Antonio Vazquez is a guide for Spain’s Sevilla Bike Tour Company. While “guide” may be his title, he’s really a master marketer. Lesson #1 from Antonio: PASSION MATTERS You don’t have to be passionate about your product, service or company to market it, but it helps a lot. Just like you don’t have to love the game of basketball to be a good player, it is almost impossible to be a superstar without passion. Passion is the…
Hiring for your marketing team is hard. It’s easier to assess the quality of a candidate for an accounting, sales or IT position. Engineers have to be great at math; marketers give you a bunch of words. That’s why Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh offers new hires $3,000 to leave the company. After the company’s intense four-week training program and a week on the job, Zappos makes what it calls “the offer,” $3,000 to leave the…
Got $5 million? That’s what it took to buy a 30-second Super Bowl ad this year. That’s double the 2010 tab and 119 times the cost of an ad for the first Super Bowl in 1967. Careers can be defined by a Super Bowl performance, not just for players or halftime entertainers, but for actors, directors and brand managers responsible for the game’s much-anticipated commercials. Is it worth it? Marketers selling everything from water to websites attempt…
Viva’s Blog: 8 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2017 ‘Tis the season for resolutions. Which of these 8 marketing mistakes do you resolve to avoid in 2017? Mistake #1: Focusing on your product. It’s not about what you’re selling but rather the job you’re doing for your customers. Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Business School Professor extraordinaire and author of multiple business best-sellers, believes that the secret to winning the innovation game is for executives to ask:…
WEST HARTFORD – This month, Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford (SSDS) is rolling out a new logo and website designed to more fully engage parents, students, and alumni and to attract new enrollment. The idea to consider rebranding for the school, which was founded in 1971 and offers a dual Judaic and general studies curriculum from preschool through eighth grade, was first raised two years ago, when Head of School Andrea Kasper had just…
As published in thedrum.com by Lisa Lacy: Like precious snowflakes, each brand and agency is different, so – spoiler alert – there isn’t a definitive across-the-board answer about whether it is best to work with full-service or specialty agencies. In fact, like so many things in life, with the necessary caveats, of course, the ideal arrangement, broadly speaking, may lie in a healthy compromise between the two — or what I’d like to call the…
Mars Electric engages Cleveland-based brand and marketing strategy consulting firm. CLEVELAND, OH – August 10, 2016 – Mars Electric, a leading independent wholesale distributor of lighting, gear and electrical supplies, has selected Viva La Brand as its marketing strategy firm. A third generation service business, Mars Electric has eleven branches across Northeast Ohio with the variety of inventory contractors need to quickly complete a job. “We engaged Viva La Brand to help us understand our customers’…
Meditation hammocks. Sensory deprivation pods. These are the latest meditation practices gaining traction from coast to coast. Why are yoga studios and five-star spas like Miraval Resort in Arizona adding meditation hammocks and wellness centers offering sensory deprivation pods? What can marketers learn from them? Learning #1: Listen. Fitness studios converted yoga rooms into meditation centers because they listened to their members quip about stress and lack of “me time”. Their members didn’t ask, “Where are your hammocks?”…
Q: What costs $166,000 per second and can either catapult results or ruin you? A: A thirty-second commercial during this year’s Super Bowl. You’d think business executives who spend that much on airtime would nail making a winner ad. It’s not that easy. What does it take to make an effective ad? Below are some tips. Rate this year’s ads and pick the real game winner. #1: Don’t say it. Show it. Wix.com, the web-site company, launched its first Super…
You have great products or services but your results are disappointing. Is marketing the problem? Are you trying to be all things to all people? Is your messaging resonating with customers? Is your target audience seeing your advertising? Are you targeting a mass audience when niche marketing is the answer? Even successful companies that sell products with mass appeal often started by selling to a discrete audience. Case in point: the rolling suitcase. Northwest Airlines…
