So, you think there's no power in advertising?

You may want to lather, rinse and repeat.

“Don’t leave home without it.”

“Taste Great. Less Filling.”

“Can you hear me now?”

“Where’s the beef?”

We’ve just thrown at you four unforgettable examples (we could add dozens more without breaking a sweat) of the enduring power of mass-media advertising. Just take a second to appreciate the stickiness of these ear-worms. They’re representative of campaigns that ended years, sometimes decades ago; yet, unless you’re hearing them here for the first time (in which case you’re a hermit or a youngster. Or both?)...then they’re every bit as familiar to you as they are to us. More than that—you can probably hear or see, in your mind’s eye at least, the original flight of ads that embedded them in your consciousness, and in our collective unconscious.

And that’s exactly what happens to these classics, wouldn’t you agree? Eventually, they belong to all of us. They become cultural markers, very often evolved beyond, in due time, the corporate identity from whence they came: “Bet you can’t eat just one” “Have it your way” “Would you like fries with that?” “Lather. Rinse. Repeat.”

These are the phenomena that we hold up as rebuttal to those who say that advertising has no relevance. And we reference them to rebuke, as strongly as we can, those who claim advertising has no power. We humbly submit that advertising like this, lines like these, surpass marketing and mercantilism, and become part of our popular imagination.

“It’s the real thing.”

“Good to the last drop.”

“What’s in your wallet?”

You must realize, then, that this is an ongoing process. That even as the ad-memes of yesteryear endure (“My bologna has a first name!”), contemporary ones are implanting themselves today (“So easy a caveman can do it!”). The cycle repeats.

So what’s the takeaway? For most of us, it’s that our culture is alive, vibrant, ever-changing—replete with not just art, music, and literature, but also with the provocative creativity found in our popular media. With advertising.

And for a select few of us: marketers who’d love to harness this collective chorus, the takeaway is imperative and pithy: Just do it.

The C4:
1. A diamond is forever.
Succinct and catchy advertising slogans endure. They make the jump from media to imagination, and they stay there.

2. Plop plop, fizz fizz.
Repetition is key. Marketers jumpstart this phenomenon by harnessing all available channels to spread the message.

3. But I’m worth it.
Don’t forget value and quality. What you’re selling must be worthy of the consumer’s attention.

4. Time to make the doughnuts.
It takes hard work, and it takes time. Stick to it and you’ll gain customers, move product, capture
market-share. And who knows? Maybe you’ll create that one catchy line they’ll still be raving about a hundred years from now.

Read Our Lips

Advertising is a cost of doing business.

Tax policy is such a multifaceted thing — if it weren’t so dry and yawn-inducing, it would make a fascinating case study for the reach and scope of government. It creates and regulates the flow of revenue into the treasury, of course, but it’s arguable whether this is its most important function.

Tax policy is also a cudgel, or a spur. It encourages certain types of behavior, while discouraging others. Very often that’s entirely deliberate. There’s a proposal under discussion right now to levy a 10% tax on the use of tanning beds…not so much because those extra dollars are needed, but rather to prevent, hopefully, some number of new cases of self-inflicted melanoma.

That’s all well and good. But what about the unintended consequences of tax policy? What about tax policy that will discourage behavior that no one can argue is detrimental?

Like buying American.

Separate committees in both the House and Senate are currently discussing overhauls to the U.S. tax code. Both committees, it’s been reported, are considering what we think is a drastic and ill-advised step: reclassifying marketing and advertising costs so that they will no longer be treated as normal, deductible business expenses.

Clearly, we have skin in this game. And clearly, we can argue that designating advertising as anything other than a necessary cost of doing business is simply inaccurate.

Instead, we’ll make this point: Tax policy is indeed a cudgel, and it does indeed alter behaviors. It’s an easily proven fact that when taxes are levied on a particular activity, then fewer people will engage in that activity.

By taxing advertising expenditures, the federal government will ensure that less advertising takes place. That distresses us (no surprise there) but it’s our contention that it should distress you, too. Why? Because the vast majority of advertising dollars are spent locally — local businesses working with local agencies, print shops, and production facilities, to place ads with local newspapers and broadcasters. Even on a national level this principle holds true. When American companies market to American consumers, most if not all of their expenditures stay within our borders.

For more than a century, since the birth of the federal tax code, advertising has been treated precisely like what it is: a wholly legitimate operating expense, necessary for finding and keeping customers. The industry that’s grown up around that need has become an engine of American economic advancement, and a thriving source of American jobs.

The proposed change to the tax code, the alteration of the advertising-expense deduction, will change all that, very much for the worse. We oppose it as strongly as our finite voices and human frailties will allow. We’re saying so to our senators and congressmen, and to anyone who’ll listen, really. We’re making the same case we’ve just made to you. We think it’s a convincing one.

