Linda's Marketing Leverage Blog

Just a Moment for Marketing: Do Good Products Sell Themselves?

Linda recommends: Build the marketing campaign you need.

Top of Mind Thursday April 24, 2014: The Power of Reset

I am in London this week, attending workshops with 15 world-class consultants from 6 countries, followed by a week of vacation. 

 

I'm often asked how I can afford to take the time out to attend these kind of events. The answer is simple: I can't afford not to. 

That's because we are so busy with the day-to-day activities that take up our daily lives that we usually aren't able to step back and look at the bigger picture: what are our longer term objectives and are we on the right path to achieve them.

Too often we find ourselves executing and doing all the time. It keeps us busy but is it really the right thing to do?

When was the last time you stepped back to consider these questions? If it's not recently, then maybe it's time for a short reset. Can you really afford not to do this?

 

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Just a Moment for Marketing: Why Competitors are Good for Business

Linda observes: We really can't live without them.

Top of Mind Thursday April 17, 2014: A Marathon, Not a Sprint

This week the city of Boston commemorated the one year anniversary of the horrific Boston Marathon bombing. 

 

A year later, the healing continues. The injured are recovering and moving forward with drastically changed lives.  Over 36,000 runners and a million spectators are expected for next Monday's running of the Marathon.  

 

The terrorists in this case are no longer a danger to the public. Yet in the last few weeks alone we saw multiple incidents of violence: a shooting at Ft. Hood in Texas, stabbings at a high school near Pittsburgh, a white supremacist killing people at Jewish centers in Kansas City.

 

The efforts to eliminate violence and hatred are ongoing. Boston is strong; the rest of us need to have the strength to fight back against this kind of craziness. That means increased security, but it also means taking back our cities and streets to run our lives as we see fit.

This won't happen quickly. It's not a sprint to the finish--it's a marathon.

 

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Let us help your business rise to the top.

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(650) 281-4854
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Just a Moment for Marketing: We Know What Our Customers Need

Linda advises: Understand what your customers really need.

Top of Mind Thursday April 10, 2014: I Can't Recall

"I can't recall" is the language we've traditionally heard from reluctant witnesses when asked a question they really don't want to answer. 

 

But these days it seems to relate more and more to auto manufacturers. GM is embroiled in controversy regarding faulty ignition switches that resulted in at least 13 deaths since 2001, but didn't trigger a recall until this year. Toyota recently agreed to pay a $1.2B fine relating to how it handled the recall of more than 10 million cars in 2009 for unintended acceleration.  

 

GM has now recalled 2.5 million cars related to the faulty ignition switch. This week Toyota recalled over 6 million vehicles globally for what it says are problems that have not caused any fatalities.  Yet.

 

This is not about bad parts. It's about trust and credibility. We trust auto manufacturers to make products that are safe, and we expect them to let us know in a timely fashion when they uncover problems that can hurt us.

 

The GM and Toyota recalls will be costly, but this will be dwarfed by the long-term damage to their brand and image.

 

What do you do when you find a problem that could significantly impact customers? "I can't recall" is not the right answer.

 

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Let us help your business rise to the top.

[email protected]
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com

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Speak Up, Show Up, and Step Up: Using Thought Leadership to Build a Marketable Brand or Business

Denise Brosseau
CEO
www.thoughtleadershiplab.com

Denise Brosseau is the founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Lab, where she works with executives and entrepreneurs who want to build visibility, credibility and thought leadership to enhance their professional success. Her clients include leaders from Apple, Genentech and Morgan Stanley as well as startup CEOs, partners in professional service firms and nonprofit executives. Denise is the author of Ready to Be a Thought Leader? published in early 2014 by Wiley/Jossey Bass.

In this podcast, Denise talks about the importance of thought leadership—not just for community leaders and CEOs but for individuals within companies as well. She discussed the 7 steps for becoming a thought leader and why it’s so important to be as discoverable as possible.

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Listen to this podcast.

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Just a Moment for Marketing: Move Forward or Die

Linda recommends: Change with the times.

Top of Mind Thursday April 3, 2014: The Magic of Opening Day

This week marked the launch of another season of Major League baseball. 

 

After a long winter for teams who didn't make the post-season and the tribulations of spring training, each April the baseball season starts anew. Thirty teams are a buzz and ready to start another race to the pennant. 

 

A funny thing happens on Opening Day. All things are possible. Every single team, no matter what their record last season, is off on the trek to be World Series champions.  

 

It's an attitude and belief we could use in the business world. If we could capture the feeling of Opening Day, we'd see more excitement and focus in our own teams, more confidence in our ability to deliver outstanding performance.

And if we don't win the game today, it's still ok. It's a long season and there's another important contest again tomorrow-as long as we suit up and come to the park prepared to swing for the fences.

 

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Let us help your business rise to the top.

[email protected]
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com

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