How to make a million dollars

A couple ways to make a million dollars:
1.) Sell one $1,000,000 product.
2.) Sell 10,000 $100 products.
3.) Sell a million $1 products.
There are other ways, but some thoughts:
A.) Number 1 is the easiest. Selling to a few people with big budgets and lots of problems is the simplest of any scenarios listed above.
B.) Number 2 is [...]

The inside joke

I think any friendship can be measured by the amount of inside jokes you share.
And while I’m not an ad guy, this commercial best visually expresses what I’m getting at:

The inside stuff creates loyalty, always has. Works for friendships and it works for business.
So how about it?
Share any inside jokes with [...]

The science behind remarkable

I wanted to share some interesting research we covered on our GasPedal blog a few weeks ago. It’s a 2003 study conducted by Christian Derbaix and Joelle Vanhamme of Belgium’s Université catholique de Louvain showing the influence of remarkable and surprising events on word of mouth:
The frequency and amount of WOM were clearly larger for [...]

The Snuggie phenomenon

From an article I just saw over at AdAge:
Marketing’s New Red-Hot Seller: Humble Snuggie
That’s right.
The blanket with sleeves is one of the hottest selling items these days. Selling more than 4 million units in the past three months, Snuggies has made just under $40 million in retail sales.
There’s even reports of customers swamping stockers and [...]

Just add sleeves!

Have you seen it yet?
Someone created “Snuggies.” The blankets with… sleeves.
Complete with an incredibly cheesy infomercial. Check it:

But when I watch this, I can’t help but have mixed feelings. Honestly, a fair part of me admires the simplicity of the idea. It reminds me of the classic Homer Simpson line after [...]

Look for the shadows

Last night a few GasPedal crew members and I had the opportunity to sit down with Mike Rohde following an intense WOM Crash Course. Mike’s the guy behind Rohdesign and is a truly talented sketch artist and cartoonist.
Mike was generous enough to share some of his drawings with the group. His work is creative and [...]

The lessons in lyrics

I’m listening to some random music and realized that there’s some potentially significant nuggets of wisdom that could really apply to marketing.
I’m not here to misrepresent an artists intentions, but the best stories are the ones that we can apply to ourselves. Here’s what I mean:
Modest Mouse: Missed the Boat — “…our ideas held no [...]

What you really sell

When you move to Chicago from elsewhere (like I just did) and have no clue of where to go (again, like me) there’s a company that specializes in helping you find a place.
They’re called Apartment People and they do some amazing things.
They help you find a list of potential apartments and drive you around to [...]

Lands’ End and the most remarkable return policy in the world

I’m doing some research on how it’s possible to be remarkable by being generous, and while looking through examples I stumbled across Lands’ End’s return policy.
Simply, it reads: “If you’re not satisfied with any item, simply return it to us at any time for an exchange or refund of its purchase price. We mean every word [...]

Hyundai reminds us that boring doesn’t sell and that safe is still very risky

Ad Age is reporting that Hyundai is parting ways with its agency.
A major reason? The disappointing launch of their high-end Genesis, backed by an $80 million campaign which included two Superbowl spots.
Hoping to move about 2,000 models a month, the automaker has sold a total of a little more than 1,800 since the launch.
I could end this post with [...]