If we’re right about that, then all that’s left is to ask this simple question: Are you with us?

The C4

1. The tax code is a mind boggler. No doubt it’s in need of an overhaul. But the sections governing advertising expenses, classifying them as deductible business costs, are right on point, we think.
   
2. It ain’t broke, but the government is trying to fix it. Both the House and Senate are considering changing or even eliminating that deduction. It is our stance that not only would this result in an unfair tax on a legitimate operating cost, it would also cause irreparable harm to an important American economic sector.
3. Marketing and advertising creates jobs and spurs growth — locally, regionally, and nationally. “Buy American,” they tell us. Well, when you buy advertising, that’s exactly what you’re doing.
4. How on earth can they justify attacking that? Make no mistake, a tax on advertising will mean less advertising, and that means an economic hit, right here at home. It’s wrong, it’s folly, and it needs to be stopped. We’re trying our best to stop it, and we sincerely hope you’ll join us.

When Ads Go Bad

Don't make your customers hate you.

Just like many professionals, we like reading about our profession. We read the advertising trade publications to get the buzz of what’s going on inside our industry. And we read the popular press to see how we’re viewed from the outside.

Unfortunately, that’s not always exactly uplifting. In fact, very often such stories are about some hair-raising errors in judgment, and usually end with a variant of this sentence: “The ad was pulled from circulation, and the company apologized to all who were offended.”

When an ad goes bad there’s usually plenty of blame to go around. The client gave the creative team some rough parameters (or maybe even specific parameters), the creatives spit-balled some ideas, one was chosen and fleshed out, and the client signed off on it. Sometime thereafter an ad was unleashed upon the world.

That creative team should very much fall on its sword, though, if the ad was badly targeted, poorly communicated, or was somehow actually offensive. Even if it completely followed the client’s directives, it’s the agency’s job to make sure it does what it’s supposed to: drive awareness, position against competitive offerings, pre-qualify potential new customers and precondition targets for the selling process. It’s the agency’s job to foresee any backlash, any counterproductive scenario, and when necessary to put the brakes on. 

So when a bad ad is released, it’s the agency’s fault. Period.

This is always the case, even when the ad’s relative “badness” is a matter of conjecture. Take this example from earlier this summer. McDonald’s in Singapore ran a print ad for McNuggets, declaring that “Today’s PSI (Peak Sauce Index) is deliciously high.” The problem? In Singapore, as well as throughout English-speaking East Asia, PSI is universally recognized as the Pollutant Standards Index. And the week the ad ran, Singapore’s PSI was at a record high, leading to widespread illness and misery.

The ad was pulled, and McDonald’s apologized to all who were offended.

There were no moral shocks here, no stereotyping or offensive language. Just a bit of cultural thoughtlessness. That was enough, though, to make the ad completely counterproductive.

An advertisement sent out unto the world must follow the basic tenet of marketing: Know thy customers. Know what appeals to them, and just as importantly, know what turns them off. If there’s the slimmest chance an ad might bruise their sensibilities, or cause them to think unpleasant thoughts, then that ad should never see the light of day.

Of course you know your customers. But you should be able to rely on your agency to make sure your advertising is right for those customers. The agency should value your results far more than their own creative prowess. They might create stunning ads, but if those ads create backlash, they’re hurting you — not helping you.

The C4

1. When we see our industry in the popular press, it’s a little like seeing a train wreck. We know it’s gonna be bad, but we can’t seem to look away. When the popular press writes about advertising, nine out of ten times they’re writing about advertising gone awry.
2. Advertising goes awry because someone, somewhere in the process, didn’t give due respect to the audience’s sensibilities.
3. When that happens, it’s the agency’s fault. Always.
4. Know your customers. And make sure your agency knows them, too. A good agency never stops learning about their clients’ customers, and they craft marketing material that appeals directly to those folks. They know the cultural, political, and sociological hot-buttons to avoid. They’re creatively gifted, to be sure, but they know that creativity counts for less than zero if their clients end up publicly apologizing for their work.

“It's Not Us With The Problem”

“It's you.”

It’s always a bit suspect when pros discourage amateurs from trying their hand. Doesn’t matter what their true motive is, it always appears as if they’re trying to seal off the sandbox they think of as their own.

So we know that’s the risk we take when we try to warn off DIY marketers. We know we look like we have a petulance problem.

But hand on heart, to the amateur advertisers we say this: It’s not us with the problem, it’s you.

Okay, well, perhaps “potential problem” might be more generous. Every business owner who eschews professional marketing help in favor of shot-in-the-dark efforts might potentially hit the bulls-eye every time.

