What’s at the bottom of cocktail cove?

Outside Atlanta, on Lake Lanier, sits a special little cove with a notorious reputation that could make Charlie Sheen blush. Cocktail Cove has hardly any road access, so it became a destination for crazy hillbillies, dot-com millionaires and the girls who seek them out. The bands of boozers would tie their boats together, knock back boxed wine and wander boat-to-boat, helping contribute to Georgia’s population of children in State custody.

You could call Cocktail Cove picturesque, just as you could call a retaining pond picturesque right after its construction is completed. Lanier’s water bears striking resemblance to the water in a port-o-potty (it does smell better), and the beaches were stuffed so full of shirtless rebels that it looks like a Jimmy Buffett concert at a prison. The only thing that really elevated the level of the place were the yachts, houseboats and cigarette boats all tied together, despite the occasional over-served partier ending up in the water.

Cocktail Cove was legendary in its heyday, but the drought drained Lanier so much that Georgia almost declared war on Tennessee in the course of an attempt to siphon water out of the Tennessee River. Lanier’s water dropped so low that many boats sat stranded on docks up dry streams. The water receded, and secrets were discovered. The farmsteads that lay underneath Lanier began to poke chimneys above the water. The trees that had laid for decades under the water lay bare on sand. And beneath Cocktail Cove lay a mountain of garbage that would make Wall-E commit suicide.
The never-ending party had created a mountain of beer cans, full garbage bags, grills, boat equipment, chicken bones, prophylactics, and pretty much any other piece of garbage you would expect to come from decades of partying. It looked like someone had put twelve full dumpsters in a blender and dumped the result in a pile 10 feet tall and 40 feet across.

I might be the only person who looked at what was beneath Cocktail Cove and thought about corporate management.

There is an old saying that often gets used in economic development to describe large, positive economic events: “a rising tide lifts all boats.” And it’s true. A strong economy or economic force lifts plenty of ventures. If a large manufacturing facility comes to a small town, it creates ripples that lift the entire town’s economy. A strong economy can lift all businesses, even those with less than watertight strategies.

Thanks to Cocktail Cove, I have a new saying to describe what happens when the boom years depart and you must confront the decisions made in better times. A rising tide may lift all boats, but a receding tide shows all the crap you threw overboard when you thought no one was looking.

As a country, we enjoyed a mighty party for a number of years. We grilled and drank and tied our yachts together. We partied in Cocktail Cove until the wee hours. But now the tide has gone out, and we’re left to deal with all the garbage we thought we could hide under the waves.

I have seen more than a few good businesses go down in this recession. I have seen some companies blind-sided by bad luck. But I have also seen companies convinced by their performance in a strong economy that they were invincible try to act on impractical and poorly conceived plans based on premises that no longer exist and probably never did. The water is gone, and all those great party plans are scuttled among years worth of garbage.
So what’s at the bottom of Cocktail Cove? Here’s what you’ll find and where you’ll find it.


Poor decisions that go unchecked by the market.

I remember once advising someone to reverse a dumb idea because it was sapping the equity from their other brands. The field sales organization knew it. The dealers knew it. Most of the customers I talked to knew it. But sales remained steady, so they thought it must have been a good idea. Never mind that the market was as robust as they had seen in decades. Never mind that the company had launched a new product and customers were eager for it even though they felt they had to hold their noses to buy it. Never mind that his brand led its category and the new brand was not even associated with the line of products. Never mind any of this because when the tide is up, who cares what you throw overboard.

But what happens when the tide goes out? A ferocious and well-armed competitor is preparing to foray into the market in a serious and capable way. The first organization will still have its pants around its ankles, trying to explain its strategy. Without being checked for bad decision-making by the market, the organization is sounding the all-clear and venturing down a terrible path.
In a less buoyed market, dumb decisions are checked more quickly and easily, and in a market when people are buying everything indiscriminately, it is tough to discern what is good strategy from what merely appears good on the surface. It was in the robust economic cycle that the camera shop I once worked ventured into selling custom framing and cell phones. In case you’re wondering, it eventually went bankrupt. Twice.


Impractical and impossible schemes.

The art of brand consultation became high art during strong economic years. Sadly, much of the consultation turned out to be worthless junk, and nobody cared because they were still making money. Believe me, GM cares now that they stupidly built one car and put four names on it, but when they were flush with cash, they were convinced they wrote the rules of marketing.

The activities associated with the high times continue to linger even after the tide goes out. It’s like a guy who shows up at the garbage pile where Cocktail Cove was and still wants to party. The utter tomfoolery of Atlanta’s dot-com scene was the finest example of this. Marketing numbskulls who made calendars with nude women holding microchips and idiots who commissioned paintings and then took out ads to brag about it continued to preach their failed marketing viewpoints to any business that would listen. The use of arrogance and pomposity as a marketing strategy lingered well after the bubble burst in a hangover that would rival anything anyone ever experienced at Cocktail Cove.

What’s really buried at Cocktail Cove is reality.

The thing that bothers me most is that what’s beneath Cocktail Cove is always there, even if you don’t see it. I think it’s rare that businesses don’t understand their fundamentals, but they become convinced that good times will never end.
If you look at what happened to real estate in 2008, you’ll see financial instruments developed with the assumption that real estate would never lose value. I told a friend I was concerned about what would happen when the proverbial music turned off and there weren’t enough chairs for everyone only to be rebuffed for “not getting it.” In truth, the scariest (and dumbest) thing to do when the tide is in is make plans as if it will never go out again.

While I write this, it has rained in Athens for more than a week. The state climatologist has said the soil is saturated and most reservoirs are at full pool. Even Lanier is starting to fill up. The water is starting to rise in Cocktail Cove. Before long, there will be yachts tied together, girls in bikinis and spray tans sunning themselves, and guys wearing chains with little golden anchors on them. Companies will chase after the unattainable and, more likely, undesirable. Consultants will peddle whatever fad they can with the same fever in which they peddled the last fad, now at the bottom of the cove.

What a party it will be. It will go on all weekend and then all summer; some will party like it will never end. They will laugh at those of us that stick to sound business fundamentals, saying we don’t have the vision or the guts to be successful. And even though the people who said that just before the last tide went out are on their fourth job selling condos in Buckhead, the water’s up and this gaggle will not be swayed into thinking things could ever change. So let’s get ready for the next party. Bring the little lights shaped like chili peppers, and I’ll give you my vaunted recipe for Texas-style margaritas, but I won’t pretend the party never ends. I know what’s at the bottom.

