http://www.drumcircleco.com/billblog Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:38:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In Predictably Irrational, author Dan Ariely describes the phenomenon whereby human beings naturally attach a lot more positive emotion to possessions that present a bit of challenge to obtain. He calls this The IKEA Effect. Marketing messages can work the same way. Sometimes “Some Assembly Required” can be a ... http://www.drumcircleco.com/billblog/?p=257 There are hundreds of definitions for branding. There are even dozens of good ones. [caption id="attachment_238" align="alignright" width="160" caption="The difference is, in marketing, it's the brander who hurts instead of the brandee."][/caption] For the moment, let’s consider this one: Branding is the process of making one company’s products distinct from similar products offered ... http://www.drumcircleco.com/billblog/?p=234 This will be the second entry in six months in which I praise the work of Malcolm Gladwell. But let’s be honest; the man can write about earwax and make it absolutely fascinating. So imagine what he does with the subject of how the marketing of hair dye ... http://www.drumcircleco.com/billblog/?p=221 When I was a young copywriter I had the privilege of working on several Anheuser-Busch beer brands (to be clear, I was one of a small army of young copywriters and art directors sharing that privilege). One of the great parts of that job was attending Beer School, ... http://www.drumcircleco.com/billblog/?p=175 [caption id="attachment_172" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Ladies and gentlemen, The Big Carl. 1,400+ calories and $0.50 less than a wimpy, 700 calorie Big Mac. "][/caption] McDonald's is McHuge. McGlobal. McMonolithic. So if it's your job to try to nibble away little chunks of business from Micky D's, (like, for instance, if you're the ... http://www.drumcircleco.com/billblog/?p=154 I think Seth Godin is a heck of a bright fellow and I especially admire him when he expresses (beautifully) ideas that align with Drumcircle’s worldview. For example, in his blog today, entitled Facts always win, right?, he writes about how marketers, especially B2B marketers, are far too prone to rely ... http://www.drumcircleco.com/billblog/?p=98 [caption id="attachment_80" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Stop & Shop in Somerville, MA stocks 33 kinds of spaghetti and 87 kinds of pasta sauce. To anyone planning to introduce numbers 34 and 88, good luck!"][/caption] Everybody who works in any phase of marketing in any category from investment counseling to internet routers, farm machinery ... http://www.drumcircleco.com/billblog/?p=76 [caption id="attachment_48" align="alignright" width="273" caption="I'm imagining inserting a pushpin into this guy "at every possible touchpoint.""][/caption] About three weeks ago, I launched a thoroughly unscientific survey on Facebook to identify the 25 most clichéd, credibility-wrecking examples of Biz-Buzzpeak that people are coming across in conference rooms and the Barnes & Noble ... http://www.drumcircleco.com/billblog/?p=32 [caption id="attachment_18" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Photo of a man using a newspaper"][/caption] When we founded Drumcircle in 2008, my partner Anne and I set out on a quixotic mission to eliminate the term “consumer” from the lexicon of our industry (there’s a whole page on our website devoted to the subject, in ... http://www.drumcircleco.com/billblog/?p=13 Yes, I named my blog "Sermon From The Mount".  And, to explain why, I’m about to severely date myself. But it’ll be worth it if I can remind the world of one of the greatest trade advertising campaigns ever. From sometime in the 1970’s to sometime in the 1990’s, The Wall ... http://www.drumcircleco.com/billblog/?p=5