“Most ads aren’t written to persuade, they’re written not to offend.” — Roy Williams Not long ago an ad agency pulled a home improvement commercial off the air in Portland and Seattle because several listeners had called the client to complain about it. The client was concerned that he was offending potential customers, and the […]
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 […]
“Your customers buy when they want to buy — not when you want to sell.” —– Clate Mask, Infusion Software Jane sells high-end furniture to homeowners in the Pacific Northwest. As a general rule, she only advertises when she has a sale or special event. In 2006, she decided to have a storewide year-end clearance […]
In the space of a couple of hours, I read a couple of articles that contradict each other on the subject of language. First (in order of when I read ’em) was a capsule review of the book Branded Nation by James B. Twitchell. “Twitchell,” wrote reviewer Steve Cone, “is unusual among college professors in […]
When you work on a marketing campaign, it’s natural to want to make sure you’re targeting “the right people” with your message – the people who are most likely to do business with you. Media people have access to a variety of research tools to make some educated decisions about the kind of people who […]