Had to go into the City late Thursday afternoon.  It was raining, cold and dreary.

So I was somewhat surprised to see a line of people outside a telco store that extended around the corner and halfway down the block.

Then I remembered…

…at midnight the Apple iPhone 4 was launching in Australia.

You’ve got to hand it to Apple (and their telco partners), they know how to create buzz around their products…

…even when in this case there are known problems with th product.

“iPhone 4 lands at last, but stocks dwindle”.

Now, I confess that the whole Apple thing leaves me a little cold.  For a long time my view was “Over-hyped, Over-priced”.

But, credit where credit is due.

Seems to me that Apple have done 2 things very well…

1. They’ve made their products very easy to use for the ordinary consumer; AND

2. There’s no doubt, they’ve succeeded in building and sustaining an aura of “Cool” around the brand and the products.

Plus, as we’ve seen, unlike most big companies, they understand how to build genuine buzz using the “Product Launch Formula” principles pioneered by Jeff Walker in the world of internet marketing.

Apple is, in my view, primarily a marketing company and it’s well worth keeping an eye on what they do.

Theo Albrecht, co-founder of the Aldi discount supermarket chain passed away last Saturday…

“Aldi’s reclusive founder dies, age 88″.

I’ve mentioned before my admiration for the Aldi business model and their marketing, if not always for their products.

What I find particularly interesting about the Aldi story is…

1) How Theo and his brother Karl managed to be so successful at the discount end of the market in what is a fairly basic business (groceries)

2) How they innovated with what was a radically new business model at the time

3) How the brothers became amongst the richest people in the world, starting with pretty much nothing

To elaborate on that last point, Theo and Karl were ranked ninth and sixth respectively on the Forbes 2009 list, with fortunes of around US$25 billion each.  They started in 1946 in the ruins of post war Germany with one small grocery store they took over from their mother.

Amazing and inspiring story.

A Direct Response Copywriter talking about “Brand Archetypes”? Surely not!

Bear with me for a moment as you cast your eye over this great cartoon from Tom Fishburne…

One of the principles of classic direct response marketing and copywriting is to inject some personality into marketing messages.  Classic copy is written as a personal message and in a conversational style, rather than in bland, anonymous “corporate speak”.

Ideally, the personality that is projected in the copy carries part of the message in explaining how and why you can help the reader solve a particular problem.

Now it’s not always easy to articulate that clearly and concisely.  That’s where the idea of these archetypes comes in.

You’re probably familiar with the expression “A picture is worth a thousand words” and in this example these cartoon archetypes manage to convey the “big idea” very effectively.

I’ve found it very worthwhile showing this cartoon to clients to see how they view themselves in relation to their clients and the way in which they help those clients.

Getting clear on that, makes it easier to communicate how you’re different to the competition and so is helpful in crafting your Unique Selling Proposition (“USP”).

Of course, there are more than just these 7 archetypes, but they cover some of the most widely recognised and most useful for marketers.

Of course, if nothing else, make sure you’re not in that last box!

As winter draws to a close here in Australia, not too much on the calendar.

There’s a bank holiday in NSW and Show Day up in Queensland.

September 1 is the “official” start to spring, so you could do some of the preparation work and “pre-launch” ahead of a seasonal promotion.

It’s summer in the northern hemisphere, of course, and a distinct lack of “official” holidays.

So, we fall back on some of the more offbeat occasions such as…

1 August – Girlfriend’s Day

11 August – Alcatraz Day (!)

12 August – UN International Day Of Youth

13 August – Lefthanders Day

15 August – Woodstock Day

19 August – UN World Humanitarian Day

30 August – National Geek Day

More unusual ideas at www.BlueMountain.com (did you know August is “National Inventor’s Month”?) in their “On this date” page.

Finally, there’s a great book called “This Day In Business History” that is filled with commercial milestones and business related information for every single day of the year.

For example, on August 5 in 1891 an American Express Travelers Cheque was countersigned and cashed for the first time. How about that?

Reader’s Digest Australia has just released it’s annual survey of “Australia’s Most Trusted Brands” (details here).

“Band-Aid” launched in 1920, was voted “Australia’s No. 1 Most Trusted Brand” (followed by Cadbury, Panadol, Sony and Colgate).

There are 22 categories in all.  Here are 5 of them…

Airlines – Qantas

Banks – ING Direct

Cars – Toyota

Telecoms – Vodafone

Whitegoods – Fisher & Paykel / Westinghouse (Joint Winners)

There’s also a sub category for the “Most Trusted Vacuum Cleaner Brand” that goes to Dyson.

Looking at the results, couple of thoughts come to mind…

1) Toyota has ranked highly for many years now and it’s high profile problems in the USA don’t seem to have hurt it too much

2) Aussies seem happy to support the “home team” when they deliver, but are quite prepared to take their business elsewhere if they must. To be fair, in many categories, there isn’t a local brand.

3) In the banking category, interesting that a relative newcomer, ING, has become so popular. Perhaps that’s not so surprising as the local banks have a poor reputation and seem widely loathed by the general public.

Don’t often comment about the mainstream corporate world…

…but last week saw the surprise announcement that Sir Terry Leahy would step down as the chief executive of Tesco next March.

I’ve made no secret of my admiration for Sir Terry and Tesco’s in previous posts.

By any standards, Sir Terry’s tenure has been an outstanding success as detailed in these articles…

“The Leahy legacy”

“A change of guard at Tesco”

Terry Leahy always been first and foremost a marketer.  The lessons to be taken from his success…

“The recipe for Tesco’s success under Sir Terry can be summed up in three words: follow the customer…Sir Terry has made it his obsession during the last 13 years to give shoppers what they want at the price they want it”

It sounds deceptively simple but…

“In practice this meant analysing shoppers’ buying habits (using Tesco’s Clubcard that Sir Terry was instrumental in launching), procuring and delivering the products as efficiently as possible, and investing the profits gained from large sales volumes into further price cuts. This was replicated on a global scale.”

