Mike's Marketing Axioms

I really am a professor and I teach marketing courses.  Just for fun, I herewith present to you...

Mike's Marketing Axioms 

Axiom No. 1
Marketers have all the fun and make all the money.


Axiom No. 2.
Never, ever, try to fool your customer.


Axiom No. 3.
Entrepreneuring is marketing at its finest.


Axiom No. 4.
Don’t just keep your customer satisfied. Delight your customer.


Axiom No. 5
Don’t ever let a machine answer your phone, unless a machine is phoning you. 


There’s a customer on the phone that spends money that pays your salary. Answer the phone. Talk to the customer. Listen to the customer.


Axiom No. 6
Always include the janitor and the receptionist and loading dock part-timer in the marketing plan. They know what's going on at least as well as the boss. Innovation rarely if ever occurs in the boardroom or CEO's office.


Axiom No. 7
Talk to your customers regularly and ask them for feedback.


Axiom No. 8
Give something back to your customers regularly.


 Axiom No. 9
Finance folks, engineers, economists, managers, education administrators, production folks, and accountants receive their paychecks from marketers.


Axiom No. 10
Never put economists, accountants, or production people in charge of your marketing and and your humans, e.g. your top line.


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'Have you any I ought to put on the list?





Prof. Mike




Prof Mike • Class Star®ClassStar offers two, 3-hour core courses and several live courses. www.ClassStar.com 
Your business and referrals are appreciated. 
The Porch weblog and all contents herein are © 2009-2012 Mike Ballif. All rights reserved.

Paul is Dead. The Boy in the Curtains. Classic Coke vs New Coke. Public Sex & Other Paris Hilton Marketing Manuevers.

Paul is Dead. The Boy in the Curtains. Classic Coke vs New Coke. Public Sex & Other Paris Hilton Marketing Maneuvers.

Again, and probably permanently -- I’m going to diverge from the real estate industry. You all have more than you can possibly read about the trade and how to manage a career in it. 

So, just for fun …

Coke released "New Coke" with more sugar in it a few years ago...to compete with sweeter Pepsi. The public "hated" it, and demanded the original Coke...which Coca-Cola rushed back to the market, re-named as "Classic Coke," which it is still named today.  NewCoke has quietly been taken off the market...and Coke enjoyed a resurgence in market share.

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It's my conspiracy theory you know... The Coca-Cola "disaster." I've never heard of anyone else talking about it. I've just sort of looked between the lines on it and I think the outcome was sheer genius. So I've wondered if it was deliberate and a planned marketing maneuver, based upon the premise you speak of--there's no such thing as bad press--or if it was just luck on the part of Coke.

I've never heard of a Coke officer getting canned for the snafu, although that really isn't a necessary outcome of an executive making an error...but sometimes it is.

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I know of two instances of both accidentally-on-purpose-will-probably-generate-some-publicity scenarios--one planned and one coincidental: in the movie “Three Men And A Baby,” there is a boy standing in the curtains that supposedly is the boy, [who's real life room the show is filmed in] supposedly fell out of the window and was killed (in real life). The boy's death was initially a rumor; but then the story became juicy gossip and we all went and rented the movie a second time -- to see if there really was a boy standing in the curtains. We never saw a boy in the curtains before.

There was a boy standing in the curtains near the window.

Later on, the show's producers (one of which is Leonard Nimoy, aka Mr. Spock from “Star Trek”) admitted to the marketing gimmick.

The other example is the Paul Is Dead rumor about Paul McCartney of the Beatles. Everyone found a lot of "he's dead" clues in the Beatles' album art and also in the music. We all went out and bought new copies of the albums, and all the radio stations started talking about it and playing Beatles tunes -- years after they were released. It was however, coincidental and purely rumor. The Beatles' management spokesman said they wished they could have been that clever..."but sorry;  [they] weren't."

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Do you think Coke did it deliberately, or was it purely luck?

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Does Paris Hilton continually have a continuing succession of unfortunate events--purely at random?

Consider ....

Naughty daughter, heiress to a fortune...

Accidentally (on purpose?) a boyfriend releases a video tape to the Internet of the two "in the act" for all to see.

Her dog gets stolen. Later returned.

She has a horrible falling out with her TV co-star Nicole Ritchie (no one knows what the fight was about)...

