The product you sell is useless without context

I was playing with Aditi and surprised her with a bunch of toys. She was psyched. Unpacked them all. Those with toddlers can relate - give them the coolest toys to play with and they'll be more fascinated with the boxes.  Plain cardboard boxes! See, the toy, is

Garbage in garbage out

"Their brief is all over the place!" A friend of mine who runs a hybrid software development studio was on a rant about a client who kept changing the scope of a web app. It was beginning to affect team morale, let alone resulting in wasted resources. He

Great product. Great message. Didn't stick?

"I'm trying out LinkedIn Sales Navigator. It's pretty good, man." My acquaintance goes on tell me about its features. Me thinking, "It was cool when I first told you about it 3 years ago. It was also cool when I told you about

Doing what you say you'll do is a superpower

The opening lines of the first chapter in Paul Arden's amazing book "It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be." Why do we strive for excellence when mediocrity is required? There is little demand in the commercial

The hardest thing in marketing is...

"The hardest thing in life is having a conversation with a drunkard when you are sober" I heard this line on an Instagram reel where a Tamil actor was asked what he thinks is the hardest thing in life. While LOL'ing, I forwarded it to a

Is your marketing message missing the mark?

"Banananana. Banananana. I want banananana." My two-year-old daughter, Aditi, is on the warpath. My wife and I are trying to finish dinner at the kitchen counter. "She's already had one", said my wife. I was not prepared to become collateral damage. I grabbed one

A lesson in crafting marketing messages, from a toddler

My wife Nila and I were having breakfast this morning. Waffles, syrup, ice cream and bacon. I polished the plate in minutes and had moved on to my 2nd cup of coffee. Nila was just finishing off her plate when Aditi stormed in bringing war to our otherwise peaceful coffee

Everybody wants to be Steve Jobs, but nobody wants to be Jony Ive

Or, read this as, Everyone wants to come up with the "brilliant" ideas, but no one wants to do the work. Reflecting on Alin Dragu's recent newsletter. He talks about five types of clients who make life miserable. We encounter such people within the office too.

The most important phrase in marketing

At a Vinnie's on Saturday raiding their used books section. You wouldn't believe the gems you'd find between $1 and $4. Once, I found a copy of The Copywriter's Handbook and Empire State of Mind for $2 a piece! Anyhoo... While browsing,

If you've never done marketing, doing ONE THING won't save you

A few hours ago, as I was stretching my right arm, recovering from an arthroscopy surgery on the elbow, my phone rings. Unknown number but I was feeling generous. I answered. It was a potential client, a small business owner. "I need to publicise my website", he said.