Brand is about connection. Human connection. When do humans connect? When we have shared values. Shared interests. Shared mission. Shared challenges. Shared fulfillment. Put it all together, and you have a shared journey. Demonstrating a shared journey engenders trust. Behaving consistently on that journey cements trust. Acting consistently in the best interests of the customer…
I’m betting this has happened to you too — if you’ve made a campaign contribution to ANY candidate — even just one — you’ve just been added to 2 million email lists representing other candidates around the country of a similar affiliation, and you are now getting PUMMELED with emails from all of them, asking…
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes. OUR BRAND — THE INDISPENSABLE PLACE WE HOLD IN OUR CUSTOMERS’ LIVES Simply, our brand is three things: the promise we make to our customers how well we keep that promise the resulting customer perceptions that either build trust and loyalty, or feelings of dissonance Customer perceptions will be shaped…
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes. What did we ever do before email? Well, here’s what we didn’t do. We didn’t waste time responding to countless conversations and requests in a never-ending ticker tape of instant messages. We didn’t have to deal with tons and tons of unsolicited spam cluttering our inboxes. And, we didn’t have to constantly…
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes. Hi marketing fans! Today, I’d like to talk about something that is quite the rage — digital marketing. I’d also like to discuss something that is often talked about, but a bit more fuzzy in nature — brand. Help wanted. If you haven’t been out there looking for a job…
Hello, marketing writers! (And that’s anyone who’s a business person.) Welcome to cleaner, smoother communications. I’m going to show you a really simple method for greatly reducing the number of typos in your writing — whether it’s a video script or an email to Sally down the hall. Now, notice the title of this piece…
Is that phrase, or something similar, anywhere on your company website, brochures, advertising or press releases? Get rid of it. It isn’t credible. All of your competitors can (and probably do) make the same claim with the same authority. The self-proclaimed kind. As in, “I can certainly rationalize, based on one criterion or another, why…
As marketers, we’re told time and again that the way to score points with customers is to personalize our communications to them. We’ve really taken that to heart. We’re doing everything we can to get personal with our customers. Problem is, the way many of us our doing this is guaranteed to backfire. Here are…
The headline of this article is a trick. Normally, we think of Customer Service and Marketing as two distinct company functions and departments. And that’s probably getting a lot of companies into trouble…even if they don’t realize it. Customer service IS marketing. How a customer (or prospect) is made to feel while dealing with your…
Greetings, fellow marketers. What I am about to espouse may seem like blasphemy to some marketers. If that’s you, feel free to read a more gratuitous article. I’m here to provide some unvarnished opinion, based on decades of observation, and some plain old common sense. MARKETING MANIPULATIVELY An awful lot of marketing these days seems…