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Quit working for peanuts…START WORKING FOR SMILES

I was talking to 5-month-old Nico Farris. Well, not actual words…just “Whoop, Whoop, Whoop! Wheeeeeee! Whoop, Whoop, Whoop! Wheeeeeee! Whoop, Whoop, Whoop! Wheeeeeee!” I say this as I bounce him up and down in my lap and then thrust him up in the air and hold him above me. I …

Bull Riding and the Dallas, Texas Brand

So here I am at Gilley’s huge new location in Dallas. Gilley’s is the bar made famous in the movie Urban Cowboy. You’ll recall that Bud Davis, played by John Travolta, tries to impress his girlfriend Sissy, played by Debra Winger, with his (mechanical) bull-riding skills at Gilley’s. This location …

Apple and the UberBrander – Steve Jobs

I helped make Steve Jobs wealthy by purchasing Apple products. He helped make me happy, hip and productive. We got our first Apple computer in early 80s. It was rectangular, and it was slow by today’s standards — but it was cool. And if you owned an ad agency, you had to …

Take a Position/Build your brand

Take a Position But not just any position. If you want your branding efforts to be successful, you need to develop a strong Positioning Statement. Use these guidelines — It’s what you’re the best at — what do you do better than anyone else in the market? It’s important — …

THE WORST MISTAKES IN MARKETING

FUNNY IS FINE…IF IT REALLY IS FUNNY We’re sitting in the darkened editing suite. We just viewed a commercial I shot and edited. A client asked me to shoot what he thought was a funny concept. I cringed, but wanted to keep the client happy. So now I was asking …

Memories Fuel Fair Marketing

I could see the rides. I could hear the midway game barkers. I could smell the french fries and…well…the horses that apparently had their dinner earlier that day. It all seemed so far away even though were were close. My five-year-old feet were tired from walking to the entrance from …

Campaigning for a Cause

Can you pass a levy without spending heavy? The answer is YES. Several months ago, we faced that question when we took on the challenge of managing a campaign to pass a 3.8 mill Police Levy in Boardman. And the levy passed by more than a thousand votes with almost no heavy …

THE BRAND NAME GAME

What is in a brand name that makes it special? Can it really make a difference? Or are there other factors that determine the success of a brand, like extensive advertising campaigns? Let’s face it, with enough TV spots, we can make the name “Humperdink Hamburgers” work for the name …