Steve's Advice.

Steve is a man among men. When it comes to reliability of advice, Steve gives my lawyer and accountant a run for my money, both of whom have plenty of my money to run with.

Steve is not my life coach, yoga instructor or some guru helping me center my chi. Steve is oft our waiter at the famous Five and Ten in Athens. Whenever we go there, we request Steve and he makes a special effort to get us a good table in his section.

A few years back Maura and I were having dinner at Five and Ten when we had a question about a particular wine. Steve made a recommendation. Then he brought us a sample. Then he retrieved a dusty old book from the back detailing growing region, good years and recommended pairings.

For those of you who don't love wine, this might seem like a bit much. But you should understand this situation in context. Five and Ten is a restaurant for people who love food. The menu is incredibly inventive. The atmosphere is classy yet homey.
Steve's actions were those of a person who truly lives their brand and it made an impression on us.

In subsequent trips, Maura and I always asked Steve's opinion. We trust him because he has earned our trust. To us, he is as much of the brand as anything else.

When I started writing this, I had originally thought of writing it about customer service or living a brand's values. While I have written about the latter subjects, however, I have neglected to write about what I believe to be one of the most crucial people in the success of a brand. Like Steve, these brand champions embody their brands and carry them out with enthusiasm and joy. Their actions may seem over the top. Their dedication to the brand might seem obsessive. But they inspire great things like loyalty, creativity and communication, just to name a few. They are the tipping point for a brand success. They are the inspirational brand managers.

Perhaps the best, and definitely most entertaining, way for me to tell you about inspirational brand managers is for me show some contrasts between good marketing management and tomfoolery. With these examples drawn in negative space, you might begin to see the potential of a positive figure.

We all have a story or two of blunder and high jinx on the high seas of industry. I once had a brand manager who was an executive assistant before "leading" the marketing department and whose job was more to cover incompetence than to market anything. Her best sell was the idea that she knew what she was doing, which was still unsuccessful as it failed the maxim of truth in advertising. I had one manager who pingponged between our firm and the client's 12-member marketing committee, whose only standing commitment was to agree to disagree about everything. Before that job she had been in charge of setting up special events and, in a rare moment of agreement by the marketing committee, that was the job to which she promptly returned. I once had a client rep, working as the brand manager, who spoke as if he was dictating a memo. Honestly, few things I've experienced in client relations are as marginalizing as someone saying, "Jeff...Subject: Quarterly sales result...Participants: You, me, my assistant Susan...Conducted: via conference call". I thought he was perpetually whacked out on psychotropic mushrooms.

Then again, I've also had some great ones. I've had a few brand managers that after meeting them for five minutes you want to be part of their team, because whatever they do will be innovative and successful. I have worked with brand managers who make and maintain perfect teams, where they foster great collaborative work and in which they participate, rather than looming from above. I have had a few marketing managers who have walked through fire for their people, ideas and company. It is truly something to see when you witness a marketing manager stand up, look down the boardroom table and tell the CEO, "With all due respect, we're right about this".

I don't know if great marketing leaders are born or made. Of the truly great ones I have met, their education did not play a dominant role in their success. Every great one I have worked with had a particular uniqueness about them that bordered on eccentric. Every single one has an excellent sense of humor. They always have raucous stories about seemingly innocuous things and I suspect their keen interest in people and situations makes such possible.

To detail out the characteristics that made my favorite marketing leaders so great is impossible for me. But what proves helpful is looking at a few similarities they share. And perhaps through understanding these interesting people, you and I might better equip ourselves and our companies with their approach.


More egghead than blockhead.

My favorite marketing directors are all voracious consumers of information. They read about trends and case reviews and techniques. They use information as leverage and the upper hand they often get on a competitor might have been gleaned late one night from a book rather than some grand strategizing on the 60th floor. That's not to say they aren't great at strategy; they are. But their approach to strategy formation is always evolving, which is how they bring fresh perspective to each effort. For at least a few of them, I have wondered what remarkable professors they might have been or one day be.


Quarterback, head cheerleader and coach in one.

I have always been amazed at how great marketing directors can help facilitate a discussion, participate in it, and yet also lead it, all at one time. The truly great ones make leadership something that their team desires rather than resents. And when you have worked for a great marketer, you're tempted to follow them wherever success might take them.

This team member/leader role empowers others to give the best of their abilities. When a staff member feels valued and respected, they can create approaches that stretch beyond competitors' restraints because they no longer fear irrational reprisals from their team leader.


Want to be paid with success.

I have never met a great marketing director who works solely for the money. Great marketers want to succeed and I have seen them get very angry when things unnecessarily get in the way of achievement. Those who hire great marketers are wise to not try to put them in a box of outdated constraints. Sure, a place exists for people who go about doing what always got done. That place, however, is not for great marketers. Great marketers are driven to achieve and they will go where they feel the best opportunity is to do such.


From good to great.

I think we can all learn important things from great marketers. The affectionate relationships they build with customers and the loyalty they inspire from their teams are things that every business needs more of. Through them, I have learned the power of creativity. I have learned the value of solid team members. I have learned that winning is everything when you define winning the right way.

And I've learned that the first step in a great marketer/consumer relationship is not quality or value, but a mutually respectful relationship. Once you truly respect the customers and their needs and their perspective, everything else needed for a great relationship seems to follow.

All Hail the Fort!

The first fort was a half-fallen-down chicken shack. My childhood buddies and I stumbled upon it while walking through the woods that bordered our neighborhood. By the time my family had moved to the area the official bird of the city had become the Viper Car Alarm, but it hadn't always been that way. Duluth was very rural just previous to the housing explosion that we surfed in on. And it was for this reason that rabid little suburban children, such as us, might happen upon old chicken shacks and turn them into forts.

The first fort was also a death trap. The wood was rotted and plenty of sharp, rusty things jutted out to snag your jeans or neck. From even a casual glance, the limits of the first fort's potential were obvious. Enthusiasm waned.

But then we made a fabulous discovery. The second fort was larger; you could actually stand up in it. It had what appeared to be horse stalls, stairs and a locking door, which is important for securing all the junk artifacts kids find in the country woods. The pickaxe and case of glass jars that we would soon be throwing at trees and each other would be safe from other marauding bands of children.

