Jonathan Bostrom's Common Sense Marketing BlogJonathan Bostrom's Common Sense Marketing BlogI am a professional copywriter with a strong interest in seeing how marketing applies to everything. But marketing is one of those areas that is subjected to a lot of misconceptions. Fallacies. Misunderstandings. I try to cut through the nonsense and
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Articles
Hiralious examples of why you should never forget who your market is?
2007-12-13 18:27:00 Just another example of companies forgetting who they’re marketing to… I came across some classic mistakes made when marketing products internationally. They’re a great - and hilarious - example of the dangers of not paying enough attention to exactly who your potential customers are. Here are some examples: A pharmaceutical company expanded to the Middle East. In their ... More About: Market , Examples , Xamp
Obnoxious ?Marketing?
2007-12-12 15:28:00 I’m always surprised by the number of people that think marketing - advertising in particular - is merely waving their message in front of prospects’ noses. He who gets the message waved the most wins. Case in point: an experience Jim Tobin, at the Life is Marketing blog, had. Apparently when Jim had Chinese for dinner the other ... More About: Obnoxious
Don?t annoy your prospects!
2007-12-11 16:18:00 Is it just me, or is there no bigger turnoff than businesses just being flat out irritating in their marketing and promotional methods? For example, an ad I keep hearing on the radio… It starts with Neil Armstrong’s famous message to Earth. “The Eagle has landed.” Then, “That’s one small step for man, one…” the message ... More About: Anno
Harley-Davidson
2007-12-10 14:58:00 I love Harley -Davidson . Personally, I don’t have any interest in their products, but I think they’re just about the best example of branding ever. To build a whole culture - completely around your product - is an incredible accomplishment. How many other companies can claim that their customers voluntarily ink their name - permanently - ... More About: Harley Davidson , Harley-Davidson
Facebook losing face?
2007-12-07 13:54:00 Well, Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of Face book, finally apologized for his company’s “Beacon” debacle. Beacon is a new program the social networking site came out with about a month ago, offering advertisers extremely targeted advertising. The problem was, Beacon jeopardized users’ privacy. And not surprisingly, a great deal of the Facebook community was not so happy ...
The fundamentals of marketing never change
2007-12-06 15:38:00 With the amount of constant change around us, it can be a little surprising to discover how the fundamentals of marketing stay the same. Our language changes, our clothing changes, our technology changes - but people still think in the same way as they have for almost all time. A great example of this is Gene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising.This book ... More About: Marketing , Change , Amen , Dame
Swiping? when does it go too far?
2007-12-05 16:35:00 You may be aware of a copywriting practice known as “swiping.” Most copywriters have a “swipe file” of successful letters, and they “swipe” ideas from these letters. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the practice. In fact, it’s a very good idea. But I’ve noticed a lot of people taking it to an extreme. Some copywriters ... More About: Copywriting
Why I?ve started reading novels? a bit
2007-12-04 14:04:00 I’ve never been one to read many novels. I’ve always had plenty of other stuff to read that seemed far more important. And for the most part, my “serious” reading material has been more important. But just recently, I’ve started to realize that novels may have a place as well. I realized this the other day, when ... More About: Reading , Novels
Purple Cow
2007-12-03 21:39:00 Sometimes it seems that marketing a product is accomplishing nothing at all. Maybe that’s the point when you need to rethink the product. That’s what Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow - and numerous other marketing books - suggests. It appears that in order to win these days, it is essential to harness the power of ... More About: Purple Cow
Army marketing tactics
2007-11-29 23:21:00 I saw an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today. According to the article, the U.S. Army is providing a new program called the “Army Advantage Fund.” It seems that this program is offering new recruits $40,000 (the LA Times reported $45,000) towards purchase of a house or the creation of business - upon completion of ... More About: Marketing , Tactics
Will it Blend? Viral Genius?
2007-11-28 08:06:00 Is there any better example of a viral video campaign than the Will it Blend ? series? If you haven’t seen them, take a look. Here are three of my favorites: These videos are pretty near perfect. They’re funny. They’re creative. Best of all, they make the product the star of the show. (And yes, they appeal ... More About: Viral , Genius
Showing a flaw - Buckley?s Cough Syrup
2007-11-28 05:24:00 Listening to the radio today, I heard a very interesting ad. It began with an irate customer calling a cough syrup company. He complained that the cough syrup tasted horrible - likening it to a public portapotty (does anyone really know what those taste like?) and an old tire. The customer service representative asked - ... More About: Buckley , Cough
Brand image - Microsoft vs. Apple
2007-11-26 15:18:00 This hilarious video shows Apple ’s and Microsoft ’s stark difference in brand image: Apple is absolutely genius when it comes to marketing their products. It’s really hard to find a better example of branding done right. But at the same time, is Microsoft’s approach completely wrong? I mean, it would be downright stupid to try to mimic Apple. Try as Microsoft might, ... More About: Image , Brand
Disney, binoculars, and marketing
2007-11-25 19:48:00 When I was in Florida this past week, I spent a couple days in Orlando. On one of the evenings I went over to Downtown Disney . Really a neat place, if you’ve never been there. There appears to be a lot to do. Shopping… entertainment… restaurants. But I was there by myself, so I basically just walked ... More About: Marketing
Tricking your prospects - the ultimate stupidity
2007-11-24 03:30:00 I saw these pictures on Boing Boing: At first glance, it looks like you get a dozen roses for four dollars. Great deal, right? Let’s buy some roses! Look closer. You’ll notice in the picture on the right that you’ve been tricked. In almost microscopic print, the sign adds 99 cents to your bill and divides the amount ... More About: Stupidity , Ultimate
Outstanding!
More articles from this author:2007-11-23 05:14:00 It’s rare that I come across a book that is truly rich in information. But occasionally I’ll find something. Well, it just so happened that while I was in the library the other day I saw a familiar title… Selling the Invisible - by Harry Beckwith Yeah, I know… this book is a classic. I should have read it before now. ... More About: Outstanding 1, 2 |
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