Conversely, there’s that potential for alienating customers. For opening up a can of I-wish-I-hadn’t-done-that.

Marketing designers, account specialists, writers, and the rest of our gang get into this field because we’re good at it — and we get results. Our clients are good at what they do, too, and have the sense to let everyone stick to the jobs they’re best at. We wouldn’t try to run their shops, and we’d heartily object if they tried to run ours.

Marketing looks easy from the outside. That’s all. Looks easy to slap some words with images, to shoot 30 seconds of video, so that’s exactly what these would-be pro-ams do.

You know this because you’ve seen examples. And you knew immediately what you were looking at. Some become internet-famous for their stumbling attempts, and for video that comes off looking like self-parody.

And in all fairness, some resonate with the buying public. Some reap profits. These are the ones that achieve real pro-am status: amateur players getting pro results.

We won’t say amateur efforts never pay off, but we’re sanguine in saying they never pay off with consistency. That’s the difference our pro standing brings — we’re consistently on target, consistently playing our best game. It’s born of experience and of a devoted fascination with the intersecting alchemy of design and persuasion. Of commerce and content.

We’re not hiding any rulebooks from the amateurs, because this is a business without rules. The closest thing we have to rules, we break constantly…or rather, we break them precisely the number of times necessary, precisely when and where it best serves our clients. Amateurs might bend the rules or adhere to them religiously, but you have to wonder how well considered that is, and whether they’re thinking about it as strategically as we would.

Print, broadcast, internet, and billboards — there’s plenty of marketing bandwidth hereabouts, plenty of room, in other words, for a pro-am circuit. In good conscience we don’t encourage it. In terms of pure self-interest, however, we really should.

All this amateur work, to be quite frank, is making us look great.

The C4

1. More business owners try their amateur hands at marketing and advertising, than any other best-left-to-the-pros services. We can’t prove this empirically but it’s anecdotally solid. Business owners who have no problem letting their general contractors build their properties or their lawyers file their briefs, are willing to take a swing at homegrown signage, advertising, or integrated marketing.
   
2. There’s no reason some of them can’t be marketing savants. No reason some of them can’t be plain lucky. Pro-am advertising occasionally pays off.
   
3. Consistency is what we’re competing on. That and experience, confidence, and dedication.
   
4. Truth told, it’s win-win for us either way. Either the amateur yields to the pro, or he makes him shine in contrast. 

Do We Always Stand Still When We Do Nothing?

Activity does not always equal action.

What sort of challenges and tribulations were waiting for you when you showed up for work this morning? Weren’t there leftover problems from yesterday, all mixed up and merged with the new ones that cropped up overnight?

Managing that never-ending flow of issues might not be fun, but what choice do we have? Can you even imagine a world of smooth-flowing business and a lack of crises? It might sound utopian, but surely you must realize: it would be a little eerie.

Maybe even a little boring.

So this is the business model we’re stuck with: problems arise, we address them, then we await the next problem. C’est la vie. Viva la business.

But here’s one of the dangers of being the habitual problem-solvers we are: We come to think that action, any action, in the face of challenge is virtue. Action, we think, is always preferable to inaction.

It calls to mind the scene of the man searching for his keys under the light of a streetlamp. He’s fairly certain that’s not where he dropped them, but that’s where he’s searching, because that’s where the light is.

We’re in danger of acting just as irrationally when we jump to our feet, thump our chests and wave our arms in the air at the first sign of trouble. We’re driven to act, or more accurately, to react, because a leader must confront problems. That imperative can be so all-consuming that sometimes we forget to ask the most elementary leadership questions, like Is action even necessary at this point?

Action requires a plan. A plan requires fully understanding the problem and what a successful outcome looks like. Activity may make things worse. Action is better. Sometimes doing nothing helps the drama to subside so the real problem can be assessed. Never confuse activity with action.

It goes against the grain, but sometimes the best response is to do nothing. Or at least, wait until the sun comes up, and then search for the keys where they really might be.

The C4:

1. Business, like everything else, is governed by inertia. That’s great for growth and upward trajectory, but it instills a mindset. It leads us to think that activity is action, and that all our actions drive us forward.
   
   
2. No, sometimes it’s just busywork. Just the spinning of wheels. Sometimes we force ourselves to act, in response to events or sometimes in response to nothing at all, without stopping to wonder if inaction might have been the better course.
   
   
3. Your business may be in motion (of course it is) but that doesn’t mean you always have to be in motion, too. Your acumen, instincts, and best judgment might well advise you to take it slow, to be deliberative, to keep still and wait to see what happens. If that’s what your inner voice is telling you, then listen.
   