The second fort was an inspiration. Because it was sturdy, we formulated plans of how to add on. So we added a porch. And a second entrance. And a rooftop shooter's nest where we could shoot BB guns at friends as they approached. We even built a stove that should have convinced our parents that we were all destined to become engineers. That is, if our parents ever found out that we were setting fires in the woods. The stove used an old drum with a fashioned door, an external air input that drew air from outside (instead of pulling through the cracks of the walls), and a insulated metal chimney that exited the exhaust. When you fired it up full blast, it could thaw out Antarctica.

We had old basement furniture from Mike's parents' house but we never really sat on it because you never really sat down. The whole fun of the fort was building. If we didn't know what to build or add on, we built it anyways. And the fort grew into what appeared to be the Swiss Family Robinson's safe house, where they might retreat to if the government ever got on to them for smuggling weapons.

The difference between Fort Version 1.0 and Fort Version 2.1 was that original structure it was built on. Fort 1.0 looked like someone wrecked a burning saloon full of manure into some trees. Fort 2.1 was sturdy and strong, which is important when you are nailing several hundred pounds of "found" construction materials to it.

If some cheesy business executives were wandering through the woods, they might look at the new fort and say we had "really thought outside the box". Then they would be shot with pellet guns and we would smash glass jars in the trees above their heads.

I hate the cliché, "Think outside the box". I think the people who say it don't fully appreciate its meaning and they themselves are thinking inside a box because they have to conform their ideas to lame business clichés. Is not thinking outside the box, thinking beyond constraints like, say, clichés?

I have heard all the fun alternates, like, "Don't box the neck", or, "Don't put your brain in a box". It's fun to play at wit. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not asking you to fly in the face of this little business pearl. I don't want you to think inside the box, per se. I want you to think inside the fort. Fort 2.1 to be exact.

The reason for 2.1's success was its strong base. We had something with which to start. Sure, the fort took on a much larger life after we nailed tons of particleboard and rusty sheet metal to it. It didn't even look like the same place. Yet all the while, under the surface, sat a strong base built by someone we never met.

Like Fort 2.1, great businesses also have a strong base. They have a root which is securely planted in a particular place. They have an anchor that holds everything else up. And great businesses are always cognizant of their base. Products, services, operations: everything attaches to that secure base.

When was the last time you reevaluated your fort? How strong is it? Can it support the weight of everything you've nailed to it? Is the design consistent and is it functional?

Let's take a look.


Build a shooter's nest first.

It's easy to have your head down over whatever you're nailing only to ignore a pending threat or opportunity. But the front lines of whatever you're building need to be watched. Had we kept our heads up, we might have been able to outrun that sheriff's deputy who came to give us lip over being on someone else's property.

For businesses, it's not always the fuzz (though for an unfortunate few it might be...). Instead, it is a changing market place or a savvy competitor. Sometimes it's even a problem with your own construction that you might never see. Getting a good view of yourself and your surroundings is a continually needed task.

I recommend you have a constant watch of research professionals. Find out what customers are saying. Find out what your biggest critics are saying. Continuously examine the structural integrity of your fort. Nothing is more embarrassing than standing next to a collapse while insisting, "Nothing's wrong".


Build on a hill. If you can't find a hill, build one.

The worst issue I have found in constructing brands and strategies is when companies stand for and own nothing in the minds of consumers. Sometimes I think people get scared when I tell them to take their business, find a hill and take it. It is as if we in business have become scared of our own shadow. Are we so afraid of some competition that we would rather go out of business? Get serious. Get your BB gun out. They want our fort!

Your company must stand for something. Have a set of values, beliefs and objectives as well as a good understanding of your role in the marketplace. This is the box you not only need to think within, you need to use it to nail things to. Once you have this structure, many other decisions become easier to make and many other opportunities become apparent.


How far does the addition extend off the foundation?

In the maturation of every fort and business, there is a desire to see how far you can go. Companies see opportunity and hope that solidly built brand equity can be stretched to support something two or three trees away. This is a really bad idea. Customers have a peculiar way of how they allocate brand affinity. Just because you make a nice truck does not mean they will care about your car. Just because you run a nice casual restaurant does not mean customers will support your upscale or quick service efforts as well. In fact, the further away something is from the base, the harder it is to support.

Business thinkers have known the perils of line extension for years, yet businesses seem doomed to repeat it. The temptation is for businesses to expand their offerings as they grow more successful. The better idea is to continue to focus and take a stronger ownership of a position as credibility and brand affinity grows. To put it simply, dance with the one that brought you or you'll go home with no one.


Today, we think inside a new fort.

Fort 3.0 is by far the best. We have working plumbing and a heater. We have a conference room, production room and an awesome lounge with surround sound. And instead of building makeshift booby traps, we're building brand strategies that we hope will snare up our client's competitors. However, there are some things from Fort 2.1 that remain. We still look for strong, supported beams before we try to nail something to it. We still confer on the overall vision of the fort before we build anything. And we still welcome anyone who is interested in building something strong and lasting.

But you might want to make some noise or call out before you get too close. Otherwise, Richard might shoot you with a pellet gun.

The Big Five.

I'm back in the saddle again. To those of you who have missed this semi-regular e-mail, I apologize. Things at ST have been busy. We have been venturing into wheat fields and cotton capitals and all the while helping to develop some pretty powerful brands. The last few months have been daunting, to say the least. A big part of my thinking lately has been taken up with the development of a new book that will explore the alignment between consumers, organizations and products. Obviously, that has taken a ton of my time.

And in that time, I've come to realize that you never write the same book that you start out trying to write. For my first book, I started out with grand visions of profundity, only to end up with 140 pages of crude jokes, goofy quips and occasionally something about marketing. My next book will be different. I mean, I hope it will. But don't you worry, all that seriousness is saved for the book. These newsletters will still be as crude as you love...

As I dove through materials on consumer attitudes, marketing strategies and successful implementation, I began to notice something stark. It became clear that the majority of firms successful in marketing a product or service seemed to adhere to a few rudimentary marketing concepts. Conversely, firms that saw their marketing ambitions fail to launch had violated at least one, and more often a few, of these simple marketing maxims.

So what are these concepts? Are they austere puffery about synergistic visioning? Hardly. Are they the ever-broadening decrees that, in fortune cookie fashion, suggest everything while saying nothing? Nope. They are a collection of brilliant, salient inquires collected from clients, fellow consultants, academics, nutcases and the occasional intern.

And now, ladies and gentleman, for your enjoyment (and hopefully the betterment of you marketing), the Big Five:



1) How are we providing value to those who purchase our offering above what is available from competitors?

