Don’t Test Whispers

Key to marketing success is a disciplined approach to testing ideas and action. After all, marketing writing and consulting is filled with tremendously attractive and detailed theories about action “X”…
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The Brand Building Power of Product Advertising

Funny how names are. A specific type of advertising was labeled “brand advertising”. So the myth developed that in order to build brand, you need to use brand advertising. Except,…
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Kobalt Tools Becomes a 2012 “Brand to Watch” (An Atomic Client)

Landor Associates has just published their top 10 “Breakaway Brands” for 2012 and the list isn’t too surprising. Facebook leads off followed by Keurig, Skype, Amazon, Vizio, Samsung, YouTube, Netflix,…
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Store Brand? Manufacturer Brand? The Real Issue is Telling Consumers Something Meaningful.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about store brands competing with manufacturer brands – mostly talking about how store brands are thriving. This is to be expected – both…
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Research Shows that Smart Phones HELP Retail

The tech theorizers have suckered us into a mythology – the one where the Four Virtual Horsemen of the Tech Apocalypse destroy whatever they touch. So, as soon as someone…
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Setting Reasonable Expectations for Online Video Power

New media has found one more shiny new bauble… – this time it’s online video. Let the exaggerations and over-statement begin! (Oh, wait, they have…) Don’t get me wrong –
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New Book: “Building Brand with Direct Response Television”

With the October edition of Response Magazine, we have released my book “Building Brand with Direct Response Television…“. This book takes an unusual look at DRTV – focusing
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The Good and Bad of Steve Jobs’ Market Research Legacy

Have you heard the “Jobs Excuse”? When someone introduces a bad idea with “well Steve Jobs says” or “…just like Apple…”. It’s an old name dropping game that hopes to…
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Mediocrity: The Biggest Danger to Advertising Research

A recent AdAge article quotes Bernbach as saying “The more you research, the more you play it safe, and the more you waste money. Research inevitably leads to conformity.”… (
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Brand Begins and Ends with Your Products (Or Services).

I once sat in a meeting discussing a highly successful TV campaign. Underlying the discussion there’s this funny unspoken question from the brand side of the house: “How can it…
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Want Consumers To Pay Attention To Your Ads? Make Them Meaningful.

A few weeks ago I ran across this article titled “Four Reasons Why We Choose to Watch Ads”…. Seemed like a smart read because I always love to see
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The New (Old) Truth: Mass Media is the Key to Building Brands

For some time, marketing has been dominated by the theory that the way to success is getting your most loyal consumers to buy more. As a result, it’s become popular…
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Reading the Fossil Record: Why Mobile Retail Tracking Can’t Replace Focus Group Research

There was a post on Retail Wire this morning that pondered whether retailers will need traditional research once mobile tracking is “in place”. The question is interesting because it reveals …
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Facts, damn facts. Clickthrough Rates (CTRs) for Facebook Ads

Don’t you hate it when facts interfere with a good story? That must be the way Facebook feels today. Scoop is, somebody cared enough about where their money was going…
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Is Coupon Clipping Social Media’s Primary Value to Advertisers?

Ad agencies seem unable to resist the idea that there’s a “killer media” out there to fulfill their every dream. And that creates a tremendously dysfunctional business – which dashes…
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Smart Choices Make Online Videos that Drive Web (and Retail) Sales

What video content does a shopping consumer need and want?Marketers are encouraged to fill websites with exotic videos made with the most expensive production value. But too often those videos
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Five Reasons Consumers will “Friend” Your Company.

In my last post, I noted six hard truths or axioms… I’ve developed about social media. And while these are sobering thoughts, it’s only by facing a medium’s weaknesses that
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“Most Consumers Don’t Want to Be Your Friend”: Six Axioms of Social Media.

We’ve been sold the grand myth of social media marketing based on some rather flakey ideas. In particular, the ad biz has somehow convinced itself that the vast majority of…
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Impact Driver or Impact Wrench? Once More Hardware Marketers Hurt Themselves with Names

End-user confusion about drills and drivers is rampant – although the model in this stock photo looks more bored than confused.Tool makers have created a wilderness of product, category and
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New Media Noise: Living in a Third World Airport?

I generally enjoy reading Bob Garfield’s work. So I read his recent AdAge blog post about new media… with interest. In this post he recounts being bombarded in a foreign
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