Nicholas Bate

Get down there now..

..as this may be one of your last mellow Saturday mornings in your local Starbucks. Especially if you want a bold brew.

As always: Less is More

Even with chocolate.

Instant Marketing

here from the great Cultural Offering.

Naked crisps (chips)?

Here.

On being different

Paul Schwend does it by offering clients his home phone number. Michael Wade does it by quantity (posts/day) times quality(value of post) times frequency (regularity of posting). Innocent Juices do it by 'just' appearing to be nice guys. Apple does it by astonishing elegance and design.

Is it the only 'special' thing these people do? No. Is it enough to make them absolutely unique? Clearly not. So why are they doing so well? Because their real 'be different' factor is: they try harder.

Be Different

Be faster OR maybe
Be slower
Be bigger OR maybe
Be smaller
Be cheaper OR maybe
Be more expensive
Be local OR maybe
Be global

But absolutely definitely no-doubt-about-it: be different.

Vegemite

While in Melbourne I was reminded that the product is made in the factory there. It was invented in 1923 and is of course similar in taste to Marmite. What I hadn't realised is that from 1928 to 1935 its name was changed to Parwill in order to create the very odd marketing slogan of 'Marmite but Parwill' in order to attempt to reduce Marmite's market share. You can imagine the results and the name was changed back in 1935.

If you are a marketeer..

..and who isn't in the New World of Work, you'll enjoy this blog.

The beginning of the end..

for Starbucks? On a lesser note, notice how Andrew Clarke perpetuates the myth of the business being named after 'a coffee-loving first mate in the novel Moby-Dick'. The mate never ever mentions the brew in the novel: more on that here.

Marketing Inspiration?

If you are tasked with creating some some fresh thinking in the marketing machine, perhaps you should start with this post from Brand Autopsy. It's a selection of 'greatest hits' from the blog over the last 12 months and provides a great starting point for thinking and discussion. Take your lap-top to Starbucks and check it out.