Put more simply, why do we exist? The President of Saatchi and Saatchi, Kevin Roberts, says consumers are over the "er" descriptors (fresher, crispier, tastier). Roberts says products need a soul or persona over competitive attributes. I call BS. If a product or service does not have an attribute or collection of attributes that legitimizes its existence, maybe it shouldn't exist. And, in time, it probably won't.

This doesn't mean neglect the brand. An entire structure of meaning can be built around competitive attributes. BMW says they build the ultimate driving machines and they do. Their brand is the definition of driving enjoyment. They back up this position with attributes like glued to the road handling and bi-turbocharged engines. Attributes and persona do not function at the exclusion of each other. They are dependent on each other to make and support meaning for the brand. If you don't have an attribute that makes your brand competitive, find one, create one or start over and don't stop until you have one. A brand does not live on image alone.


2) How are we further evolving the offering to match the evolving needs and desires of our customers as tied to our brand?

Many offerings start off responding to a need. Successful offerings seem to find that sweet spot where brand and attribute intersect and a star is born. Then comes Father Time intent on spoiling the party. Over time, attributes may change and be updated. Also, brand messages may get a facelift, or at least a little Botox. The problem, however, is that the two rarely evolve strategically in reference to the consumer.

Here's a decent example. Ford started as the company that made a car accessible to many Americans. They didn't invent the car, and the quality was good but certainly not on the level of earlier, hand built models. When more consumers wanted a truck, Ford put a good truck within reach of millions. Midsized sedan? The Taurus. SUV? The wildly popular Explorer. Yet today, Ford's products and marketing are a mixed bag. Sure, they still make the assorted every-person cars but they also make $65,000 trucks. For every time Ford has done a great job of making desired cars available to the masses, they've screwed it up trying to be the everything car company. And now, manufacturers like Hyundai and Kia are making popular features and designs available to more people and those people are driving past the Ford dealership in a new Sorrento.

Ford could have evolved its product and marketing strategy to something more like IKEA. Smart designs, good quality, no BS rebates or sales tricks. They could have evolved that simple principle of getting good cars within reach of every American. Today Toyota is doing that better than Ford. And if Toyota beats Ford in making a hybrid that is price accessible to the majority of Americans, it just might signal the end of the once great Ford brand.

And if you want to know what a dying brand looks like, check out this link. The devolution of Ford's brand (and brand culture) is truly sad. http://culturegarage.com/2008/01/11/ford-sometimes-i-think-you-want-to-fail/


3) What about us do our customers put up with because no easy alternative exists?

Somewhere, a cable TV executive weeps a little every time a late night talk show host talks about how crappy the cable company is...and is right. You wonder, had they known of the phone and satellite companies' ability to enter the TV market, if they would have thought twice about asking customers to wait between the hours of 10 and 3 on a Tuesday so the cable guy can come figure out why MTV is fuzzy.

Though amusing, plenty of companies do equally stupid things to customers and then are honestly shocked when customers flee in mass exodus to a slightly more sensitive competitor. Too many companies mistake purchase for loyalty, but there is a difference. Purchase may keep you afloat today, but it takes loyalty to weather the storms of the changing market.

I recently tried to track a parcel from our office, but could not find the tracking number. I searched the shipping company's websites and saw plenty of links for logistic solutions, but nowhere did it allow me to see the last few packages I shipped. I called customer service and they plainly told me, "We don't offer that". This company tried to offer me everything under the sun except what I really needed and what I felt was a pretty basic request. Let me tell you, the second their competitor installs that new drop box next to our office, I'm going to see what they'll do to actually earn my business.


4) How easy is it to buy from us?

I know. This sounds stupid. Yet there I was on the phone with a kid selling newspaper space asking him to send me a quote to run in all five of the papers he represents. "Just send me the quote," I said. He didn't care. His prerogative was to send me a rate card, along with an acre of useless promotional junk, like he did, fruitlessly, to everyone else.

My beloved mentor calls it, "The dog finally catching the bus". We are almost so shocked by making a sale that we either can't appreciate it or we don't know what to do, so we fumble. Tell me, why would we ever make it hard to buy whatever it is that we're selling?

Give your sales system an audit. Are your hours, locations, sales rep's schedules all reasonable? How about your quotes, invoices and billing system? Do you make it easy to do business with your company?


5) Do our long-term plans match the needs of our customers and current strategy to address those needs?

I am always amazed at how companies who become successful make such abrupt changes to their strategies and move away from the consumer's affinity. Like bars trying to become white table cloth restaurants or fast food joints trying to sell everything from pizza to Chinese food.

Planning is inevitable in business, but by the very nature of planning a certain amount of suggested input is required. Sadly, much of that input is from a financial perspective rather than a consumer perspective. The result is less effective customer strategies to meet an accounting goal conceived in a vacuum. GM fielded several cars of the same model with different names and even different brands, prompting their lampooning by the press (and most of the car buying public). This was not a marketing decision. It was an accounting decision dressed up as a marketing strategy and, moreover, it was a disastrous failure further watering down this once noble brand.



Give yourself five.

Take a moment and ask yourself and your company these questions. If the answers come easy, good for you. I bet you'll have plenty of success. That is, unless you're lying. For everyone else, this might be a chance to perform a little introspection into how your business operates and the efficacy of its marketing.

Take a moment and write out your company's approach to the Big Five. You should have plenty of juicy morsels about how Tom in accounting keeps derailing your new product rollout to save 50 bucks and how Susie still thinks it's the 1970s when it comes to graphic arts. You might even write enough to write a book. If so, send it to me. I could use the help.

Et Tu, CMO?

I was not the most popular student government President at DeKalb College. One of my Senators used to sit right across from me and make accusations; however, he would not direct them directly at me. He would use obscurities like, “Well, (snap) some people, blah, blah, blah random complaint blah, blah, blah.” I sort of feel bad about him not liking me, but he often wore fluorescent mesh tank tops and billowing workout pants to meetings, so I didn’t fully trust his judgment.



Being President had its perks, though. I got snubbed by Spike Lee when we picked him up at his mother’s house in a limo for him to speak at our MLK day celebration. I got to hang out with Zell Miller and discuss important things like cowboy boots and Georgia’s sodomy law. I hugged Maya Angelou and introduced her at an event where she sung and spoke for two mesmerizing hours. I saw and did a lot as President. But in that year, and without me knowing, my adviser Michelle taught me what it means to lead.



