No doubt you’ve heard that consumers will tell an average of six people about a bad experience. But do you know how long they’ll keep telling people what happened? Twenty years. Twenty years ago I walked into a Radio Shack to return a new phone. I had the box; I had the receipt. What I [...]

Great screenwriters know the importance of the logline – the one or two sentence pitch for their film. So do great marketers. The corporate version of the logline is known as the mission statement. And when you get the logline or the mission statement wrong, everything else falls apart. Here’s what I mean: It’s Saturday [...]

I’ve never had much luck finding a good plumber. But I’ve certainly tried. The cycle normally goes like this: the new plumber arrives to diagnose a problem. He quotes a price, and promises that his solution is the best one. Then he completes the job, collects payment and goes on his way. A short time [...]

Prospects (maybe yours) say this all the time. And it’s usually a lie. “I need to think about it” is another way of saying “I’m not sure it’s worth it.” I’m not sure it’s worth the price, worth my time, or worth the risk. When you hear these words, there are two options: Tell a [...]

Attention spans are getting shorter. And thanks to the Internet, it will only get worse. Video, blogs, “aggregators” for blogs, news feeds and social network postings…it’s impossible to keep up. Yet even with all of this clutter, many marketers are still excessively wordy. My philosophy is simple: if I keep posts short and to the [...]

This past weekend, I achieved a personal goal that earlier this year seemed almost impossible: I ran (and completed) an 18-mile race. At this distance, every runner must adapt to unexpected conditions…tired and tight muscles, cramping, changes in the weather…it’s not easy. Those who finish push through the pain and continue to run, one step [...]

On my drive home yesterday, the radio started playing U2. I knew the song in two notes. Today I inadvertently changed the settings in my email client, and couldn’t identify senders until I opened each email – except for one. My friend writes distinctive subject lines, so I knew his instantly. U2 and my friend [...]

I just tallied the number of times I received SPAM over the last 24 hours. Are you ready? Twenty times. Mostly e-mails, with a few voice mails thrown in for good measure. Heck, before you know it I’ll start getting pharmaceutical solicitations by e-mail as well. Whoops – too late. If you’re ever tempted to [...]

Entrepreneurs are often obsessed with finding someone to fund their company. “We need to scale,” they say. “And we can’t do it without capital.” Actually, you can. And you should – at least initially. I agree that access to capital has certain advantages. You can hire more salespeople, open more stores, and buy more advertising [...]

CAA is one of the top talent agencies in Hollywood. No. 17 is one of the top design firms in New York City. Exhibit 1: CAA’s website. Exhibit 2: No. 17’s website. Yep, that’s all they have…a single page. Just a thought: if we decided to focus more on our business than our marketing collateral, [...]