exitcreative

Comments

1. Clay Parker Jones,

   Mon Jan 8, 2007 at 6:06 pm

   PS, I think this is why I’m in the right industry.

   Reply to this Comment
2. Johanna,

   Mon Jan 8, 2007 at 6:23 pm

   This is one of the largest reasons for why my second choice was to work for an innovation company. I didn’t have enough experience. fooooom.

   Reply to this Comment
3. Todd And,

   Mon Jan 8, 2007 at 9:42 pm

   Great idea. Well executed.

   Reply to this Comment
4. Gavin Heaton,

   Tue Jan 9, 2007 at 2:33 am

   If only you could link to the ZIPCAR website, then your entry would be complete

   Unfortunately most marketers have a way to go in understanding “revolutionary stuff”. They would rather stick with “what worked before”. But wait … just wait.

   In six months, when someone else suggests it to them, they will leap on it. They will have forgotten your idea … or absorbed it into their own thinking, and it will be presented back to you. If you are lucky, you may be briefed on your own idea — but if you are unlucky, your revolutionary idea will be farmed out to a competitive agency.

   Is that a brick wall you are hitting your head against? Feels good doesn’t it

   Reply to this Comment
5. Clay Parker Jones,

   Tue Jan 9, 2007 at 11:05 am

   Gavin – The link is there. I like this page as well: http://www.zipcar.com/how/.

   Thanks for the support, my blog-friend! Even though it’s sometimes a sad situation, just having the ideas is good enough.

   Todd – Thanks!

   Johanna – You know how envious I am of your first choice…

   Reply to this Comment
6. hmmm..,

   Wed Jan 10, 2007 at 4:14 am

   i tripped up on this site completely by accident…. anyway, marketing is a HUGE part of EVERY product. take your train of thought one step further and think about why it costs $1 million for 30 seconds during the superbowl. it’s tv’s single highest rated program in the world!! and maybe only 1 out of 100 people who sees the ad actually goes and buys the product, but those 1/100′s add up. and they add up fast. so fast, that corporations pay 1mil+ for THIRTY SECONDS on tv! everything you buy, own, use, and wear is marketing. without marketing there is no product. it’s only someone’s dream or imagination until there is a marketing campaign that can get actual products, or ‘the’ product, to people.

   just food for thought. may the road you travel be a long one.

   Reply to this Comment
7. Clay Parker Jones,

   Wed Jan 10, 2007 at 9:21 am

   hmmm…

   Thanks for stopping by. Or tripping by. Whatever.

   I just don’t agree. Marketing doesn’t get products to people. Distribution gets products to people. And even though this is somewhat semantic, I was talking specifically about advertising–big media spends–not marketing generally. I think most companies are better off working on some important manifestations of their brand… the products they produce, the way consumers interact with them (in store, in the home, with customer service, etc.), and generally how they treat the people that use their products/services.

   Look at Goyard, the French luggage maker. It’s widely reported that they’ve grown their business 90% in the last year without a single ad dollar spent. Why? Their product (and the way it’s presented in stores and out) is so superior that people lust for it, magazines report on it, and rich folks spend thousands per piece on their bags.

   Or there’s this client we work with. They make inexpensive novelty-like products that they sell to Wal-Mart and other big retailers. Their products are cheaply produced in China and they don’t spend a buck on “advertising”. But their products are sufficiently cool and cheap that people don’t mind making the impulse purchase. Their marketing battle is to get big-box retailers to buy their products en masse. We developed sales tools and packaging that helped them double their sell-in this year. But it’s all about developing products that big-box buyers think people will want.

   Thoughts?

   Reply to this Comment