As a mere male, I marvel at the patience of a women preparing herself for a night to remember. As a marketer I know exactly what she’s attempting to do – she’s positioning herself and its not just about competing with the rest of the females. I’m sure by now most females will be heading toward my office , while reaching for their 9mm side arms to take me out. So prior to my likely assassination I want to square things up a little – men do it too! There less obvious in their preparation, but they’re engaged in the same process – positioning.
Explore our historical blog articles for nuggets of wisdom (and random musings) from our crew.
Go on…admit it. As much as you may respect your competitors (and don’t get me wrong, I believe this to be very important!). There’s still no better feeling than getting the upper hand in your own marketplace. So how is your swing? Are you averaging at the top of the league with a 0.360? Or are you simply sitting on the bench?
If you’re not a member of one, you’ve certainly heard of at least one of them and more than likely know someone who is on one. That’s right, I’m talking about a social networking site. MySpace and Facebook are the two largest at the moment and are growing rapidly every day. So what impact are these sites having on business in general and is there a place for these sites in your business?
In 2002, Seth Godin wrote a book called “Purple Cow” in which he wrote “If you’re the same, you’re invisible”. To be honest, I couldn’t agree more. It’s an age old argument between client and agency and one that I’m sure will continue for decades, if not centuries, to come. But the landscape is changing. Agencies such as Jack in the box aren’t just presenting radical ideas with little substance. Adland is beginning to realise the importance of results and that key to all this is communication.
Last weekend, mentally exhausted after a weeks hard grind, I decided to escape life, veg. out and watch television with a vengeance. After a weekend of remote control power usage, I now know why some people believe that television commercials are more talked about than the programmes. By coincidence or divine intervention, I found myself watching a show called ‘Law and Order SVU’, which I quite enjoyed. After all, the script was full of tragedy and disasters that weren’t happening to me and so I empathised and was uncomfortably entertained by someone elses story – but then I had to remind myself, it was a story – that is until I noticed the chilling subscript at the end of the titles. ‘Based on a true story’ Oops! Not a good sign.
Every now again, there is a brilliant ad which rises above advertising mediocrity. The particular one I am referring to in this case is Foxtel’s ‘whistle’ or ‘lost in time’ ad. As someone in the industry, it is a breath of fresh air to watch a great, feel-good ad like this one.
I read an article the other day in an industry magazine which left me in total shock! It was written by a hi-profile strategist in a major Perth agency and was on the subject of women in our industry. For whatever reason, the marketing / advertising world (in most cases) seems to have found itself still revelling in the afterglow of the 80’s and many are still finding it hard to come to terms with the reality of today’s market. It has only been recently that the whole revelation has hit most, that women are not only an important part of the market we should be marketing to, but are an essential element of the fabric of a good agency.