   
4. Yup, it comes down to a judgment call. You decide when to jump, and when to sit still. Sorry hoss, but that’s the gig you signed up for.

AoR or À la Carte?

Think before you hold the onions.
À la carte can be great, but it doesn't always translate.

Choose wisely.

You like it à la carte? Then these are exciting times for you, neighbor, because you can get it à la carte.

And by “it” we mean just about everything. These are the days of ordering off the menu, and of selecting only those bits, bytes, and bargains that work for you. From your entertainment content to your purchased commodities, you’re empowered to skinny down your bill-of-goods to only those items you really want.

Nothing wrong with that, right?

Well, maybe. We’re most qualified and most comfortable talking about the marketing field, where we’ve seen the undeniable proliferation of à la carte empowerment. And although there’s nothing we like better than an empowered client, we must warn that the outcomes of à la carte marketing aren’t always what the clients go looking for.

Agency-based marketing, the traditional model, is about a lot more than advertising and business-card design. It’s about relationship-building. It’s a team of creative consultants and business-growth experts getting to know your company, becoming part of your team, and leveraging their skills, craft, and connections on your behalf.

On the à la carte side, you get freelancers and online print mills. You get low, low prices and fast turnaround. You get exactly what you ask for, nothing more and (hopefully) nothing less.

But you don’t get a relationship. You don’t get an Agency-of-Record to build the consistency and persistence which create marketing synergy. You don’t get motivated members to augment your team.

In this à la carte world, that choice is yours. No one can make it for you. Maybe, if you examine your marketing needs rationally and dispassionately, you’ll find that the no-frills, no-attachments providers are right for you. More power to you, we say.

On the other hand, perhaps you’ll see you need experience, tenacity, and collaboration. Maybe you’ll agree that you need a team.

If so, give us a call. We’ll show you how a collaborative agency creates a long-term marketing strategy. We’ll show how your business becomes our business.

And if you start missing that à la carte mindset, never fear. We’ll take you out for lunch; feel free to order off the menu.

The C4:

1. These are great days to be a consumer. Providers are gearing almost everything they sell for personalization, or for the à la carte buyer. “Don’t want the full dozen? Never fear — we’ll break bulk just for you.”
2. As cool as that is, we advise caution. À la carte isn’t for everyone. And it is not ideal for all industries.
3. Take marketing (please!). There’s no shortage of bargain-priced vendors. You can create business cards from online templates in minutes, and have them shipped in days, for a pittance. À la carte marketing is absolutely an option. You just need to ask yourself — is it the right option?
4. The value of the traditional Agency-of-Record is that it works. The business cards we create cost a bit more because they’re part of a synergistic whole. Your AoR builds marketing programs, geared to your business, monitored and managed in real time. You can’t get service like that à la carte, but we guarantee: You get all you pay for and more.

Making The Mark

It could have happened to any of us.

Any among us could react to a short-term emergency with a long-term mistake. Monday-morning quarterbacking aside, it's easy to make the wrong call when you're in that position. It's easy to grasp for the simplest solution while taking your eye off the long ball.

In the case of Maker's Mark, it was a problem of supply and demand — too little of the former and too much of the latter. The way MM handled that problem shows they forgot, somehow, that the "demand" part of that equation was a complement of the highest order, and an admonition to "don't ever, please" mess with the recipe.

The reduction of Maker's Mark from 90 to 84 proof was an attempt to stretch supply and meet demand. It was not intended to deliver a body blow to an elegant, successful brand. But that's what it did.

Any among us could make that kind of mistake, but not all could recover like Maker's Mark has. They did so by falling back on the most basic tenet of business: listen to your customer. After a week of uproar the company announced their reversal with this tweet:

You spoke. We listened. ow.ly/hN3kC
— Maker's Mark (@MakersMark) February 17, 2013

Did they really save their brand that easily? Listen — they're still Maker's Mark. They're still 90 proof of bourbon perfection. Dipped in wax to seal the magnificence inside.

And that brief run of 84 proof bottles? Collector's items now. Maker's Mark lovers who were just last week cursing the brand now can't buy that stuff fast enough.

The C4:

1. Maker's Mark Manhattan: shake together a shot and a half of MM, a half shot sweet vermouth, and a dash of bitters. Chilled glass, cherry garnish, and good, good times.
    
2. Maker's Mark Old Fashioned: mix a part and a half MM with a half part club soda and a teaspoon of sugar. Serve over ice, sip it slow.
    
3. Maker's Mark on the rocks: just like it sounds, but somehow so much better.
    
4. The Maker's Mark takeaway: When the customer speaks, listen.

Big-Game Advertising

The hunt for market share starts early.

