Happy Holidays

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Global Trends and a Few Surprises!

This is a good article from Ad Age.

Missing Mad Men - What?

Brandutainment?

Good article!

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-onthemedia-20101103,0,6797491.column

Mad Men Moments

Liners we love from Tomorrowland, Sunday night’s season-four finale episode:

Just because you’re sad, it doesn’t mean everybody has to be.
Glen

What about Tomorrowland? I don’t want to ride on an elephant, I want to fly a jet!
Bobby

There is no fresh start. Lives carry on.
Henry Francis

We all try; we don’t always make it.
Don

I was just made Director of Agency Operations, in title and no money of course and if they poured champagne, it must have been while I was pushing the mail cart.
Joan

I learned a long time ago not to get all my satisfaction from this job.
Joan

I hope she knows you only like the beginnings of things.
Dr. Faye Miller

Betty: Things aren’t perfect.
Don: So you’ll move again.

It’s so hard to say goodbye. Going to miss the Mad Men and Women. It’s been a great season. Au revoir pour maintenant.

Mad Men Moment

With one week to go, here are liners we love from Sunday's episode, Blowing Smoke.

If you don’t like what they’re saying about you, change the message.
Peggy quoting Don

You bet big and lose, you don’t double down.
Trudy Campbell (Pete’s wife)

We’ve created a monster.
Bert Cooper

You do your job so well, they respect you, and you don’t have to play any games. You know it’s possible.
Peggy Olson

Is that what it looks like?
Faye Miller

Mad Men Moments

Liners we love from “Chinese Wall,” Sunday night’s episode:

Every time something good happens, something bad happens. I knew I’d pay for it.
Peggy Olson

There’s no reward in going down with the ship.
Tom Vogel (Pete’s father-in-law)

I’m not a solution to your problem, I’m another problem.
Joan Harris

It’s just business, plain and simple.
Glo-Coat client

Mad Men Monday Moment

Liners we love from Hands and Knees, Sunday night's episode:

I don’t have to live with your sh##!!! over my head.
Pete Campbell

Everyone has bad dreams every once in a while.
Frank Keller

Put your home in order; either there or here, you’ll not live in between.
Robert Pryce

How is it that some people just walk through life just dragging their lies with them destroying everything they touch.
Pete Campbell

This is the business we’re in; accounts come in, accounts go out.
Don Draper

Mad Men Monday Moment

Liners we love from The Beautiful Girls, Sunday night’s episode:

Vietnam. That’s not good.
Roger Sterling
It’s a business of sadists and masochists and you know which one you are.
Ida Blankenship
She’s pushy that one. I guess that’s what it takes.
Ida Blankenship
We have a religion in this country and it’s business.
Abe Drexler
She died how she lived; surrounded by the people she answered phones for.
Roger Sterling
She was born in 1898 in a barn and she died on the 37th floor of a skyscraper. She’s an astronaut.
Bert Cooper
I love children but I choose to be where I am. I don’t view it as a failure.
Dr. Faye Miller

RIP Ida Blankenship. See you in syndication.

Mad Men Monday Moment

Our favorite lines from last night's episode The Summer Man:

I was blind and now I see.
Mrs. Blankenship

People tell you who they are and we ignore it because we want them to be who we want them to be.
Don

It’s a very brave person who does something anonymously.
Joan

You want some respect, go out there and get it for yourself.
Don

You want to be a big shot. Well no matter how powerful we get around here, they can still just draw a cartoon.
Joan

We’re flawed because we want so much more. We’re ruined because we get these things and wish for what we had.
Don

Kindness, gentleness and persuasion wins where force fails.
Dr. Faye Miller

Mad Men Moment

Liners we love from Sunday’s show:

Train’s leaving the station honey, so get on board.
Duck

I want a rare steak and I want to see two men pound each other.
Trudy

By the way, you’re over 20-something years old. It’s time to get over birthdays.
Don

Well, it’s not my fault you don’t have a family or friends or nowhere else to go.
Peggy

The best idea always wins and you know it when you see it. Keep banging your head against the wall and it happens.
Don

I’m glad this is an environment where you feel free to fail.
Don

That’s the way it works, there are no credits on commercials. ...I give you money, you give me ideas.
Don

LGK's Fall Color Trends: Silver, Oyster, Slate and Other Shades of Gray

Eliminating Black-and-White Thinking Increases the Spectrum of Opportunities
by Leisa Chester Weir

In the design and fashion world, gray is this season’s color of choice. Whether it’s upholstery or fabric, nail polish or eye shadow, chairs or tables, paint or wallpaper, Crate and Barrel or Sephora, gray has gradually found its way into the American psyche.

