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Seven Marketing Mistakes That Can Kill Your Business

Over the years, I have noticed seven mistakes that come up again and again in marketing messages used by a wide spectrum of businesses and non-profits. Any one of these mistakes can harm or even kill your organization, but a lot of people make more than one of these mistakes. …

Should Marketing Be Illegal?

I can make you do what I want. Buy things. Vote a certain way. Feel better about my client. You won’t even think about it. You’ll just do it. How will I do it? First, I’ll study you — learn your habits and interests, then I’ll put words and pictures …

The Best Products That Don’t Exist (Yet)

Our clients make it easy for us by allowing us to do marketing for some great products and services. But some of the best products don’t even exist yet — so I’ve decided to invent them and then market them. Here are my top three: #1 George’s Motorized Wall-Mounted Back …

The Yoga Marketing Plan

My palms are together as if I’m praying. But I’m bent at the waist and twisted to my right side. My right elbow is pointing to the sky (the ceiling) and my left points down to the floor or — as our instructor Kathy calls it — the earth. Yes, …

Marketing in the Year 2525

Imagine the year 2525. You won’t be reading my column. Instead, your iPhone 22 will read my column to you. Of course, I won’t be writing my column either — my avatar will be writing it for me. And since he/she/it is just about perfect, the grammar will be a …

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 …