The Carnival of Marketing is Here at Yoest.org

The Carnival of Marketing “A Picture’s Meaning Can Express Ten Thousand Words”

Attributed (incorrectly) to Confucius. The phrase is so exotic; so Oriental. But it’s not Chinese.

How did that happen? Where did it come from?

Marketing.

Your Humble Business Blogger is honored to host The Carnival of Marketing this week. Terrific articles made hosting easy.

And it’s free. Edited. Vetted.

Steven Silvers, at Scatterbox at stevensilvers.com, presents Some flacks have a way with words. Some flacks no have way.

Steven is right. And offers his clients, and we readers, this advice:

draw a picture of what you have written

To bring into sharp focus the content of your communication.

As the Chinese say, “A picture is worth 1,000 words” and all that.

Actually, the phrase is from a 1920’s American marketing campaign.

A picture is worth 10,000 words...

Anyway, we live in a sight and sound generation. Which is why Tom McMahon’s 4-block World gets 3,000+ hits a day.

by Douglas G. DavidoffDouglas Davidoff has an outstanding article on managing customer expectations. Customers want consistency. Predictability.

The stock market hates uncertainty — people hate uncertainty.

Read his A Four Seasons Experience Isn’t Always About A Four Seasons Experience.

And Douglas gets Wal*Mart right.

I particularly appreciated Davidoff’s piece. I once consulted for a firm that tested for ISO 9000 certifications. A key component of the award was producing a consistent product or service. It could be good.

Or cheap. Or fast.

But it had to be consistent and fit with customer’s expectations. And be repeat-able. Douglas has a perfect example.

Jim Logan, at Jim Logan, presents You”re Pre-Qualified For This Offer! I Hate Stuff Like This.. Jim, a winner in the 2005 Business Blogs awards, reminds us that there’s a sucker born every minute. But he uses nicer words.

My lead would be: Goodness, I wish the Suckers would cease conceiving. Suckers make spammers succeed.

But Jim Logan is more nuanced than me. (And a better writer.)

Jim has a reasonable solution. The perfect suggestion.

Which will be ignored.

The masses are *sses. And all marketers are liars.

Read Jim’s appeal to our better angels.

Nedra Weinrich

with Spare ChangeVisit Five Resources for Social Marketers. Nedra Kline Weinreich, President, Weinreich Communications, has recommendations for people who want to learn more about how to use marketing to bring about health and social change.

Brother can you spare a dime? was the Depression Era’s direct appeal from one person ‘down on his luck’ to another. IRL. Person to person.

Nedra takes this a step further. She consults with non-profits and government agencies to bring about social change. To make a difference.

I like her emphasis on advising the not-for-profits. But Your Business Blogger gets somewhat uncomfortable with government agencies bringing about social change.

The purpose of government is to restrain evil, not to do good. Doing good, charity, is a test of the human heart. Not government action.

I did a tour of duty with Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia a few years ago. One of my agencies spent 100’s of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars advertising on bill boards.

Telling the citizenry to stop being stupid.

Or something like that…

…Lots of marketing campaigns fail, you know…

Anyhoo, Nedra has resources and an excellent overview. For educating the public. I’m sure she’ll do better than I did.

by Brian ClarkBrian at Copyblogger has a free, yes, free, report on Viral Copy selling with blogs. The 30-page freebie has eleven basic points presented.

At a fast clip. For only a click.

Excellent.

Visit Brian and start making some money.

Brand AutopsyJohn Moore, Starbucks marketing expert, reviews an unusual line extension for the upscale coffee, experience dispenser. Cold cereral:

Yep…Starbucks is selling ho-hum Kellogg’s Low-Fat Granola in its iconic logo’d cups

Get John’s take at The Passion of the Cup.

Lynette Chandler, at Marketing Automation and Technology, presents Virtual Conferences Ineffective?.Lynette makes the point, emphasised by Tom Peters(!) that when something is important real people show up in real life.

Nothing beats Meet and Greet. Grip and Grin. Selling face-to-face.

I love conferences, confabs, seminars, trade shows. (Which is odd, since I don’t care for people, much.)

Are Virtual Conferences Ineffective? It depends if the camera likes you. And what you’re selling. Read what Lynette thinks.

Doug Sorocco with Rethink IP will be hosting on March 12th. Do visit him for more in the best Marketing articles of the week.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Are you interested Hosting the Carnival of Marketing? Email Noah, the originator at noah [at] okdork.com with your website and which date you want to host the carnival.

Marketing articles can be forwarded to the Blog Carnival submission form.

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