February 2012
1 post
The value of attention
…is inversely proportional to the demands placed upon it.
January 2012
3 posts
1 tag
Don't shoot the message
Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world.
Twitter recently announced that it will be able to put a virtual fence around content and ideas that may be deemed unsuitable or offensive to users in a specific country.
Do platforms such as Twitter have a responsibility towards...
“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in....”
– Richard Dawkins
You’re born, raised and then torn down, To...
December 2011
2 posts
3 tags
“Customers almost universally never experience their expectations being met, much...”
– Dan Pallotta
November 2011
2 posts
“[The language of marketing] is a lot like the language of astrology. If you are...”
– Rory Sutherland quoting a friend on the false dichotomy between the creative and scientific worlds
October 2011
2 posts
3M Noise Cancelling Headphones Campaign →
September 2011
1 post
“The problem with real people is that they don’t see the world the same way...”
– Youngme Moon, Harvard Business School
July 2011
5 posts
Icarus's Curse
People told stories, now we’re living in them.
We can now fly across continents, work better and faster, and have a much better understanding of our place in the universe.
Visionaries - people who are not afraid to redefine reality. They lead, question and drive progress for the rest of us. Sometimes though, this happens at the cost of failure, ridicule or exile; in rare cases even their...
4 tags
Beautifully imperfect
I am fascinated by circles and make no secret of it. Circles to me represent continuity in nature, our imperfection as a species, Plato’s realm of ideas and the vast infinity of the universe - among many other things!
If this sounds a wee bit intense, allow me to explain why I am obsessed with the shape:
Firstly, depending on your definition of ‘perfection’, a perfect circle...
Brevity
Only write enough to make your point.
June 2011
1 post
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget...”
– Maya Angelou
May 2011
4 posts
A Question on Moral Responsibility →
ageofreason:
You’re driving down the road and, in a moment of inattention, you run a red light. In one universe a cop pulls you over and gives you a ticket. In another universe you hit a little old lady and kill her.
In the first universe you’re just an ordinary motorist. In the second you’re a shameful monster. But you had no control over the presence of the little old lady; the same...
“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night...”
– Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love
April 2011
2 posts
A Mini Saga
The two trains were on a collision course.
Tao had to make a decision.
If he did nothing, all fifty children would live to see another day.
Alternatively, he could pull the lever and save a hundred convicts
He yawned and wondered what he was going to have for lunch.
I am fascinated by the art of storytelling - something seldom formally taught at business schools. I would argue that marketers...
March 2011
3 posts
1 tag
Afterthoughts on the Spark 2011 Conference
The American Marketing Association at York recently held their annual Marketing conference featuring distinguished industry professionals from Toronto. I really enjoyed the laid back vibe and tons of networking opportunities! Here are some of the key learnings from the day:
Ray Kong - Consumer Marketing & Trends
“Any business is designed to keep doing what made it successful.”
...
Highlights from The Art of Marketing 2011
I had the chance to volunteer at The Art of Marketing conference today and sit in on some of the amazing talks. Here are some of the highlights from the day, feel free to comment and add more or suggest edits. Croudsourcing FTW!
Cheers,
SK
Gary Vaynerchuk
“There is no such thing as a social media campaign. This stuff is relationship based.”
“The only thing that is going to...
February 2011
5 posts
Second Chances
Frank O’Dea on battling homelessness/alcoholism and going on to become a successful serial entrepreneur with a multi-million dollar business empire:
I’ve been through it all, I’ve been through it repeatedly. There have been successes but there have been failures, too. There are times when things are dark. If you don’t have hope, you can have no vision. With hope, you can have vision but...
Learning like a baby
Babies are marvellous creatures.
Not only are they cute and innocent but in a matter of months they learn how to interact and respond with the world. That might sound simple enough but you have to appreciate that it took thousands of years for culture to reach where it is now. The mere fact that babies begin to say words at 8-10 months is a marvel. So how do they do it? And more importantly, what...
1 tag
“History only repeats itself if you notice.”
The ongoing process...
…of constant self-improvement has few constants. Here are some of the fundamentals that I came across; commitment being a necessary precondition: Being humble / you can’t know it all / accepting that as fact
Making mistakes / learning from them / making more
Getting it right / recognizing why / sharing it
January 2011
5 posts
1 tag
The Case Against CSR
As part of a Marketing Strategy class, I was assigned a reading by Aneel Karnani titled ‘The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility’. The following (rant) details why this kind of stale thinking needs to be replaced with a fresh perspective on corporate citizenship.
While I laud the author’s brave attempt, the article fails to establish any new ground against CSR apart...
“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring...”
– Alan Watts
“Criticism is something you can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing,...”
– Aristotle (via ageofreason)
December 2010
5 posts
The Strategic Love Triangle
This is the final post in my three-part series. So far we have identified a need for inclusive language that incorporates what is important in marketing today. The closest we have come to forming a basis for marketing’s identity is branding. However, today I would like to go beyond just brands, towards a more strategic approach to marketing.
Historically, a ‘brand’ referred to...
Branding and Identity
Yesterday I asked: what is important in marketing? I want to tackle this question with you, so if you have anything to share or add please do so.
We don’t get a clear picture around what is important just by looking at organizational structures. I think the answer lies beyond defined roles and responsibilities and is actually embedded in the language of marketing.
For the sake of argument...
1 tag
Marketing because..
Over the next couple of days I will be talking about identity in the context of marketing. In order to do marketing effectively, we need to first understand our focus. This gives us perspective and a sense of who we are in relation to our surroundings. Most marketers would agree they are important in the organization they work for, some would even go so far as to say they are indispensable! They...
“This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like...”
– Rumi (via oceanofmind)
November 2010
3 posts
“Money does not drive the world, stories do
Abundance is a story, but there are...”
1 tag
TMO
I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say “consumers today are more powerful than they have ever been” or something along the lines. The underlying assumption being made is that more choices mean we can pick and choose what suits our needs. Freedom of choice leads to happier consumers.
Seems like a pretty reasonable assumption to make, right?
In his book...
“Some people have no money, some have no time. Choose your poverty, or be as rich...”
October 2010
14 posts
1 tag
Instead of marketing
Generate ideas and execute on them in ways that have people talking for days. Create something so simple and elegant you don’t need to spot the brand to recognize it. Develop relationships that don’t need to be promoted. Work with what you have right now and make it better; expect nothing in return. Become the language, the thought process and the lifestyle people want for themselves.
...
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
– Steve Jobs
2 tags
Beyond the Social Network
Social networks are not the be-all and end-all of the internet.
There you go, I said it. While social networks create platforms that allow marketers to capitalize on our belonging and affiliation needs; Web 2.0 means a lot more than that.
Thankfully blogs allow content creators to publish their thoughts. Global reach has also enabled entrepreneurs and artists from all over the world to enrich...
1 tag
1 tag
George Carlin on minimalism:
“Some see the glass half full. Others see it half empty. I see a glass that’s twice as big as it needs to be.”
1 tag
Mass marketing is here to stay
When the TV came out we thought the radio would die out
When cell phones came out we thought landlines would disappear
Each of these technologies today coexist, and each has its own pros and cons. There are cases though when the choice is fairly obvious.
Everyone wants a relationship with the customer - from the guy selling onions to the toothbrush maker. Some customers just want to consume...