Super Bowl Sunday is nearly upon us. That's gratifying on so many levels.

You're a sports fan? Check. You're awed by outsized spectacles? Check. Got some kind of connection to Baltimore and/or San Francisco and/or New Orleans? Check, check and check.

You're intimately immersed in the advertising industry? Che — wait a minute...you're probably not, are you? Those other 364 days, you probably don't consider yourself a real big fan of advertising. More's the pity.

Ah, but come that blessed Sunday, you find yourself on our team. You not only watch the Super Bowl commercials (and enjoy them, and talk at length about them at work on Monday), you analyze and dissect them. You track the per-minute air-time rates, and you keep score as to which companies and industries are making best use of their Super Bowl advertising dollars.

And if you're anything like us, you're rooting for the home team. That is, you're watching for the local advertisers who've made their play in the Big Game.

No, they're not shelling out $4 million for a 30-second spot like Chevy or Budweiser. But they're probably making their single biggest ad buy of the year. And they're spending that money wisely, since they're capturing a plurality of eyes in their hometown markets.

This year, the local advertisers seem to realize there's more to Super Bowl marketing than shooting the spot and signing the check. There's looped-feedback, or synergy, in this kind of advertising. Just becoming a Super Bowl advertiser imparts gravitas, or maybe street cred.

How do advertisers leverage that? In any number of ways. In the weeks prior to the game, press releases are flying and leaks abound. Some advertisers tease their upcoming commercials, some preview them in their entirety. This year, one of the national advertisers (and only one), is staying completely mum about their commercial. And even that leverages the gravitas, because it has us talking about it. What's the big secret, M&M? We and a few hundred million of our closest friends can't wait to find out.

Seems like there's only one wrong way to do this, and that's to rely on the commercial alone. That's like having a baby without throwing a blowout shower or handing out cigars.

So — we hope our beloved local advertisers take note. You can release your commercials early, or coyly hint about their content. Or you can loudly proclaim the whole thing's super-secret, and tell everyone who'll listen that you have nothing to say.

Just be sure to do something. Leverage that time in the spotlight. The spotlight itself flares and fades fast. It's up to you to make the most of it — before, during, and long thereafter.

The C4:

1. Super Bowl XLVII kicks off Sunday, Feb. 3rd at 6:30pm EST. The beautiful, resilient city of New Orleans is hosting the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers. Will we be watching? You bet.
    
2. You can also bet we won't just be watching the gridiron action. The Super Bowl is the world championship for advertisers. Super Bowl commercials are the standards against which all others are measured. From a professional standpoint, we watch them to keep our fingers on the pulse of our industry. From a personal standpoint, we enjoy them just as much as you do.
    
3. We take this opportunity to salute the local marketers who'll be making their pitch during the big game. While the usual national advertisers are paying more than $3.6 million for 30 seconds of airtime, our local sellers are investing less, but still quite a lot, to gain attention and market share all across Northeast Ohio.
    
4. May they make the most of it. The commercial itself is over in half a minute. It has the potential, though, to keep reverberating. Their options for building hype are limitless — they can release bite-sized teasers in advance, or they can post the whole thing to their website. They can create "behind the scenes" or "the making of" videos...or they can figuratively wink and nod and say "just watch the game." In any case, there's force-multiplying synergy there for the taking. We hope they take it.

I Said, Fill The Void!

The whisper of whitespace amplifies meaning.

Let’s preface this with a declaration: we love design, every aspect of it.

But there’s one certain aspect of design that is perhaps our favorite. We could rave (we have raved!) about its elegant simplicity, its deceptive minimalism. Funny thing is, it's often our clients’ least favorite aspect of design.

It’s the whitespace.

See what we did there? We added paragraph breaks, that is, whitespace, before and after that one short sentence, those three short words. Do you see the way it draws the eye, the way it heightens the drama?

That’s why we love whitespace.

Oh, but we see our clients’ point. They’re paying for ink on the page and pixels on the screen, and most importantly for the effort it takes to put them there. Paying for whitespace? That’s a little too much like paying for the air in a bag of chips.

Hard to argue that point, except like this: in marketing design, what you’re really paying for is the effect. And the effect of whitespace is phenomenal.

Remember, we’re having a conversation with your customer. We’re stopping him in the street, staring him in the eye, and telling him all about you. Maybe he doesn’t want to listen. Maybe he’s hurrying to an appointment. Doesn’t matter. It’s our job to start that conversation, any way we can.

The whitespace is the dramatic pause in our sales pitch. It’s the knowing smile and confident nod that tells him that what comes next is going to blow his mind. Whitespace allows the message to breathe, separates it from surrounding visual noise and places it on the pedestal of absence so that it can be better understood.

