’nuff said…

Is aggressively marketing your startup company a requirement or a luxury? While many entrepreneurs pay lip service to the former, they don’t really believe it. If you want the truth, look at what they actually do. As crazy as it may seem, it’s common for entrepreneurs to overlook the need for major marketing investment from day one. “We’re just starting up,” they think. “We need to get on our feet and then we’ll have the money to invest in things like marketing and advertising.” But whether it’s old-fashioned meatloaf or brand new technology, no matter how good your product or service is, it won’t sell itself. If you can’t afford a marketing budget you can’t afford to open your doors.

The Brand. It’s the holy grail of marketing. But what is it? Most average people- even people that have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on so-called “branding” will tell you it’s a logo, an ad campaign, slogans, yada, yada, yada. Most marketers will give you a broader, more philosophical response- most of which make about as much sense as whiskey-flavored ice cream. Most of these definitions only scratch the surface…

As marketers, our job is to tell stories. The stories we tell are either believed or disbelieved by consumers. Presumably, you hire us because people tend to believe the story we tell more often than not. As humans, we don’t process facts, we process stories. Our brains operate much better when we tell ourselves a story and then make decisions based on how that story makes us feel.

Ok, so we just wrapped up the first annual Material Girls Spokesmodel Search. Part of the festivities for this contest was an online voting feature which allowed the 12 finalists to have their friends vote for them online. Let me set the stage for this: these are 12 girls, ages 16-20, most of them in high school. In under two weeks of online voting, over 20,000 unique votes were registered. Wow.

After years of targeted ads featuring hygiene products for women- shampoo, deodorant, skin products, etc.- finally the male side of the market is getting some attention. And we’re not talking Old Spice, Brute, or Aque Velva….we’re talking Axe.

The old media stalwarts still believe they can control what their viewers see and do. They still believe they can control the flow of content. They are still afraid of new marketing. And, in the same breath, they are still dismissive of it. They just don’t get it…

There are few things that can simultaneously numb the mind and excite the imagination. Looking for new office space is one of those things…