Five weeks ago, I had my annual appointment at the eye doctor. This place also has a rockin' selection of eyewear, so I also selected a pair of glasses and a long-overdue pair of sport sunglasses from Ray-Ban, carefully chosen by their eyewear professional to best protect my eyes from the ...
Category Archives: marketing
The Genius of the XM Free Trial
I never understood XM. Why would someone pay for the radio when you already have AM and FM for free? Are these people just signing up to listen to Howard Stern, and if so, why? When I bought my new car in April, it came with a three-month XM trial. I wasn’t even ...
Not-So-RDQLUS Thinking
Ever since I read this blog post from Steve Gordon -- a.k.a. RDQLUS -- I've been thinking about the creative professionals that I've worked with during my career. "I'm so sorry," they say by way of preemptive apology. "I'm not much of a writer." I ...
The Right Place at the Right Time
This morning at the PRSA Health Academy conference, Dr. Peter Salgo -- whose name you might recognize from here, here or here -- gave a very energetic talk about the future of healthcare in America. The future, he says, is wellness: a proactive approach ...
Public Speaking: The Center of Attention
I've had a lifelong aversion to being the center of attention, and there's no time where you're more on display than when you're speaking in public. I've been increasingly more comfortable with it over time, but it's still nothing that I've ever actively sought out. Yesterday, I had to deliver my
Branding a Nonprofit
I've been involved in countless branding and rebranding projects with various corporations, but most have involved high-priced agencies setting guidelines while those of us on the ground try to finesse them in real-world applications. But it's rare to have the opportunity to be involved in a branding and messaging project from the ground floor. That's ...
Crisis Communications
It seems like everyone is talking about the quality problems and subsequent fall from grace at Toyota. The most startling, to me, is when someone casually says, "Well, you just know that they're going to find an email that proves that they knew something was up before ...
The Pen That I Love
I've seen lots of ads for the Uni-Ball 207 pen, all focused on prevention of check fraud. What they never seem to mention is that these pens are really great to write with. The ink flows nicely without smearing, and the specialty colors are vibrant and fun. The orange pen, in particular, ...
“Hello, I’m Really Good At…”
If I've learned anything at the AMWA conference, it's that writers are not necessarily marketers. Perhaps more accurately, writers are not self-marketers. I've handed out a few dozen business cards and every person has commented on my tagline: "Clarifying complex ideas! That's fantastic -- how did you come up with that?" Two words: ...