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Purpose Platitudes vs. Brand Activism
Earlier, I posted about the much-hyped topic of brand “Purpose”, and called on marketers to go beyond platonic statements of intent to embrace full-on activism in pursuit of their brand beliefs. In this article, we’ll explore two related examples of brand purpose, one done with absolute conviction and good intent and the other with, perhaps,…
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Activism over Purpose
There’s a lot of buzz in marketing and PR circles about the importance of businesses having “Purpose”, usually with a capital P. Generally speaking, this leads companies to identify ways they can be seen to stand for something more useful to society than simply making vast amounts of profit. At best, this translates into organisations…
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The Misery of Multiple Messages
It’s often the most long-in-the-tooth marketing principles that are the most misused or ignored. Who’s got time these days for old-style thinking? It’s the digital era, grandad! Surely fresh, breakthrough approaches are needed, not methods built on decades of wisdom and experience? A quick glance at any email inbox will illustrate how so many marketers…
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Channel Amnesia and Buyer Journeys
There’s a powerful phenomenon developing that I’ve been observing in recent years. As our internet-connected devices become ever more intimate, the content they provide has to also become more personalised and tailored to our desires. We’ve grown used to getting near-instant answers to every question, often with little more than a few keystrokes or a brief…
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Which is Better: A Website or a Facebook Page?
[This article was written for iedr.ie, the registry responsible for managing Ireland’s .ie domains] Let’s try to end an old debate. Which is more important for a business: having a website or a Facebook page? Many small business owners are perplexed by this choice. Some complain about low visitor numbers to their website and a…
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On Knowing Millennials and Other Young Things
As you’ve no doubt seen, there’s a lot of guff written about millennials and the younger generations these days. Most published writers and social anthropologists have long since left those youthful, care-free days behind. Which means, just as our grandparents struggled to understand us, it’s sometimes difficult making sense of the ways that younger people…
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Two Billion People and Counting
When a young Mark Zuckerberg gave ‘theFacebook’ its debut at Harvard College in February 2004, few would have dared imagine it could ever turn a profit, let alone survive for more than a few years. Yet here we are, almost 5,000 days later, and Facebook, as it’s now known the world over, has just steamrollered…