Perhaps it is time for more managers to embrace the shades-of-gray thinking. What does this mean? Clients are not always this way or never that way – as much as Mad Men’s Roger Sterling may disagree. Situations do not have to be either/or opposites. Staff members are not perfect or horrible. Evaluations and ideas do not have to be passing or failing. Statements can be true and false, depending on the circumstances.

Here are a couple of reasons to think gray:

• There are more options for solutions when you can delve into the entire rainbow of possibilities.

• It allows creativity to open up and flow in all directions and not just to the two opposing sides.

Visit our website to read this brief in its entirety: www.lgkmarketingcc.com

Mad Men Monday Moment

Liners we love from last night’s show:

I’m not the problem.
Peggy

Who claps for themselves?
Stanley Rizzo

Make it simple, but significant.
Don

They don’t seem to give awards for what I do.
Roger

You’ve crossed the border from lubricated to morose.
Joan

Mad Men Monday Moment

Liners we love from last night's show:

You’d be surprised by what people will say to an interested stranger.
Dr. Faye Miller

Since when is forgiveness a better quality than loyalty?
Roger

There’s probably a guy like Roger in every firm. They’ve outgrown it and we haven’t.
Don

Because no one’s ever won an account without breaking the rules.
Don

Mad Men Monday Moment

Liners we love from last nights show:

For someone to sell their soul, they’ve got to have one.
Abe

As the president would say, I turn chicken sh##%!! into chicken salad.
Pete Campbell

Your problem is not my problem.
Peggy Olson

Another Campbell, that’s just what the world needs.
Kenny Cosgrove

Mad Men Monday Moment

Some of our favorite lines this week are:

Is that what you want or is that what other people expect of you?
Don Draper

I'm not political, I just don't understand who's in charge.
Stephanie

Mad Men Monday Moment

Some of the lines from Sunday's show make some of us, well, mad.

Don’t worry, I’m sure yours will be better because you’re girlie.
Freddy Rumsen
I don’t hate Christmas, I hate this Christmas. 
Don Draper
Civil rights is the beginning of a slippery slope.
Bert Cooper
Everyone should be rewarded for their time. 
Dr. Faye Miller 
No one wants to think they're a type.
Dr. Faye Miller 
I can’t believe that’s his job.
Peggy Olson

Mad Men Monday Moment

Our favorite lines from this week's show give pause to think about the business we have chosen (okay, so we're big fans of The Godfather too).

A slogan's nothing when you've got a good idea. 
Peggy Olson

Turning creative successes into business is your work. 
Bert Cooper

Mad Men Countdown!

Come July 25th, they’re back! Don, Peggy, Roger, Joan, Pete, Bert and okay, he’s not such a bad person after all, Lane. For several reasons, Mad Men is a favorite and one reason hits close to home. Many of our role models and mentors received their breaks, broke barriers and busted chops on Madison Avenue. They battled what appeared to be insurmountable obstacles to bring diversity to the mediums, messages and managerial ranks. Each episode is a reminder that many of us are benefactors of someone’s time spent at a desk beside the copy machine, in the mailroom shuffling envelopes or as the subject of water cooler fodder. And, there’s at least one Mad Men moment, when perseverance, tenacity and commitment to change in the way we perceive, the way we communicate and the way we execute, takes center stage. Indeed, we’ve “come a long way baby,” and we have so much further to go, but in the meantime, enjoy Mad Men for what it truly is: great TV. Now, if only they’d stop smoking. The new season airs Sundays at 10pm EDT.

Brilliant Idea: Turn Your Next Brainstorming Session into a Tsunami of Exceptional Opportunities

By N. L. Hohns

Brainstorming is the formalized process of team ideation. It is one of the quickest, most accessible and effective methods available to promote creative problem solving, generate new ideas, uncover exceptional opportunities and pave the way for successful innovation. The first step in embracing the collaborative innovation process is to assemble a carefully selected team of eight to ten thinkers. Choose carefully. Your group should include people with different skill sets, backgrounds, personalities and perspectives.

