Three steps to agreement
Peoples reaction to a question, choice, or situation is always coloured by their experience, education, background, and a myriad of other qualitative factors. Where there is a divergence of views, it can become heated, as people invest emotionally in an...
Visual analytics and statistics
Analytics is perhaps the buzzword of the moment, it seems to be attracting some of the same purveyors of snake-oil previously touting SEO as the saviour of all sins. Amongst the detritus, however, there are some gems. Avinash Kaushik's "Occum's Razor" blog is one...
WCB spits the curd
It has been pretty certain that control of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter (WCB) would change since the opening bid by Bega Cheese in September last year. It rapidly became an auction as rival bidders emerged, and WCB shareholders struck the short term jackpot. The...
The idea muscle
We all know instinctively that with exercise, we get better. Running, jumping, swimming, all that stuff makes us fitter, healthier, but it takes time and effort, and we are all busy. Busy doing what? Besides, running is boring, sweaty, and bad for the knees. We also...
Marketing flatulence
Every day I get stuff by email that purports to make me some sort of compelling offer, something that some dill out there kids himself (herself?) that I need. It often starts: Dear Alan (wrong spelling) I am the CEO of Buttstuffers & Co, we are experts at...
Return on Humans
Most business leaders are familiar with the notion of return on capital, funds invested, etc, and those same leaders often say something along the lines of "our people are our most important asset" weather they believe it of r not, behave like it is the truth or not....
Advertising for boring products
Low interest and confronting categories present problems for marketers. It is relatively easy to generate interest in a new beer, a car, fashion item, but what about insurance, toilet cleaner, and petrol? Typically we frame communications in the context of a problem...
Pizza brand leveraging
Perhaps following on from the success of McDonalds "Angus" strategy, Domino's has launched a "Wagyu Pizza" for our indulgence. I like a pizza as much as the next bloke, but it is not one of the major food groups, just an occasional easy cholesterol hit. Being asked to...
Expectation power
Hugh Mackay once told me as a young marketer something I have never forgotten: "Allen, attitudes follow behavior, so work to change behavior, and attitudes will follow" . He went on to give several examples to convince me that the advertising I was planning at the...
14 Marketing Trends for 2014
It may be a bit later in January than most blog posts prognosticating about the coming year, but at least they are different from the pack, so here goes.. Simple is the new complicated. All the conversations about social media, analytics, fragmentation of just about...