What Other Problems Do Your Customers Have?

In the wine department of the Hollywood West Fred Meyer store is a device that looks kind of like a clothes hamper full of slowly circulating ice water. A sign on the device says, “Free Chilling Service — 25 Times Faster Than a Refrigerator” You just put the bottle in the water and come back […]

Precisely-Targeted Advertising — Exhibit A

In the Men’s Room on the 300 level of the Rose Garden Arena in Portland — over a urinal — is a sign with this headline: “You’re Back Again.” The ad is for Flowmax, a pharmaceutical product for men with prostate-related urinary symptoms. Dan Kennedy calls this “message-to-market match.” If you’re Flowmax, the people you’ll […]

“It’s What You Say…

…multiplied by how many times you say it.” Roy Williams If you’re in charge of marketing your business, here’s something that won’t come as a shock: it’s harder to reach potential customers than it’s ever been. Attention spans are shorter, the environment is more cluttered, and your prospects have more ways to filter out your […]

Trying to Sell Without Selling

Thursday’s Wall Street Journal has a fascinating article about Unilever’s efforts to promote Axe deodorant by producing a television series called “The Gamekillers”. It details the sometimes contentious negotiations between Unilever — who wanted to make sure that viewers got the connection between the program and Axe — and MTV, who feared that an explicit […]

Does Relentless Advertising Work?

One answer to this question comes from a study conducted by the Stanford University School of Medicine and Packard Children’s Hospital. According to AdAge.com (thanks to Rick Lewis for alerting me to this), kids 3 to 5 years old were fed two sets of identical foods — some in McDonald’s wrappers and some wrapped in […]