All posts tagged advertising

5 Ways to Stand Out at Your Next Trade Show

Almost every industry has at least one annual gathering where all of the brands and companies you’ve ever heard of (and many you haven’t) come together to hock their goods. But the good majority of them don’t know much about trade show marketing. Whether you participate in a show that is strictly B2B or open to [...]

Volvo Takes the Pretension out of Luxury Marketing

I just read this article in Adweek about Volvo’s new campaign, which is pretty brilliant. The campaign goes after Mercedes and Audi, positioning the brand as luxury for real people, a strategy that we don’t often see in the world of luxury marketing. Here’s the TV spot that executes the strategy perfectly: What this campaign [...]

JCPenney CEO Fiasco a Symbol of a Dying Brand?

JCPenney’s marketing problems are bigger than ever, if you can believe it. After denying rumors of his departure for weeks, JCPenney CEO and former Apple exec, Ron Johnson, parted ways last week and the market cheered, rising nearly 11%. Then, when it was announced that Myron “Mike” Ullman (Johnson’s predecessor) would be his replacement, JCP’s shares quickly dropped again by 6%. [...]

Got A Good Slogan?

Good slogans are memorable; great slogans are unforgettable. Numerous companies have used slogans that aren’t a statement, rather a question such as Klondike’s “What Would You Do For A Klondike Bar?” Verizon’s “Can you hear me now?” and the California Milk Processor Board’s “Got Milk?” While the original Klondike campaign in 1982 featured the jingle [...]

Retro Ad of the Week: Sony Micro-TV, 1962

Long before the iPad Mini, before the miniaturization of the camera, video recorder, and personal computer, there was the Micro-TV, and it was the future. Or was it?  

A Moment of Marketing Clarity: Marketing + Innovation

“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two — and only two — basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.” – Peter Drucker

Retro Ad of the Week: TWA, 1950′s

This is a prime example of a headline you should NOT use for a luxury brand. No one cares about product names and numbers; they want to know what they will get out of the experience. The pictures begin to show the luxury experience, but the headline doesn’t do it justice. In another ad, TWA [...]

Reward Offered to Anyone Who Can Explain the WB Mason Campaign

As professional marketers, we suffer from an inability to enjoy advertising campaigns for their entertainment value. We dissect them, we analyze them, we try to identify the target, the USP, and the objective. It’s unfortunate, but it comes with the territory. I have a friend who is a director. He can’t just watch a movie [...]

When Your Brand Can Brag – and When It Can’t

Bragging is often frowned upon these days. Social media brought to the forefront what most ad agencies already knew: it’s all about the customer, not about the product. But some brands have earned the right to brag. Take Reese’s for example. They are perhaps the only brand that can get away with the one-word tagline: [...]

Isn’t There a Boat Builder Out There That Knows How To Sell a Boat?

We all know that the two greatest days in the life of a boat owner are the day they buy it and the day they sell it. This is because owning a boat comes with a constant stream of hassles. That’s just the way it is. For boaters, the good simply outweighs the bad. And [...]