In other words, doing the simple things well with a relentless focus on the details…

…with it all starting with the customer.

In business and marketing, it’s all too easy to get distracted with fads and the latest “shiny object”.  The success of Terry Leahy and Tesco is an object lesson in the rewards of focus and commitment.

July is a pretty lean month in Australia, as far as major events go.

It’s the beginning of the new financial year and it’s mid winter.

Outside of Australia…

It’s “Canada Day” on July 1.

In the USA, its Independence Day on July 4, of course.

Other events…

July 3 – International Day Of Cooperatives

July 11 – World Population Day

July 14 – Bastille Day (France)

Looking through the Blue Mountain website (www.BlueMountain.com) seems to be very much a “food” theme this month. As well as it being “Hot Dog Month” we have…

July 7 – Chocolate Day

July 15 – National Ice Cream Day

July 28 – Hamburger Day

…PLUS P.T. Barnum’s birthday (July 5) and the anniversary of the first landing on the Moon (July 20)…

…and the soccer World Cup continues until July 11.

You can never have too many swipe files, templates or “idea generators” in my humble opinion.

So, my interest was piqued when an email from my good friends Rashid Kotwal and Barbara Sauter arrived in my inbox to let me know that for a limited time they were giving away their “Speed Lead Kit” absolutely FREE.

As the name suggests, this is a set of letter templates and other resources designed to get leads for your business double quick.

Now, even with my vast collection of swipe files and templates, I found a few new ideas and angles that I’d either forgotten or hadn’t seen in this particular form.

I was particularly interested in a letter that one financial planner used to get 8 referrals from just 18 exisiting clients!!!

Now, I “leaned” on Rashid to let me bring this amazing offer to the attention of my readers and he’s agreed to do so.

However, this isn’t going to be available indefinitely.  The “Speed Lead Kit” normally sells for up to $197 and it’s well worth the investment.

So here’s what to do to get your FREE copy of the “Speed Lead Kit”…

1) Head on over to www.LeadGenerationToolbox.com

2) Scroll down to the bottom of the sales letter where you’ll see this…

…and underneath a box with the word “CODE:” next to it.

3) Enter in the coupon code “loyalstart” (don’t include the inverted commas) and press the “Click Here To Buy Now!” button.

4) Enter your details as requested and “Hey Presto” you’ll get immediate FREE access to the “Speed Lead Kit”.

Now, you may wonder why Rashid and Barbara are doing this and the answer is simple.  Like every good business owner they are always promoting and looking for new clients.  In the current environment, they decided to test this strategy and give a helping hand to people who may be struggling.

I’ve known Barbara and Rashid for a number of years now.  Great people and very savvy marketers.  If you’re looking for some top notch advice and concrete action steps to grow your business, well worth getting in touch with them.

And what would the great David Ogilvy recommend?

Been following the Deepwater Horizon disaster and watching as it develops.

Needless to say, oil major BP has something of a PR problem to deal with as well as the more serious issue of capping the Deepwater Horizon oil well.

To give BP credit, they have put up a site with updates on the steps they’re taking to get on top of the problem and clean up the mess (“BP – Gulf Of Mexico Response”).

There’s some good information on the site, but I can’t help feeling that BP are missing an opportunity to be a little more aggressive in getting out their side of the story.

Now, I’m not suggesting that they try and sugar coat the problem and try and make the situation seem less serious than it is.  If a mistake has been made, then the right thing to do is own up and clean up the mess.

But as I watch the news coming in, it seems to me that there’s quite a dramatic and compelling story to be told about the efforts to get the situation under control.

We’ve had movie director James Cameron offering to lend his submarines to assist, the US government wanting to send in a team of nuclear scientists and the inherent drama of a difficult underwater operation.

I’m wondering where is today’s equivalent of the legendary Red Adair, the legendary oil well firefighter?

Anyway, my point is that this situation would lend itself to a series of long copy ads where BP could tell the story of the operation to bring the situation under control.

It’s newsworthy, it would get people’s attention and the beauty of a long copy ad, of course, is that you have the space to tell the full story.

Now this wouldn’t magically make all BP’s PR problems go away.  But, let’s face it, big oil companies aren’t generally loved by the general public so I suspect that the negative impact will be less than you might think from some of the hysterical press coverage.

And, as I said, BP would at least have the opportunity to get their side of the story across.

And David Ogilvy?

Well, I suspect the great man would have been ideally suited to a campaign like this.  In “Ogilvy On Advertising” there are a number of great examples of and tips on the effective use of advertising to turn the tide of hostile public opinion.

One of the key points?  For a campaign to be effective it needs to be sustained.

Let’s see how BP handle the situation in the months ahead.

UPDATE (24 May 2010):

Here’s an interesting article from The Economist about the operation to stop the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

‘The Gulf Oil Spill – What Lies Beneath”

Gives a good idea I think of the potential for long copy “advertorial” style ads as I discuss above.  Also, once this has been cleared up, BP would be in a good position to publish some white papers on “lessons learned” and how they are doing everything they can to make things safer in future.

…then this might explain things!

Well worth reading the full post at…

… “the emperor’s new tweets”.

Let me be clear that I’m not “anti” social media.  It’s just that it’s not a magic bullet that’s going to somehow solve all your marketing problems.

Get the basics down first and then select the best channels and methods to promote your business and drive traffic.

Some forms of social media will be very effective.  Others will simply be a huge waste of time and resources.  Find out what works for you and always keep in mind your goals.