Consumers love simplicity.
We don’t want to be confused with multiple messages and options. We just want to buy the product or service that we need at that time and have it work, or improve our lives. Make our lives simpler.
Simple works. Simple means we can concentrate on other things. So when I’m shopping with you, why not make my experience the same whether I’m buying from you online or offline?
Direct the Traffic
I’ve been on some [...]

What is trust, exactly? Is it the same for everyone, or can it be different?
Can trust in a celebrity, for example, be as strong as trust in a friend or family member? It might seem a strange concept, but if that celebrity has a lot of influence over you then isn’t that just as strong as advice from a close friend?
And how about a business? Does the sales or marketing message from a business hold [...]

My friend and business partner Troy Claus wrote an interesting post the other day, looking at personal versus professional branding. It raises some great questions about focus and recognition, and where the value lies in both.
It got me thinking about how the line between figureheads and financial results in business can be a frail one, and how companies need to take a look at how their audience perceives them if they want long-term success.
It’s a question that not too many [...]

Did you know that in Germany, you should always use a knife and fork to eat sandwiches? Or that in Italy you shouldn’t yawn in front of others?
How about clicking your fingers or whistling in China – did you know it’s rude?
There are a lot of differences between cultures. Some are less profound than others, yet they’re there all the same. Are you taking that into account when trying to reach that audience?
Say your new [...]

How are you influenced? By adverts? Marketing campaigns? Email blasts? Word-of-mouth? A little bit of each?
How about personal marketing?
Would you be more inclined to shop with someone that actively takes the time to know who you are, what your needs are and what your shopping pattern might be? I know I would.
Case in point – pet health nutritionists Canadian Pet Connection (disclosure – client).
If you live near their stores in Oakville, Ontario, and you go in to [...]

I read an interesting piece over at Marketing Magazine the other day. It discusses cable company Cogeco and their move into “addressable advertising” next year in a pilot scheme throughout limited households.
If you’re not familiar with addressable advertising, it’s the method of using far more targeted ads based on location and demographics. So, certain areas may be more affluent while other areas may be more working class.
What Cogeco’s aiming to do, via their pilot on local cable channel CHCH, is [...]

Two of my favourite actors are Joe Pesci and Danny DeVito. Both different actors, yet also so very similar.
Pesci is more your serious actor that’s famous for his gangster roles (Goodfellas, Casino, Once Upon a Time in America) although he’s had some great comedy roles too (My Cousin Vinny, Lethal Weapon 2, Home Alone). DeVito is more known for his comedic roles – Romancing the Stone, Twins and the TV series Taxi.
Yet while they’re both great actors, that’s not the [...]

Back in the day, if you wanted to know how successful your marketing had been you had to use expensive and time-consuming analysis.
You might have spent time putting together a direct mail package that had a call-to-action to return a slip with a customer’s details on it, and the amount returned to you would show how successful that campaign had been.
Of course, the problem is, if you sent out 10,000 flyers, you don’t know how many actually arrived at a [...]

A mutual friend of me and my business partner Troy – let’s call him Joe – went to a Social Media for Small Business conference recently. He’s a sports bar owner, and has been thinking about using social media for a while.
We’ve actually spoken with Joe before over at Bonsai Interactive, about how he could utilize some of the tools available. Having carried out a social media audit for the hospitality and restaurant industry, we’ve got a lot of critical [...]

When you go to a theme park, do you spend time waiting on the best rides and rollercoasters? Or do you bypass them and go for the more sedate ones with the lesser crowd? Or don’t you go for the rides, more the experience of an enjoyable day out with friends and family?
If you’re like me, you’ll happily wait for an hour (or more) for the fastest rollercoaster, or the one with the biggest drop, or [...]