Category: The day job
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You may or may not remember Bruce Wayne's Dad telling him the reason we fall down is so we can learn to pick ourselves up. Or, in My Rules..Toughen the Hell Up. In this industry, you'll get told no more than yes. You'll get all sorts of knock backs. A lot of the time…
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It can be hard sometimes to empathise with a target audience. Agency folk live in bubble most of the time, but even those with some feel for real life can struggle to connect with their bullseye customer. For example, I used to work on haircare brand aimed at fashion forward women. I'm a bloke with…
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This may well be THE iron law of advertising, media stuff and brands. It sorts out how to manage people. Make sure they feel like you have their back, provide guidance of course, but people in modern organisations crave autonomy.They also want to feel part of a higher purpose. So let them do what they…
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Not much is probably the answer. What I do know, I put into one little guide for a couple of people, intended for presenting in the real world, not the imaginary one that exists in the case studies and most industry advice. Anyway, for better or worse, here it is…… IS IT A PRESENTATION THAT’S…
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I'm not the biggest fan of brand consultancies. Of course, some brand agencies are amazing, but they tend to be the exceptions. When it's good, they make stuff. Rather than charge £1000,000 for changing one word in the positioning statement and then churning out a stream of powerpoint to justify it, the good brand consultancy…
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There's a useful quote from Byron Sharp, "The task for marketing is to reduce the window between someone seeing an ad and deciding to buy". There's much debate about the Ehrenberg Bass stuff, usually by folks with a particular agenda. Lots of folks trying to make things more complicated than they need to be. But,…
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I like staying in Premier Inns. This of course is part post rationalisation, as corporate travel budgets rarely anything fancier, but that's not the whole story. You know where you are with a Premier Inn, they all look the same, booking and checking in is pretty standard and you know you will get a comfy…
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As mentioned before, some folks have queried some of the Rules from time to time. It doesn't surprise me that there have been some queries on dress code, it's one the most contentious and thought about issues in agency land. So I got this question: "I've just started work at one of the most sought…
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You might remember I posted some Rules a while back. It might surprise you that people have asked one or two questions about it. This worries me, I didn't think of them myself, they are merely the sum total of years of observing what really goes on. I thought I would nevertheless publish some elaborations …
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The email question: "Always enjoy reading your blog. I read "How brands grow" as it was something mentioned in your blog and have a question. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I didn't understand what the implications are from a communication perspective and wanted to understand what your take away was. I…
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