by Jeff Slater | Mar 18, 2016 | Interesting Brands, Marketing Advice, Marketing Start Ups
Best practices means you are average. Better practices means that you are meaningfully different and standing out from the crowd. The marketing manager who follows best practices is doing her brand a disservice. Best practices mean you are following the category and...
by Jeff Slater | Mar 16, 2016 | Advertising, Marketing Advice, Personal Stories
Some companies love to bring in outsiders, consultants, and external agencies. Others never do. What is the cultural difference between these types of business? Often businesses have a vested interested to fully buy-in to their belief system. They don’t want outsiders...
by Jeff Slater | Mar 14, 2016 | Foodpreneurs, Interesting Brands, Marketing Advice, Marketing Start Ups
The groom is Keurig, an innovation that took the world by storm. It built a business based on a simple premise that making one great cup of coffee at a time meant something different within a household. I like a very dark roast; my spouse likes a milder blend. Selling...
by Jeff Slater | Mar 9, 2016 | Foodpreneurs, Marketing Advice, Marketing People
The ideal state for a brand is a blue ocean – a category of one. How wonderful to market with no one as a competitor. Unfortunately, most of us live with competitors. Coke needed Pepsi. McDonald’s needed Burger King. Nike needed Adidas. BMW needs Audi. Don’t...
by Jeff Slater | Mar 7, 2016 | Marketing Advice
Image this: everything is free inside a coffee shop, except the time you spend in the store. Can you imagine Starbucks giving away its food? All you pay for is the time you spend in the shop? This little experiment is going on in a coffee shop in London called...
by Jeff Slater | Mar 4, 2016 | Advertising, Interesting Brands, Marketing Advice
I am fascinated by the idea of a brand trying to reposition itself. Can you shift how customer or businesses view your brand through a new message, a new communications framework or telling a different story? It isn’t easy, but there are examples of how this can be...