Clever taglines: Gold Digging 101

by Karl Sakas on July 29, 2010

Diamond engagement ringBefore they veered into “get-rich-quick” schlockiness, I attended several Learning Annex classes in New York. Adult ed topics ranged from a real estate workshop to a talk by SoBe drink founder John Bello (who surveyed the audience about who drank Red Bull and then said, “Congratulations — you just paid twice as much for half a can of Mountain Dew!”).

But the best-marketed class on their schedule — which I didn’t take — was called “How to Marry a Millionare.” Its tagline was, “The Rich Are Going to Marry Someone… Why Not You?”

Now, I’m not going to endorse being a gold digger. But it’s smart marketing — their promo instantly connects with the target demographic.

When a friend was a college freshman, her mother advised her to “go jogging by the law school.” If that’s your priority in life, well… where there’s a will, there’s a way.

What’s your favorite tagline?

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Jess Martin headshot

Jess Martin

This spring, I went to Jess Martin‘s excellent Refresh the Triangle presentation at Fragment Labs. From his experience at Relevance in Durham, Jess explained how designers and developers can work together better — but really, it’s advice that applies to anyone who’s interested in creating products that succeed in both form and function.

Intentionally starting with a terribly-designed intro slide, Jess shared seven User Experience (UX) exercises we can use to make things work better. I once learned C++ and VisualBasic but I’m not a developer. I use Photoshop and I know the importance of whitespace but I’m not a designer.

My favorite exercise was the Squint Test. Basically, squint at the design or layout. What stands out? If it’s not the place you want your audience to focus (or click or otherwise act on), you probably need to fix that.

You should follow @JessMartin and go hear Jess speak in the future. He should be selling his valuable handout, but it’s free (for now at least). Get the handout PDF and slides from Jess’ Learn to Speak Interface website.

What’s your favorite “smarter design” tip or trick?

Photo credit: Jess Martin via Twitter

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Transcript from lecture

1953 lecture on employee empowerment

My grandfather was a business professor and management consultant from the 1940s to the 1980s. One of his specialties was helping companies work more cooperatively with employees. I recently came across a lecture he gave in Washington, DC in 1953.

He shared an employee empowerment story that BP and Transocean ought to have read before the Deepwater Horizon disaster:

Two years ago I worked for the New York Central Railroad observing some of its operations. … It was a hot August day. This fellow was sitting in this tower with the sun shining brightly. I said, “What is it you don’t like about your job?” “These d— blinds. See how the sun is boiling in the window?”

[I said,] “Have you asked anyone to get blinds put in? Why don’t you speak to somebody about it?” He pulled out an old envelope and said, “Here are all the people I talked to. They even came out here and measured them. I still haven’t gotten the blinds.

Then he said: “Do you see that car? It has 60 tons of explosives on it. I’ve got the brake clear back to the fourth notch and I can’t stop the car. Every once in a while a car goes off the track and ties up the whole yard.” “What is wrong?” “It is this [emergency] brake. It just doesn’t work.” “Have you asked anybody to fix it?” “H—, no. Why should I? They didn’t do anything about the blinds. Why should I bother them about the brake?

Empowering frontline customer service employees leads to happier customers. But while marketing is important, it isn’t life-or-death. When frontline operations employees don’t feel empowered to report problems to upper management, it can lead to terrible, avoidable consequences. And there’s no excuse. We’ve known that for 60 years.

What would it take to make you — or your employees — more empowered?

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Check your bill: The evil genius of recurring monthly subscriptions

July 23, 2010

A friend recently noticed that Verizon TV had added a $14.99/month soccer channel to his bill. He doesn’t watch soccer. The channel had been on his bundled telecom account for six months. From a marketing perspective, monthly subscriptions are a great business model. People aren’t paying too much per month, but it adds up over [...]

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Read this book: “When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead” by producer Jerry Weintraub

July 19, 2010

These days, a book has to be entertaining or informative to keep my attention. When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive  Man manages to be both. You may not know Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub by name but you know everyone he’s worked with: Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Led Zeppelin, [...]

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Can your business make money using Location-Based Marketing? Four experts at TIMA share what you must do to make it work.

July 15, 2010

If you have a retail business, you can use location-based services and other forms of local social media to attract and retain customers. Location-based marketing uses psychology, tech-enabled word of mouth, and a sense of community to influence customers as they’re about to spend money, according to yesterday’s Triangle Interactive Marketing Association (TIMA) #geolocal panel [...]

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Seth Godin marketing interview: 3 questions he’s never been asked before

July 14, 2010

Marketing guru Seth Godin created concepts like permission marketing, ideaviruses, and Purple Cows. He’s also a gifted self-marketer. I’ve been a fan of Seth’s work for over a decade. I did a mini-interview with Seth via email last week. Since I’m sure he gets the same questions over and over again, I thought, What I [...]

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Beck Tench interview: Finding a calling, telling authentic stories, and creating for stock and flow

July 13, 2010

Beck Tench is one of the most insightful people I know. You may know her from N.C.’s Museum of Life + Science, as a creative blogger at BeckTench.com, or as the organizer of a weekly ‘salon’ in Durham, North Carolina. Her bio gives a good sense of her diverse background: Beck Tench is a simplifier, [...]

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Slapping on a new logo doesn’t improve service

July 12, 2010

There’s a dumpy little building along N.C. Route 86, north of Hillsborough. It’s a bland, windowless box, like most telecom switching centers. I’ll bet the architect doesn’t tout it in his or her portfolio. But the structure has one aesthetically-redeeming feature: a crisp new CenturyLink logo. CenturyLink — which provides local telephone service in 33 [...]

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Crisis communications: Cleveland Cavaliers drop the ball on LeBron James

July 10, 2010

Crisis communications includes planning who does what before disaster strikes. You get your spokesperson ready, and you pre-write announcements that anticipate various scenarios. You need a Plan A and a Plan B. Unfortunately, Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert didn’t get the memo — the ‘B’ in “Plan B” doesn’t stand for “bitter.” Gilbert published [...]

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