Her T-Mobile Sidekick cell phone with nude photos of herself and celebrity phone numbers in it, was stolen (don't we all pose for, edit, and then regularly store nude photos of ourselves on our phones?).

Paris does a bikini-clad hamburger ad slithering about on a very expensive car being washed... but Carl's Jr. pulls it because it's too controversial.  Carl's Jr. itself determined it was too controversial ... after the company had paid for its production.  

Lots of photos and smiles and headlines.

Mother's Day gifts stolen from her car. Later recovered.

DUI

Goes to jail for a little while.

Reconciles with TV co-star Nicole Ritchie (still, no one knows what the fight was about)...

Cries publicly on David LettermanShow

Announces she's visiting Africa. Reason unknown. But pending trip to Africa is publicly announced. Lots of photos and smiles and headlines.

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Someone ought to calculate the statistical probability of the above events occurring at random to the same person. They are pretty much, random, aren't they? ;-))

All the foregoing was continually front page news.

Mercy.

No such thing as bad PR indeed.

    

Prof. Mike

Prof Mike • Class Star®ClassStar offers two, 3-hour core courses and several live courses. www.ClassStar.com Your business and referrals are appreciated. 

The Porch weblog and all contents herein are © 2009-12 Mike Ballif. All rights reserved.

Jackson Browne & Brian Wilson

Just Talkin ...

Again, and probably permanently -- I’m going to diverge from the real estate industry. You all have more than you can possibly read about the trade and how to manage a career in it.

So just for fun …

If you haven’t listened to Jackson Browne’s album “Timethe Conqueror” … you should.  It’s excellent.  It’s not the latest by Browne ... I think  “Timethe Conqueror” was released in 2008…but it’s worth repeated listening.  The first time through I wasn’t paying attention; and just sort of listened for the chord changes. 

Then a few more times the riffs and the lyrics started combining and now it’s hard to put it away.  There’s classic Jackson Browne guitar and singing—some of his best, I think.

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In the lower rows of the Special Events Center at the University of Utah, I shook hands with Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys in the 1980’s.   The Beach Boys had just played Salt Lake; and this time the concert was partly my promotion and my former partner and I stood together, meeting these two legends.

Dennis had surfer’s hands.  He was a tough guy.

This concert had the classic Beach Boys touring personnel:  the two Wilson brothers, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston plus the backing band including Billy Hinche and Blondie Chapin.   Hinche was a pain for us that night, by the way.

Brian Wilson has not toured with the Beach Boys for quite a while.  In recent years Brian’s made some valiant attempts at improving his health, and has made some remarkable albums.  For years the Beach Boys members couldn’t show up to band meetings unless their personal lawyers were in tow…

The word was Brian’s craziness made him vulnerable to many forces, including some of the boys in the band who wanted to cash in on Brian’s song writing.  Over the years it has alternately been painful to watch and then incredible to watch --  when any of the band would play live or on television.  A few years ago the “Beach Boys” played Weber State University and for the first time [it ever sunk into my head], there were no Wilsons on the stage.  Carl and Dennis had passed and Brian’s was too fragile to tour.  I still love the band and the guys and always will.

A few nights ago the Beach Boys did two or three songs on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Fallon interviewed Mike Love and Brian Wilson before the band played.  Brian’s not looking too good.  He needed Love’s help to walk up a couple of steps and get to his seat – unsure of his footing.  Brian didn’t have much color in his face. 

Love complimented Wilson repeatedly and it was good to see and hear it.  Love and Wilson said the Beach Boys including Wilson are touring this summer.

Prof.Mike

Prof Mike • Class Star® ClassStar offers two, 3-hour core courses and several live courses. www.ClassStar.com Your business and referrals are appreciated. The Porch weblog and all contents herein are © 2012 Mike Ballif. All rights reserved.

They'll All Know if we Just Play

Stephen Stills

I’m going to diverge from the real estate industry. You all have more than you can possibly read about the trade and how to manage a career in it.

So just for fun …

Stephen Stills, the guitarist originally from Buffalo Springfield, then solo, then Crosby, Stills, and Nash and sometimes Young, was playing on my iPod this morning. Someone told me recently they heard Stills playing and singing somewhere, and simply due to his age it seems his voice wasn’t what it used to be.

