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brand drought
December is often a time of year when things quiet down for marketers (except for the spike in agency parties). But this year it feels dominated by a whole lot of scenario brainstorming and...
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goliath envy
I gave a talk last week on challenger brand thinking, so I’ve had David and Goliath on my mind. I talked about the importance of changing the game when you’re the little guy so that you’re not playing...
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this little piggy
As Jerry Garcia once said, “You do not merely want to be considered the best of the best. You want to be the only ones who do what you do.” That quote was part of Rule #24 in Alan Webber‘s inspiring...
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poking the bear
“Poking the Bear” belongs on a marketing lingo bingo card alongside “Low Hanging Fruit” and “Share of Voice”. It’s one of my favorite marketing buzz phrases because it’s so vivid. “Poking the Bear”...
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making the leap
I recently decided to take my cartooning to the next level. Ten years ago this week, I started drawing cartoons in business school. Since then, I’ve doodled nights, weekends, and early mornings,...
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crossing the chasm cafe
I just learned I’m speaking at a conference this summer with Geoffrey Moore, author of “Crossing the Chasm”. Geoffrey wrote the book with high-tech products in mind but I find the model useful when...
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7 deadly sins of marketing
This cartoon was partly inspired by a small irreverent San Francisco clothing company called Betabrand. They compete against far larger fashion companies and can’t win on traditional media spending,...
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where complacent brands go
I heard once that there are three types of companies: rule makers, rule followers, and rule breakers. It’s easy for rule makers and rule followers to get complacent, particularly in industries that...
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who else should we target?
I first drew this cartoon for a presentation at Google, and I’ve been getting enough requests from people to license it, I wanted to share it here. Many brands try to be all things to all people. It...
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the process pendulum
I once worked in an Internet startup that grew from 25 employees to 2,500 in 3 years. Much of that was through acquisition — basically 30 startups rolled up into one. The resulting patchwork company...
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