Author: Garth Beyer

At a meeting last week, a marketer said one of the best parts of his job is how good it feels when he gets to see the final product, be it TV segment, billboard, print ad, etc,.

It is a good feeling and a great motivator to keep shipping.

The struggle comes in going past the feel good marketing to recognize if it really is good marketing. Does it impact the customer? Does it benefit the business? Does it spur action in others?

Better, I think, to rate tactics by their outcome and impact rather than how good it makes you feel seeing it out there in the world.

 

Stay Positive & It May Feel Good, But Does It Work?

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It’s easy to reel off reasons why a consumer ought to buy your product. We try and try to inform the customer what they want to know about our brand, but to no prevail.

In reality, we’re better off listening to where we fit in the story they’re telling themselves. How we fit into their beliefs, their worldviews, their cares.

Most often than not, a customer isn’t looking for a sleek appliance, isn’t looking for a convenience piece or a cheap product that saves them money.

They’re looking for a way to spend more time with their family. They’re looking for a conversation starter when they invite friends over. They’re looking to impress their friends because they care about prestige.

Emotions are everything.

 

Stay Positive & Invoke, Not Showcase

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The lack of brand voice (if you don’t know what a brand stands for, sounds like, or what emotions they’re trying to invoke) is likely due to them working to be too many things.

You may want your brand to be friendly, honest, forward, passionate, quirky, funny, smart, driven, and so many more adjectives, but in doing so, you lose solidarity, you begin to try to be all things for all people. Your brand voice becomes a blur.

Pick four different but complimentary brand nature words. Be specific. Be human.

When you ask a friend what another person is like, do they run off an entire list of adjectives? Or do they say just a few? “Oh, she’s poignant, strong-willed, skilled and a bit goofy.”

Make your brand more human.

 

Stay Positive & Limited Leads To Limitless

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New marketing demands big ideas: ideas that turn heads, that make people question, that get people talking.

New marketing requires the story to start right now, not after a package is opened.

New marketing forces the big idea to be embedded into the entire experience.

New marketing is about influencing the world around the marketer, not the other way around.

New marketing is about jumping in when everyone else takes a step back to what they know.

 

Stay Positive & New Marketing Exists… If You Want It To

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Routines can be the gateway to ruts.

Routines close the doors to creativity, to opportunity, to new ways of thinking.

Yet, time and time again, routines tend to work. Tend to set you up to prosper in other areas, tend to remove grogginess, tend to promote efficiency.

Here are some ways I’ve seen routines work and some ways they don’t.

Works

• Setting yourself up for sleep ex: reading, peeing, brushing teeth, lights out
• Waking up energized ex: going to sleep and waking up at the same time every night
• Meditation/yoga ex: establishing a trigger to simplicity and relaxedness
• Self check-ins ex: asking yourself what good you’ve done today every evening

Doesn’t Work

• Your way of thinking about work ex: we’ve always done the pitch deck this way
• Relationships with significant other, co workers, family, clients ex: there’s no surprise or delight
• The way you exercise ex: you’re bound to miss out on physical balance if you stick to routine
• Weekly meetings ex: routine meetings that go the same way each week

The takeaway here is establishing a quality routine at the start of the day and the end of it is critical. What happens in-between is meant to stretch your mind, your skills, and be where you can make your creative impact.

 

Stay Positive & What Will You Do Differently? Do The Same?

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There’s a lot of mental tricks and gimmicks you can play to deal better with the grunt work we all have to do from time to time.

What I’ve seen to be the most effective, though, is that you still have a task or project that you’re energized about, passionate about and empowered by.

What ruins one’s work ethic is when the grunt work is all there is. Doing it becomes loads easier when we’re also working on something bigger.

In fact, forcing yourself to do banal tasks “when I could be working on this awesome project” might even bring your A-game up a notch.

 

Stay Positive & Install Work Variety In Your Project List

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