Here are four of our nine rules for brilliant brainstorming: 

• State the purpose of the gathering. Define the problem.
• State the goal. What do you hope to accomplish in the session.
• Set the tone. Aim to create an open atmosphere where new ways of thinking may provide new solutions.
• Begin with the mindset that anything is possible. 

Visit our website to obtain all nine rules and to read this brief in its entirety.

Use Tools of the Trade Wisely!

Venture Capitalist Says PR Firm 'Sucks *ss' For Emailing Him Off Topic Pitches

Toast to Innovation: May the Best Idea Win!

By N.L. Hohns

Think about it. Until an idea is given form and function, it is nothing more than a capricious impression of something imagined in the mind’s eye and nowhere else. A mental image of what might be. A fanciful notion of what may be possible. A vague conception that breaks through the status quo, ignores restraints and limitations and rises on the wings of inspiration and the power of intent.

Ideas are very precious indeed. A smile, a wink of the eye, a palpable excitement in the air, and they thrive. A yawn, a furrowed brow, dead silence, and they die. In this age where creativity is the currency of innovation, and good thinkers are in great demand, we must do all that we can to nurture the really good ideas, strengthen them with the wisdom of big-picture thinking and refine them with the necessary clarity, focus and value so that they have the substance to become real.

We at LGK believe that the really great ideas – those knock-your-socks-off, must-move-forward, can’t-stop-thinking-about ideas – are most likely the ones that have an uncanny way of planting themselves in our hearts and minds and beg for further exploration. Then to help us determine if the idea is worth pursuing, we ask ourselves and others whose opinion we value a few important questions. Is this concept different? Does it solve a problem, a need or a void? Is it marketable? Is it profitable? Will it excite others the same way it excites us?

Dan and Chip Heath, in their book While Some Ideas Thrive and Others Die suggest that ideas that stick and thrive have these six key traits in common: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotional and stories.

Remember, every good idea has the potential to become a great idea. All you have to do is think about it.

Visit our website to read this brief in its entirety.

A No-frills Formula for Business Success: Keep It Simple, Keep It Focused

By N.L. Hohns

After spending what seems like an eternity on life support, the American economy is beginning to breathe on its own. For the first time in eighteen months, the Dow Jones industrial average hit 11,000, employers are starting to add to their payrolls and consumers are beginning to buy clothes, jewelry and even cars again. While it’s no time to toss confetti into the air, we can celebrate that the United States is on its way to a fiscal recovery and will soon be back in business.

Let’s look at some of the ways you can simplify your business, streamline your operations, accommodate changing customer interests and keep the focus on your bottom line. Here are a few excerpts from this month’s marketing brief.

Marketing

1. Do Your Own Customer Research. Building a brand in this day and age is a collaborative effort between you and your customers.

2. Make Sure Your Message is Clear and Concise. In person, over the phone, online and in print – with so many different channels of communication, it’s easy to lose brand focus.

3. Web It Up. Your website is the first point of contact a potential client or consumer will have with your business.

4. Power To The Point. Power Point presentations are springboards for major points, not security blankets for unprepared speakers.

5. Develop Strategic Partnerships. Strategic partnerships with like-minded companies, organizations or individuals will strengthen your market position and expand your marketing spend.

MANAGEMENT

1. Schedule Less Staff Meetings. Staff meetings are an opportunity to bring people together for important information. If you have too many of them for no particular reason, you’ll lessen the impact and dilute the importance of the gathering.

2. Work Smarter Not Harder. There’s nothing new here. Simplicity in business does not depend on having an abundance of complex tools and strategies, but rather the right tools and the right strategies.

3. Make Simplicity An Indispensable Business Goal. In the words of revered business leader Jack Welsh “Simple messages travel faster, simpler designs reach the market faster and the elimination of clutter allows faster decision making.”

Keep it simple, keep it focused. This is the no-frills formula for business success.

Visit our website to read the entire brief, which includes a comprehensive overview of this no-frills formula for business success.

Use Scenario Planning to Forestall Disastrous Business Outcomes

Attention marketers! Our crystal ball is just that good, better in fact. As we were putting the final polish on our monthly marketing insight brief, a corporate giant experienced an unfortunate blemish to its highly touted diversity commitment when a rogue guest made an offensive remark over the public address system at one of its retail locations. This incident is a good study of the topic we’re pleased to present this month.

