by Chuck | Oct 14, 2011 | Ad Critique / Classic Examples, Fresh Catch, Image Advertising, Branding, and Positioning
I like group a capella singing. I love group a capella sound effects. My favorite radio commercials of all time are a series for Trop ArcticTM All Season Motor Oil produced in the late 70s. A group of exceptional jingle singers imitated the sound of a railroad...
by Chuck | Oct 2, 2011 | Customer Education, Expectations, and Motivation, Customer Focus, Retention, and Evangelism, Fresh Catch
There’s a shake out coming. Historians will call this a period of consolidation, in which businesses are eliminated, or acquired through competition. They will have had the benefit of time. You and I will remember this as a time of small businesses going out of...
by Chuck McKay | Sep 20, 2011 | Budgeting, Pricing, and Return on Advertising Investment (ROAI), Fishing 101 - the "How To" Class, Media, Social Media, and Word-of-Mouth (WOM)
Originally published October 4, 2009 One of the advantages electronic news has over print is the capability to deliver information in real time “live from the scene.” As you might imagine it didn’t take long for this proficiency to migrate from the news...
by Chuck | Sep 14, 2011 | Customer Focus, Retention, and Evangelism
Typically, people involved in business, especially in competitive industries, think what they do is fascinating. To people outside the industry, they aren’t. So, when you fill your customer newsletter with riveting content which involves your new line of...
by Chuck McKay | Sep 14, 2011 | Ad Writing / Copywriting
Originally published June 17, 2005 Is any advertising more closely monitored by the advertiser than a “personals” ad? I don’t believe so. If ever an advertiser wanted results, and wanted them now, this is it. Personals ads demonstrate some of the...
by Chuck | Aug 15, 2011 | Customer Focus, Retention, and Evangelism, Fresh Catch
Are you familiar with the term, “velocity of money?” You’ve maybe heard it said that a dollar changes hands roughly seven times before it parks in a savings account or a long-term investment. Velocity is the relative speed at which the changing happens. A dollar...
by Chuck | Aug 3, 2011 | Around the Cooler
by Chuck McKay | Jul 27, 2011 | Media, Social Media, and Word-of-Mouth (WOM)
You’ve just spent the day, a long day, at a Disney theme park. You’re beyond tired when you finally make it back to your car to find you’ve locked the keys inside. Can you imagine a more frustrating feeling? Now imagine the arrival of Disney’s locksmith. He reads your...
by Chuck McKay | Jul 26, 2011 | Fishing 101 - the "How To" Class
Sounds like such a great idea, doesn’t it? You’re a retailer – say a hardware store owner. Your store carries Ajax Widgets. You want to advertise in your local market to get customers into your store, but the cost is high. Ajax wants people to buy Ajax brand widgets,...
by Chuck | Jul 13, 2011 | Market Segmentation, Targeted Marketing, Database Marketing
Pretend with me that you run Acme Office Supplies. You’ve just conducted a survey asking your customers why they shop with you. The overwhelming answer: convenience. Is your research done? Do you tell people how convenient you are in all of your advertising and...
