What In The Heck is This Writer Talking About?

One of the most inspirational and successful copywriters out there — my guy Bob Bly — penned another, typically-insightful piece that left me nodding in agreement.
Bob writes in a simple, easy-to-read style. It’s pleasurable prose. I absorb so much information from his writings and don’t even feel like I’m reading.
Anyway, his topic was conversational copy — [...]

Going Where Other Companies Fear to Tread

One of the greatest things about marketing is that there is no right or wrong. Some ideas soar; others bomb. But we keep testing and tweaking and experimenting. We’re a little bit like mad scientists in that regard.
Or maybe even crazy. At least that’s what one focus group believed when they were asked to assess [...]

Marketing to Each Face in The Crowd

John Greco, CEO/President for the Director Marketing Association, was right on when he coined this classic phrase:
“It’s about marketing directly, not direct marketing.”
As a copywriter who strives to write from the customer’s perspective, I live and work by those words. They’re plastered above my monitor just in case my thoughts drift.
 More and more, savvy marketers [...]

Give Your Customers More to Smile About

“Smiling Bob” is back on the airwaves. Perhaps you’ve seen him — that happy, wholesome-looking guy with the silly grin. He’s more than just happy to see you.
Bob is the face on Enzyte, advertised on television as “the once-daily tablet for male enhancement.” He was down and out for a while as the company dealt with various [...]

Al Gore’s Advice on How to Get Personal

Marketing is getting more and more personal. Even Al Gore has warmed to this new-world reality.
One day after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts at increasing awareness of global warming, the former VP spoke at an advertising convention and warned that marketers who don’t adapt quickly to the “new media model” will be left [...]

Why is This Tough Guy Such a Marketing Wimp?

OK, help me out here, will you?
We all know celebrity endorsements pack a lot of advertising power. Think along the lines of George Foreman (indoor grill), Paul Newman (organic food products) and Michael Jordan (Air Jordan sneakers).
There’s an obvious connection between each celebrity and the product he’s promoting.
Then there’s the case of Brett Favre. Favre is one of [...]

Oh baby! Be ready when new markets arise

In one corner, a sick toddler – whining, fussing and producing one dirty diaper after another.
In the other corner, a professional athlete — stout, ripped and massive, the poster boy for machismo.
In the diverse world of target marketing, they represent two huge and distinctive  groups of prospects, requiring product marketing campaigns that are as different as night and day.
The [...]

Viral Marketing Made Him Even Smarter

How’d you like to win the lottery some morning while sipping a latte at Starbucks? Richard Tait did the equivalent. 
Tait is the inventor and brains behind the wildly popular board game “Cranium.” When it  was created in 1998, Tait and Co. were unable to find any retailers to sell their new product. And so they [...]

A Marketing Department with Its Pants Down

For those of us who strive to achieve empathy and understanding with our target market, this tale from the trenches is about everything you should NOT do. Talk about missing the mark! Worse yet, the error in judgment was committed by a college marketing department.
Seems the educators at Illinois State University thought it’d be a good idea to [...]