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...
Resolution for a new year
I am up around Armidale in the North of the state, yakking to a few contacts, a few people I have worked with over the years, and some potential clients. Nice area, good, although demanding agricultural land, long history of agricultural productivity and initiative,...
2014, better or different
Its the new year, 2014, January 6 to be exact, and I have been ruminating on the "List" every blogger accumulates and publishes early in January in the hope that they get noticed, and build some momentum for the year. All the research tells us that headlines that...
A mark out of 10
In a post in January last year, I made 10 predictions for 2013. In the interests of accountability, it is reasonable to see how I went. So, here goes: Marketing is digital and personal, mass marketing is dead! As with Mark Twain's quip that reports of his death appear...
Do’s and don’ts of the seasonal strategic “itch”
Just before Christmas, in an unusually hot and humid period, I was attacked by "mossies" while sleeping. The blighters feasted on my left shoulder, leaving a very itchy area. So what you ask, and fair enough to wonder at the relevance. It occurred to me that it...
The “Santa” brand.
It is Christmas day, my adult children are off doing stuff, my wife is working for the man, so I am left with my thoughts, the prospect of a late, and very big lunch, accompanied by perhaps a few too many sherbets, and this blog. It seems to me that the basic purpose...