The first intense impression I had of Stephen Stills was Crosby, Stills and Nash together on the stage at Woodstock (I wasn’t there. I watched the movie 10,000 times). The group was just tuning up to play their first song, and Crosby said, off-mike (but could be heard anyway); “tell them who we are.” Nash said, “they’ll all know if just play …“  and so Stills began picking “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.”

We knew who they were. Stills' guitar was all it took.

On Thanksgiving night probably 1970, Crosby, Stills and Nash played the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Santana opened the concert. The entire show was amazing. I was very late getting home and the parents were not happy with me. It didn’t matter. I was still floating on the most amazing music since the Beatles.

Stills sounded good that night. He always sounds good. On a televised show a few years later, Stills walked onto a stage with an acoustic guitar and began playing and singing … and for an hour; one guy with one guitar captivated an entire huge theatre. His music and voice filled every available space.  Stills touched all senses in his audience.

--

It had turned cold with a slight drizzle in the air at the base of a ski run on Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana on an early-summer-June evening. Stills was playing. And he was in full stride. He played right through the cold and rocked on for a long time. He played loud for us and he didn’t miss a beat and he completely ignored the temperature.  Such a master.

The night after a few dirt bags stole our jets and crashed them into the World Trade towers, Crosby, Stills and Nash showed up on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno to sing for us…to find some common ground to somehow hold onto something meaningful. I needed that one. 

Stills and his buddies sounded great.

I’m not a singer…I always wished I could sing like these guys. I don’t understand vocal cords or how they change with age or why some of them stay the same.  Paul McCartney’s voice is not the same as his Beatle voice. Glen Campbell, in his mid-70’s, sounds nearly identical to his 20-year old voice.

Stills’ voice has changed. He sounds great.

--

Talk to me about Stills or music and what it puts in your soul.

Prof. Mike

Prof Mike • Class Star®

ClassStar offers two, 3-hour core courses and several live courses. www.ClassStar.com Your business and referrals are appreciated.

The Porch weblog and all contents herein are © 2009- 2012 Mike Ballif. All rights reserved.

Stephen Stills

I’m going to diverge from the real estate industry. You all have more than you can possibly read about the trade and how to manage a career in it.

So just for fun …

Stephen Stills, the guitarist originally from Buffalo Springfield, then solo, then Crosby, Stills, and Nash and sometimes Young, was playing on my iPod this morning.  Someone told me recently they heard Stills playing and singing somewhere, and simply due to his age it seems his voice wasn’t what it used to be.

--

The first sight I had of Stephen Stills was with Crosby, Stills and Nash together  on the stage at Woodstock (I wasn’t there.  I watched the movie some 10,000 times).  The group was just tuning up to play, and Crosby said off mike (but could be heard anyway); “tell them who we are.”  Nash said, “they’ll all know if just play …“ and Stills started playing “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.”

We knew who they were.  Stills' guitar was all it took.

On Thanksgiving night probably 1970, Crosby, Stills and Nash played the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.  Santana opened the concert. The entire show was amazing.  I was very late getting home and the parents were not happy with me.  It didn’t matter.  I was still floating on the most amazing music since the Beatles.

Stills sounded good that night.  He always sounds good.  On a televised show years ago, Stills walked onto a stage with an acoustic guitar and began playing and singing … and for an hour, one guy, one guitar captivated an entire huge theatre.  His music and voice filled every available space.

--

It had turned cold with a slight drizzle in the air at the base of a ski run on Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana on an early summer June evening.  Stills was playing.  And he was in full stride.  He played right through the cold and rocked us for a long time.  He played loud for us and he didn’t miss a beat.

The night after a few dirt bags stole our jets  and crashed them into the World Trade towers, Crosby, Stills and Nash showed up on the Tonight Show to sing for us…to find some common ground to somehow hold onto.  I needed that one.

Stills sounded great.

I’m not a singer…I always wished I could sing like these guys.  I don’t understand vocal cords or how they change with age or why some of them stay the same.  Some singer’s voices change as they age.  Paul McCartney’s voice is not the same as his Beatle voice.  Glen Campbell, in his mid-70’s, sounds nearly identical to his 20-year old voice.

Stills’ voice has changed.  He sounds great.

--

Talk to me about Stills or music and what it put in your soul.

Prof. Mike

Prof Mike • Class Star®

ClassStar offers two, 3-hour core courses and several live courses. www.ClassStar.com

Your business and referrals are appreciated. The Porch weblog and all contents herein are © 2012 Mike Ballif. All rights reserved.