clemans on marketing: confessions and misdemeanors

A light at the end of the tunnel.

Take the headlamp, for instance. 

Visit the REI website and you will see not one, but twenty amazing headlamps (designed by 5 companies) to choose from. 

Good old American ingenuity will pull us through the dark times. I am sure of it. 

Bring Plato to Work

THE THEORIES OF PLATO ARE AS VALUABLE, relevant, and chilling for today's leaders as they were in 409 B.C.

"Unless either philosophers become kings in the cities, or those who are now called kings and rulers sincerely and adequately get to philosophize, and there can be found in the same person both political power and philosophy, the crowd of those who are nowadays driven by their nature toward either one exclusive of the other having been forcibly set aside, there can be no end, dear Glaucon, to the evils in cities, nor, methinks, to those of humankind."*

Effective leadership demands introspection, self-awareness, discipline, civic virtue, integrity and a sense of purpose at the deepest level. What does this have to do with marketing and branding? As we see it, these core values and characteristics are mandatory to building lasting brands and to developing sound business strategy tied to sound marketing strategy.

*Republic, V, 473c-d

What were they thinking?

Not about your product or service. That's for sure. They were thinking about their friends, about today's horoscope, about eating cream puffs, about a trip to their first jazz festival in Reykjavik, about wet laundry, about Marilyn Monroe, about getting drunk, about getting laid, about being shy.

Check out Thought Project.

Simon Hogsberg stopped 150 strangers on the street in Copenhagen, Denmark and New York and asked them what they were thinking the minute he stopped them. Visit the website and read their minds.

Many companies are faced with stagnant growth and stiff competition. They've gotten so attached to their ROI calculators that they've forgotten that they're trying to engage real folks. We need to understand our customers and prospects within the context of their lives. Meaningful, personalized messaging improves response and loyalty.