“We have always said that advertising is just the icing on the cake. It is not the cake.” – Meg Whitman, Born Aug. 4, 1956. I love this metaphor. The product experience itself is the cake. It needs to be delicious even without icing. The icing just makes it that much more appealing, and when […]
No One Compliments the Icing on a Dirty Dog Poo Flavored Cake Read More »
“I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity – all I hope for in my clothes.” – Yves Saint Laurent, Born Aug. 1, 1936. You ever suffer from making things too damn complicated? Too specialized? Too refined and too hard to adapt? That can make it seem like you
Blue Jeans: The Secret of Replicability, Scalability, and Success Read More »
“There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his.” – Eric Hoffer, Born Jul. 25, 1902. Cialdini called this the “Law of Reciprocity”, triggered when you do a favor for someone unbidden. They then feel a strong obligation to return the favor. We don’t like being forced
How to Obligate *Willing* Reciprocity in Potential Prospects Read More »
“One of the effects of living with electric information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There’s always more than you can cope with.” – Marshall McLuhan, Born Jul. 21, 1911. If you’re not someone who can be a creator of new information, your best bet to survive in the future
“Too Much Information” Equals “Untapped Opportunity Read More »
“It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one’s memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.” – Edgar Degas, Born Jul. 19, 1834. “They” say you should take old winning sales letters by the greats,
Why Hand Copying Old Sales Material Is a Big Dumb Waste of Time Read More »
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Born Jun. 29, 1900. One of the hardest ways to get people to do what you want
Two Sneaky Methods For Writing So That People Will Obey Read More »
“Great advertising, in and of itself, becomes a benefit of the product.” – George Lois, Born Jun. 26, 1932. What old George is saying here is that objects (like products, for example) all have a story. They just do. Someone invented those products, for some purpose, to solve some problem, to sell to some person,
If They Don’t Buy Into the Story, They Won’t Pay For the Product Read More »
“The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things.” – William Inge, Born Jun. 6, 1860. I’d be willing to say ALL value is perception based, and is therefore relative. And perception of value is based on RELATIVE comparisons rather than any objective absolutes. For example, something that costs $50 might seem
Proper Pricing is All Relative – Position Properly, Please Read More »
“The model of ownership, in a society organized round mass consumption, is addiction.” – Christopher Lasch, Born Jun. 1, 1932. Our culture is pre-conditioned to pursue addictive consumption. If you don’t have young ones, watch some kids programming sometime and pay attention to the commercials. I’m not saying that’s bad. Consumerism is fine if you
Deadly Sins? Or Signals for Endlessly Profitable Niches? Read More »
“There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties or you alter yourself meeting them.” – Phyllis Bottome, Born May 31, 1884. There is a sales lesson here. Whatever you sell, you need to think of it as a solution to a problem. What difficulties does it help the lucky buyer to overcome?
Two Ways to Position Any Solution for Easy Sale Read More »