I’ve lead other things since being student government President at DeKalb. I was President of my local ad club and served as state director for the American Advertising Federation. I’ve led groups to study issues and solve problems. I lead Snowden Tatarski and it is not always easy, but I have to say if there is anything likable about my style of leadership it is owed to those mentors and friends who made it their cause to teach me.



My mentor Bob is the best mentor a leader can have. Bob teaches an inverted pyramid style of leadership where the leader helps facilitate the actions of the rest of the organization. Nowadays Bob teaches this leadership style to companies, organizations nonprofits and MBA students.



One of the things Bob has taught me in our work and friendship is the value of marketing leadership. A sales and marketing organization is an organism that has a stubborn, thick skin in some spots and a tender underbelly of vulnerability in other areas. Companies often seem to not know what to do with the marketing beast, so they feed it just enough to keep it from starving to death. This methodology leads to countless situations where a good product with sufficient opportunity in the market fails due to poor marketing leadership.



So what is marketing leadership? It is knowing that what you don’t know about the consumer or the product can hurt you, and then seeking clear answers in research. It’s the discipline to not screw up an otherwise good strategy with unneeded input. I am careful to distinguish between input which is helpful in the marketing process and input which simply exist to reinforce a power structure. Put simply, don’t be a bully just because you can.



Marketing departments often suffer from maladies and hexes that tax their own efforts. Whereas leadership could serve as an anchor and source of support, there is instead a black hole that that sucks in the energy and self esteem of the marketing team. To list all the sources of marketing leadership implosion would take volumes. Instead, here are a few of the greatest hits.



A fish stinks from the head.



Behind every dysfunctional marketing organization is a dysfunctional person. Good marketing leadership takes supportive and understanding leaders with the ability to cultivate the next line of marketing leadership. The stinking head of a stinking marketing department gets three words into the last sentence and decides its crap.



To be in the presence of one of these specimens is truly something. They are bullies. They like hunter green and royal red not because of any marketing purpose but because they like it and if you don’t like it you can shut up or quit. These fine individuals ask your opinion as they are walking out of your office. This embrace of command/control style of leadership can and does choke a marketing department down to a group of drones carrying out orders.



A better way to lead is to actually lead. If the team is too dumb to have a good idea, fire them and get a better team. Successful marketing managers hire intellectual equals, if not intellectual superiors. Bullies hire morons, bone heads and nincompoops to run around carrying faxes and press releases. Such makes bullies feel important but in the end the whole company suffers.



None of us is as dumb as all of us.



The opposite of the power bully (though they may coexist) is the kangaroo committee. The kangaroo committee is a group on non-marketers or pathetically skilled marketers who get in a room and try decide which photo to include on the thank you note. This gives an elaborate illusion of doing work. Truthfully, a single person could make all the decisions such a committee makes in a year in a single afternoon. Such committees seem to exist if only to waste time and give people the feeling that their input is wanted. In the end, the committee’s direction is always vague and so someone (often the bully) has to step in and make the decision.



Committees can be great for determining issues. It is worth while to ask the head of sales what they are learning about the customer and what implements would be helpful in closing sales. What you don’t need to know from sales is what color the background needs to be in the product shot. It is not that their opinion doesn’t count; it’s that the clock does. Time as a resource is finite. Unless your aim is waste time and money, find competent people and let them do their job.



The soup sandwich.



Occasionally marketing is seen as a place to resolve corporate conflict. Sometimes this is good and sometimes it is really good. Marketing is the perfect place to discuss the overall corporate strategy concerning customers, marketing, products and opportunities. When it comes to resolving such problems, marketing can really shine.



But the marketing department can also be a dumping ground. I have worked with teams that use the marketing department as a repository for non-marketing executives’ friends’ children in need of an internship, the boss’ spouse who really knows her way around Microsoft Publisher, and best of all, a giant slush fund to pay for undocumented expenses, country club dues and “leadership” trips to Vegas.



Again, strong leadership from a marketing department can snap the rest into focus. Organizations seem to lose focus on marketing because focus never really was the aim at all. Existence was. Instead, marketing pros should feel empowered and included in the crucial operations of the organization. Think deeply about it. Your next breakthrough, business changing concept - is it most likely to come from accounting, finance or marketing?



A modification of the soup sandwich is the invisible rope. The invisible rope ties up the hands of everyone in marketing and ties up nearly every project with only the top brass being able to untie the knot. There are companies where the CEO must see and comment on every ad before it goes out. Sure, quality control you say. No. The ads rarely make it out the door, and the only quality control is more like a limiter as the marketing department can only work at the speed of an eighty-year-old who works sparsely in between golf and naps.



Fire the guy in the poofy pants and pink tank top.



Had I known back at DeKalb College what I know now, I would have handled that Senator a little differently. While I’d be interested in his opinion of how a strategy or direction should be carried out, I would not try to brain (or blame) storm every aspect. I would take the officers who were most capable and give them every authority to solve the issue, but he would not be chosen. Am I being a tyrant or vindictive? I don’t think so. With the competitor, policies and sheer inertia of the masses against you, the least you can expect is honest loyalty and productive leadership within your organization.



I don’t have all the answers and I am not always right. But I know a few things quite certainly for my experience. Great leadership inspires great results. Beware of someone who attends an important meeting in a mesh tank top. And Maya Angelou is far more cordial than Spike Lee

The legend of Doc Rounds

Doc Rounds made me believe in chiropractic. He was our football team doctor and the father of my close friend, Scott. Doc handled nearly every bump, bruise and bash by spraying it with a liquid that nearly froze whatever you complained about after which he would tell you to walk or shake it off. It always seemed to work though I never really appreciated Doc until one summer when I took a particularly nasty bash to the hip. Something must have disjointed and the pain shot down the leg and up the back which seemed odd. Every time I stepped on that leg I could feel the pain rise up my back and nearly over the top of my head. I finally complained to Doc.

My Dad really liked Doc and had no problem letting him treat me there on the wooden bench of practice field four at Shorty Howell Park. I lay on my back and Doc measured my leg then grumbled through a half chewed cigar that one leg was significantly shorter than the other. He lifted my knee and pushed it over while holding my shoulder down and crrrrrack. I was cured. Several years of wrestling, rock climbing and that one time I fell off a building while working as a photojournalist and that hip has yet to bother me since Doc fixed it.

Years later I was consulted by a chiropractic group concerning their marketing and I told that same story. One of the doctors gave me a book and I learned the history and philosophy behind chiropractic. Now I have to admit, besides my field-side treatment I have not gone back to a chiropractor but that does not dissuade me from giving credence to one of their core ideas: Alignment.

