Marketing Magic to a Thumping Beat.

We have all been in a business meeting presenting an idea that we are convinced will make our company more successful, reduce costs, or increase sales only to suddenly find ourselves back on our heels, defensive and stumbling as we retreat from a withering storm of criticism, questions and negativity. By the end of the meeting our idea is a smoldering wreck burning in the center of the board room table or has been banished to the purgatory of “committee study” doomed to be ignored, watered down or simply forgotten. What can we do to prevent our ideas from crashing and burning? How can we become bulletproof and take our good ideas with us? This is the central question posed in the book “Buy*in” by John P. Kotter. This little gem provides practical advice, verbal shields and effective diffusion methods that help you defend a good idea from those with their own agenda.  Using a fictitious public meeting for a library technology proposal as the example, “Buy*in” introduces you to a...

In times of economic uncertainty, many businesses wonder if enlisting an ad agency to create a brand for their product is worth the time and expense. My response? It all depends on how successful they want to be, and for how long. Print ads come in two varieties, the branding ad and the sales ad. Branding ads are those that try to position a company and its product in a specific niche. If successful, they should identify with a particular target market and reach out to those to whom the brand is intended. The sales ad works off of the brand positioning and makes specific product or service offers to a well-defined audience. Both types of ads are important parts of selling a product or service, but I would argue that the sale can’t come before the brand. In my experience, too many companies try to jump immediately to the sales ad without spending the time building a brand. As consumers we see these ads every day. Unfortunately for the advertiser, few actually catch, or keep, our att...