Dr. Spock Says Buy Cheer Laundry Detergent

I love old ads, and when they include a Star Trek reference, they’re hard to resist.  When I stumbled across the television commercial below from 1969 featuring a Dr. Spock lookalike hyping Cheer laundry detergent, I laughed out loud.  No doubt this would be a copyright lawsuit in the making today.

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What do you think?

If you can’t view the above video, you can see it here.

Geek Squad Feels Your Pain

Kudos to Geek Squad who approved a funny set of print ads that hits home to just about anyone who has ever used a computer.  The creative comes from the Miami Ad School in Madrid, Spain.

I laughed out loud when I saw these and could completely relate.  I also love Victor Javier Blanco’s brilliant sub-copy, “Fixed before it gets nasty.”  I love simple but incredibly effective ads!

Which one of the above ads is you?  I have to admit that I’m a #1.

Source: Adgoodness

Improve Your Copywriting with the Red Pen Rule

In my book, Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps, I write about how a little trick I call the Red Pen Rule can help you make your marketing copy more effective and more successful.

This week, I wrote an overview of the Red Pen Rule on Entrepreneur.com.  Here’s a snippet to give you an idea of what’s included in the article and discussed in greater detail in my book.

“You don’t ever want consumers to read or listen to your ad or marketing piece and think, “Hurry up and get to the point.” Instead, keep your messages short, sweet and succinct, and your results will prove that the red pen rule works.”

You can follow the link to read the complete article, called The Red Pen Rule for Marketing Copy.

Read an Excerpt of Blogging All-in-One for Dummies

An excerpt of my new book is now available on Entrepreneur.com.  The excerpt is about building a buzz with a business blog.  You can read the excerpt here, but here’s a snippet:

The most powerful aspect of business blogging is the potential to generate word-of-mouth marketing from the content you publish. If you can engage your audience members and get them talking about your business, products and services outside of your website, you’ve hit marketing gold.

Blogs are a perfect tool to achieve that goal because they’re conversational in nature. They’re also filled with personality (at least the good ones are) that encourages readers to participate and build relationships with the bloggers and businesses behind them. Relationships drive customer loyalty and create vocal brand advocates who want to talk about the brands they love and are willing to defend those brands from criticism. When that conversation moves from your business blog and turns into online buzz, you’ve achieved a goal that marketing managers dream of.

Read the rest here.

Use the Brand Perception Snap Shot to Develop Your Brand Strategy

One of the tools that I use to help my clients develop a brand strategy is what I call the Brand Perception Snap Shot.  Branding can be a confusing and overwhelming enigma, but the Brand Perception Snap Shotenables you to cut through the clutter and get down to what really matters.

You can take the Brand Perception Snap Shot by answering the three questions below:

1. What 5 words would you use to describe your brand today?
2. What 5 words would your customers use to describe your brand today?
3. What 5 words do you want to be used in the future to describe your ultimate brand (i.e., when your brand reaches your biggest, pie-in-the-sky goals)?

To complete your Brand Perception Snap Shot, simply review the words you used to answer the questions above.  Identify the gaps and successes.  These are the areas you need to focus on as you begin to develop your long-term brand strategy and short-term tactics that will help you reach those pie-in-the-sky goals.

Image: stock.xchng

The Most Powerful Brands Own a Word in Consumers’ Minds – Does Yours?

When a brand owns a word in consumers’ minds, that brand has been effectively positioned against its competition.  Think of it this way: Some of the most recognizable brands in the world “own” a word in consumers’ minds.  Here are some examples from the automotive industry:

• Cadillac = luxury
• BMW = performance
• Kia = affordability

Think of some of your favorite brands.  What word pops into your head first when you think of those brands?  It’s very possible that the word you think of is the same word that the majority of consumers think of in relation to that brand, and that means the company behind that brand has done an excellent job of positioning the brand and communicating the brand’s message, image and promise to consumers.

Owning a word in consumers’ minds is the ultimate goal for brand managers, and you can do it with your brand, too. [Read more]

The Death of Interruption Marketing

My new article on Entrepreneur.com discusses how the world of marketing has changed from being reliant on interruption to engagement.

Following is an excerpt from the article, which you can read in its entirety here.

“With the growth of social media, marketers have learned that simply interrupting the online conversation doesn’t always lead to sales, nor does it lead to positive word-of-mouth marketing. Now the goal of marketing is engagement. Consumers want to know, what are you going to tell them after you interrupt them?  Marketers have discovered that there is tremendous value in building brands and relationships through long-term social media strategy vs. short-term direct-marketing tactics on social websites.”

What do you think?  Is interruption marketing dead?  Leave a comment and share your opinion.

The New Social Media Marketing ROI

I just wrote an article for the Yahoo! Advertising Blog that discusses the new ROI for measuring social media marketing performance.

Following is an excerpt from my article:

“Tracking online brand advertising and social media marketing success comes from tracking return-on-impression, the new form of ROI. Return-on-Impression encompasses two primary soft metric values: eyeballs and perceptions.”

To learn more about the shift from tracking Return on Investment to tracking Return on Impression, follow the link to check out my post on the Yahoo! Advertising Blog.

Fight, Flight or Flood – How to Respond to a Negative Online Buzz about You or Your Business

People talk about things that are meaningful to them. They’ve been talking about products, brands, businesses and people offline since the first means of communication were created. Therefore, it’s not surprising that people today talk on the social Web. The global conversation is loud and powerful, and it can positively or negatively affect your, your brand, and your business.

But what should you do when someone says something negative about you or your business online?

This is one of the most common fears of individuals and businesses considering leveraging the social Web conversation to build their reputations, brands and businesses, and unfortunately, it’s one of the main reasons that people and companies are not getting the results they want and need from their social media efforts.

Don’t be afraid to let the audience take control of the conversation. That’s where the power of the social Web comes from in terms of building brands and businesses. And if someone publishes something negative about you or your business online, don’t try to squash the conversation. Overtly trying to control the conversation can do far more harm to your reputation than good. Instead, follow one of the three paths described below to effectively respond to a negative online buzz about you, your brand, or your business.

1. Fight

While you don’t want to appear controlling nor do you want to stop the online conversation (even if it’s negative), you can fight without looking like a bully. Join the conversation and nudge it in the right direction (i.e., the direction that is best for you and your business) by addressing misconceptions, admitting mistakes, and demonstrating your desire to fix them and put customers first. The more time you spend building your audience of brand advocates across the social Web, the more you’ll start to see those people standing up for you. Therefore, the fight path offers two effective options — nudging conversations yourself and allowing your band of brand advocates to nudge it for you. [Read more]

Harnessing the Power of Social Media – Interview with Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius was featured in a new interview for XLRQ Radio’s Embrace the Noise program where she discussed how companies, entrepreneurs, and organizations can tap into the power and reach of social media to effectively build brands, relationships and business.

You can follow the link to listen to Harnessing the Power of Social Media with Susan Gunelius.

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