From what I understand, the philosophy behind chiropractic is that nerve signals are interrupted by misalignment and the result is a multitude of symptoms that seem unrelated. While the injury may lie at the hip you may feel it in your shoulder. Who knew?

Brands often behave the same way. They seem to ache in one place but the injury lies elsewhere. Their disjointed alignment has sidelined growth and no amount of spraying the “cold stuff” is going to make the ache go away. Brands have symptoms. Sometimes it’s due to old age. Sometimes it’s just growing pains. Sometimes once strong muscles are fatigued. Sometimes things are just out of alignment and need an adjustment. I believe these brands experience discomfort due to misalignment somewhere between the prospective customer and the brand where things have just gotten out of joint.

Here are a few symptoms that brands commonly display:

1) Gets tired easily

Sales rise but the cost of the sale is climbing even faster.
The brand that seems to continue to grow in sales but the costs associated with driving sales continues to go up each year so that the dollars that are currently in spent-to-drive sales (advertising dollars, trade promotion dollars or consumer promotion dollars) are getting increasingly inefficient. The result is profits growing at a partial percentage of what they actually should be. One of the reasons such a situation occurs is that brands have become commoditized in the mind of the trade and in the mind of the consumer. Marketers must consistently underwrite them from a financial point of view and give the consumer financial incentives or give the trade of a financial reason why they continue to support the brand.

2) Tapeworm

An inability to gain weight no matter what you eat.
A brand that is not increasing its sales no matter how many dollars invested in a downward spiral and that might be a decline in the category or it may be a function of new products that have come into the category that are deemed to be superior in either quality, value or performance. It just might be new products that touch the heartstrings of consumer in certain way that begins to gain a share of that consumer’s heart, consumers mind and ultimately share of business. Something new has to take place if the businesses are going to continue to expand and efficiently compete.

3) Thinning bones
The milk of long term planning makes for a healthier tomorrow.
The business is going fine but you want to make certain it's one of your strongest brands. You want to make certain that you are always thinking through every conceivable way of building a business because essential to the success of our company is this brand and its long-term success. You should never be caught short while thinking through potential positions and new ways to talk about our product to consumers and ways to continue to win hearts and minds. It's almost like it's an insurance policy that marketers continue to take out to make sure that this cash cow is a long term performer.

4) Anemia, brought on from giving too much blood.
Wall Street wants more blood whether you have it or not.
Wall Street continues to demand growth out of the company and single digit growth for each brand is not going to be sufficient to be able to continue toward the PE ratios that the company is currently trading on. Every brand manager is being tested and is under scrutiny to figure out new and innovative ways to make brands cost effective while profitably growing the business.

5) Blisters.
The pains of breaking in a new acquisition.
The new purchase of a brand along with the need for a new strategy to position a product to customers and trade under the idea that enhanced efficiency allows for a quicker return on investment and return to profitability.


Why does it hurt when I do this?

A brand suffers aches and pains that seem to come from all around but truly have only one source. The alignment between the consumer and the brand should two parallel lines. The first line is the reception of consumer’s thoughts, dreams, aspirations and desires inputted to the brand. The second is the reflection of the consumer’s input paired with the brand as a solution to achieve the consumer aspiration, desires and such. Brands give off symptoms when one or both of these pathways are out of alignment.


Finding and correcting misalignment.

Research, by virtue of its impact and purpose, should be unfettered. The reality is that research companies are sometimes scared to tell the truth. The reality is that sometimes a company’s own employees are afraid to tell the truth. Incorrect intake of information from the consumer results in incorrect strategies from the outset. Another common malady in marketing is the incorrect translation of the brand strategy into meaningful advertising. Production artists get enthralled with actors, techniques and style and the strategy gets lost. Alignment from consumer to brand comes through the correct conducting and interpretation of research in all its varied forms. Alignment from brand to consumer comes through the correct translation of the strategy into impactful creative which enlivens schema and connects to the brand.


Maybe the whole body needs adjustment.

The sudden resolution of discomfort in marketing might tempt one to consider adjusting the alignment of marketing within the entire organization. While marketing may be in perfect alignment when concerning itself, it may disjointed with sales, finance, production, etc. Correctly aligning marketing within the organization can resolve bigger organizational problems and allow a marketing campaign to truly succeed.


Snowden Tatarski is a marketing consultancy based in Athens, Georgia that focuses on the development and implementation strategic marketing plans. The company offers marketing research, marketing strategies, advertising development, media strategy and planning, sales consultation, trade communication strategies and the production of advertising, sales collateral, broadcast and interactive systems and materials. Information online at www.sn-ta.com

