If you get my emails, you will soon receive news of my planned Copy weekend in Spain, but first let’s see how your brain is working with this little test.It was sent to me by one of the towering intellectual …
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The wisdom of trees, why I’m not rich – and two bits of investment advice
A couple of years ago – I think when I was speaking in Washington – I got to know Dan Roberts, who does cartoons featuring trees. Don’t ask me how he came up with that idea – who knows what …
Read MoreIn praise of hard work – and bursting a few falsely inflated balloons. Quoted from Bob Bly, whose words I have now been reading since the ’70s.
Business gurus are fond of saying, “Work smarter – not harder.”But I don’t know … I think there is something to be said for hard work.Assuming you and I work equally smart, I’d think whichever one of us worked the …
Read MoreWas I right about Tesco’s folly on Saturday? Or was it just more Bird Blether?
You probably take a rest from the tyranny of the internet on Saturdays, but as a helpless motor-mouth I often find something to talk to thin air about. Such was the case two days ago. There was a big brouhaha …
Read MoreBig Price Drop = Big Share Drop: Tesco’s three mistakes – all to do with marketing, and pretty ghastly, too
I have always been interested in Tesco. Back in 1962 in my first big job at Leo Burnett, London one of my accounts was The Supermarket Association, and we were given a tour of a Tesco branch by the founder, …
Read MoreWill this kind of short-sighted behaviour grow in the recession? Plus some advice from Dale Carnegie
I’m sorry, but it is not enough to have messages that sell. You need to know what makes them sell, otherwise you’re never in true control of your marketing. A friend whose agency suffers from having me as chairman told …
Read MoreInteresting new development in corporate waffle – plus a free offer
I have noticed lately a slight change in marketing bullshit. For quite a few years marketers have been passionate. Passionate about all manner of stuff, it seems, except the thing normal people associate with passion, which from memory I seem …
Read MoreThis put me in a good mood for the year ahead
I had quite forgotten how hilarious Private Eye can be. Ever since they started they’ve run poems by E. J. Thribb (17½) but the current one is the funniest I can recall. In Memoriam Kim Jong-Il, North Korean Leader So. …
Read MoreWhat’s in store in 2012? Odd language leads to pretty useless advice – and my touchingly generous offer expires today
One of the most profitable lines ever written was to sell the Kiplinger Letter. It ran for a good twenty years and read “Will there be more BOOM and more INFLATION ahead?” It worked because we all want to know …
Read MoreHow to have a Happy New Year: two options – plus thoughts on Special Relationships and General Folly
If you follow politics in the same bemused way as I do you may find yourself chortling from time to time at how British politicians harp on about a special relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. This certainly existed …
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