The Impact of Helping Others

Welcome to BrightBlue Marketing's Video Experience 072110

BrightBlue Marketing's First Video Blog!

Check out our first video blog here or visit us directly at our channel: www.youtube.com/brightbluemarketing.. Comments are welcome!

BrightBlue Recommends: Video Blog Experiment

The time has come: BrightBlue Marketing is experimenting with video! We will start by regularly sharing tips on marketing and posting videos on YouTube (check it out soon at www.youtube.com/brightbluemarketing). We'll monitor our results/success and report back.


We challenge you to try this, too! A few video related tips: Think about what VALUE you can bring to your customers. Be interesting by telling a story or giving proven advice. Try bringing on a guest or “costar” (your client or partner) and for goodness sake, do not chew gum. Start by testing a video internally and if your team gives you a decent grade, go for it! If not, practice makes perfect. See you on YouTube!

BrightBlue Marketing Recommends

BrightBlue Marketing Recommends Thinking about Your Company’s “Meta Message”

David Perry of Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters writes

The term “meta message” is a marketing concept referring to the overall impression you give when communicating with others. It’s the “vibe” that extends beyond (meta) what you say (your message).

Here’s an example.

You’re sitting across from a prospective employer during a job interview. You say: “I’m really eager to be a part of your company, Mr. Jones. My five years of experience and training give me the tools to succeed as a Sales Rep for you.”

On the face of it, that sounds like a convincing message.

But if you’re saying this with spinach in your teeth, a razor cut on your chin and wearing socks that don’t match, here’s your meta message: “I’m not really that eager to join your company because I couldn’t find time to groom myself properly. If you let me anywhere near your clients, you’ll be making a big mistake.”

A recent blog entry at Mind4Marketing discussed Tiger Woods, deeply into damage control, forgoing his usual red and black attire for all white. He writes

The old saying was…don’t judge a book by its cover. In our visually saturated world, image experts now believe that is no longer the case. In fact, it’s the opposite. To simplify what we observe in our desensitized state, we look at clues: color, shape, texture, type, emotion, etc.

When a disgraced pitch man goes for an all-white ensemble, he’s seeking association with all that is good and pure.

Think about your company’s name, tagline, message, pitch and “feel.” What does YOUR meta message convey?

The Mad Men Effect

So many people I know love the TV show Mad Men, so I Netflix’d (is that a real word? If not, I’d like the copyright, please!) seasons 1-3. I’ve marveled at what 1960 in an office was like; the men in 3 piece suits, the women in their be-girdled glory and complicated hairstyles. The things that really stick out are smoking and drinking in the office, and how grown women were treated like a combination of servant/eye candy.

If you don’t know the show, it revolves around the people who work at advertising firm Sterling & Cooper. The title is a clever combination of “Ad Men” and the fact that the big firms had HQs on Madison Avenue in NYC. Watching the characters research and brainstorm pitches, taglines, marketing slogans and graphics is fascinating and not unlike what a lot of firms still do today. What’s changed, however, is the client’s role in this endeavor. The show makes it look as though the client has no part of the process except to say yes or no. Any discussion on the part of the clients is frowned upon, and in one episode, a client was told to leave when they didn’t fully accept the advertising agency’s (one and only) campaign suggestion. The lead in the show, Don Draper, is said to be able to “talk anyone into anything.”

Which got me wondering, have you ever had an experience where you felt like you, as a client or customer, were manipulated by this kind of tactic? Tell us about it in the comments.