Small business marketing: To beat the big guys, play a different game
Sage Advice, LLC
Paul Sage's Marketing Work and Observations
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Let’s all get on the same page and not talk past each other.
“I do not think that word means what you think it means” – Inigo Montoya, “The Princess Bride”
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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.
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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.
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In April 2014 I wrote a post about Ozarka water being bottled in Texas, and proudly branded as such right here in Arkansas, where my intuition always (and incorrectly) told me Ozarka came from Arkansas, land of the Ozarks.
Click here to see the original post.
The post is likely to reach 600 views in 2022, breaking the annual record of 592 set in 2016. Like Lionel Messi and Tom Brady, this old boy keeps on scoring, year after year.
Blog content doesn’t die. Sometimes it keeps getting more popular. Who knows, maybe “Ozarka is made in Texas” will hit 700 in 2023.
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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?
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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.
Rosser Reeves Star Ruby at Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC
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