Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

Note to CMO: Changing How the World Thinks

Tweet“Our mission has always been to change how America thinks about beer.” Jim Koch, Founder of The Boston Beer Company, now the largest American-owned brewery. Dear CMO: Jim Koch clearly laid out his vision for The Boston Beer Company to me in a discussion we had a few months ago. Reading these words belies the […]


Note to CMO: Go Daddy, Apple’s “Think Different,” and the Point of Marketing

Tweet“Apple’s ad agency collected the 1998 Emmy Award for best commercial, the 1998 Silver Clio, and the 1998 Silver Lion at Cannes. The company’s revenues dropped for the next three quarters in a row.” Quote from Sergio Zyman from his book, The End of Advertising as We Know It: “We had a tremendous surge in […]


Note to CMO: Flanker Brands, Sergio Zyman and Unfair Advantages

TweetDear CMO: “Snapple was a freight train. Everybody was saying in those days colas are dead everybody’s dead and this is the new stuff. We came up with this brand Fruitopia. I remember a reporter asking at a press conference, saying this is a me-too brand. And I said, you bet this is a me-too […]


Note to CMO: Closure as Competition, from Alexander to Schiphol’s Porcelain Flies

TweetDear CMO: If Alexander the Great had overseen the development of Schiphol Airport’s urinals, he would have moved the designer forward and to the right. You see, Alexander had a system that made everything in his army work: life was a competition, and winners were rewarded in the most public way of all – they […]


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 […]