October, 2007

Branding Basics — No Comments
31
Oct 07

Is Going Green and Effective Branding Strategy?

People seem more aware of environmental issues these days. From the success of Earth Day and Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize to the current war on bottled water, everything “green” has been getting great press.

Companies are waking up to the fact that going green can also be an effective competitive advantage. Walmart is now hawking green products, venture capital investments in green technology have tripled since 2001, and Frank McKinney is building a $25 million dollar eco-mansion.

Going green can also work for small business brands (for example, in my neck of the woods, my favorite steakhouse is going green and will only serve organic beef. They got themselves a new logo and have changed their trade dress colors to several shades of green).

Before jumping into the green bandwagon, though, there are some things that you may want to consider:

Should a small business brand adopt a green branding strategy?

Going green for the sake of being different is not enough. Aside from differentiating yourself, going green has to be relevant to your target customers. It has to mean something to them.

Is being green relevant to my target customer?

Environmentally-conscious consumers are not a homogeneous group. According to J. Ottoman, author of the Green Marketing Book, traditional demographics are not enough to determine the intent to purchase green products. What really entices green purchases are consumers’ feelings of being able to act on these issues, or empowerment. In other words, if consumers believe that they can make a difference, they will be more inclined to buy green products.

According to The Green Marketing Book, the most receptive audience for green products are those consumers who have contributed to or are members of environmental groups. Research also suggests that women in the 30-44 bracket also constitute an environmentally conscious group. The Green Marketing Book also identifies five different consumer groups, depending on how well do they react to environmental products. You may want to compare your target audience with all of these groups to gauge how effective it could be to use “green” as a marketing angle.

Can I market green products to the masses?

The majority of consumers today are not yet prepared to pay a premium or to sacrifice product performance to buy green products.

For example, the current campaign against bottled water has a strong chance of being successful because customers aren’t really giving up much: bottled water is expensive and it can be easily replaced by tap water, which is free and just as good. However, making consumers pay a premium for a green car when you can buy a more powerful and better looking one for less money is not a slam dunk. People that are not really committed to the environment will ask “what’s in it for me” before paying a premium.

However, if you manage to price your product at par with a non-green alternative, and offer similar or better performance, you may have an opportunity to use the green angle as a competitive advantage, provided that you communicate it well.

How can I communicate the green attributes of my products?

50% of consumers say that they would do more for the environment if they knew more. The good news for small businesses that don’t have resources to fund traditional advertising campaigns is that alternative, non-paid media like blogs or social networking sites are extremely effective to promote green products. By being active in social media sites, either through your own blog, or through participation in online forums and social bookmarking sites, you can reach an important portion of your target audience.

Where do I go from here?

I recommend that you first read the online version of the Green Marketing Book (it is free and full of valuable insights on every aspect of green marketing that you need to take into account). You can also visit the directory of sustainable bloggers to find eco-friendly blogs, or you can visit hugg.com (their tagline: digg for green), a social bookmarking site devoted exclusively to green news and sites.

Book Reviews / Branding Basics — No Comments
29
Oct 07

BrandSimple: Book Review

In “BrandSimple: How the Best Brands Keep it Simple and Succeed“, Allen Adamson, managing director of world-class brand consultancy Landor and Associates, distills his insights of 25 years of experience working with the world’s top brands in one simple phrase: the most successful brands are those that have found a unique and relevant way to differentiate themselves, that is at the same time simple to understand and communicate. Getting to that simple idea, though, is not that simple.

Contrary to other books about branding, usually heavy on jargon and muddy theory, Adamson writes in plain English and provides plenty of real life examples that show how everyday brands have tackled the task of coming up with their very own simple brand idea, and why some have succeeded where others failed. This wide array of case studies makes the book a fascinating and engaging read.

BrandSimple doesn’t stop with the examples, though, and also shows us, step by step, how companies of any size can uncover their simple brand idea, articulate it in a few powerful words (brand driver) and design the most powerful branding signals to communicate that idea to their target customers.

While the author’s experience has been forged with large corporations, the concepts he talks about are relevant and applicable to either the Fortune 500 company with money to spend on Superbowl ads, or the home-based business that must rely on blogging and low cost social media to build its brand.

Like if it wanted to reinforce the book’s central message, BrandSimple’s cover is in itself an exercise on simplicity: there are none of the distracting graphics, background textures or call-out blurbs common in today’s business books. The typesetting is also clear and understated, in a color that provides subtle contrast with the background.

