Drew McLellan, Author at McLellan Marketing Group

Good Reads

January 16, 2007

I’m not sure how you can even stay current, let alone try to stay ahead of the curve, if you’re not doing a fair amount of reading. Whether it’s books, blog posts or a great website packed with ideas — I think we all need to keep feeding our brains.

Here’s a couple thought provoking reads that are easily accessible.

Carolyn Manning is hosting another Carnival over at Thoughts & Philosophies. Lots of good reads but the one I found most thought-provoking was The Science of Success from Craig Harper.

Over at Marketing Profs, Mack Collier has posted an excellent article called Ten Steps to Creating a Brand Ambassador. You need to be a premium member…but honestly, you need to be one of those anyway.

I’ve been a member for a long time and always thought it was a bargain. The content is top notch year round and now they are doing weekly case studies that are packed with ideas, insights and tough lessons. Now, an uber bargain.

Go grab yourself some brain food! The lollipop is optional but highly recommended.

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:60 ticks marketing tip: Close your eyes and say no

January 16, 2007

Grab it fast…it’s gone in about a minute. A :60 ticks marketing tip is 150 words or less…so read it in a minute and implement it in the next!

Close your eyes. Picture a can of Coke. Now in your imagination, make the can green. What happens?

It’s not Coke anymore, is it? The folks at Coca-Cola headquarters are probably so sick of red they could scream — but they know better than to mess with their visual identity.

Remember that next time you want to change your logo’s color, font or other distinguishing features. If a company with the resources of Coke recognizes the cost of messing with their brand — shouldn’t you too?

That’s it…go put it into action! (Or in this case…inaction — leave it alone!)

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Take a Taste!

January 15, 2007

I got a friendly note from a reader Jurgen Wolff who enjoyed the Five Tips to Increase Online Book Sales post. He shared a idea that he used with great success.

"Thanks for your blog’s five tips to increase online book sales. I have been using another technique, namely printing a "Writer’s First-Aid Card" for what to do when you get stuck, and offering it free to writing conferences. The card is the size of an index card, and it’s printed both sides (color both sides). It contains a list of tips for what to do if you get stuck.

I wrote to conference organizers and offered to send them as many as they wanted, to include in their welcome pack or to pass out at the conference, or to put on a ‘freebies’ table. Requests have varied from 40 copies to several hundred."

Jurgen clearly understands the philosophy of sharing your expertise as a way of letting potential clients "sample" you.

I think this is one of marketing’s most overlooked and underused tactics. Blogging will change that to a degree — but outside of blogging, how can you give potential customers a chance to take a taste? And if you don’t do it — why the heck not?

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2007 — My turn at offering a marketing prediction

January 15, 2007

The last week of December and the early part of January are always awash with predictions. I got a nice note from David Polinchock, pointing me to the excellent series he wrote for Brand Experience Lab. Then, I found Be Excellent’s Top 10 Business Resolutions for 2007.

Both well-written and wise posts. There’s not a bad observation in the bunch.

Want to hear my prediction for 2007?

I don’t think that most businesses will actually do any of it.

I don’t believe that most businesses are brave enough to step out from the shadows of "we’ve always done it that way" to try something new.
I don’t believe that most businesses have the courage to trust their own customers and employees to grow and share the brand.
I don’t even believe that most businesses understand branding enough to take a whack at it.
Sadly, I don’t believe that most businesses will even bother to listen to the blogosphere, let alone engage in it.

Are you brave enough to prove me wrong? I sure hope so.

Flickr photo courtesy of pastelginger.

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Come out from your hiding place

January 14, 2007

I’ve read that for every person who comments on a blog there are 100+ who are reading in silence. Which is allowed. No one says you have to chime in.

But we’d sure like it if you would. As I said to Phil Gerbyshak on the phone yesterday — every conversation is more fun if someone is actually talking back.

Phil was telling me that it’s National Delurking Week. It’s the blogosphere’s way of inviting (yes, inviting) you to dip your toe in the water by posting a quick hi or giving me an idea you’d like us to explore here.

But, if you want to keep hiding — that’s cool too. I hope you won’t mind that I’m going to keep seeking by posting interesting ideas, challenging commentary and trying to entice you out.

Flickr photo courtesy of Cashaww

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Howdy neighbor!

