Marketing Strategies

The Maytag Guarantee

Maytag figured something out many, many decades back. If they put a guarantee on their dishwashers and showed an idle Maytag repairman on TV (if you don’t recall, he was...

You Can’t Be Friendly & Unfriendly

Banks like to advertise how friendly they are. Customer service comes first, last and in between. At least, so they say. Yet these “friendly” banks bury customers with small fees....

Great Websites

In Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely recounts a study of coffee drinkers. When coffee was served to test subjects in fanciful dishware, complemented with condiments in beautiful glass and metal containers,...

Say It, Become It

There are disproportionately more Clay’s in the pottery business than people with other names. More people with the last name Singer sing and more Tyler’s tile than other folks. And...

How Long Can You Go?

Extreme is good. Extreme is awesome. Extreme is profitable. But when your extreme behavior is inauthentic, rooted in a desire to get attention by whatever means possible, extreme is bad...

First Mover Advantage Redefined

Remember that term “first mover advantage”? I’m sure you do. And I also suspect you realize that it is pretty much no longer relevant - at least as to how...

Competing On Convenience

Convenience. It’s one of your customers greatest desires. A house used to be a cave. Drinking water was in a river a mile away. Dinner was a day’s (or week’s)...

McDonald’s Sneaky Trick To Making More Money From You

Back in September 2013, McDonald’s began a campaign for their Premium Roast Coffee. Started in California, the campaign (perhaps due to its success) has grown countrywide. Buy any size cup...

Passive And Participative Marketing

You remember 20 years ago, right?  Marketing was passive.  You would run a TV commercial or have the local radio station pitch your product.  Consumers would either listen or turn...

Make Your Website The Same (But Do It Differently)

When it comes to website design (or any of your marketing materials), the unique, different and unexpected can work against you.  It’s the marketer’s paradox. Being different is your biggest...

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