How We Judge Books… and What You Should Do About It

We’ve all heard the age-old admonishment. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

What a joke.

In a time when we are all subject to constant information overload, there literally is no time to judge a book – or anything else for that matter by anything more than its cover.

Thankfully, it appears that we human beings are intuitively equipped to make snap judgments with shocking accuracy. If you doubt this point, pick up a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink (The Power of Thinking Without Thinking). In it, he shares countless examples of people reaching amazingly insightful conclusions with seemingly almost no data on which to base their positions.

(more…)

What Happens When You Put the CUSTOMER In Charge of Your Marketing?

A while ago I wrote a post asking the question, “who is really in charge of your marketing?” My intent was to highlight the marketing impact (for better or worse) of the rank and file staffers who come face-to-face with customers.

Recently however, I have noticed something truly fascinating that I believe may very well change marketing forever.  And it forces me to revisit this same issue of who’s in charge of marketing.

This time I would ask you to consider the role of your customer in the marketing equation.  No… I’m not talking about generating referrals.  I’m actually talking about the customer as a deciding and active force in an organization’s marketing.

(more…)

When Overt Benefits and Dramatic Differences Are Hard to Find…

A professional marketer recently suggested that the marketing principles I’ve been addressing related to overt benefit, dramatic difference, and real reasons to believe are outdated… they no longer apply since the dawn of category competition.

The example that she cited was that of GM, Ford, and Chrysler perfecting these principles only to converge on a “commodity position” and obviously struggle in the marketplace.

(more…)