What’s New
Podcast: Linda Popky joins the Seattle Shrimp Tank podcast as a guest host. - Listen
Press Release: "Linda Popky Joins Shrimp Tank Seattle Podcast" - Award-winning marketer bring strategic marketing perspective to popular podcast. – Read release.
Podcast: Linda Popky interviews Margot Bloomstein who talks about how brands can build trust in a world filled with cynicism. - Listen
Podcast: Deb Zahn talks with Linda Popky and Lisa Anderson, SAC Executive Directors, about what SAC (Society for the Advancement of Consulting) does and how it helps consultants build successful businesses. A Craft of Consulting podcast. - Listen.
SAC® Press Release: "The Best Companies Innovate for Growth, Not Just Survival" - Linda notes that the 'good old days' of normal are gone, so create new and different offerings that fit the times and thrive! – Read release.
Video: Just a Moment for Marketing: One-minute marketing tip videos. – View over 100 videos.
eBOOK: Top of Mind: 101 Insights to Transform Your Business
Purchase PDF or ePub book.
Subscribe to the Top of Mind Thursday Newsletter
Free articles download with sign up
Marketing Above the Noise
Introducing Dynamic Market Leverage™, an approach to help cut through the clutter, stand out, and effectively build business.
Available in Hardcover and eBook formats
Top of Mind Thursday – October 21, 2021 – How About a Little Pumpkin With That?
It’s October. The time of year when thoughts inevitably turn to shorter days, falling leaves, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and. . . Pumpkin Spice Everything?
Pumpkin has always been associated with Fall, but we’ve moved way beyond Jack-O-Lanterns for Halloween and even Pumpkin Spice Latte, to pumpkin spiced muffins, cookies, ice cream, butter, protein powder–even Cheerios!
Here’s the thing many people appear not to understand: Pumpkin spice has absolutely no pumpkin in it. It is, instead, the spices one would traditionally use with pumpkin–cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice–all rolled up into one nice neat orange-colored package.
But it’s much easier to order a pumpkin spice latte than one with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, etc. And since this is so trendy, food and beverage companies are rushing to offer every possible permutation they can.
Here’s the other important thing we need to remember: The fact that there’s no pumpkin in pumpkin spice is absolutely irrelevant to the general public. People associate this combination of spices with pumpkin and Fall, therefore that’s what it is.
How often do we see businesses fixate on identifying specific details of their product or service–often insisting that customers know exactly what’s under the covers–when the customer couldn’t care less about that level of detail?
Then there’s the reverse: The customer puts your product or service into the wrong category and all the rational explanations in the world don’t make a bit of difference.
Perception is reality. We need to understand what our customers already perceive, and start from that point. Otherwise we can waste a lot of valuable time and energy trying to separate the pumpkin from the spice.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – October 14, 2021 – Unclear on the Concept
You’d think living in Silicon Valley it would be simple to get high speed internet connectivity.
You’d be wrong. Three times in the last three weeks Comcast has cut service for my entire neighborhood for hours at a time. No notice. No way to reach a live human being to understand what the issue was or when it would be resolved.
I’ve worked remotely for years, but in the age of COVID, it’s not just me who needs the internet to work, it’s just about everyone. When the net goes down, our productivity stops dead in its tracks.
Yesterday, I was finally able to communicate with a live person via chat (phone support was not available). They suggested I log on to their website to check system status, which was of absolutely no help. Then they told me that I should be sure to take advantage of Comcast’s Xfinity Rewards program: “…members enjoy a special mix of perks, experiences, product benefits, and so much more. It’s free to join and easy to use.”
Huh? Will this get my internet up and running any sooner? The only reward I want is your service to work as advertised. Period.
Too often, we try to placate customers with some feature or benefit we’ve cooked up for them…but they’re too busy being frustrated with a much bigger problem with our main service and couldn’t care less about some “perk” we throw at them.
The net is back today, which allows me to look for a different provider. It won’t be AT&T: The service they sold me yesterday is not what the installer was able to deliver today. But that’s another story…
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – October 7, 2021: Ready for the Rebound
I spent the last three days in a virtual conference for SAC, the Society for the Advancement of Consulting.
This was the second year this annual event was held virtually, because of the pandemic. The bad news: We still couldn’t gather together in one place. The good news: We were able to gather virtually with colleagues from at least seven countries around the world and listen to an outstanding array of speakers.
Last year, we talked about how to thrive amidst the ambiguity around us. This year, the focus was on clarity: The rebound is here and we need to be positioned to help our clients take advantage of the new environment.
That doesn’t mean everything will be smooth sailing. We heard speakers tell us that there is no new normal, that the Great Resignation and supply chain woes are impacting businesses across many industries, and how our relationship to risk impacts everything we do–personally and professionally.
We also heard about the opportunities to develop ourselves and our consulting practices, while helping our clients thrive.
We’re at an inflection point in many ways. It’s up to us to decide what direction we take from here. Do we rebound and score or sit on the sidelines and watch others score big?
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – September 30, 2021 – The Things We Didn’t Know We Knew
A lot of things are different since the start of the pandemic: how we work, how we gather with others, how we travel (or not). But one of the things most likely to remain with us after this is over is how we talk.
Whoever heard of social distancing before the middle of last year? Vaccine efficacy was reserved for those in the medical research profession and supply chain disruption for experts in that area. No one knew how to spell Pfizer, and Moderna seemed like a style of decor. We had faxing and waxing, but not vaxing.
Our language evolves over time, based on new inputs from our environment. It can also bring us together or divide us. Vaxing is paired with antivaxing and vaccine efficacy with vaccine hesitancy. The Patriot Front is a white supremacy group, as are the Proud Boys (with no women allowed). The outrage against “defund the police” would likely have been avoided if the catchphrase was “refocus the police” instead.
We can’t go back to our old way of speaking any more than we can turn back the clock to our pre-2020 way of life. But we can be aware of what we say and how others may perceive it.
That’s something we now know to do.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com