A Brilliant Marketing Idea

As every dedicated watcher of Mad Men knows, advertising is built on the genius of ideas. Inspiration can strike from any corner (and in every flashback). Even the greatest ideas are fleeting.

But every now and then, an idea comes along that changes the game for good. Yes, the campaign generates huge, instantaneous buzz and moves plenty of product – but it also stands the test of time, infiltrating the culture in subtle ways for decades to come.

“It doesn’t happen often,” says Bruce Vanden Bergh, advertising professor at Michigan State University, “because it takes a combination of the right people with the right skills, the right climate and luck.”

And sometimes, it takes nothing less than a breakthrough.

Selling diamonds during the Great Depression, charging more for a spirit no one can identify blindfolded, pitching a tiny car during the era of chrome and fins – all of the these campaigns made Entreprenuer’s list of 10 brilliant marketing ideas. The list spans more than 70 years – from pre-TV to the YouTube era. Just don’t get upset when you learn how you’ve been manipulated. It’s the nature of the business.

In the words of Don Draper, Mad Men’s tortured lead, “What you call love was invented by guys like me,” he says. “To sell nylons.”

‘A Diamond Is Forever’ Campaign

BACKSTORY: Diamond prices were sinking fast in 1938, so De Beers mining company enlisted ad agency N.W. Ayer & Son to help reverse the trend. A year later, it launched the “diamond is forever” campaign and brazenly promoted the idea that every marriage required the gift of bling. And plenty of it: It also invented the “two months’ salary” spending rule.

BREAKTHROUGH: A slogan that transcends the campaign. “It created sentimental meaning for the product that resonated with people,” says Michael Cody, communications professor at the University of Southern California, adding that the phrase is so entrenched that some people don’t know its commercial origins.

LEGACY: Tapping emotions. Think Nike’s “Just Do It” and Mastercard’s “Priceless.”


By: Jennifer Wang Source: Entreprenuer/February 2010

Connect Faster With Web Friends

These eight freebies will streamline interfaces, help you share photos, and use social networks more effectively. (Go to find.pcworld.com/69466 for the downloads in this section.)

Tired of Facebook’s cluttered interface and Twitter’s boring one? Sign up with Brizzly to give both services a simple, classy makeover. You can still tweet and retweet, write on walls, and do all the other core Facebook/Twitter stuff. www.brizzly.com

Everyone loves sharing photos on Facebook, but downloading shots from a friend’s album is a hassle. Facebook Photo Album Downloader, aka FacePad, is a Firefox add-on that let’s you grab entire albums (including event and group albums).

Want to make shopping online a group sport? Add a book-marklet for the beta service FriendShopper to your browser. When you see something on the Web that interests you, click the bookmarklet and save the page, share it with a friend, or do both. www.friendshopper.com

The ultrastylish Microsoft Silverlight 4 Beta Client for Facebook delivers not only usual Facebook elements but also a cool animated photo grid and a better photo-uploading tool. It’s currently a “developer preview,” so expect a few bugs.

Outlook lets you link photos to contacts. And most Facebook users have profile photos on their accounts. How shall the twain meet? Use OutSnyc, which copies photos of your Facebook friends onto matching contacts in Outlook.

Photograbber runs independently of your browser, and downloads photos tagged with your name or with the names of your friends. It’s great for rounding up snapshots that land in other people’s albums without your knowledge.

The browser-based beta Splitweet lets you tweet to one or more accounts simultaneously: read, reply to, and share updates from users you follow; and track mentions of any "brand” names you want (your company’s name, a competitor’s name, a product lind, and so on). www.splitweet.com

Don’t want to run a full-blown Twitter client (like Tweet-Deck)? The outlook add-on Twinbox brings tweets to your inbox and has a toolbar for updating your status, retweeting, sending direct messages, and performing other tasks.

Creating Daily Intentions

Change your life by setting small goals every morning.

I want to…lose 20 pounds…quit smoking…make my household green…stop stressing about things. If you’re like most people, you probably have similar aspirations-but what are you doing to make them a reality? If the same personal objectives seem to regularly appear on your list of life resolutions, don’t be too harsh with yourself. Long-term goals can be overwhelming, and without constant reminders, it’s easy to let old habits and modes of thought keep you from making progress.

Perhaps that’s why more people are discovering the power of declaring their intentions daily. The approach works on a micro level: You wake up and decide which small aspect of your life you’d like to work on that day. Instead of aiming to lose 20 pounds in one year, you might make this vow: “Today I intend to take a 30-minute walk and make healthier food choices.” Rather than trying to revamp your stressed-out personality overnight, you might say to yourself: “Today I intend to think before I react. If something causes me anxiety, I will take a walk to calm down, and then I will respond.”

To provide people with a forum to state these daily intentions, Mallika Chopra, an author of parenting books and the daughter of spiritual guide Deepak Chopar, founded intent.com. Chopra notes that posts on her site range from the practical to the lofty-from “Today I want to engage my daughter in story time to communicate my love of readings” to “I plan to find more peace and joy with my husband by making time at the end of the day for a glass of wine and some fun conversation.” After writing in, users often receive support from other site visitors, who cheer them on by sharing related thoughts and personal anecdotes.

Chopra, who beings her morning by posting a resolution, remembers a period in her life when everything-work, her marriage, the developing personalities of her children-seemed in a negative flux. “I posted my intent to ‘Stay centered in the midst of all this drama,’” she relates. “During the day, whenever I started to stress out, I would recall this intent, and it would anchor me.”

The strategy is gaining speed, and with good reason. The simple act of regularly declaring hopes for yourself can bring about real results, according to Emanuel Maidenberg, M.D., an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA. “By stating your intention to do something on a daily basis it is less likely to escape your mind,” he explains.

Announcing your ambitions online is one way to anchor them, but you can also write them in a journal, announce them to your family and friends, or perhaps just speak them aloud to God. The point, says Maidenberg, is to remind yourself of a personal goal every day. “By staying positive and open your prime yourself for change,” he says. “if you expect something positive to happen, it is more likely to do so.” Want to give it a try? Here’s a five-step plan to begin.

1. Look Inward

Start each day with a quiet time-whether that’s meditating, having coffee or tea alone in your garden, or going for a walk among the trees. Reflect on what changes would make you happy, what new approaches you’d like to try, and what small aim would ultimately lead to bigger transformations in your life.

2. Set a Specific Goal

Be as precise as possible about how and when you will try out your new behavior. If, for example, your intention is to treat your husband with a more love and kindness, choose a specific time-such as when you greet each other in the morning, when he comes home from work, or during your along time after dinner-to let him know how much you appreciate him.

3. Visualize the Change

Create a picture in your mind’s eye of the desired result, suggests Lynns McTaggart, author of The Intention Experiment, a book that focuses on the power of intentions to change live. “Imagine the change already existing in your present situation,” she advises. “As you do so, imagine the scene with as much sensory detail as you can-including the look, smell, and feel of it.”

4. Seek Support

Share your intention with others by writing it on the kitchen blackboard, posting it on Facebook, sending it via email, Tweeting it, or stating it on a site such as intent.com. “Social support is extremely important,” says Maidenberg. “If you have 50 people telling you they believe you can succeed, this will have a positive impact on your behavior. You could call it a form of peer pressure. Positive encouragement works.”

5. Create a Reminder

Can’t remember to state your intentions every day? Tie it to another daily act, such as brushing your teeth. “Make it an extension of some other habit,” Maidenberg says. “That’s the best way to effect any behavioral change.”

By Alison Singh Gee
Source: Spa Magazine May/June 2010