CharlieMoger.com

Marketing and advertising advice for owner-operated businesses

It’s only beer, isn’t it?

And, you're only selling a product or service. Right?

Impact is a function of relevance. This one speaks to the spirit in every human, placing beer at the pinnacle of Maslow's hierarchy as an artifact of human actualization. True, it seems a stretch when your left-brain takes over and thinks about it logically. But, effective advertising sneaks in through the right with intriguing abstract ideas, a sweet treat for the mind. Does your advertising do that?

How long does it take you to figure out what he's talking about? The time taken doing so pry open the door to your right brain to stir your thinking before the left can say, "It's only beer, isn't it?"

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Dispatch from the next wave

Set aside your politics. Last Tuesday signaled more than a sweeping shift of power in our Capital. It represented an long-predicted turn in social thought.*  Whether you agree or not, the fundamentals are shifting as we enter an age of civic responsibility. 

In her "Open apology to boomers everywhere," Heather Havrilesky speaks from the heart of what's driving this shift, where it's going, and its hopeful outcome. She is an alpha-voice signaling a changing of the guard to those still unaware.

Dismissive head shaking won't reverse this sea change any more than salmon have turned rivers over centuries of swimming upstream. Pour yourself a big cup of BE REAL and wrap your brain around this watershed moment: we're selling in a new market. Changes in the rules of engagement are profound.

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This historic day can help you win too

Opening a book opens your mind, birthing new understandings. I3-ObamaProgress-022508 was 14 and the book was The Selling of the President. Joe McGinniss fascinated me with how Richard Nixon was packaged, presented, and sold.  I came to understand that the world is a series of marketing propositions. Barack Obama must have read the same book.

Obama's not only President-Elect, but Advertising Age Magazine's Marketer of the Year, beating out Apple, Nike, Coors, and, of course, John McCain. (The Arizona Senator came in  6th.) Al Ries wonders why more advertisers don't look at Obama's victory for clues to their own success.

Ries and Jack Trout authored the seminal work on modern branding, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind and later wrote the timeless, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. Chances are if you're reading this, you've read both; if not, make a point to do so.

Obama's branding success is built on three basic principles: Simplicity, Consistency, Relevance.

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Don’t feel special when you don’t do

Saturday I undertook the nutritional journey to a hilltop in Austin, Wizard Academy. It’s a journey that fills my imagination’s tank. Applied vision sourced in service to others has a contagious quality; its magic quickly dissipates when misapplied in the mundane use of self-service. More on that another time….

While there, Dave Young shared with me a truth that freed me of guilt like a good long visit in the confessional. As we discussed methods of helping you author fresh content for a blog, he indicated many people begin but fail to continue populating blogs. Getting people to write consistently is a bigger challenge than getting them to write at all.

Check the date spans between my posts. We are our own harshest critics and assume our short-comings are unique in the universe. Not so much. When you’re in moments of stifling angst, remember the sage words of wisdom frequently vended by my beloved Grandmother, Margret McMillan: "get over it."

Flurries and downpours of creativity fill the pages with alarming irregularity. When it rains, pages pour forth. Between those times, however, this blog (and, don’t take this personally) becomes that girl who you really like, but can’t seem to make time for…

Dave generously shared a key to generating content that left me feeling like a world-class goober. You know the feeling: a solution to a problem comes your way comprised of various elements you knew, but never assembled.

Ah, to say is easy. Doing requires the surfactant of commitment to break the surface tension of remaining securely nestled in the soup of what you already know. That’s a hint. Curious? Ask, and I’ll share.

Grooveyard of posts past