Tag 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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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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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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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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Bad Career Advice: Just Network!

If you’ve ever looked for a job, you’ve undoubtedly been advised that the best way to get a one is through your network.  If you don’t have a network, all experts agree you need to get out and build one. … Continue reading

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Front-Running

Why does it matter who wins the South Carolina primary next week?  Why, after votes in only two other states, would a win for Mitt Romney make him the prohibitive favorite?  It’s an interesting psychological question that reaches far beyond … Continue reading

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Your Brand Is Irrelevant

Branding has been tremendously valuable over the last 100 years or so.  Even during the last five or ten years, pundits have been telling people to turn themselves into brands.  Brands are identifiable, they stand for something, they signify quality.  … Continue reading

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Liars, Damn Liars, and Quotes

Quotes and quips and one liners and zingers are fantastic.  The best ones can encapsulate a lifetime of wisdom into a single sentence.  But, the worst ones can be terribly misleading.  The trouble is separating the good from the bad. … Continue reading

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Invite, Don’t Sell

Windows and Orbitz provide totally open experiences: you can have whatever you like, anything is possible, but you’re going to have to work for it. Apple and Abercrombie & Kent chose a different direction: both provide totally tailored, curated experiences.  … Continue reading

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