With New Year’s resolutions in full swing, let’s take a minute to talk “bootcamps.” Not the type of bootcamp where you sweat your turkey dinners and eggnog off, but career boot camp. I often refer to my three years reporting to the owners of a major Canadian Lifestyle brand as marketing boot camp. Yes, they worked me to death. …
The Grocery Biz 2018: a half disruptor
Any category disruptor is a hot topic right now. I want to discuss a category that is only half-disrupted — the web grocery business. Imagine if Uber was just an app that dispatched existing yellow taxis? Instead Uber and Lyft are complete disrupters. They have their own technology backend, distinct vehicles, and own driver network. The other day I …
My 30 year-old running shoes. Brand or Style Loyalty (or both)?
Beyond brand loyalty is style loyalty. You like Levi’s but you love their 501. You won’t wear anything but 501’s on your butt. I want to share my own style loyalty story and some examples of our client’s years-long loyalty to certain uniform styles. I’m not a runner. That shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s met me. But I have run …
First 90 days: Outlander PHEV very efficient, great drive
Good Friday March 30th 2018 was a good day indeed as we took delivery or our new plug-in hybrid SUV. Driving the 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV for the past 90 days shows this SUV to be a very efficient, practical daily driver. There’s no need to tease, let’s get right to the point: A little more than four thousand …
Customer firings that benefit you AND the client.
Is the customer is always right? Must every coffee shop offer wi-fi? Should your small biz offer every feature and service the competitors offer, even if you lose money? NO, I say! Recently, I saw my pal Darrel from Decorative Plasters & Painting post on FB that he had fired a client. Good on him, I thought. A few …
Your corporate swag sucks? How to fix that…
Fear. It’s a part of life. It’s in the nature of being human. As we head into conference season, our staff gets excited for all the cool product ideas we see and hear about. But, in the back of our minds, we have a fear. Corporate swag — company gifts — that suck! It really raises the hair on our …
How to avoid a sucky Tradeshow
Over your marketing career you will attend or exhibit at dozens of tradeshows. So you may recognize in others (or yourself) that hang-dog expression of someone who does NOT want to be there. Nothing is worse than the tradeshow exhibitor who thinks it’s a waste of their time — worse, YOU are a waste of their time. Here’s a few …
Webstores for Staff & Franchise Systems: a primer
If you manage a company webstore, host them, develop them or are considering a webstore for your company, this article shares some quick tips. The following is a paraphrased transcript based after an on-stage conversation between myself and Bobby Lehew. Bobby is one of my mentors in the webstore and e-commerce world. This convo was aimed at industry professionals at …
Why we (heart emoji) working with millennial clients
At PBJ Merch Co. we get to work with many Millennial clients. And, we have Millennial team members too (looking at you Amanda!). Here’s why we love working with Millennial clients. Let’s address the elephant in the blogpost. There is a myth that Millennials live and work online and make all their buying decisions online. Yes, of course, they …