Adamson also makes things simple when he offers a list of his top 10 takeaways at the end of the book. This list is a comprehensive summary of the most important topics covered in the previous 220 pages, and something that readers will want to keep handy and refer to often.

I am greatly impressed by this book and wouldn’t hesitate in calling it the best book on branding I have ever read. I would strongly recommend it to all marketing professionals and especially to small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to stay relevant and competitive.

 

Branding Profiles / Personal Branding — 3 Comments
26
Oct 07

Profiles in Branding: Frank McKinney

For this our first article in the Profiles in Branding series I am featuring Frank McKinney. Frank is one of the most fascinating business personalities in the real estate arena. His unique approach has earned him the titles of “the real estate rock czar” and “the maverick daredevil real estate entrepreneur”.

While Frank’s achievements in the real estate arena are impressive, today we will focus on his unique ability to build a personal brand that positions him as the undisputed king of ultra high end residential real estate.

I first met Frank McKinney when he addressed the monthly meeting of the Dade Real Estate Investors Association in Miami a couple of years ago. I had never heard of Frank before. The flyer of the meeting described him as an unconventional real estate developer who built multi-million dollar mansions entirely on speculation (without a guaranteed buyer).

I was sitting among a sellout crowd when the song “Jump” by Van Halen started pounding through the speakers. I could have sworn David Lee Roth (red jacket and all) was rushing to the scene amid roaring applause, but no: it was Frank McKinney.

What followed was a fascinating personal account of one man’s journey from rebellious teenager to millionaire real estate investor, and how a mix of hard work, vision, drive and attention to detail took him from $50,000 fixer uppers to $100 million mansions, forging in the process what we now know as the Frank McKinney brand.

Frank has since written two books: “Make It Big: 49 Secrets to Build a Life of Extreme Success” and “Frank McKinney’s Maverick Approach to Real Estate Success”. Following is a selection of takeaways from his life and business philosophy as they relate to branding:

On Carving Your Niche

To make money you have to go where others don’t. Frank started his real estate career renovating dilapidated houses in crack neighborhoods, where he faced little competition. Years later, he started building multi-million dollar oceanfront mansions that many said could never be sold. By seeing value where others didn’t, Frank has created markets where none existed before. Frank’s approach represents the ultimate in differentiation and niche marketing: create a new category and position yourself as the leader from day one, setting the standard for everybody else to follow.

On Knowing Your Target Market

Frank McKinney has his target market identified with laser precision and knows exactly how to cater to it. He knows that there are only 50,000 people in the world who can afford his mansions. Frank knows these people’s tastes, standards, buying habits, decision making patterns, etc. Once, when told that many people find his houses gargantuan and excessive he confidently answered: “those people are not my buyers”.

On Creating Your Brand Identity

Frank McKinney is technically a real estate developer. However, he understands that to brand yourself you need something bolder and more original: you need to create your own unique identity. Frank defines himself as “an artist whose canvas is the sun-drenched pristine beaches of Florida’s Atlantic coast”. This strong, differentiated brand identity drives all his other branding signals, and explains the uncompromising commitment to the highest standards that drives all his projects.

On Getting Your Employees’ Buy-In

Frank knows that for your brand to be consistent, everybody in your organization must know and understand your brand values. Before every project, Frank circulates a document called “Vision and Passion Statement”. It is a written statement that captures the drive to reach higher and do better every day, not just exceeding expectations but exploding beyond what others think can be accomplished. Every member of his organization carries this document with them for the duration of the project. Frank’s employees have internalized the “Frank McKinney Way”, a useful shorthand for a focus on quality, standards, accomplishments, and striving to be better.

On Personal Branding: Living Your Brand

In his business, Frank is always stretching the limits: breaking the barriers of what conventional wisdom says people will pay for a house, and continuously establishing higher standards of luxury and sophistication. Frank understands that he is the number one ambassador of his brand, and that his persona must reflect his brand’s attributes. The Frank McKinney brand is edgy, extreme and unconventional, that is why Frank:

  • Wears his hair long and dresses like a rock star.
  • Enjoys driving his candy apple and green Kawasaki, the world’s fastest production motorcycle.
  • Ran and finished the Backwater 135 marathon, labeled as the toughest footrace in the world: 135 non-stop miles under 130+ degree heat.
  • Didn’t set his office in a conventional office building, but on a treehouse that he built in the back of his house, overlooking the Florida sea.

