Author Archives: Christopher Francis

Creative Ideas Are Great, Until Everyone Copies Them

Fullhouse, a marketing agency from Milwaukee, has created a new way to display video advertising, on people.  By advertising on “media tags” companies can equip their waiters and waitresses with a digital display next to their name tag promoting their latest deals. The first time you see a company utilizing these tools you will certainly [...]
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How To Lose a Fan via Social Media

1. Make a great product or service 2. Invite those who are interested to become a fan 3. Invite fans to “join the family”, “join the conversation”, “join our community”, “help spread the word” 4. Utilize every social media tool available 5. Utilize every social media tool for self-promotion only 6. Ignore all emails 7. Ignore all private messages 8. Ignore all [...]
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Does Your Business Have a Cat?

As a person with severe allergies to cats I think that people who own cats often overlook the impact their furry friends have on those around them. Sure they’re cute, fun, and can make you feel at home, but at the same time they’re making everything in your house (including you) smell, they’re shedding everywhere, and [...]
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Practicing the piano to play professional football

How often in business do we do what pays the bills instead of what we really set out to accomplish? Sometimes we think, “I’ll take whatever business I can get, and then once things are going well I’ll start being more picky with the clients and gigs I take.” When money is tight [...]
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Nike and Lebron James get dunked on

Word of Mouth is one of the hottest trends that organizations are seeking to create online as Facebook, Twitter, and a cast of other online social media tools are becoming more and more powerful. However, the most well known sports brand, Nike and one of the most well known sports icons, Lebron James are [...]
Posted in Online Video, Real Life Examples | Comments closed

Seth Godin Actually is Remarkable

Over the past few months I have become a huge Seth Godin fan.  I’ve read as many of his books, ebooks, and pages of blog posts as I can.  His insight and writings about business and marketing were enough for me to think that he is remarkable and worth talking about, but now I have [...]
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Is your organization slowly going the way of the Panda?

Last week while on vacation I visited the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. On the plaque next to the panda exhibit read something like this, “Pandas must spend over 50% of their time eating bamboo because they have difficulty digesting it and it has very little nutritional value.” The panda spends so much [...]
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GM and a Sorcerer Named Tim

Well just two days after my GM bad marketing prediction I saw two new commercials.  One was a nationwide commercial where GM talked about GM for 60 seconds.  Not about how they are going to help their customers, they talked about THEIR new vision, THEIR new cars, THEIR new company.  Not once did they mention [...]
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GM Bankruptcy & Bailout: Expect Bad Marketing

GM has problems. Lots of them to be exact. Their biggest problem will probably be winning back the trust of the consumer and the taxpayer who is footing their bill. If I were them I would take every dollar set aside for advertising and instead use it to help their current customers.  I would hold town forums and [...]
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Don’t Be Selfish, Share Your Story

At some point in just about every relationship I’ve had, someone I’ve known for a while randomly tells me a story that I’ve never heard before.  In the past they’ve omitted this story because either they think it’s not a big deal, they don’t like to talk about themselves, that I wouldn’t care about it, [...]
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