Use Scenario Planning to Forestall Disastrous Business Outcomes
By N.L. Hohns

Scenario planning by definition is a business model for learning about the future.  In this model, you form a strategy by examining a number of possible situations and how they may impact issues important to the future of your business.  Sounds a bit daunting, for sure. Nevertheless, by taking a serious and thoughtful look at a wide range of potential events and their consequences, and the know and unknow key driving forces that affect your business environment, you will be thinking way ahead of the curve.

Decide today to plan for tomorrow.  We have compiled a few action steps to steer you in the right direction.

Take a look at what is working, what is not and what needs improving. Is it just as important to think about what to do, as it is to think about what not to do and what to do better.  Are you prepared to accept that something you are doing is failing?

Communicate.  Discussing a shared vision of how to respond to the "what ifs" provides a clear view of how different factors affect business outcomes.

Focus on developing sustainable, long-term market share by being current and relevant.  Creating a nimble environment that is poised to adjust to current market crisis or opportunities strengthens strategic vision and enhances capabilities for future growth.

Visit our website to read the entire brief, which includes more scenario planning action steps.

Tweaking a Formula For Success: When You Promise, Be Sure to Deliver!

We're pleased to present an excerpt our monthly insight brief, courtesy of our marketing sherpa, N.L. Hohns.
A Marketing Maxim for 2010 and Beyond: Promise and Deliver
By N.L. Hohns

Under promise and over deliver – how many times have we heard that statement in the last several years? Managers include the advice in directives to their sales force, it’s emblazoned on motivational posters in corporate lunchrooms everywhere and legions of marketers and business people proudly claim it as a hallmark of their business. Many even thank management guru Tom Peters for the best business advice they’ve ever received. But, in light of the uncertain business climate we face in 2010, his famous quote “Formula for success: under promise and over deliver” may require a little tweaking to become even more relevant and more meaningful.

Just how does a company, an institution or an organization that has something to promote get to the truth about its products or services and encourage the intended audience to respond favorably? Here are a couple of strategies from our monthly insight brief that will help you deliver on your promise and brand your business for long-term success.

1. ESTABLISH REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS.
Do not create expectations that cannot be met. Do not project unrealistic or deceptive performance results. Do not promise what you cannot deliver. Broken or unrealistic promises will generate ill will and disappoint your customer.


2. BUILD PROMISE AROUND YOUR UNIQUE VALUES/CAPABILITIES.
To build trust, integrity and maintain loyalty your promise must be unique, compelling and believable.

Visit our website to read the entire brief.

Marketing Tools Within Your Reach

Take off the designer sunglasses, get out of the car, remove the ear buds and put on your best walking shoes. This month, our marketing insight strategist helps you to beam into your extrasensory talents for valuable marketing insight.

To See Clearly, Listen Up: The Best Secret Marketing Tools Are Your Eyes and Your Ears
By N. L. Hohns

Contrary to popular belief, marketing does not begin with a great idea or a unique product. It begins with observation: what does your audience want or think they want, what does your audience need or think they need. The most innovative ideas, the most spectacular products, the most extraordinary services will not succeed unless you discover who your potential customers are and how best to reach them. And surprise, surprise -- the answers to those questions are not as obvious as you may think.

We rely on market research to help shed light on our perceptions, put everything we think to be so in context, and provide the raison d’être for our marketing plan. Quite simply, market research takes what has happened in the past to predict what will happen in the future. But market research, even in its most sophisticated quantitative and qualitative forms does not always tell the whole story. The disparity between what people say they do and what they really do can be enormous. That’s why the best marketing tools may very well be your own eyes and your own ears!

Here are three suggestions to maximize the benefits of your marketing efforts:

• Stretch your comfort zone, mingle! In order to observe public behavior, you need to be in the public: places and events where people congregate.
• Inquire. One person’s response may, in fact, reflect the sentiment of many.
• Shift your paradigm (Thank you Stephen R. Covey!). Empathic listening allows you to get inside another person’s frame of reference; hence, “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Reposition yourself on the other side of the desk, phone or monitor in order to fully diagnose before you prescribe or pursue a course of action.

Visit our website to read the entire brief.