On Protecting Your Brand and Leading by Example

Frank goes to extremes to nurture and protect his brand. He still walks through his properties carrying a rag and a bottle of glass cleaner, wiping every surface that is not 100% immaculate. He also routinely checks the electrical plates of the light switches to make sure that the grooves in the screws are aligned north-south, and inspects the bathrooms to check if the toilet paper has been folded in a diamond-shaped tip.

He also personally writes the copy of the advertising for his properties, always shows his properties to prospective buyers in person, and even performs as an actor in the elaborate themed productions that he organizes for the grand unveiling of his mansions.

Following these principles and many others has allowed Frank to create a life of extreme success. I invite you to learn more about Frank McKinney and make some time to read his books, since they are full of insights on branding, business and life.

Finally, as a footnote, I want to let you know about the Caring House Foundation, an organization created and headed by Frank, that has the noble mission of building houses for the poor (Frank and the Caring House Foundation have built entire villages in Haiti, providing adequate shelter to thousands of people in need).

Branding Basics — 5 Comments
22
Oct 07

Why Fewer Choices are Good for Business

Commercial websites have two basic objectives:

  1. Sell something immediately, or
  2. Build a subscriber base to sell to them later

Evidence suggests that websites that offer fewer choices have better conversion rates.

More choices don’t lead to happiness

Barry Schwartz talks about the psychological implications of having too many choices in his excellent book “The Paradox of Choice”, and argues that being faced with too many options may lead to anxiety and ultimately to a less happy existence.

A confused mind always says no

There is too much information and too little time to sort through it these days. Too many companies/brands/products are competing for our attention and we don’t know who to trust. In this environment, we often make the wrong choice or no choice at all just to get it over with.

How to sell 464% more by offering one option instead of four

The Marketing Experiments Journal has some interesting evidence of how an email blast offering just one product significantly outperforms a multi-product offering to the same list of recipients.

Fewer choices mean more attention

Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia found that people pay more attention to pictures selected from smaller arrays of choices. This study has important implications for websites: presenting too many choices (like product shots, advertisements or news items) may reduce the attention that readers give to each option, negatively affecting click-through rates and sales.

What we can learn from mini sites

Mini sites are one-page websites that feature a long, killer sales letter aimed at just one thing: selling a product. The only clickable choice is usually a “Buy Now” button. It is not surprising that the conversion rates of mini sites are extremely high. While not every commercial site will lend itself to the mini site format, they are nevertheless an excellent example of how reducing choices and eliminating distractions can lead to better results.

How to unclutter your website to focus on conversion

  • If you publish a content site or blog make each web page extremely focused and present only one relevant offer (preferably a high margin product) on each page. Avoid putting advertising such as Adsense ads on a page where you are also promoting a high margin product.
  • If you have a catalog-style website try to limit your offers per product category to just a few. It is best to divide your products in three clearly defined groups (Good, Better, and Best). My experience with consumer goods tells me that offering more than three quality/feature levels per product type confuses customers and kills sales.
  • Don’t use distracting features like icons showing your subscriber count, every feed reader chicklet under the sun, your Flickr photo groups, etc. They are the Web 2.0 equivalent of the animated gifs and visitor counters of yesteryear. They don’t add value and distract your visitors from performing more important tasks (like buying something).
  • Study the Google Adsense heat map to learn which sections of the page receive the most attention (usually the left margin and the content area), and place links to high margin sections of your site in those areas.
  • Place a subscription box in a high attention portion of your pages, so that your visitors can sign up for regular updates, special offers and free content. If you’re just beginning to build your brand, growing your subscriber/customer base should be one of your top priorities.
  • Link to relevant products using text links from within your content. Text links embedded in your content have a higher click-through rate than graphics or banners located elsewhere, and result in better conversion rates. Don’t abuse this technique though. Link only to very few high quality, highly relevant products, since overdoing it may undermine the credibility of your content.
  • If you are using a blog platform and are debating using two or three columns, two is almost always better than three. Users are less likely to get lost in a two column layout.

In summary, when you offer fewer choices, your visitors will usually end up making better ones, often the ones you want them to make.

