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Don’t ignore “Ignore Everybody”

By on April 2, 2010 in books, creativity

In Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, Hugh MacLeod shares his 40 keys to creativity with straight talk and no apologies. There are no silver bullets, and instead he talks about refreshingly honest things like the fact that selling is harder than it looks, you have to put in the hours and you [...]

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Responsible Reading: Marketing Management

By on August 27, 2008 in books, execution responsible, roi responsible, strategically responsible

Seems every marketing book claims to offer the silver bullet—the marketing secret that guarantees incredible success. I’ve read 100′s of marketing books—including some great ones—but there are no shortcuts, folks. To be a Responsible Marketer, you need a strong grounding in the fundamentals. You won’t learn them in a three-day seminar, and probably don’t have [...]

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Little changes can have big effects

By on July 24, 2008 in books, word of mouth

I’m not sure why, but for some reason, The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell has come up in four or five conversations I’ve had in the last few weeks. It’s hard to believe the book has been out since January of 2002. Given the fact it was on most best-seller lists for over two years [...]

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Pump up the volume to improve marketing? Maybe not.

By on June 3, 2008 in books, commercialization, information overload, message responsible

Gilmore Group I’ve spoken about the effects of information overload for over a decade, and have written a post or two on the subject as well. Because info glut makes it so difficult to break through, as marketers we’ll try just about anything: We’ll make our ads bigger. While big ads are usually better than [...]

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Where can I get my Culture Decoder ring?

By on May 27, 2008 in books, research, strategically responsible, videos

I first learned about Clotaire Rapaille back in 2004 in a fascinating Frontline episode entitled The Persuaders that discussed the way advertisers and some of the world’s largest companies’ are working to persuade consumers what to buy, whom to trust, and what to think. Watch the entire program by clicking on the link above, or [...]

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10 ideas to simplify your marketing

By on May 13, 2008 in books, creativity, execution responsible, message responsible, simplicity, usability, word of mouth

1. Communicate fewer ideas. Google’s initial success was due to the fact that they eliminated nearly everything from the search page. Remember what search engines looked like before Google? So often, less is more. Two ideas are better than three. But one idea is best. 2. Don’t use big words when small words will do. [...]

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Good things come in small packages

By on May 1, 2008 in books, branding, creativity, simplicity

Earlier this year, I asked you to Help define the buzzword marketers love (and I hate). Yep, that buzzword was (and remains) the word “branding.” Enter The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design by Marty Neumeier. The first thing you notice, the book is perhaps the shortest 200 pages [...]

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What are you doing to drive word of mouth?

By on February 13, 2008 in books, word of mouth

Each month, the Outsource Marketing Book Club gathers to review a marketing book of interest and chat it out. Our goal is simple: find new ways to help our clients. Everyone knows word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing, and for that reason it’s one of the ingredients of Responsible Marketing. Problem [...]

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For the library: William Zinnser’s “On Writing Well”

By on December 17, 2007 in books

Recently I shared a copy of On Writing Well, by William Zinsser with an Outsource Marketing client. It may well be the 10th copy of the book that I’ve given away. It’s that good. My former partner Ken Mays said it best: We bought a copy of this book after reading an article about an [...]

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Preview the Responsible Marketing book

By on November 20, 2007 in books, casting responsible, environmentally responsible, execution responsible, information overload, message responsible, roi responsible, socially responsible, strategically responsible

Why is marketing ROI is an oxymoron for most companies? “Spend more, get less” just doesn’t pencil. There is a pathway to marketing that delivers results, but it might not be the path you’d expect. Here’s a link to a white paper-length preview of my upcoming book entitled, you guessed it, Responsible Marketing. In it, [...]

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