Turns out, raising a puppy and leading a team aren’t all that different.
A few months ago, I became a statistic. I got a pandemic puppy. After a 7 month waitlist, Mrs. Maisel now sits at my feet as I work from home, chewing on toys and shoes during meetings and adorably tilting her head in my direction when she hears the “thanks, bye!” that signals the end of another Zoom meeting.
Also in 2020, I started leading a team at work. While I’d managed in previous organizations, this was my first time building a team and managing other people’s careers.
Do you know what I’ve learned so far? Training a puppy is…
How Oatly created a brand that’s as clever as the concept of turning oats into milk
One of my earliest fascinations with marketing was the Got Milk? campaign of the 1990s. I didn’t realize it was marketing at the time — I just liked to see which of my favorite TV characters or figure skaters would show up in the TV Guide wearing a milk mustache. The campaign cemented itself into the marketing hall-of-fame by creating a pithy tagline and compelling message that made millions of people pay attention to a commodity: milk.
Even after years of collecting these ads and drinking milk almost daily, I still can’t name a single milk brand. …
During an American Studies class in high school, we were given a project to “rebrand America.” Besides being my first exposure to marketing, this was also the first time I thought about America’s “brand.” America had already rebranded many, many times: From a scrappy, rebellious collection of colonies; to a fledgling democracy founded on equality but harboring deeply racist and unequal roots; to the defender of global democracies and an economic superpower.
At the time in the early 2000s, America was in the midst of rebranding itself in a post-9/11 world. Patriotism and the American Flag were symbols of strength…
When you hear “Taylor Swift,” your next thought probably isn’t “world’s best marketer.” But, few can argue that Taylor Swift has established an incredible brand with a loyal fanbase. Isn’t establishing a brand people love, and want to buy more of, exactly what a marketer does?
After over a decade of fandom, here are the top things I’ve learned from Taylor Swift that make me a better marketer:
A Rebrand Should Amplify Your Identity, Not Change It Completely
Taylor Swift has become known for her ability to reinvent her sound and image with every album. With each new album or “era” as Swifties call it, Taylor rebrands herself. She adopts…
Doing an airing of grievances for 2020 would be a little too much, don’t you think? Instead, here are my top 3 grievances and reflections on what it’s been like to be a marketer in 2020.
Grievance #1: Adding “now more than ever” and “unprecedented times” to marketing buzzword bingo
Every marketer knows buzzwords are the least impactful way to talk about your product or service. Yet all year every brand, whether B2B or B2C, seemed to use the same phrases in every piece of marketing copy. …
