I am NOT Maverick Marketing Sydney

In case you’ve recently bought a Dell computer, pat yourself on the back. Not only have you bought a fine piece of hardware that, by historical standards, is amazingly cheap, but you’ve contributed to bettering society. No, really. Didn’t you hear that when it wasn’t busy selling PCs, Dell was the salvation of the human race?

At least, that’s what Dell’s marketing chiefs, past and present, seem to believe. “Purpose isn’t just good for the soul; it’s good for the bottom line,” announced CMO Erin Nelson, who spoke at the Association of National Advertisers’ “Masters of Marketing” conference in Orlando, Fla., this past week.

Nelson imparted that feel-good wisdom on her way out the door, literally. She’d decided to leave Dell roughly a month before the event. But not to worry. Incoming CMO Karen Quintos seemed to have been cc’d on the same talking points.

Perhaps this talk of socially responsible branding is just a warm-and-fuzzy outgrowth of the global economy—but it was hardly isolated to the Dell duo.

Many speakers managed to conflate marketing with missionary work. Procter & Gamble CMO Marc Pritchard showed a short film outlining how the company brought Always Ultra feminine hygiene pads to young teen girls in Nigeria. Coca-Cola CMO/chief commercial officer Joseph Tripodi rolled another reel admonishing young consumers to recycle.

Remember when marketers used to, y’know, market stuff? Well, now they’ve doing God’s work. They’ve got purpose. Why the sudden shift to the noble and meaningful?

Find out at Brandweek.

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It’s out.

Interbrand’s List of 2010 World’s Best Brands. Coca-Cola retains its top spot as the number one ranked brand on the list.

A number of prominent brands faced extraordinary crisis in 2010 resulting in stalled growth, value loss and in the case of BP, failure to make the ranking this year. BP’s environmental disaster and inability to make good on its brand promise of “Beyond Petroleum” led to it falling off of the list and helped competitor Shell emerge as an industry leader.

Although the Toyota (#11) recall caused the brand to lose -16% of its brand value, its long-standing reputation for reliability, efficiency and innovation helped it weather the crisis better than expected.

Goldman Sachs (#37) was once the envy of Wall Street, but now faces the dichotomy of strong economic results and an angry public that will continue to lash out until the company begins to demonstrate that it is making sincere efforts to better align its ethics with its brand.
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Hey everybody,

HOW TO SPY ON YOUR ONLINE COMPETITORS.

Hot on the heels of this popular article I wrote for Anthill “Six ways to spy on your online competitors (without getting caught)” you can get the FULL-BLOWN, NO HOLES BARRED eBook for nothing, nada, zip.

Download it, tell your friends (but not your enemies) and feel free to share it around.

Link here: http://www.undercoverstrategist.com/blog/free-ebook-how-to-spy.html

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Here is  NOT definitive list of really DUMB things you can do to kill your VIRAL campaign before it even goes viral but feel free to add to the list through the comments.

1. Get caught flogging.

A flog is a fake blog.

You know, the sort where your company (or your agency) buys the domain name, trots it out there into cyberspace where they pretend not to be you but someone else entirely while, at the same time, ramming your brand  (err, I mean doing nice strategic product placement whilst espousing lots of positive brand messages) down everybody’s throat.

WHY IT’S STUPID.

Because any halfwit with an Internet connection can check ownership details at Whois.
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These tips from Gary S. help you can get the most from bulk email and avoid the grubby label of spam.

1. Employ a Permission-Based Strategy

It starts with permission.

You need to be allowed to send someone the email.

A permission-based strategy also means that subscribers are far more likely to have interest in your offerings.

You can either use a single opt-in, which basically means that you obtain permission from the subscriber during the initial sign up, or a double opt-in, a method that gives the subscriber the opportunity to confirm their interest through a follow-up email.

2. Get on the Whitelist

Spam filters are far from perfect.

Avoid your emails being blocked by being a safe sender and getting on the whitelist.

3. Keep Your Campaign Simple and Straightforward

Keep it short and sweet, and to the point.

Be interesting and engaging, and relevant.

This applies to subject lines and body copy. Waffling on leads to lost readership.

P.S. Interested in honing up on your copywriting skills?

Head over to Copyblogger, one of my all-time favourite Internet resources.

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MICROSOFT chief executive Steve Ballmer previewed several tablet-style computers at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday, but the anticipated launch of an Apple tablet-slayer did not eventuate.

Microsoft confirmed partnerships with manufacturers including Pegatron, Archos and HP, and Mr Ballmer briefly demonstrated the HP slate prototype, which will run the Windows 7 operating system. But he stopped short of announcing a major push into tablet, or slate, computers.

The omission gives Apple, which is expected to unveil its slate product later this month, the chance to set the standard for tablet computers, much as it did with the iPhone.