We surround your message with whitespace, not because we’re in love with minimalism and dramatic design (true though that may be), but because we know it’s one of our most powerful tools to awe, to captivate, and…

…to communicate.

The C4:

1. Marketing design: it’s equal parts marketing and design. Design serves marketing. Design is gorgeous (maybe we’re biased), but unless it serves marketing it’s self-congratulatory and a waste of everyone’s time.
2. With that in mind, please believe us when we say we will leverage every tool in our considerable design kit to further ours and our clients' marketing aims. We will make gorgeous design, never doubt it, but we’ll do so only with that laser-like focus in mind.
3. One of those tools, one which we often find ourselves defending, is whitespace. We understand the doubt. Whitespace is, by definition, nothing. Who wants to pay for that?
4. Here’s the thing, though: you’re not paying for the nothing. You’re paying for the drama the nothingness creates. Our whitespace draws the eye, heightens the awareness, and lends an exhuberant exclamation to the elements it surrounds. It’s a message that reinforces itself by demanding attention. It creates a mental cadence to let the audience know that the central point is at hand—

          Just

          like

          this.

NLP Is A Tool For Programming Change, But...

Beware of duplicity?

Consider the hammer. It's the tool that, probably more than any other, built Western civilization. In the hands of a Michelangelo, it helps to sculpt David. But in the hands of a psychopath, it becomes truly frightening.

All tools are like that: neutral by nature, beneficial or maleficent depending on intent and application.

Next, consider NLP, or neuro-linguistic programming. It’s an approach to therapy, self-help, and behavior modification that’s been around since the 70s. It leverages the mind’s atavistic reaction to language, in order to alter demeanor, improve performance, and develop communications skills.

Now go Google NLP; or worse yet, do a search for that term on YouTube. You’ll find every type of huckster peddling NLP miracles, and promising of the ability to manipulate people to your will. Books like The Game by Neil Strauss detail how “pickup artists” use NLP to razzle-dazzle females into submission.

Some of it’s disturbing. Some is disgusting. But that’s what happens when powerful tools are used by bad people. None of it should discourage good people, though, who can use a tool like NLP for the best of reasons.

Want to improve your ability to communicate? Collaborate better with your peers? Shed harmful habits and cultivate healthy ones? Neuro-linguistic programming might be your ticket. It’s worth looking into.

As with all your endeavors, this one requires caution and common sense. Do your homework and be wary of inflated promises. There are scores of honest NLP instructors who can build a targeted course to help you and your organization reach your goals. You just need to separate the honest ones from the hucksters.

So will it work for you? Only one way to find out. All we can hope for is that you’ll respect it for the tool that it is, and use it only with the best intent.

The C4:

1. Neuro-linguistic programming is a behavior-modification technique developed by psychotherapists in the 1970s that uses language, rapport, and suggestion to achieve goals.
2. NLP can be used in business to create better communications methods, increase sales, and improve collaboration throughout the organization. It can also be used on a personal level for targeted self-improvement.
3. NLP is earning a bad rap, though, because some truly awful people are using it — selling courses that promise Svengali-like manipulation, and demonstrating pickup techniques based on deception and duplicity.
4. A tool in the hands of a bad person does bad things. In the hands of a good person it can better the world. What can you do with NLP?

The Booming Voice From Boomers:

"Hey, we're over here!"

Here’s a message that marketers aren’t accustomed to hearing: “Please advertise to us.”

But that’s exactly the message delivered by a campaign recently kicked off by AARP, intended to goad advertisers into embracing the over age 50 demographic.

“I may be gray but my money is as green as it gets,” reads one of AARP’s broadsides. “I may be creased but my money is crisp,” says another. These are not-so-subtle reminders that although Madison Avenue loves to cater to 20-somethings, those millennial youngsters aren’t exactly rife with purchasing power these days.

The AARP crowd, by contrast, is doing OK. The average annual income for baby boomers as a group now tops $70,000. Those over age 65 are among the few that saw a net increase (from $29,400 to $29,775) in the challenging years between 2008 and 2011. And Americans over the age of 50 account for more than 60% of new car sales in this country.

Older adults tend to dine out more often, take longer and more luxurious vacations, and spend as much — if not more — on consumer goods as any other group. Yet marketing in these areas tend to focus on the younger set. This perplexing misfire might be explained by an out-of-date tradition — MadAve started targeting baby boomers when they were age 18-34, and never readjusted as that generation grew older. Or maybe it’s because MadAve itself is young: 40% of the advertising workforce is under 35. 

