Do Marketers Need to Major in Marketing?
By the time you get through college, September is permanently imprinted on your brain as “back-to-school time,” especially if you also have school-aged children of your own. Everyone from big-box stores to restaurants uses the excitement (and dread) of August and September as a marketing tool. Even universities themselves seem [...]
“Stranger Things” Than Marketing Failures (aka New Coke)
For decades, New Coke has been marketing shorthand for “a really bad marketing idea.” But, with the third season of Netflix’s hit show Stranger Things taking place in 1985, the year of the New Coke debacle, the product and the marketing around it is being reevaluated. An interesting article in [...]
Marketing So Good It’s a Shame
Plastic bags have been identified as a major environmental concern. One grocery store in Vancouver, Canada decided to take the situation into their own hands, or bags, as the case may be. In the process, they created both a marketing campaign that received international recognition and a new revenue stream. [...]
When Your Coworkers Are Kids (Literally)
Leigh still remembers her first job. It was the summer after eighth grade, and her father hired her in his medical office to help with filing (everything was still on paper back then). Somehow, Leigh didn’t realize there was a difference between “balance due” and “no balance,” and she filed [...]
Are Remote Workers Lonely?
UPDATE: The Tulsa Remote experiment appears to be going well for the first group of Tulsa ex-pats. Working from home has become a popular benefit for both workers who want work-life balance and for employers who want to attract top talent. According to Reuters, the number of remote workers is [...]
Ancient Rituals, Modern Marketing
It seems like marketing seasons are getting shorter and shorter. No sooner are the Fourth of July sales over than the Halloween candy starts coming out. Of course, the winter holidays now last from October until January, and then even before all the green of St. Patrick’s Day has been [...]
Did Your Future Boss Just Text You?
Some of us may remember the days of debating between cream or white-colored paper for our resumes. Tomorrow’s job candidates may debate whether a smiley face or a thumbs up is a more professional response to the latest text from a recruiter. That’s right. As this article details, today’s recruiters [...]
Is Office Romance Really a No-No?
Ahh love. Everyone knows that work and romance don’t mix, except that according to one poll, 22% of married couples in the U.S. met at work. Our own informal research (i.e. talking to our friends, colleagues, and clients) tells us that workplace romances are more likely to happen in places [...]
The Weirdest Marketing Stunts of 2018 (and what they mean for 2019)
Now that we’ve started a new year, let’s go back in time … to last year. Every year there are a few great marketing campaigns and a few truly bizarre ones. But, even the bizarre ones can tell us something about where marketing trends are going. Inc. magazine released this [...]
Are You Thankful for Yourself?
Thanksgiving is on its way, making it a perfect time of year to sit down and think about what you’re grateful for. There are the obvious categories - family, health, friends, brownies, new episodes of This Is Us - but what about professionally? Hopefully, most of us are grateful for [...]
A Tale of Two Lamps, and Two Ads
Back in 2002 IKEA came out with this now iconic ad about a forlorn lamp. The ad worked so well because it expertly played on our emotions (we won’t tell if you get a little misty), using the tropes and patterns millions of ads have set up before it, only to [...]
Give Employees a Great First Day – And First Day Horror Stories
It can take weeks or even months to find the best employee for your company. It’s surprising that after spending so much time, many employers fail to follow through by creating a quality first-day experience. According to a recent Inc article, more than 40% of employees who leave a company [...]