Branding Basics — 6 Comments
10
Oct 07

One Easy Way to Find Your Brand Idea

Sometimes, to develop your unique value proposition or brand idea you just have to look for one thing that’s important to your customers that your competition is neglecting. The exercise can be as simple as filling in the blank on the following sentence:

Its ______________ , stupid!

Where ‘_____________’ is whatever your competition is failing to address.

The best examples can be found in politics, where one simple idea that resonates with voters can determine the outcome of an election.

In 1992, with the country in a deep recession, candidate Bill Clinton’s encapsulated his whole campaign in this simple phrase: ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’ and won.

Years later, John Kerry wanted to talk about ‘the issues’, to which George W. Bush responded: ‘First you voted for, then you voted against…. we can’t trust you… you’re a flip-flopper’. In other words: ‘It’s character, stupid!’ It was a brilliant strategy.

People don’t have time for ‘the issues’. They just need one big reason that fits their world view and their decision is made. It’s not far fetched to imagine that the phrase: ‘It’s the war, stupid!’ may decide the next election.

The world of business is not different. Years ago, Lowe’s, the home improvement chain, noticed that Home Depot customers complained about lousy service and disorganized stores and responded with clean, well lit, clearly laid out stores where knowledgeable sales people were always ready to help. The result was growth.

Target recognized that arch-rival Walmart was not addressing a market segment that demanded better, more stylish products at bargain prices and carved a strong niche for itself.

Apple has built a cult following by making great products that address and fix everything that users hate about Microsoft-based PCs.

If you’re struggling to come up with your unique value proposition do a SWOT analysis of your main competitors and pay attention to the ‘Weaknesses’ quadrant. If you need more information, ask your customers: they’ll tell you.

Online Branding — 2 Comments
9
Oct 07

Packaging (not Content) is King

We’ve all heard this old cliché: ‘Content is King’. However, thanks to blogs and RSS, content is becoming a commodity. You can find the same information in thousands of places that are only a click away.

There is so much information that best selling authors are urging us to go on an ‘information diet’, and are opening our eyes to the fact that ‘time’, not money, is the most valuable currency in the new economy.

With so much information and so little time, capturing the attention of your target audience is key. Content is still important, but the way you package your content is now ‘King’. To capture attention your content must be:

• Easy to find
• Easy to share
• Easy to read

There are many ways to package/brand your content so that it spreads easily and grabs the attention of your audience:

Follow the Guidelines for Writing on the Web:

  • Write less: Use 50% of the words you would use in print. Once you finish writing, go back and cut some more.
  • Use contrast: black type on white background works best.
  • Use headlines to break the discussion into small, manageable chunks, each dealing with a different sub-topic.
  • Online users scan. Use elements that facilitate scannability: like bolding key words and using bullet points.
  • Don’t make your lines too long. Lines of text that run from one side of the screen to the other are very hard to read.
  • Convey one idea per paragraph.
  • Use hyperlinks to present complementary information instead of including it in the body of your article.

Optimize Your Site for Humans and Search Engines:

  • Divide your site in separate, well defined topical sections. If you write about Internet marketing create different sections like: web design, SEO, blogging, etc. and place your articles where they fit best.
  • If your site is a blog make sure to tag your posts. Create a small number of categories (around ten) and tag your posts with only the most appropriate ones.
  • Create a menu of “Top Posts” or “Most Popular Posts” on your side bar, with links to your best 5-10 articles (if you’ve got it, flaunt it…;).
  • Make your site search-engine friendly by following some basic rules:
    • Split your content in different, very focused pages
    • Select two or three keywords per page and use them in your page copy
    • Create a page called site-map where search engines can find links to all your pages
    • Pay special attention to your page titles: make them descriptive instead of ‘catchy’. When search engines display your pages they show your page titles. By making them descriptive there is more chance that readers will click on them. For example, use “Premium Dog Food” instead of “Top Munch for Your Pooch”.
    • Get high quality links to your site. Without many links from high authority sites it is impossible to rank high in the search engines.

Re-Purpose / Re-package Your Blog Content:

The way blogs are structured (by date with the latest post first) makes it hard for your readers to find a coherent pattern or sequence. You may have written something extremely good or relevant long ago, and that post may be buried in your archives.

You can re-package your blog content by bundling it in special reports, white papers or ebooks that follow a logical (rather than chronological) sequence. These products can become another revenue stream for you, since users will pay for easy access to organized information that they can find in one place.