January 14, 2007

Being a part of a community means knowing your neighbors. Or at least it should. Lots of us have joined the BlogLog community and it’s time to meet the neighbors!

Here’s how it works. The list below started with Andy Beard and Mike Sansone has now added to it. The first link is someone in their BlogLog community and the link right next to that is the neighbor’s community.

So a link for me would be:

Drew McLellan | Marketing Minute’s community

So grab this list, add a few of your neighbors and pass it on!

Come on…introduce us to some of your neighbors!

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Tagged again (I’m a slow runner!)

January 14, 2007

I was caught early in the meme and offered up my five things. Then, I wrote about how AdAge wrote about the game and how it said something interesting about bloggers and their work.

Then Branding and Marketing’s Chris Brown got me in round two of the game. So here we go. I thought to make it interesting for you and in keeping with this blog’s theme — I would tell you about five of my favorite brands and the secret each brand reveals about me.

Disney: I’m 44. I own my own business. I pay my bills on time. I vote. And…I am a 12 year old trapped in a man’s body.

Apple: Despite my seriously Type-A personality, if I had to choose one over the other, I am pretty sure my heart would choose form over function. I love Apple’s simplicity, clean design and attitude. I don’t care that I have fewer applications to choose from.

Coke: I’m a sentimental fool who loves traditions, Americana and really would like to teach the world to sing.

Dads & Daughters: Being my daughter’s dad is my life’s greatest joy.

Mystery Writers of America: There’s a mystery novel or three in me. I just have to find time to get it out on paper! I have most of the first one plotted out. It’s about a newspaper columnist who gets a call and…

Thanks for the tag Chris! I love to play! (see #1)

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Baby, it’s cold outside (and inside too!)

January 13, 2007

Winter has finally arrived in Iowa. Unfortunately it has also arrived inside my house. As you can see, it’s a balmy 56 degrees right now. And dropping like a rock.

I’m home alone (everyone else has been farmed out to warmer homes) and I am weighing whether or not I want to suck it up and pay the time and a half or wait until Monday to get it fixed. So I call my furnace repair shop of choice and I explain to the woman who answers that the furnace will not come on and its getting nippy.

I ask her what the difference in cost will be if they come out tonight or I wait until Monday. She politely tells me and points out where the cost variations are the most significant.

Ouch. Okay, I tell her…I think I will wait it out. After all, I have everyone outplaced and I am from Minnesota. We live for this weather. Being this cold will help me stay alert and get some work done, right?

Then, she says, "don’t forget to fire up enough space heaters to protect your pipes from freezing."

Hold up a second! I hadn’t thought about the pipes freezing. There’s only one space heater in the house. My mind does the quick mental math and going out to buy 5-6 more heaters or calling around to our friends and neighbors to borrow a bunch seems like a bad plan.

See what she did? Sneaky. She cared about my situation. She offered good counsel. She didn’t push her service. She didn’t argue with my decision. She actually tried to help me avoid buying from her tonight. And in doing so, she let me figure out that I needed what she was selling.

The very best selling looks a whole lot like helping.

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Shhh! You’re being too quiet!

January 13, 2007

Sometimes we try too hard and inadvertantly create the very situation we were trying to avoid.

Check out this post I wrote a couple days ago. What, within the post, do you find your eyes drawn to or distracting you from the message?

Right — the flickr credit. I was trying to make it unobtrusive and instead my efforts have it sticking out like a sore thumb. I should have just not worried about the type size and let it be.

Much like someone in the theatre shhing someone talking and actually being louder than the original offender — as marketers, we can over think and over do. Sometimes…that focuses the spotlight right where we don’t want it.

Flickr photo courtesy of double cappuccino.

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Apprentice meets Survivor = Biggest Loser?

January 12, 2007

It’s fascinating.

What was this fringe thing that only the "kids" took that seriously is suddenly becoming very mainstream. We have magazines like TIME and AdAge paying homage to the citizen marketer and social media. And now, we have the NFL, Chevy and Frito-Lay asking Joe Citizen to create ads for them.

Duck…the pendulum is swinging!

How far will this new variation on reality TV/marketing go? What do you see as the upsides? The risks? Is it just another flash in the pan along this new road or are consumer generated ads the new norm?

And where is the strategic thinking underneath any of these consumer creations? Or in this new world, doesn’t that matter?

In case the NFL article goes away… Download NFLad.pdf

flickr photo courtesy of Cilest.

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