Tablets are expected to compete with electronic readers such as Amazon’s black and white Kindle but with added advantages such as colour, touch-screen capability and other features in line with netbook computers.

Read more at The Australian.

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So here is an interesting story, and (as a mother) one that’s close to my heart, Forbes has declared its pick of who made it to list of Most Successful Children’s Book Characters In Hollywood.

The biggest cross-platform success is Shrek.

Yep, the big, green ogre has been a box office blessing for DreamWorks, spawning three films that earned an average of $343 million each at the American box office and a thriving franchise.

Although William Steig’s 1990 book never became a leading title, the film’s popularity propelled several movie tie-in books to land on the category’s bestseller list.

In second place on the Forbes list of most successful screens stars from children’s literature is Dr. Seuss’ legendary character the Grinch.

The green creature with a heart “two sizes too small” was introduced to generations of children and adults in 1957 in the pages of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which has sold over 3.5 million copies since.

The character became a big-screen star in 2000, portrayed by Jim Carrey. The film earned $260 million at the domestic box office.

Rounding out the top three is Larry Daley from Night at the Museum.

Milan Trenc originally published the story as a picture book in 1993, to be followed in 2006 by a bestselling, novelized version penned by Leslie Goldman.

The film version and its sequel, starring Ben Stiller as Larry, the hapless father who becomes a night guard at the American Museum of Natural History, earned an average of $214 million at the domestic box office.

To compile its list of the most successful children’s book characters on the big screen, Forbes considered movies released after 1980 based on children’s books with prominent lead characters.

Adaptations of young adult fiction–for the over-12 set–were not considered.

Rankings are based on domestic box office earnings; in instances involving one or more sequels, box office results were averaged in order to gauge the overall “star power” of each children’s character.

(While the production of a sequel is a clear indication of a character’s proven financial potential, an increase or decrease in popularity is evident using an average, rather than cumulative box office totals.)

So why does Hollywood continue to churn out kid-fiction films?

Simple: merchandise.

With steady ancillary revenue from coloring books to sleeping bags to adult T-shirts, classic characters bear incredible brand value.

Check out more at Forbes.

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SMALL businesses can tackle business giants by becoming clever – and taking on the big guys need not cost a fortune.

David and Goliath battles are more about common sense than anything else.

If you’re in a small business that wants to take on the big guns successfully, you need to exploit the failings of bigger businesses and capitalise on any openings – and competing on price is not the answer because big business will win hands down every time.

Follow these 8 marketing strategy tips to take on Goliath:

1.  DON’T MAKE A FULL-FRONTAL ATTACK.

Goliath is bigger than you.

If you attack him full-frontal he’s going to roll right over the top of you.

It will almost certainly be a costly exercise (especially for you) – and potentially a disastrous one as well.

He has more money than you. He has more resources than you and he has more to lose than you.

You need to expect a reaction.
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Okay, so hot on the heels of my post that was called 7 Extremely Unfortunate Domain Names comes these 25 seriously embarrassing marketing blunders.

First up, I’d like to thank the many websites that have contributed by sharing different blunders – without their hard work and dedication to the noble cause of creating laughter in the world, it would be extremely difficult for me to have compiled this list.

So, without further ado, here it goes (in no particular order):

#1. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux released an American campaign with the slogan Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.

(Actually, I can think of a few other things, such as hairy nostrils that require tweezers, parking tickets issued to your dog and viruses that crap out your computer that all suck. But hey, let’s not quibble about it.)

#2. Coors coverted its slogan Turn It Loose into Spanish. Its translation reads Suffer from Diarrhea.

#3. Clairol introduced the curling iron Mist Stick into Germany. In Germany mist is slang for manure.

#4. Gerber‘s entry into selling baby food in Africa featured a beautiful Caucasian baby on the label. In Africa, marketers put pictures on the label of what’s inside since most people can’t read. (Even Africans don’t feed their kids dead babies.) In other bad news, Gerber is the French word for vomiting so I’d guess that France will be omitted from any expansion plans.

#5. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, presumably named after the notorious naughty magazine.
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On the anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ fall, the question remains:

What, if anything, has changed in the mentality of the financial community?

While Wall Street wallows in tales of the fallen, a different, more promising approach to capitalism is rising.

Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest consumer products company, has just announced a stunning new business strategy to jump-start growth.

It begins in a startling, almost counterintuitive way—with company values and sense of purpose.

Invoke the heart and care about human needs, the strategy seems to say, and the money will follow.

New P & G CEO Bob McDonald, who assumed office in July, is on the road promoting P & G’s “purpose-inspired growth” strategy of “touching and improving more consumers lives in more parts of the world…more completely.”

Read more at BusinessWeek/Harvard Business Online.

Maverick Note: Harvard describes the strategy as stunning. Righto.

Invoke the heart? Hmm, through air fresheners, shaving cream and deodorants?

I’ll watch with keen interest on this one…

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