Develop Your Unique Voice or Angle:

Whatever you have to say, most likely someone else has already said it. Information is becoming a commodity. That is why you have to develop your own voice, cover a unique angle, or both.

I have a friend who has a very successful personal finance blog. Every now and then, somebody leaves a comment in his blog questioning how he can be so successful by just repeating concepts that are not necessarily new or groundbreaking.

My friend has been successful because he speaks to his audience like a human being (not like a corporate talking head), picks interesting and relevant examples to illustrate his points, has a very special sense of humor, and targets his content to an under served demographic in his topic: 20 to 25 year olds. In other words, he has packaged/branded his content for success.

Another example is Seth Godin, the marketing guru and best selling author. His best seller, Purple Cow, is a new spin on an old marketing staple: differentiation. However, the way Seth tells his story, his insightful examples, and the brilliance with which he markets his books have made him a publishing success.

Use Social Bookmarking and RSS:

  • Provide links to the most popular social bookmarking sites on your pages or posts. You can use this universal bookmark button that includes links to the most common social bookmarking sites.
  • Provide an RSS feed that your readers can subscribe to by using their favorite news reader or aggregator.
  • Include an email subscription form. Approximately 50% of users still prefer to receive updates by email than by RSS, to the point that companies like Feedburner or Feedblitz now offer services that send feeds by email.

What other ways to package/brand content would you suggest?

Online Branding — No Comments
5
Oct 07

How To Leverage the Web for Publicity

You can spread the word about your brand with advertising or publicity.

Advertising is something you create, pay for and control. Publicity is something someone else writes or says about you when you do something good, noteworthy or interesting.

In “The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product or Service into a World-Class Brand“, Al and Laura Ries write about the Law of Publicity: “The birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising.”

Social media like blogs, social bookmarking and social networks have extended the definition of publicity. Small businesses must learn to leverage different online publicity techniques effectively. Here are six effective ways to do it:

  • Blogs:
    • Create a blog that other bloggers will feel compelled to link to, and update it often with useful, original posts.
    • Make use of trackbacks. Trackbacks are a common feature of most blog platforms. It works like this: when you link to another blog from one of your posts, your blog platform communicates with the other blog and a link to your post is placed automatically in the other blog (sometimes accompanied by a small blurb of text extracted from your post).
    • Post comments on other blogs: leaving useful comments on other blogs will drive traffic to your site from people clicking on your username, which will usually be hyperlinked to your site.
    • When you find a good post on another blog, email the blogger to complement him/her. They will love the positive feedback , visit your blog, and link to it when they like something you write.
  • Tell-a-Friend Links: There is no better endorsement than a personal recommendation from someone you trust. “Send this page to a friend” or “email this post” links make it easy to recommend your posts. You can create them using a cgi script or by enabling the “email this post” feature on your blog.
  • Social Bookmarking: Sites like Digg, Delicious or Stumbleupon let you to bookmark web pages and share them with other people. Write a few good articles or blog posts and bookmark them. If others like them they will bookmark them too and help spread the word.
  • Testimonials: Authentic testimonials by satisfied customers are very effective. Testimonials must include contact information (a name and a link to a website, and maybe a picture). Always ask for permission before posting testimonials.
  • Press releases: Write about a newsworthy event related to your brand and submit it to online press release sites. To write a press release remember to:
    • Make your information timely and unique.
    • Present it in an attractive and easy to understand format.
    • Craft a catchy headline.
    • Use quotes from newsworthy people.
    • Write in third person voice.

    • If you don’t feel confident about your writing abilities hire a copywriting service.

  • Articles: Write quality articles and post them in article syndication sites. Publishers looking for content may reprint your articles provided that they include your resource box. A resource box is a short promotional paragraph at the end of your articles, that includes your name, an elevator pitch about your brand, and a link to your website.

