Posts Tagged ‘influence’

Note to CMO: Seeing What Others Don’t See and Parking Your Car for $12 a Month

TweetDear CMO: I’m going to get this story slightly wrong because I forgot exactly where I heard it or read it, but hopefully the meaning will be clear enough. I’m sharing this with you for one big reason: if you squint at it and think of ways to apply it to what you’re doing, it […]


Robin Li, Herman Mashaba and “Being One of Us”

Tweet  And now, the main event. In one corner, the reigning industry champion, weighing in at a few billion in revenue, with massive budgets, headcount and resources. In the other corner, the local favorite – considerably smaller, home grown, and a dangerous scrapper. The heavy weight versus “one of us.” My money’s on the little […]


Note to CMO: Rio and The Map

TweetDear CMO: The story goes that Rosser Reeves, ad man responsible for the “unique selling proposition” and slogans like “I Like Ike” came across a man begging in the street one afternoon and offered him a suggestion. Instead of “I am blind,” Reeves added a sub-text to the man’s plackard, so the story goes, that […]


Note to CMO: Anchor Points and Presenting Your Case First

TweetDear CMO: Once upon a time, I wrote a piece describing the last time I entered an oriental carpet store with the intention of buying a rug. I bring it up again because it clearly animates how anchor points control our perceptions – and perceptions control what we think and do, which makes them worth […]


The Evil of Satisficing

I have met the greatest of all evils and its name is Satisficing. OK, it’s not a name, per se, but a mashup of two words – satisfy and suffice. Squint and you could probably find the real meaning in there, too – sacrifice. Satisficing is the greatest of all evils. Here’s why.