It was of course our invention. We the people created him. Stout, unshaven, long haired and dressed in a ‘not so stylish’ red suit with a buckle that would make a bikie gang happy. He lands on your roof, enters your home by subterfuge, eats your bickies, drinks your milk and shoots through leaving only gifts for the whole family. Wonderful, harmless, benevolent, wishful and special.
Explore our historical blog articles for nuggets of wisdom (and random musings) from our crew.
For some, it’s time for a well earned break. For others it’s no doubt the busiest time of the year. In any case, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has spent the time reading our blogs and especially those that have made the effort to contribute and comment online.
A few months ago I read an article discussing the all-round benefits of laughter in the workplace which really struck a chord with me. The article caught my eye not because the content surprised me (laughter = happiness = productivity) but because I was surprised more businesses hadn’t caught onto this simple and healthy way to boost staff morale.
So you’ve spent considerable time and resources developing a business or marketing strategy. You’re clear on where you’re going and you’re excited about the future. But soon enough, you get bogged down with the day-to-day, the strategy is retired to the shelf, and in 12 months time when you have the chance to think about it again, you realise that nothing has changed and you are no-where. Unfortunately, this story is an all too common reality for small businesses and for strategists such as myself. But how do you prevent it?
Okay…so you’ve spent big dollars on a new campaign. You’ve thought of everything. TV Commercial, brochures, email newsletter, point of sale material. You even dedicated yourself to commissioning some market research along with an update to your website to ensure that it reflected your campaign. You have it all covered, right?
Marketers have created some of the world’s best throw away lines, “Less is more”: “Sweeter, sweeter the more you repeata” etc. All with deft levels of meaning, mostly good but all very vague. One such term, actually it’s an acronym, is KISS.
The acronym KISS [‘Keep it simple stupid’] is now officially under review by me. I’ve learned it’s a contradiction in terms! It’s a gaff! A clanger – a true oxymoron! It’s clever and idiotic at the same time. You see keeping things simple is bloody complicated and no one understands that any more.
Marketers have been quick jump on to new technologies. It seems any channel of communication to potential customers is a potential media. In other words, if there is an audience there is a market, and social networking websites are no different. Sites like Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace have always had a level of advertising on them, but marketers have been using a different tact to engage potential customers, and this has raised some serious questions about the etiquette of social marketing.