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Marketing puffery never pays

By on January 14, 2010 in authenticity, deceptive marketing, ethics, message responsible, no trust, positioning, videos

Seems we’ve been up to our eyeballs in positioning and message strategy work at Outsource Marketing lately. Of course, positioning should be the cornerstone of all your marketing communications—without meaningful differentiation, you’ve got nothin’, after all. But your positioning has to be more than simply unique and matter to your prospects. It has to be [...]

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Lose your job? Return your car.

By on January 7, 2009 in creativity, innovation, positioning, strategically responsible, videos, word of mouth

As retailer desperation reaches a fever pitch and discount signs pop up everywhere, here’s something a little different: With Hyundai’s Assurance Program, if you lose your job, you can return your car to the dealership. Any automaker could have done this, but they haven’t—yet. And Hyundai did it first. Not only will this drive word [...]

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Marketing lessons from Barack Obama

By on November 5, 2008 in branding, casting responsible, competition, innovation, multicultural marketing, positioning, social media, social networking, videos, viral marketing, word of mouth

Whether you are red or blue, you can’t deny Barack Obama’s marketing prowess. Here are a few lessons every organization should consider when they are seeking ‘votes’ from prospects: Develop strategies based on consumer insights. The Obama campaign clearly understood where America was hurting most, and developed strategies in response. Build an organization that can [...]

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Fail to plan? Plan to fail.

By on October 7, 2008 in positioning, research, strategically responsible

Since 1997 we’ve met with a lot of startups. Some become clients. Some don’t. Sometimes, it’s because we aren’t the right fit for them, or vice-versa. With startups we always want to learn if they are interested in Responsible Marketing or Drive-by Marketing as quickly as possible. In 2005, I met with a startup that [...]

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Is CUIL the worst launch ever?

By on July 30, 2008 in launch, positioning, strategically responsible, usability

Even though it just launched yesterday, by now you’ve probably heard of CUIL: the new search engine developed by former Googlers claiming it’s the largest, most-efficient search engine on the Internet. Results are grouped by content and instead of a single link and a snippet, longer text is offered, often along with images—a nice usability [...]

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Re-positioning requires more than words alone

By on June 9, 2008 in branding, positioning

Few brands ever truly reach the Holy Grail of marketing: Positioning so universal that the brand literally owns a word or phrase in the mind of the consumer. What pops into your mind when I say Starbucks. . . Volvo . . . Geek Squad? That word or phrase represents that brand’s positioning to the [...]

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The Republican Party’s depressing new slogan

By on May 19, 2008 in execution responsible, positioning, strategically responsible

It doesn’t matter whether you are Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian or Green Party member—this is rich. The House Republicans have a new fall agenda and a new slogan: The Change You Deserve Their thinking: This agenda is a reflection of House Republicans’ commitment to providing American families with the change they deserve: common-sense solutions to [...]

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Brand Tags reveals what people really think about brands

By on May 16, 2008 in branding, positioning

When speaking, I often do free association with brands, asking the audience to shout out any word or phrase that comes to mind when I name a brand. While most brands own a few words, in my experience, only one brand has delivered consistently: Volvo. When I say it, the words “safety” or “safe” are [...]

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I’ll take “responsibility” for $14

By on May 6, 2008 in branding, fun, positioning, simplicity, viral marketing, word of mouth

Ask a room full of people to shout out the single word that comes to mind when you say “Volvo,” 90% will say “safety.” Owning a meaningful word or phrase in the mind of the consumer is the holy grail of marketing, I’d say. To own a word is expensive and time consuming, isn’t it? [...]

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Gary Vaynerchuk on personal branding

By on March 12, 2008 in branding, positioning, social networking

My partner, Eric Anderson, has been urging me to profile WineLibraryTV.com host Gary Vaynerchuk since I launched this blog. An avid wine collector, Eric has watched Vaynerchuk’s video blog since its debut. Vaynerchuk’s energy, authenticity and social media savvy caught Eric’s attention, and a few others as well. Vaynerchuk is now one of the Internet [...]

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Personal positioning: Marketing yourself in a brand-oriented world

By on March 6, 2008 in positioning, strategically responsible

Last week I spoke at a career fair at the University of Washington. My topic was on some of the misconceptions employers and marketers have about Gen Y, but I really wanted talk with them about Personal Positioning. Why discuss Personal Positioning on the Responsible Marketing Blog? Like LeBron James, Angelina Jolie and Barack Obama, [...]

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