Category Archives: Marketing

Why Your Food Doesn’t Look Like The Ad

Great marketing from McDonald’s, showing exactly how they get their food to look so good in photos: Instead of ignoring the question, avoiding it, or getting defensive (by say, comparing their products to other fast food chains’), McDonald’s opens up … Continue reading

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Taking Control of Your Life: Concierge Medicine

Dr. Solis was on the edge of burnout after 21 years of running a traditional medical practice.  Trying to see between 30 and 40 patients a day, keeping track of a roster of over 3,000 patients, and dealing with endless … Continue reading

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Changing Tides

Digital delivery and consumption has completely changed the publishing industry.  For thousands of years, reading was something you did by yourself.  Unless you announced it, nobody knew if you even opened a book you bought, let alone finished it.  Now, … Continue reading

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Scammer’s Logic

Why do “Nigerian” scammers say they’re from Nigeria?  After all, if you were running a widely known scam, wouldn’t you vary the details so you had a better chance of fooling a wider audience? Probably not.  In an interesting paper … Continue reading

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Good Point

The only Powerpoint advice you need, from Seth Godin, reproduced in part here, in case a meteor hits his server and this gem is lost forever: Communication is about getting others to adopt your point of view, to help them … Continue reading

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The $144,146,165 Button

Tiny changes can have massive results. Need proof?  Three buttons in a cab can increase tips 220%.

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Creating An Ownership Experience

Apple stores are a paradox.  People love them, even though the service is awful.  Yes, the service is better than Best Buy and other big retailers, but it’s still awful.  So why are Apple stores far and away the highest … Continue reading

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Sell Before You Build

Derek Sivers describes a marketing genius’ approach to writing: Marketing guru Jay Abraham, in the pre-internet days, would run classified ads in newspapers and magazines. If he wanted to write a book about something, he’d run a classified ad, taking … Continue reading

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Spin

[Tom Sawyer] had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it – namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. – … Continue reading

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Story Basics, According to Pixar

Pixar story artist Emma Coats tweeted a series of “story basics” she had picked up during her tenure at Pixar.  These were generously compiled by The Pixar Touch: #1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes. … Continue reading

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Forgeries on the Brain

When it comes to high art, almost nobody can tell the difference between an original and a good copy.  Even so, we overwhelmingly prefer the original.  Oxford scientists hooked up 14 volunteers to a functional MRI, and then showed them … Continue reading

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Diamond Psychology

Most people are probably aware that diamonds aren’t particularly rare and that their price is mostly a function of cartel control over the supply (De Beers) and good advertising.  While this is true, the story behind it is fascinating (and … Continue reading

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How Photographers Actually Spend Their Time

Note that this is true for literally every profession, especially the “glamorous” ones (click to enlarge): HT: Chase Jarvis

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How To Write

More excellent advice from David Ogilvy, founder of one of the preeminent advertising firms in the world: The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and … Continue reading

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The Element of Surprise

A really insightful email from Teller, of Penn & Teller fame, where he responds to a struggling magician’s request for advice on how to develop his stage presence and style.  A couple things to note: first, Teller is a celebrity, … Continue reading

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