Either way, AARP makes clear that the advertising industry spins its wheels selling to a generation that’s all but broke, while effectively ignoring one with pretty deep pockets. That’s self-defeatism at its worst, which is something marketing should never be accused of.

We’ll speak for ourselves, and hopefully for our most ambitious clients: AARP, you don’t have to tell us twice.

The C4:

1. AARP — formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons — is now titled solely by that four-letter acronym and represents any Americans over the age of 50, retired or not.
2. AARP has kicked off a campaign to remind advertisers of the purchasing power of its members.
3. Americans of AARP age buy more than 60% of new cars. They’re among the few groups that saw little or no income decrease during the Great Recession. They dine out more, travel more, and spend generously on consumer goods.
4. These statistics haven’t exactly been kept secret, yet somehow we advertisers still treat millennials (age 18–34) like they, not the boomers, are the golden geese. It’s a shame that AARP had to remind us how to do our jobs, but now that they’ve done so we’re happy to assure them: we’re on it.

A New Cuban Revolution

Capitalizing on emerging capitalism.

There’s a revolution going on in Cuba. There are guerrillas walking the streets of Havana. They bear little likeness to Fidel’s cadre, though — the one that installed a Marxist dictatorship in 1959. Instead they’re free-market reformers, responding to Raúl Castro’s 2010 easing of restrictions on small business entrepreneurship. They are the island’s first capitalists in three generations, and they’re creating from scratch a uniquely Cuban approach to guerrilla marketing.

They’ve embraced the guerrilla approach — that unconventional, low-budget and ever so effective style of advertising — not because they’ve heard it’s trendy here in the States. They’re doing it because they have no other choice. Print and broadcast media in Cuba is still state controlled and doesn’t accept advertising. Internet connectivity is severely limited. The new entrepreneurs of 2010 were faced with the challenge: how to let their fellow Cubans know they were open for business.

They met that challenge with ingenuity we should all find instructive. They accepted their limited resources, their limited access to mass media, and worked around them.

There’s the restaurant owner, for instance, who takes to the streets of Havana in his garishly painted MG Roadster (displaying the restaurant’s logo, of course). Cuba’s license plates are color coded, so he keeps an eye out for the blue plates designating foreign tour groups, and leaves discount coupons on their windshields.

And there’s the mobile phone repair company (which also does a brisk business unlocking iPhones). They wanted to differentiate themselves from their hundreds of competitors, so they’ve branded themselves as a “clinic,” complete with a cartoon mascot: a cellphone wearing a stethoscope. That icon is becoming familiar throughout the island, thanks to professional signage and thousands of flyers handed out.

Perhaps most innovative is a popular Havana burger stand. They offer 25% lifetime discounts to motorists willing to carry bright yellow advertising decals on their cars. They also managed to get 30 marchers, all wearing branded t-shirts, into this year’s May Day parade (one of Cuba’s biggest public events). The result was mass-market coverage that would have been otherwise impossible.

At this early stage, Cuban marketing is still in its infancy. The same can be said for all aspects of Cuban free enterprise. But as long as they go on showing this same level of resourcefulness and resolve, their future is bright indeed.

And along the way they might have some lessons to teach the free-enterprise giant just 90 miles off their coast. Here’s hoping we’re willing to learn them.

The C4:

1. In 2010 Cuban president Raúl Castro opened the way for limited entrepreneurship throughout the island. Within months thousands of small business — restaurants, specialty stores and beauty shops — hung out their shingles. 
2. They quickly found, however, that they had no easy way of communicating with their customers. Mass media is controlled by the Cuban government and conventional advertising doesn’t exist.
3. So they embraced what we call “guerrilla marketing.” They leveraged ingenuity, meager resources and every opportunity for exposure. It worked. It’s still working.
4. It’s a fascinating, real-time experiment in creating a free-market system from the ground up. There are lessons to be learned in Cuba. Wise marketers everywhere should pay attention to this developing story.

The Name of the Game

Pretend it's your baby.

Building your brand starts the moment you start building your company. The decisions you make as you plan, create and launch a new business will inevitably have long-lasting impact on your long-term success.

And perhaps the most consequential of those decisions is a deceptively simple one: just what are you going to call this new company?

Resist the urge to rush that decision. And resist the urge for self-indulgence. Naming the company after yourself, or your kids, or some meaningless word that sounds nice to your ears — there have been plenty of entrepreneurs who’ve managed to make this work. But there have been plenty more who’ve tried it and failed.

Your first consideration in naming your company is the one that should inform all your decision making: what does this mean for my customers? To answer that, you must know your customers, or at least know the type of customer you’ll be targeting. If you sell to a staid, conservative crowd, then one of those edgy, modern monikers — think Tumblr, Skype and Etsy — probably won’t win them over.

