If you have not seen it, go see it as soon as you’ve finished this. http://bit.ly/xcBdXl On the video, you see the photo of polar bear approaching a Siberian Husky in Manitoba, Canada. The 1200-pound bear’s predatory stare makes it clear: the husky is lunch. Then you notice the Husky’s body language, which tells you [...]
If six people are on your committee, your meeting has seven agendas. Your worst enemies aren’t your competitors. It’s your people’s egos. Terrific takes time; perfect takes forever. The absolutely certain are often wrong. The louder someone talks, the less certain they are. Articulate doesn’t mean right. It just means articulate. If everyone likes it, [...]
View Post better business plans, effective plans, How to plan, How to plans, marketing, planning lessons, planning tipsSimplify everything: your name, message, and design. Strip everything away until only the essence remains. Ordinary words and images warn us that you must be ordinary, too. If you take 40 words to make your pitch, I will buy from the person who can do it in 30. Communicate one important message and people will [...]
View Post advertising, Communications Tips, effective communications, effective selling, Elevator Speech, marketing, Marketing Tips, Messaging, Persuasion, prospecting, sales tipsAfter almost 76 years of offering the world Monopoly, Parker Brothers just weeks ago introduced a radically new version. There are no dice or Chance and Community Chest Cards. And to the disappointment of everyone who loved to play Bank Robber while they played the old Monopoly, there’s no cash either. Will it sell? Parker [...]
View Post Atlantic City New Jersey, Chance and Community Chest cards, Chicago, early adopters, innovators, marketing, Marshall Fields, Monopoly, Parker Brothers, Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas KuhnHere’s a list of the ideal plans: 1. Excellent 2. Really good 3. Best 4. Not good 5. Too ugly to ever mention again. Why does “best” fare so badly? Because getting to ‘best” always gets complicated. First, can everyone agree on what “best” is? If they can agree, how long will it take? Once [...]
View Post better decisions, decision makiing tips, harry beckwith, How to plan, marketing, planning tipsSeveral hundred million of us grew up with the word: “Progress.” John Kennedy announced an Alliance For Progress and General Electric declared that “Progress is our most important product.” Theodore Roosevelt launched a Progressive Party, and his fifth cousin Franklin launched the Works Progress Administration. Our belief in progress naturally led us to imagine a [...]
View Post Beckwith Partners, Douglas Englebart, EPCOT, Forecasting, harry beckwith, marketing, minneapolis, Strategic planning, The Fighter, The Jetson, The Kings Speech, the limits of forecasting, trend spottingRemember all those silly car ads? The pages after magazine pages featuring a leggy blonde supine upon the polished curves of the new 1979 whatever-mobile? These ads still appear, of course. Dos Equiz’s popular “Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials always end with a shot of the Mr. No Feminine Side seated at a [...]
View Post advertising, dog, fallon, marketing, psychology, travelers insuranceI loved the legroom.” “It tastes rich and chocolatey.” “It looked strong in my major.” During the last month, I’ve heard friends offer those reasons for choosing a Toyota Camry, Sumatran coffee, and the University of Minnesota, respectively. I make my living from understanding choices like these: I’m a marketer. And as a passionate Stanford [...]
View Post beckwith, blog, marketing, psychology, Stanford, ToyotaWhenever you plan your business’s next steps, ask this question. “If we were starting this business from scratch, what would we do differently?” Then do that. Every so often, start from scratch.
View Post beckwith, how to write a marketing plan, marketing, minneapolis, minnesota, planningMarketers regularly suggest that “brand loyalty” explains many of our choices. Does it? We rarely are referred to as “creatures of loyalty,” but constantly are called “creatures of habit.” Our choices reflect this. Our choices become our habits, and our habits comfort us; they bring the illusion of order to our messy lives. We [...]
View Post beckwith, brand loyalty, client retention, marketing