A New Definition Of Marketing.

As adopted in October 2007 by the American Marketing Asosciation.

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

I hope you find that communication to be as clear and useful as I did.

Gudang grosir baju anak murah - harga pabrik !!
www.gudanggrosiran.com Read More

Taking Aim With Flexible Branding.

Thanks to Ben's fabulous post, I read this one about flexible identity.

The fact that the visual representation of a brand can be flexible and still recognisable perhaps illustrates that brands are molecular, mean different things to different people and that single messages are overly restricting.

Designers know that people are smart enough to recognise variant logoes. Marketers should have similar faith in their ability to receive a number of different messages without becoming confused and know that this way lies the elusive grail of being able to engage with them in richer ways.

Gudang grosir baju anak murah - harga pabrik !!
www.gudanggrosiran.com Read More

Branded Utility Has To Be Useful.

A lot of the talk about the interesting concept of branded utility being the wave of the future seems to me to focus too much on the brand and not enough on the utility. If you ignore the latter, you'll end up with gimmicks and there will be no consumer memory of your actions.

This might be because the cited examples are always sexy products like Nike ID, but Tide got it right and proved (maybe emphasised) that even "boring" commodity products can have a huge impact.



It's all about remembering that little things make a real difference.

Gudang grosir baju anak murah - harga pabrik !!
www.gudanggrosiran.com Read More

Geek Marketing 201 - Don't Buy Our Product.

When I first saw Buglabs modular "computers", I had no real idea what they were but I knew that they were worth watching.

Then they won an innovation prize at CES and more people started paying attention. More impressive for me is that this uber-geeky business is not acting like a geek business. Here's their first sales announcement.

If this were 1997, this post would be chock full of blinking content as we announced our store's opening with pride. Instead, we'll be only slightly more subtle as we open the padlocks, and welcome you in to browse around. I want to take a moment to (and boy is this going to sound odd) potentially discourage certain shoppers:

For those of you who have ZERO programming experience, this isn't a great time to buy a BUG. It'd be like having a Web browser on your computer in 1988 (which would've been quite a feat, by the way): the platform works, but it doesn't have much going on. Right now, and for the next few months, our focus is building a developer community...

Now that's smart marketing. It recognises that a disappointed user is probably lost for good and that early adopters are not where the money is made. The geek content resides in the product - some people will care about it, most won't. It has no place in the marketing.

Gudang grosir baju anak murah - harga pabrik !!
www.gudanggrosiran.com Read More

In The Long Run We Are All Dead.

"There are no solutions, there are only rearrangements of problems."

David Mamet: November

So quit procrastinating, analysing and planning, just get out there and do something.

Gudang grosir baju anak murah - harga pabrik !!
www.gudanggrosiran.com Read More

Unchained America: Customer Service RIP?

The photo is of Taylor's diner in Independence, Oregon on the occasion of its closing in November 2006 - not because it wasn't profitable but because the newest Taylor generation have careers elsewhere. It's reproduced here courtesy of Dave Gorman who, last night, presented the first UK showing of his tremendous new film Unchained America documenting his attempt to cross the USA coast to coast in a 1970 Torino station-wagon while patronising only independent hotels, restaurants and gas stations. "Paying Mom & Pop and not The Man."

This romantic quest was inspired by his revulsion at the homogenous experience of touring the US as a performer that prompted a desire to find the true independent spirit of America. In doing so, he has created a lovely film about the changing face of small-town America that is filled with the humour you'd expect, but also with innumerable quiet insights into business and customer service - as was the Q & A session that followed the screening.

For me, one of his most telling remarks was that his hated corporate America experience had not been bad per se. Indeed it had been entirely acceptable and that was the problem. Think about it. When it comes to customer service, acceptable is such damning praise.

The essence of authenticity/experience/service is not mere consistency, it's much deeper than that.

1) It's about respooling till rolls from the 50s and sewing together typewriter ribbons because you can no longer get spare parts for your ancient but perfect cash register (paying attention to the small details that have huge impact).

2) It's about the people, not what they sell (there are always people - they may be virtual, but they are there in every business and they are who your customers remember).

3) It's about making the effort to make a difference (and realising that the customer notices when it happens because it makes a human connection).

It was suggested last night that such a journey could not even be attempted in ten years time, but the lessons of the film are timeless. If you can, make sure you see it.


(If you're not in the UK, I can only direct you here).

Gudang grosir baju anak murah - harga pabrik !!
www.gudanggrosiran.com Read More

Now That's What I Call Marketing.

"The best way to get a kid to go to bed is don't ask them if they want to go to bed, ask them what color jammies they want to wear"

Merlin Mann

Gudang grosir baju anak murah - harga pabrik !!
www.gudanggrosiran.com Read More