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Top of Mind Thursday – July 20, 2023: Weather or Not You Like It
The weather outside is frightful–and it’s got nothing to do with holidays and snow.
The planet is recording its hottest weather on record. In places like Iran, temperatures reached 130 degrees, which is close to the presumed limit for human survival. Arizona endured a record number of high temperature days in a row, massive rainstorms in the Northeast flooded the streets of Vermont’s capital, and smoke from Canadian wildfires polluted much of the North American continent.
We’ve been hearing about the dangers of climate change for awhile now. The public appears to have divided into three groups: Those that believe we are close to an existential crisis, those that think this is all in our heads, and a third group who doesn’t know what to believe, so they just keep doing what they’ve always done before.
Whether it’s climate change or cancer prevention or managing business risks, putting your head in the sand and ignoring warning signs of potential danger is not a great winning strategy.
Whether or not you believe this situation was made or exacerbated by human actions, it’s humans who need to take action now to safeguard our future. Some of the predictions are quite dire and overwhelming, but this ignores the fact that every big challenge can be broken down into smaller bites that are more readily digestible by mere mortals.
Writing a book can seem overwhelming if you don’t break it into a set of smaller tasks. Building a successful business from scratch can seem unattainable if you look only at the end goal, without creating milestones along the way. Getting in great physical shape is unattainable if you expect to jump from the couch to the Olympics.
We can’t control the weather, but we can manage our responses–both proactively and reactively. Our success depends on whether or not we’re ready to roll up our sleeves and play the hand that’s now in front of us–whether or not it’s what we want it to be.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – July 13, 2023: Priming the Pump
It’s thought to be lucky at the casino, and this week 7/11 was likely lucky for millions of consumers and Amazon, too.
That’s because July 11* and 12th were this year’s Prime Days–filled with special limited deals on all kinds of products offered on Amazon. This year’s total sales came to $12.7 billion dollars, more than 6% more than last year, with over 375 million products sold.
Prime Day started in 2015 with $900 million dollars in revenue on less than 35 million products. That means that not only is Amazon selling more products on Prime Day–but those products are more expensive, too.
But here’s the really interesting thing. Prime Day has outgrown its Amazon roots. This year, there were at least 86 other retailers, including Target and Walmart, who ran Prime Days as well–capitalizing on the momentum created by Amazon.
Pretty amazing, that what was originally conceived as an Amazon promotion to break up the summer doldrums, when sales are traditionally lower, has now turned into an annual mass marketing event on a par with traditional Black Friday Thanksgiving sales.
What kind of special offerings can your business create to get customers excited during slow times? What can you do to generate momentum and excitement in your industry?
Don’t wait for the Amazon of your industry to beat you to the punch. Make creating a new high value offering your prime directive.
*There’s speculation that Amazon chooses a date for this event that’s based on a set of prime numbers. This year that’s 7 and 11.
Check out our marketing 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 – July 6, 2023: Pay Attention!
Distraction. It’s all around us.
Drivers are distracted with phones and texting. Pedestrians and bicyclists are not watching out for traffic. Kids and parents are often in separate worlds, as are bosses and employees. Retail employees seem to be doing everything possible to avoid helping customers.
Then there are the people whose actions can actually have life or death consequences–like auto mechanics, airline support personnel, and those in the medical field. When they don’t pay attention, people get injured or die.
How many tragic situations could have been avoided if everyone was just paying a little more attention to their surroundings? Could the Titan submersive disaster have been avoided if management had paid attention to safety warnings? We’ll never know.
Mistakes in your company may not result in death or dismemberment to your customers, but they could put your business on life support.
Are you rewarding people for moving faster, without necessarily making smart decisions? Do you look for scapegoats when something goes wrong, instead of an opportunity to solve a customer problem and develop a better offering for the future?
Here’s the thing: While you’re busy being distracted, someone else is coming up with a better way to take care of your customers. Pay attention–while you still can!
Check out our marketing 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 – June 29, 2023
Last weekend, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries, appeared to be turning on Vladimir Putin, his friend and benefactor, in an armed march to Moscow.
Until, all of the sudden, he called off the effort and turned around. Government reports said he was seeking refuge in nearby Belarus. In a flash, Prigozhin went from being a close buddy of Putin to an enemy of the state to an outsider allowed to leave the country.
In the meantime, Sergey Surovikin, head of the Russian Air Force and a confidante of Prigozhin, appears to have been removed from his post and is being interrogated. Or, according to other reports, all is well and he is not being detained–that’s all fake news.
Neither man has been seen or heard from since Saturday. Putin is known not to tolerate dissent whatsoever, so it would not be surprising to hear that one or both of these missing men accidentally “fell” from a tall balcony, or developed a “sudden illness” that caused their untimely deaths.
Meanwhile, the world wonders what on earth is going on in Russia, how much power Putin really has now, and how well safeguarded is that country’s large nuclear arsenal.
Wow. What a mess. It makes us appreciate living in countries where the rule of law is not bent to the whims of a tyrant, and there are checks and balances on what moves leaders and military forces are able to make.
That’s not to say democracy is perfect. But as Winston Churchill so aptly said, “Democracy is the worst form of government–except for all the others that have been tried.”
Check out our marketing 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