Online Branding — 1 Comment
3
Oct 07

Trust-Building Tips for Small Business Websites

The Internet is the ultimate equalizer: on a browser window, a one-employee home business can look as good as a Fortune 500 company. This presents an important challenge: as a small business, how can you convince potential customers that yours is not a fly-by-night operation? There are several things you can do on your site to generate trust:

  • Create an “About Us” page: better still, make it an “About Me” page. People are tired of large, bureaucratic conglomerates and their “your-call-is-important-to-us” approach to service. Unlike the big guys, you can connect with customers at a personal level. Include your picture and don’t be afraid to talk about yourself.
  • Include your physical address: Even if your customers never visit you, a physical address shows them that you are real and don’t have anything to hide.
  • Mention how long you have been in business: longevity and stability are proxies for trust. If your small business is still young, you can talk about your past experience instead.
  • Use different email addresses in your “Contact Us” page: create several email addresses for different “departments”. For example, set up sales@yourdomain.com, customerservice@yourdomain.com and billing@yourdomain.com. Then, forward them all to your regular email address. Even if you’re just a one-man-show this will project a more professional image.
  • Use Testimonials: Real opinions of satisfied customers are effective trust-builders. To be credible, testimonials must provide some form of contact information (a name and a link to a website will work). Showing a list of previous customers and the type of work you did for them is also very effective. If you’re just starting out, ask your friends for their opinions, or give away free samples in exchange for comments that you can then turn into testimonials.
  • If you belong to a professional association (like the Better Business Bureau, the National Association of Realtors, or the American Management Association) ask them if you can use their logo on your site. They are a very effective way to generate trust.
  • Have a privacy policy: create a page explaining how you will use your visitors’ personal information. A good lawyer can craft a bullet-proof privacy policy for about a hundred bucks (in this litigious society that is money well spent).
  • Have a terms and conditions page: create a page that explains the limitations of your liability when others visit your site. Including a privacy policy and terms and conditions on your site are signs that you are serious about your business.
  • Get a 1-800 number and display it prominently on your site: as a customer, you expect the companies you do business with to have a toll free line. It has become the norm, and it’s really not that expensive, so you should secure one.
  • Create a “Media” page and post press releases, news about your company, hi-res pictures of your products, your company profile and history, etc. You want people in the press to talk about you. The easier you make their job the more coverage you’ll get, and the more trustworthy your company will appear.

Book Reviews — No Comments
2
Oct 07

All Marketers are Liars: Book Review

‘All Marketers Are Liars‘ is a provocatively entertaining book about marketing and human nature. Seth Godin has once again applied his reliable formula for publishing success:

  1. Pick a traditional and well accepted marketing concept
  2. Write about it from a totally new perspective
  3. Make the book easy to read and include a lot of examples
  4. Give the book an intriguing title
  5. Sell a lot of books

In ‘Purple Cow’ the basic concept was differentiation (nothing new in itself, after all, people had been talking about positioning and unique selling propositions for decades). In ‘All Marketers are Liars’ Seth’s premise is based on these two well established marketing concepts:

  1. It is harder to make something and then try to sell it, than it is to first find out what people want and then give it to them.
  2. It is very difficult (and expensive) to try to change people’s perception once it is already formed.

The new ‘angle’ being explored, though, is that most of the time those perceptions are based on emotions that go against objective facts. The recipe for successful marketing, says Godin, is to find a large enough group of people with a particular world view, and offer them a product that caters and reinforces that world view.

Judging by some reader reviews, some people seem to have taken offense to Seth’s thesis, implying that it encourages dishonesty in marketing. I don’t subscribe to that point of view. Giving people exactly what they want, even though objective facts suggest that they should want something else is not being dishonest.

To illustrate Seth’s thesis I’ll give you an example: suppose that you have two identical watches, one of them is made in Switzerland and the other one is made in China. If you ask people which one is better, I bet that nine out of ten will answer ‘the Swiss watch’.

The objective of the Swiss watch maker is to sell watches. Are they supposed to go around telling everybody that the Chinese watch is as good as theirs? Of course not. The Swiss watch maker’s advertising will most likely make extensive use of marketing signals that reinforce the world view of the nine people who picked the Swiss watch: their magazine ads will probably display pictures of their watch with a backdrop of a quaint Swiss village surrounded by the Alps and the Swiss cross prominently displayed somewhere on the page.

Now, if the Swiss watch maker decided to relocate their manufacturing plant to China and continued to use the same marketing signals in their advertising their customers would cry foul. If they also intentionally and openly lied about the country of origin of the watch they would be committing fraud. Seth Godin voices a strong opinion against these two scenarios, the first one because it would be “unauthentic” and the second one because it would be outright illegal and unethical.

All Marketers are Liars’ is a quick and entertaining read (you can probably breeze through it from cover to cover on your average plane ride) and it will leave you with a valuable takeaway on which to base your marketing strategy.