MARKETING COMMUNICATION DIGEST

” The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind ”, said Al Ries and Jack Trout, authors of The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing . Law #5 is  The Law of Focus  whereby the authors propose you own a word in your prospect’s mind, as exemplified here with these brands: ·          Mercedes - engineering ·          BMW - driving ·          Volvo - safety ·          Domino’s - home delivery ·          Pepsi-Cola - youth While these brands may have evolved somewhat since this book was written in 1993, for the most part each company still owns these words in the minds of consumers, customers and subscribers. In other words, The Law of Focus stands the test of time. So, how can you apply the value of focus in your organization? The Value of Focus : As a value, Focus means  concentration of attention or energy ; maximum clarity . Ries and Trout suggest marketers must  burn  their way into the mind by narrowing the focus

"I try to read about a book a week on average. Even when my schedule is out of control, I carve out time for reading" –Bill Gates Well, just before we start, opinions will differ, I know. My only surprise is that there is no Nigerian book, or a book by Nigerian author(s) in here, but all good. Here’s a listing of what I consider the most impacting books of 2016. Most of these are business books, from 2016 — but to me, each one had an impact and is worth sharing. I hope you find at least one to be interesting, or useful, or both. The Undoing Project - Michael Lewis Michael Lewis is a fantastic author, and I was already very familiar with one of his subjects, Daniel Kahneman, via his book  Thinking Fast and Slow .   But I didn't know about his collaborator Amos Tversky and their amazingly fruitful and complicated relationship that resonated far beyond the Israeli Army and the halls of Stanford. Lewis had extraordinary access and unique insight into his s

If you want a job you love, follow your biggest value for society, not your passion! I stumbled upon a TED Talk from a very inspiring young thought leader called Benjamin Todd who founded the non-profit career guidance organization 80,000 Hours (the  average number of working hours over a career). I'm still digesting his challenge of my long established belief that to have a fulfilling career you should find your deepest interests and follow your passion or calling. For many people interests and passions change over time and as a result they may not be the solid foundation that we perceive them to be. A much more sustainable anchor is finding where you can add most value to society over your lifetime. To note, this can be done in many different ways; for some this means joining a non-profit, for others it means joining the corporate world and contributing inside or on the side, for others it means starting companies...there are no shortage of problems and

Let me be clear upfront, it’s not me that thinks so; I am a firm believer in the power of advertising, more so, good advertising rather than the pedestrian communications you see so much of this day. No, it’s not me thinking so, but the many businesses that advertise and the agencies that help them to do so. Of course, there should be howls of protest at this from the advertising industry. Who in their right mind would say that the N97.9b Nigerian advertisers spent in 2015 would be spent if they thought advertising made no difference? Well, first let’s not assume that I am right. Second, let me start to count the reasons why, and please if I have missed any, feel free to include it in the list. So here we go: ·          Very few people, agencies and clients set marketing and communication objectives for the activity they undertake. Except for a sales result, marketing matrix do not seem to matter. And interestingly enough, over the last 20 years, no one has put much ef

The last thing you want is for your business to be known as a “Jack of all trades” because you always get stuck with the “Master of none” part. We see this in the sustainability world a lot, in good and bad times — communication with everything thrown in:  “this product is organic and made with renewable energy and we give to the Nature Conservancy and treat our employees great so you’ll be healthy, save money, enjoy your job and save the world!” Phew! What a mouthful, and earful! Yes, even the targeted messages of our digital communication become overwhelming and unwanted very quickly, leaving audiences turned off. Well, let’s take a step back for a second and look at the target of our communications.  They’re people!  Not colour-laden pie charts or graphs that look like EKG readouts. People! With emotions that are many times impossible to track. Even with all the analytics and targeting possibilities digital media affords us today, we still forget that it’s the founda