by Geoff on August 30, 2010
At the height of World War II, with bombs raining down on London, prime minister Winston Churchill was called upon to make a speech which would be broadcast to the people of Great Britain. Churchill stood up, and here is what he said, in its entirety:
“Never, never, never, never, never, never give up!”
Then he sat down. His spirit and his words helped to rally his people during those dark times. And they are also good words for a struggling small business—especially with regards to marketing. Read more…
by Geoff on August 12, 2010
One of the things that inspired me to go into advertising was David Ogilvy’s book, “Confessions of an Advertising Man.” So I was thrilled when I landed my first copywriting job at Ogilvy & Mather, the agency he started—although, by the time I got there, Ogilvy himself was semi-retired and living in a castle in France. Read more…
by Geoff on August 3, 2010
Do you have a marketing plan? I know, I know, you’re too busy to work on one.
That’s like the woodcutter who was wearing himself out chopping wood with a dull ax. A friend came along, watched him working, and finally said, “Why don’t you sharpen your ax?” Exasperated, the woodcutter said, “I don’t have time for that! I’ve got all this wood to chop before nightfall!”
To put it bluntly, the difference between success and failure in marketing is often the plan and nothing else. Read more…
by Geoff on July 26, 2010
There’s a good lesson for small business marketers in the corn field I can see from my office. (The neighbors have been growing corn in that field for over half a century.)
Imagine a nervous farmer who plants his seed and—when he doesn’t see any plants growing after a couple of weeks—starts digging up plants to see what’s going on. Read more…
