Drew Schiller

From the category archives:

Branding

Avoid Fake Flowers

May 6, 2009

The April showers have again brought May flowers and everything is in bloom (and my allergies are kicking in). Walking down the street yesterday I was stopped in my tracks by something next to me that seemed out of place: potted fake tulips. “Tacky,” I thought.
From a distance, I may not have noticed these flowers [...]

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Build a Superstar Brand Like Michael Jordan

May 5, 2009

Did you know that the NBA calls Michael Jordan “the greatest basketball player of all time” even though Jordan isn’t statistically the greatest player? Even Magic Johnson once said, “There’s Michael Jordan and then there is the rest of us.”
So why is it so accepted that Jordan is the greatest player of all time? Because [...]

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What Benjamin Franklin Has To Say About Your Brand

April 27, 2009

“Drive thy business or it will drive thee.”
- Benjamin Franklin
It’s easy to get caught up in our daily business routines, focusing on the meetings we have, which employees are running late, or how we can afford to purchase new computers in this economy. Unfortunately, when we are focused on these and other business-related activities, we [...]

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A Tale of Two Parking Tickets

April 22, 2009

Part 1: The Good
While visiting my jeweler last week (sorry wife, no new bling, it was simply a business discussion) I was surprised to learn that he gladly pays for any parking tickets his customers get while shopping in his store (whether they make a purchase or not). Not only is he happy to pay [...]

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What’s your white tablecloth?

April 21, 2009

While in Barcelona a few years ago, my wife and I wandered into a little restaurant around the corner from our apartment on a Friday night. We had heard this place had good food, and we were excited to try it.
After the typical Catalan/English/Broken Spanish dance, we communicated that we in fact had no reservation, [...]

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How to beat the Internet

April 16, 2009

The low overhead, drop shipping, and economy of scale of Internet businesses make it impossible for local businesses to compete on price. So don’t even try.
Local businesses need to compete on value. Consumers want the lowest price available, but they are almost always willing to pay for services “included” in that price.
If you shop for [...]

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Your business card sucks

April 15, 2009

At least it does if no one comments on it when you hand it out. Great business cards do more than communicate your information; they are memory-triggering devices for your brand.
There’s no excuse for business cards to be boring. Remarkable business cards don’t have to have flashy colors and or crazy images, they just have [...]

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Google can’t build your brand

April 8, 2009

Because of my background designing websites, small business owners and marketers often ask me about search engine optimization (SEO). How can I get my website to show up higher in Google rankings? How much money should I expect to spend on SEO? Why isn’t my website showing up in search engines at all?
Disclaimer: I am [...]

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The extra ingredient

April 7, 2009

Why is it that food tastes better at some restaurants, even when their menu items are similar to lesser establishments? Great chefs will often tell you they use an extra ingredient: love.
Love (you can also call it passion, enthusiasm, or obsession) is the extra ingredient that can help any company’s products or services stand out. [...]

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Breaking the industry mold

April 3, 2009

Seth Godin offers great insight today into how nearsighted marketers have ruined the trust many people have for different industries. He concludes:
“Selfish short-sighted marketers ruined it for all of us. The only way out, I think, is for a few marketers to so overwhelm the market with long-term, generous marketing that we have no choice but [...]

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