Paul

Tale of Two Marketing Teams

When the marketing team gets it right – when they exhibit at the right shows, advertise in the right media and make contact with the right journalists – and put in the effort to generate leads and create opportunities, it’s critical for the other departments to take the baton and run with it when it’s their turn as part of a coordinated team effort. It only takes one rude person to drop the baton and scuttle the effort for everyone.

Paul August 21, 2012

Anger At Root of Staples Easy Button Campaign

I’m not sure it’s that everything has gradually become more difficult. I think it’s that everything we’ve been led to believe is easy to use and would make our lives smoother and easier has failed to do so. We’re all angry about it and the Staples Easy Button ad campaign taps our frustration.

Paul April 20, 2012

Letter Urges Action in Government Affairs

Monumental efforts are required today to keep even more burdensome government involvement from decimating our companies. We need to be involved, especially at the local level, per this letter published in the March Textile Services.

Paul March 13, 2012

Tell Your Advertising Agency the Good News – and four other ideas for superior results

I was asked by a friend what he should be doing to make sure his advertising agency delivers superior results in selling his consumer product. I was impressed at the question, at the recognition that his actions directly affect the results, that he felt a responsibility for the success as a partner rather than feeling he had simply hired a vendor. The more we talked, the more I realized others might find this useful so I condensed our conversation into this post.

Paul January 11, 2012

Lowe’s Boycott a Lesson in Media Planning

Sure, some PR person will soon write up a case study declaring what the Lowe’s PR team did wrong amid the uproar over the company’s decision to pull its advertising from the TV show All-American Muslim but the fatal failure in this fiasco falls not upon the crisis PR response but upon the media planning.

Paul December 19, 2011

Superior Design Gets Prospects Ready

After a few months of reading about architecture and a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, I happened upon a manufacturer’s spec sheet and it occurred to me that the art of building design is very much like the art of graphic design. We don’t always recognize superior graphic design until we see examples that don’t measure up, which is what sparked this post.

Paul November 16, 2011

Word Up! Get Command Of English To Boost Your News Coverage

One of the more uncomfortable questions I’m often asked is, “What do you think of this press release?” Sometimes the most valuable selling point is buried towards the end. In other cases there’s so much fluffy nonsense it’s hard to figure out why the press release was even written. But in nearly every case, they read as if very little importance had been placed on the words selected. Here’s why words matter.

Paul September 22, 2011

Beware Mind Control Power of Your Logo

Chain restaurants try to ensure that what you get at one location is exactly the same as what you get at every other location. This consistency minimizes the perceived risk in selecting a restaurant. The idea originated with McDonald’s and most others fail to do it as well as the golden arches. But six-year olds don’t know that. They do, however, know their logos.

Paul August 16, 2011

Enter Awards And Boost Your PR Coverage

If you want to be sure your product or service gets the editorial attention you know it deserves, submit it for an award. While some busy editors may delete your press release even before reading it, they’re quite careful to review entries to their awards programs.

Paul July 12, 2011

So Much Focus on the Medium, Don’t Forget the Message

Many marketing professionals obsess about finding the ideal mix of advertising, direct mail, publicity, social media, email, TV and other media, the “media mix” per advertising textbooks. Certainly, it’s effective to use several different channels but many of these marketers seem so focused on the medium and the ratio that they forget about the message. Remember, the point is to deliver a sales message.

Paul June 27, 2011