Couples Skate Only

Hannah was my grade school girlfriend but she only loved me because I could roller skate backwards. She gave me a necklace that had a little key shaped charm on it and she wore the matching heart with a small section in the shape of the missing key. I lost the key while water skiing in Lake Lanier, but even such a young romance faux pas could overcome the fact that I could roller skate backwards. Having grown up in Virginia Beach, the self proclaimed east coast headquarters for roller skating and skate boarding, I could roller skate with a prowess hitherto unseen in rural Georgia. All the girls were jealous because Hannah and I could face each other while we skated to the slow songs while the other couples had to hold hand side by side much like one did with a parent when they were younger.
Hannah went to another school the following year and we weren’t reunited until years later when we were in high school. While our memories of skating rekindled a brief romance, Hannah had turned into quite a beautiful woman and soon left me on the rink. I heard later that she was caught by her stepfather doing the high school equivalent of skating backwards with a senior football player and was abruptly uprooted and moved to another high school. I learned early that there is no perfect relationship no matter how good you skate.
Sometimes I want to kick myself for not remembering Hannah when it comes to client relations. There I am, out there doing 360s, skating backwards and shooting the duck while the object of my attention is at the snack bar. I’ve had the clients that first really like the idea of skating backwards but then they notice everyone else skating side by side so they chicken out and blend in. I’ve had some clients that think they’re ready to skate backwards, but then decide the skate rental cost too much. I have had a few clients that I’ve had to teach how to skate altogether.
My mentor Bob is a great man. He has never seen me skate, but I know he would be impressed if he did. I have tried out my skating skills in this now older body and despite knocking down the fat kid in the sweat suit who was wearing a helmet, I've still got it. Regardless, I don’t know if Bob skates or if he likes to skate, but I do know that Bob knows about relationships. Bobs knows what I wish I’ve always known and that is the correct management of relationships where all participants win.
The client and marketing/advertising consultant relationship has always been a tenuous one. Unlike the cost-cutting, outsourcing and efficiency management that accounting firms are peddling, marketing consultation is typically about investing in a less-than-sure thing. Sure, the biggest gains a company will ever make are far more likely to be related to marketing than cost savings; however, the sheer idea of betting a dump truck full of money that a product and message are going to connect with the consumer scares a lot of executives right out of their skates.
The need for progress does not care if you’re scared. The option to go hide from the consumer is not really an option at all, and if you don’t take the hills of customers’ affinity, someone will be more than happy to take them from you. Marketing also tends to be more art than hard science. Anytime people and their opinions are involved, the level of uncertainty rises. This rising uncertainty coupled with the often artistic and ethereal discussion put forth by a marketing consultant can create a situation of strain on the client and the relationship. Many in the industry have tried to soothe this discomfort with more open communications and understanding. When that failed, the two would engage in all out combat with marketers demanding to know costing and procedures for all agency processes and the agency/consultants reengineering company process, dissolving in-house efforts, acting as a surrogate marketing department and occasionally demanding a share of the pie when profits come to fruition.
It takes losing a few loves to the seniors before one really knows how to manage relationships. When I asked Bob to write the foreword to Gin, Incense and Deacon Blues, the request came at a time when a particular multi-year relationship needed some refreshing. Bob’s advice made its way into the foreword, but his words so impressed me that I wrote down the concepts and put them in a document we often send to potential and new clients entitled “A Word on Relationships.” The document serves as a manifesto of sorts and helps the client understand our orientation concerning relationships and the correct execution of such for the betterment of business and all involved. And now, for your reading enjoyment, “A Word on Relationships.”
A Word on Relationships.
Business is about relationships. It’s the relationships between companies and consumers. It’s the relationships across the web of interconnectedness between suppliers and vendors and end users. It’s the interpersonal relationships within an organization.
We believe relationships are at their best when they are respectful, caring and beneficial while containing a mutual sense of responsibility and benefit. Many call such a relationship “win-win.” We will simply say it is these types of relationships that we seek to create and maintain with our clients. Relationships which by attention, compensation, respect or any other means dictate that one side of the relationship wins and the other loses are not positioned for long term success. We do our best to avoid them.
We have three points that, when followed by both parties in a relationship, will help make that relationship successful and fruitful.
1) Know each other’s intentions upfront.
People do things in business for a lot of reasons, and these reasons often get cloaked behind pleasantries, protocols and professional images. Eventually, however, these motivations will surface, and the result can be that everyone is not working towards the same goal for the same reason.
Our motivation in the relationships we form is simple. We want to do the best and most effective work at the highest level of our capabilities while being compensated for it fairly. In return we offer our best thinking, best effort and enthusiastic energy in making our shared efforts successful.
2) Make commitments with the intention of fulfilling them.
Be it by potential, compensation or expectation, all companies have been guilty at one time or another of promising more than they can deliver. It is these situations that erode confidence and hinder progress. We have found it is better to discuss and agree upon expectations and deliverables from the outset of the relationship. As new projects are added, those projects should also be fully vetted for expectations for all parties involved.
3) Consistently show value for the relationship.
When a relationship matures, it is common for companies to dismiss the affirmation of the relationship as a formality needed only at inception. We believe that relationships require maintenance. This can mean hearing new perspectives, discussing past efforts, plotting new strategies, adjusting expectations, appreciating evolving roles and insight and the myriad of other activities aimed at keeping relationships strong and productive.
We understand that not all businesses will agree with our views concerning relationships. We do not feel that businesses which do not treat relationships the way we recommend are wrong. We simply have found that our particular business thrives when relationships are respectful through and through.
Making your own word on relationships.
The client/consultant relationship as it pertains to marketing will probably never be smooth sailing all the time, if only for the reason that if both parties had the exact same viewpoint, capabilities and insight, the need for consultation in the first place would diminish. Companies looking to make marketing stardom should seek out consul and partners that they intend to treat like partners instead of vendors.

I had a client who praised us and talked of decades-long relationships only to find that during a photoshoot he was in the next room romancing a competitor. My advice: talk your talk and walk your walk. If you are seedy in the way you deal with your marketing consultants, an individual or group who knows all your secrets, vulnerabilities and whose successful allegiance will by far exceed the performance of any other consultant, if you just must be a snake when it come to working with them, then you have a really big problem looming over your head. Better nip it in the bud now.

Some people’s perspective on successful business relationships is where they win and you lose. Avoid these people. You can bet they have a long list of enemies and disenchanted individual laying in their wake. Some of the best marketing I have other seen was done by somebody who was burned in someway by the rival. Strong strategy and creative fueled by venom in the mouth is not only dangerous for the initial bite, the stamina of a marketer scorned is truly something to behold. They are not content with winning market share. They want total war and full destruction of the adversary. They will not rest in pursuing the adversary until they are at the bankruptcy liquidation sale.

A funny thing I have noticed about the consultant/consulted relationship is that when it works, it really works. Consultants begin to understand the essence of a company so much that they involve themselves in the company’s whole strategy planning and begin to find a place in product development and distribution. The meshing and integration of the two entities erodes outdated and hampering boundaries that impede the seamless communication of enthusiasm for the offering. For one client, we wrote the marketing chapter of their businesses plan to help them get funding for a new endeavor. It was partnership at its best. When things are working, you need to keep them working well.

So, in OJ Simpson trial style, I’ll give you a line to ponder. If it’s a fit, you must commit. If you find that the idea and energy you are receiving from the consultant is the exact recipe to turn around slumping progress, the last thing you want to do is to attempt control by fear. Creative thinkers work best when they are not hampered by the looming doom and threat of severing the relationship. Also, a long term commitment lessens the chance that a correction to an internal problem the consultant may spot will be absconded simply to keep smiles up in the next contract negotiation. So of the worst work I’ve done was because of fear. The client started toying with the contract and we responded by doing whatever they wanted. The creative should have gone right off the desk into the toilet. We help make the client a faux celebrity, a situation he had wanted all along, and the result made even the spot’s editor want to change the channel. Fear makes you do stupid things. If you are in search of stupid things, by all means, motivate your people with fear.

