Considering hiring a marketing agency? Agencies do what you can’t do by yourself.
Leave a comment
Brand Strategy
Are You Really Ready to Rebrand?
REBRANDING sounds like a great idea, maybe even a quick fix to your marketing malaise, but do you really know what’s involved in an effective rebranding effort? Check out this article from forbes.com to learn more. The article features recommendations from 14 industry experts, including Michele Markham, President and CEO, EAG Advertising & Marketing.
I did a podcast!
I was a guest on Digital Madvertising, Episode 16. We talked about the places I’ve been and the things I’ve seen in my marketing career. It’s 49 minutes of Mad Man fun and nostalgia.
Super Bowl LVII Commercials and Timeline
Here is every ad, every scoring play, and more from Super Bowl LVII (57) on February 12, 2023.
I loved the ads featuring dogs (Amazon and Farmer’s Dog), the very edgy Blue Moon ad that gave the spotlight to two bland competitor brands, and the Google Pixel 7 ad showing amazing new technology.
The ARC of Marketing
I just looked up MARKETING on Wikipedia. I have a headache. Here’s what Wiki says;
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emphasize in advertising; operation of advertising campaigns; attendance at trade shows and public events; design of products and packaging attractive to buyers; defining the terms of sale, such as price, discounts, warranty, and return policy; product placement in media or with people believed to influence the buying habits of others; agreements with retailers, wholesale distributors, or resellers; and attempts to create awareness of, loyalty to, and positive feelings about a brand.
That’s one sentence. It has one period, which comes after the late and singular appearance of the word “brand.”
Maybe we need something simpler and more memorable. How about this: Marketing is an ARC: The business of Acquiring, Retaining, and Cultivating CUSTOMERS.
Acquire: Attract customers you don’t already have.
Retain: Keep the customers you have, work to keep them satisfied.
Cultivate: Grow spending and engagement from the customers you have.
What do you think?
I’m Three Degrees of Separation from Don Draper
I came across this “baby” at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in DC last week. https://geogallery.si.edu/10002811/rosser-reeves-star-ruby
The Rosser Reeves Star Ruby was donated to the Smithsonian by Mr. and Mrs. Rosser Reeves in 1965. Rosser Reeves was an American advertising executive and pioneer of television advertising. His ads were focused around what he coined the unique selling proposition (USP), the one reason the product needed to be bought or was better than its competitors. These often took the form of slogans such as M&M’s “melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”
Don Draper, the main character in Mad Men, is based on Rosser Reeves. It was Reeves who created the “It’s Toasted” slogan for Lucky Strike cigarettes. In “Mad Men,” Don Draper saves the Lucky Strike account with his last-minute “It’s Toasted” pitch.
Now, here is where it gets local. Rosser Reeves son, Rosser Scott Reeves, Jr., was our neighbor right here in Little Rock. Not only was Reeves Jr’s dad the real-life Don Draper, but his uncle was the even-more-famous David Ogilvy. Talk about a marketing pedigree!
And that’s how I’m three degrees of separation from Don Draper.
How Elvis Met Nixon Is How Branding Leads to Sales
Maybe you’ve heard the story. Maybe you’ve seen the photos. In case you haven’t, here’s the recap:
Forty-two years ago today, early in the morning of December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley showed up, unannounced, at the gates of the White House to deliver a letter he had written to President Richard Nixon.
Transcript of letter from Elvis to President Nixon 12 21 1970
Elvis wanted to meet with the President and he wanted the title and badge of Federal Agent for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Elvis got everything he asked for. By lunchtime. That day.
How did Elvis do it?
THE BRAND: By 1970, sixteen years into his show biz career, Elvis Presley had evolved into Elvis. The bejeweled, cape-wearing, “See See Rider” singing, Vegas-playing Elvis. Elvis was a brand that everybody recognized and many respected. When Elvis showed up at the door — even the…
View original post 204 more words
A unique selling proposition it is
If you don’t live in Arkansas (and there’s a good chance you don’t) you’re missing the fun of Arkansas advertising. Today in my fair city of Little Rock I was listening to a local radio station and the spokesman for a Chevrolet dealership pitched the Impala as “the car for the man who’s not trying to impress anybody.”
I doubt that’s what the folks in Detroit had in mind for copy, but you have to admit it’s unique. Not unique in the way Rosser Reeves intended for a USP. I’d bet nobody else positions it the way we do in Arkansas. The 2014 Impala. Shown here in Razorback Red.
The 2014 Chevy Impala. It’s nothing special, and that’s what’s special about it.
It’s Academy Sports, NOT Sports Academy!
Its name is simple, its logo features a capital A, but too many people call it “Sports Academy.” WRONG!! It’s Academy Sports. OK, officially Academy Sports + Outdoors (with a plus sign). Maybe people confuse it with Sports Authority, a smaller competitor with little to no retail presence in my neck of the nation. Drives me nuts. It’s a good store with good stuff. Get it right.
Have a nice day, and enjoy the 4th of July weekend, States United of America.
Up in smoke. There went my Kebab/Philly/Mexican lunch.
Last September I commented on a restaurant that was all over the menu board:
https://paulsagemarketing.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/yadda-yadda-yadda-served-here/
A bad stroke of luck for all you Kebab/Philly/Mexican and More fans. Aladdin’s has turned to vapor. How ironic.
Paul Sage - Marketing 