At one of my mastermind meetings, we had a really great discussion about being selective with our time and energy to be able to focus and get really really productive. Quite a few of us had been wanting to de-clutter our time, so to speak, and some of us had made some great progress in that area. All of us knew that we could improve even further. We thought it would be useful to put our heads together with any tips and tricks that we had that could help others in the group in this department. Towards the end of the session we had quite a number of great suggestions and I figured these tips … [Read more...]
Marketing is branding
One of the reasons I fell in love with the subject of marketing was that when I did my MBA I quickly realised that marketing is the very heart of every business. Without marketing there can be no business. Non-marketing people often hate it when us marketing nerds harp on about how “business = marketing”. The thing is though, it’s true. I cannot stress this enough, so I figured it would be good to enlist the help of two of my favourite business gurus in management and marketing in the last century: Peter Drucker and Al Ries, to drive home the message of just how important marketing … [Read more...]
I’d like to teach the world to… do marketing ;)
We are getting to that time of year when I need to see one of my favourite adverts of all time. You remember it. That Coca-Cola ad with all the people on the hilltop singing about how they'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony :) I love that ad. To me, once I see that ad, then the holidays are coming. I'm a singer (bet you didn't know that - who knows, I might give you a little sample sometime lol ;) ... but I'm not attempting to teach the world to sing - there are plenty of good people out there doing that ;) I do want to teach the world about marketing though. … [Read more...]
Owning or Renting Your Marketing
Those that have been following me for a while might accuse me of being anti-advertising. So I want to address that today. I am not against advertising, per se. However, I want to make sure that businesses are always using the marketing activities most suited to themselves, their market and their brand, and activities that give them the best return on investment (hmmmm very much a business phrase! :) - and activities that can be measured to show that they are really delivering results and that all important ROI. Unfortunately, many of us just throw adverts out there and don't think … [Read more...]