrows" the neighbor's wireless signal. He does not have a router at all. Most people have one. It sits next to the cable modem and zings along with a high-speed internet connection. I have three. One for the voice-over-IP phone system and one on each end of the house, linked together so I can wander around in my boxer shorts, laptop in tow, typing entries for this blog. What does it all mean? Who knows, but there is probably some connection for your product or service in measuring things like this. Non-standard demographic, personality, or habitual data can mean a lot... if only you can find the right, strange, little niche and align it with your purpose.

"I'm A Bit Of A Whiz With These Things"

From TalentZoo.com ... Of all the things in the advertising business, nothing irks me more than having an ad or a piece of copy sent back to me by the client, re-written. Because inevitably, the result is a half-assed, watered-down, cliche-ridden mess. I don’t mean asking for changes such as modifying an odd word or sentence, adding appropriate technical info, or moving some paragraphs around. On the whole, those are OK. I’m talking about instances when the client looked at what I wrote, opened up a new Word document, and began re-typing. Clearly, it’s the one bugaboo that writers have to put up with more than art directors. Because clients can often ask for idiotic suggestions in designs or layouts, but they can’t whip out Quark or Photoshop and make it happen. Everyone, however, knows how to use a word processor. Is the world moving toward more half-assed technological dexterity or are professionals going to look that much better in the face of increasing amateur incompetence?

Did You Know That...

... materials engineers design and fabricate different types of textiles and elastics for use in socks based on the friction coefficients of the usual amount of hair present on an average leg? No, you had no idea. And your customers could not care less about why their socks stay up, either, as long as they do - especially if they are warm and comfortable while they are staying there.

Stones And A Butterfly

Iron Butterfly released their first album in 1967. Not many people noticed. In 1968, however, their album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida became the first platinum album in music history, in large part due to the unconventional and revolutionary format of its eponymous single. By the end of 1970, they had released two more albums, neither of which achieved any level of commercial or critical success. That was the end of Iron Butterfly. The Rolling Stones released their first album in 1964. Over the course of several more albums spanning the next four decades, they became one of the seminal bands in music history. Their latest album was released in September, 2006 and inaugurated with a concert in Boston, attended by a sold out crowd of 44,000 enthusiastic fans. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but reinvention is the mother of longevity.