Marketing Made Clear
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New Orleans already has parades, costumes, music, cemeteries, nightlife and a city brand built around performance. Halloween works there because it intensifies assets the city already owns — while reminding marketers that living culture is not seasonal decoration.
Who decides what is cool? From Dr. Martens and Vans to tattoos, workwear, Crocs and Birkenstock, culture often gives brands meanings their marketers never designed.
Why do bad customer experiences stay with us for years? The Peak-End Rule, negativity bias and service recovery help explain why one small failure can become a very long story.
In 2012 I planned a Guinness World Record attempt at the Young Carers Festival. Here’s how 802 people, paper hats, wristbands, rain and a lot of admin turned into a successful PR campaign.
Packaging does not stop working after purchase. From unboxing and premium cues to reuse, recyclability and the packs customers keep, the afterlife of packaging matters.
An old Arjowiggins conservation day provides a useful test of corporate responsibility: if the work still makes sense when nobody is watching, it may be more credible than the grand sustainability campaign built around it.
Good marketing strategy is not about chasing every attractive opportunity. It is about choosing what not to do — and protecting the focus that makes a brand distinctive.
Own label is not the absence of branding. For retailers it creates control, differentiation and loyalty; for manufacturers it fills capacity. The interesting bit is what each side gives up to get it.
Print still belongs in the marketing mix when it does a job worth doing. A multichannel look at direct mail, premium print, packaging, QR codes, sustainability and why physical media still matters.
The 4Ps of marketing have survived since 1960 because Product, Price, Place and Promotion still expose whether a strategy can actually work in the market.
