Blog
Dog Gone Good Marketing
Sep 18, 2020
Sometimes a dog can make good marketing. It worked for Richard Nixon in 1952. When General Eisenhower ran for president he choose Richard Nixon to be his running mate. Then there were accusations of...
Continue ReadingBeing Different Can Be Good Marketing
Aug 25, 2020
I once had a lawn maintenance business owner come to me for door hangers. He wanted a list of services he provided — like mowing, edging, and trimming — printed on them. My response was to...
Continue ReadingIs Your Advertising Believable
Aug 18, 2020
Many years ago I read a story about a family that lived near a football stadium. On game days people would park in their yard. They put up signs threatening to tow cars away but people would park ther...
Continue ReadingUse These Five Steps to Grow Your Business
Mar 05, 2019
There are five important steps to grow your business. The focus here is to attract new customers and keep them. We'll start by just cutting to the chase and listing them. We will later go into more de...
Continue ReadingWhere's Your Business Card Now? Part 1: Using Promotional Products
Nov 19, 2019
Sign Up for Our E-mail List - Click Here So you have a contact. You give him or her your business card and/or a brochure, proposal or something. Then, at some later point in time, the client wants...
Continue ReadingWhere's Your Business Card Now? Part 2: Be Where I Can Find You
Nov 20, 2019
The last article was about a client being able to find you. The solution offered in that article was to give the client a promotional product, like a refrigerator magnet or jar opener, that would be s...
Continue ReadingWhen Getting Noticed is not Enough
Mar 05, 2020
The first step to attracting new clients is to get noticed. But that is not enough. After all, we notice many advertisements everyday but have no interest in pursuing them. Your ad is wasted if someon...
Continue ReadingMarketing Lesson - Florida Theatre
Oct 18, 2019
When I was young Forsyth Street in downtown Jacksonville, Florida, was where most the movie theatres were. First were the Imperial and Empress, and across the street the Arcade. But the Florida was on...
Continue ReadingMarketing Lesson - U-Haul Truck
Oct 13, 2019
Do you see the marketing lesson here? Yes, I see two. The first is the medium being used. U-Haul is getting a lot of exposure for almost free. Other than the cost of painting the back of the truck the...
Continue ReadingMarketing Lessons I Learned from Walmart
Feb 23, 2020
Walmart was a new breed of retail department store. They, along with others, started in the early 1960s. These stores had a different concept. And, years later, many were gone but Walmart survived. Wa...
Continue ReadingThe Marketing Lesson I Learned from Game Theory
Jan 21, 2020
There is an important principle in game theory: Assume you have an intelligent opponent. This means that you must assume that, when you do something, your competitor will make the best decision he can...
Continue ReadingUsing Curiosity in Marketing
Nov 23, 2019
When you advertise in a crowded space, like the Pinterest page above, you need to do two things: First, you have to get noticed. You can use bright colors, crazy design, or, in this case, plain white ...
Continue ReadingLess is More: Part Two - Advertising
Nov 05, 2019
One of the great things to do in advertising is tell a story. I've seen videos that keep going and going with no end in site. I've seen direct mail pieces with long stories about the product. These al...
Continue ReadingLess is More: Part One - Company Name
Oct 29, 2019
Once upon a time companies often had long company names: Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A & P), International Business Machines (IBM), and, of course, Intern...
Continue ReadingWhen Out-Gunned by Your Competition, Don't Do What This Auto Manufacturer Did
Oct 24, 2019
This is the Rambler American, a low-priced passenger car. The manufacturer, American Motors Corporation, is long gone because of their fatal mistake. They were competing with General Motors, Ford, and...
Continue ReadingDon't Just Market to Potential Customers
Nov 13, 2019
Sometimes it pays to market to people who are not potential customers. Medical providers market to doctors, not because they want the doctors to become patients, but because they want the doctors' pat...
Continue Reading