It’s been years, but I don’t feel so far from the skating rink these days. Clients wheeling around in circles and everybody trying to impress them with all sorts of tricks. People will flash by with twists and turns sure to dazzle Brian Boitano and if you’re the client, you may be tempted to skate with the kid who can do a double axle. Just remember the kid who does the double axle does it because of the way it makes him feel when people ooh and ahh. And the kid who skates backwards with you during the slow song? He does it for the way it makes you feel.

Snowden Tatarski is a marketing consultancy based in Athens, Georgia that focuses on the development and implementation strategic marketing plans. The company offers marketing research, marketing strategies, advertising development, media strategy and planning, sales consultation, trade communication strategies and the production of advertising, sales collateral, broadcast and interactive systems and materials. Information online at www.sn-ta.com

Fries with that.

When I was fifteen, I got a demeaning job at a greasy, disgusting fast food restaurant. I grilled burgers, sliced lettuce and cleaned dead rats out of the grease trap. It was such a joy to have my first work experience molded by the meth addicts and ex-cons who used the esteemed power they had as shift managers to harass and terrorize the staff. Oh, the wonder years.

It was a hotter and greasier day than normal, and I was working the grill when the cheerleading squad came in for burgers. They were dressed in short shorts and tank tops. I stood there, with my grill mate who could barely speak English at my side, both of us covered in so much grease that at the at the end of the shift we would have to peel off our uniforms. I locked eyes with one of the cheerleaders.
That was the end of my fast food experience.

I immediately enrolled in lifeguard classes. Despite the fact that I couldn’t really swim, a year on the wrestling team and a persistent mom got me through the classes and I became a certified lifeguard. I took my classes in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which meant the training was geared toward guarding the beach. The classes were like boot camp and I spent most evenings after class puking up the pool water that I had swallowed when the instructor put forth his best effort to drown me.

True to my purpose in becoming a lifeguard, my first post was at the local pool propagated by the local cheerleaders who, save for the occasional chicken fight, spent their time laying about the pool deck. Was this really a job? I’m watching girls in bikinis have a slap and tickle fight with each other and someone is going to pay me?

Honestly, I felt guilty when I got my first paycheck. At the burger joint, I got covered in more filth and garbage than an ATO pledge for a measly five bucks an hour. Now I was getting six an hour to watch the local cuties spritz themselves. It’s hard to feel like you’re really working when you’re a lifeguard.

I have met at least a few marketers who are like lifeguards. Somewhere deep inside, they feel guilty about asking for money. They duck behind image campaigns or price-offs, anything just to avoid asking for the sale.

I’m a little old (and less shapely) to be a lifeguard anymore, but I still wince when I ask for money. After all, I love marketing and it doesn’t feel like work to me, so why should you pay me? Well, first off, I’m married to a social worker, which means my wife gets paid two banana peels, fourteen food stamps, a few dry beans and a half-eaten bag of frosted donuts each month. Since the mortgage company takes none of these things as payment, I have to charge people for our services.

My mentor who is a lively, spirited (and though not tall, larger than life) man gives me great advice much like a kung fu master or perhaps a Jedi. He recently asked me, “Young grasshopper, are you getting paid for each hour of work you complete for clients?”

“No master,” I responded.

“You work for a fool and must stop.” He shot back.

But I work for myself and the firm.” I responded

“Exactly.”He replied

Note: It is important that you know my mentor is a sweet and honorable man and would never call me a fool unless I really deserved it (which I’m pretty sure I’ve yet to do). Paraphrasing and modification of his comments was needed to maintain Kung Fu imagery.

It’s foolish to not ask for the sale. It’s foolish to advertise without wanting an action. Maybe the action is to change an opinion or consider a service, but whatever you do, have a desired purpose when you have an audience. The master has shown me the way (or, the force if you prefer) of asking for the sale, whatever the sale may be. His nearly magical three step process is reprinted here so that you need not shave your head, sojourn and seek his tutelage.


1) Master says to grasshopper, get beyond the guilt of selling or I’ll smack you.

There is no crime in getting paid what you’re worth. Be it a brand, item or service, value should be compensated. It is easy to start chiseling at the bottom line with justifications like “our margins can allow us to reduce price.” But the truth is, if you cannot respect your offering enough to stand by the price, what do you expect purchasers to do? People pay what they think things are worth.

When you give a fair offering at a fair price, there should be no second guessing. One way to NOT accomplish this is to simply charge what you think the consumer will pay. Instead, simply charge what the consumer should pay (relative to R and D costs, manufacturing, marketing, profit, etc) and stand by it. It is amazing the change in attitude when the seller knows the price and proposition are rooted in logic and fair play.

One of the core tenets in the development of the concept of branding was that the consumers desire to support the brand would negate the need for continual sales and price wars. Some brands are sticking to this notion but others have allowed their brand to become know as “those guys who have a sale every week”.

2) Master says to grasshopper, respect the seller/ consumer relationship and the mutual expectation/ responsibility.

It is too often and too bad when the balance between a consumer and a marketer is disrupted. Often companies view consumers like cattle who stampede in when the right product is thrown in the pen and then crap all over the place. It is not so uncommon that marketer has a less than flattering view of consumers. Consumers sometimes don’t hold up their end of the deal either. Ever get behind one of those people who always complain at the burger joint just to get free junk?

What exists between buyers and sellers is a relationship based on quality, expectation, brand identity, affinity, value, and shared importance. Trying to tip the scales to the favor of one of these at the expense of the other never works out.

3) Master says to grasshopper, the worst they can say is “no” (or perhaps “hell no”).

You really don’t know until you ask. When you run a commercial that doesn’t seem to want the sell, you’re better off not advertising. Maybe it’s the plain fear of the word “no” that has led companies to skirt the question. Think about it: if you never ask for the business, you can never get shot down. Sounds like high school.

The savvy marketer should be ready to hear no and follow it up with a why. “No”’ indicates failures of the brand to connect. “No” indicates a pocket of influence that is not swayed. “No” teaches us not only that the ship is listing but where the leak is.

Marketers need to stop being afraid of their own shadows and instead begin to stick it out there and ask for the sale. That next inquirer may be a future fan or user for life, but you’ll never know if you’re not actively trying to spur action. Perhaps one day people will just know everything they want and need and we advertisers won’t need to educate customers and ask for their business. Until then, we need to ask.


Snowden Tatarski is a brand consultancy based in Athens, Ga that focuses on the development and implementation of the whole brand experience. The agency offers marketing research, marketing strategies, advertising creative development, media strategy and planning, sales consultation and the production of advertising, sales collateral, broadcast and interactive systems and materials. Information online at www.sn-ta.com