Speaking of pronunciation, how does it sound spoken aloud? How does it look on a letterhead? Will lazy tongues or unfamiliar typefaces change its meaning? There’s an unfortunately high possibility of brand damage here. You must anticipate and mitigate it.

Finally, can you trademark your name and buy a suitable Web domain? You might eventually retain a trademark attorney, but why not just start with a Google search? See what companies are out there with similar names, and try to anticipate consumer confusion that might result. And do a search for available domain names, but be warned: there are “domain squatters” out there who specialize in buying up dot-com names based on others’ searches, only to sell them back later at exorbitant costs.

Try to settle on a name that makes sense to your customers, that tells them in an instant who you are, what you offer and why you’re the best at it. Choose a name upon which you can hang the entirety of your marketing program — because that’s exactly what you’re about to do.

The C4:

1. Choosing a company name is the entrepreneur’s single most important marketing decision. Success depends upon treating that decision with that level of seriousness.
2. Don’t rush it and don’t take it as an opportunity to pat yourself on the back. Do look for names that speak directly to the kind of customer you want to attract.
3. Anticipate trademark and Web domain issues, as well as every nuance in how the name will sound aloud and appear on the page and screen.
4. Create a marketing program that starts with that carefully considered, ultimately perfect name…then build your dream from there.

Never Send A Hamster To Do A Gecko's Job

Insider lingo is off-putting to everyone who isn't inside.

Healthcare, life insurance and reverse mortgages: if you’re over 65, it seems like advertisers think these are the only classes of purchases in which you’re interested.

Generational Marketing is a grand idea. But too many marketers and brand managers seem uninterested in all but a few of those younger generations. They’re seeking brand sustainability, early wrought loyalty and some of the purchasing power of the 20-somethings’ new money.

Understandable goals, all around.

But do they forget the established tendency toward loyalty — and the rock-solid purchasing power — of the generations they habitually ignore?

Gaps in communication only compound the gen-gap. Trying too hard to emulate the lingo of the youngest, they send incomprehensible lingo right over the heads of elders. That’s not just ignoring part of your audience — that's flirting with their annoyance.

Two possible solutions: Spend big like Geico does, on parallel marketing platforms aimed toward every possible age of buyer. Or spend cheap by sticking to the basics, by talking about value and benefits in plain English.

Yes, you should know your audience, and talk right to them. If your only possible buyers are too young to remember the sounds of dial-up, then by all means dazzle them with your hippity-blingy hamsters.

But stop and consider the couple billion older consumers to whom you’re not selling. Ask yourself if your hamsters aren’t gnawing into your bottom line. Ask yourself if you can afford to ignore any generation.

The C4:

1. Generational Marketing means fine-tuning your message for the benefit of your buying demographic. It doesn’t mean ignoring or annoying potential buyers.
2. Hip lingo and youthful swagger are cute. “Cute” is complementary for only so many brands.
3. Every age of consumer is interested in value, in features and in benefits. Talk about those and you’re talking to everyone.
4. Don’t send a hamster to do a caveman’s job.

Indies v. Old Hands

You can't always tell a book by its, ummm, format.

One of the most interesting emerging markets — emerging in the form of a deluge, that is — is ebooks. Kindle is king, but Amazon’s competitors (Nook, Kobo, etc.) contribute a healthy percentage of global sales, which will probably top a quarter billion units moved this year.

The interesting bit is the number of those units published by absolute independents (indies): content creators as editors, designers and Amazon-partnered media moguls.

That means a lot of dross gets in, but it isn’t all dross. The top-performing indies — Amanda Hocking, J.A. Konrath and Scott Nicholson among others — are completely outperforming the publishing powerhouses.

Traditional publishing is lost at sea with ebooks. They’re pricing them wrong, formatting them poorly and marketing them not at all. The best indies have mastered formatting, have found the sweet spot of pricing (.99 to 4.99), and are marketing like the self-interested creative types they are.

And they're cleaning up.

What comes next will be driven by technology, by the inventiveness of indies and by whether or not the traditionals get competitive. They could crush the indies if they simply dumped their entire backlists into the .99 e-bin.

Conversely, indies will probably better ride the next wave of innovation. The potentials are limitless. F'rinstance, since most ebooks are read on tablets, what’s stopping publishers from inserting video into ebooks?

And who sounds more likely to try that? The indie or the old hand?

The C4:

1. Ebook sales are huge and growing, with over 115,000,000 units sold by Amazon alone last year. 
2. Direct electronic publishing technology means we're all potential ebook sellers. 
3. The market is straining under this flood.
4. Motivated independents are seizing their opportunities and outperforming all competition — including the powerhouse New York book publishers.