I have always taken the view that marketing is a professional discipline. I have always tried to behave in a manner which reflects that view. Unfortunately, much of our industry does not behave in such a manner. Further, this is reflected in the standard of publication produced by our industry. Rather than aiming to edify [...]
Archive | May, 2012
Conservative Entrepreneurs
One would have thought that the term “Conservative Entrepreneur” is an oxymoron. Almost by definition, you wouldn’t think an entrepreneur is that conservative? The fact of the matter is however, that Western Australia is probably one of the most entrepreneurial places on the planet and it probably has more entrepreneurial business people per head of [...]
Embracing Psychology – Behaviourism
It amazes me that the marketing and communication industry still think that effective marketing or communication is all about “creativity” and “big ideas”. Certainly, both are important to attracting attention, engaging people and communicating a message. Ultimately however, we are surely in the business of “behaviour management” or more specifically getting people to do something [...]
National Broadband Network – Great for Marketing – Great for Everyone
Like everyone else, I have heard a lot of criticism of the National Broadband Network and the costs involved in establishing it. I suspect our forefathers also heard a lot of criticism of the Snowy Mountain Scheme and the East West Railway Line. One of the things that occurs to me about Australia is we [...]
Google Researches Holiday Season in US
In 2011, Google researched online sales over the holiday season in the United States. Following are some interesting statistics: E-commerce grew 15% over the 2010 year 76% of consumers researched online prior to purchasing during the holiday season 4% of online visits to retailers websites were from mobile devices 9% of online sales were [...]
Pathetic Headlines
I have just had cause to flick through the “New Homes” supplement in The West Australia on Saturday, 28 April 2012. I am amazed by some of the headlines. Consider: • “Take your new home to another level” – how banal a pun can one think of for an ad for a two storey home [...]
The Importance of Personal Branding
Whether they like it or not, everyone has (or is) a brand. Whether we like it or not, we make judgments about each and every person we meet. The fact is, we can’t help it – it’s human nature. The facts upon which we make our judgments about individuals are many and range from the [...]
Branding – When Being Distinctive is Not Enough
In my view, nowhere near enough effort is put in to ensuring that brands are distinctive. There are far too many me too brands on the market. What’s more, very often marketing communication firms concentrate more on communicating in a distinctive way than they do on making the brand distinctive. Certainly, they fail to embrace [...]