Remember Your Audience

The makers of Cheez-It snacks weren’t thinking too well. Only a tiny precentage of their buyers would ever notice the name change from “Party Mix” to “Snack Mix.” My guess is that their staff were so excited about the new name that they felt they had to announce it on the box. The rest of […]

Spend the Time You Need – And No More

Have you ever looked closely at a mail truck? It’s a crude design… The bolts are exposed. The gas cap is visible. The corners are square. The windshield is nearly upright. But so what? Most of the time, it travels no more than 30 mph. Aerodynamics – no need. Style – why should they bother? […]

The Best Marketing Needs to Be Focused

My son is a junior in high school. This haul of mail was one day’s set of letters from colleges and universities wanting him to apply. Sadly for them, their mailings almost instantly end up in the recycle bin. Nothing distinguishes one from another. If any of those universities’ marketing departments actually had children in […]

Making Your Business Fun

Car magazine has a section at the back that lists all the new cars sold in the UK. That could be a boring list of facts and tables. It’s not. They injected it full of life and fun. Each car is categorized as being either “Good”, “Bad” or “Ugly”. Read the fine print here. Each […]

Simplify Your Message

Two receipts were given to me after I bought a few pieces of flagstone for a Saturday afternoon project. One was nicely generated by the cash register – complete with a little marketing message at the bottom (“On August 28th, the first 40 customers receive a free reusable bag!”). And then there was the no-technology […]