It wa$ a week of my$tery even the $lytherin Hou$e couldn’t break: What was J.K. Rowling’$ new web$ite, Pottermore, going to be about?

A Harry Potter Encyclopedia? A $pin-off $erie$? A $ocial network for Potter fan$?

Why, of cour$e, it was none of the above: as it turn$ out, Pottermore is nothing more than a place to $ell Harry Potter e-book$.
Dollar signs aside, many Potter fans around the world are irate over what is seemingly one last money-grab from the world’s richest author.
(more…)

Growth, acquisitions, multiple locations, more, more, more customers!

It’s what business is all about, isn’t it? That mantra of bigger, faster, better, more! I mean, isn’t that why you’re in business?

It’s a good question. A few weeks back, Jill and I were discussing this very thing, and along with weighing the pros and cons of following thousands of people on Twitter, we talked about the pros and cons of expansion.

Do you try to please more people, yet risk watering-down your product or service, or do you keep your base happy and loyal?

For what it’s worth, I fell on the side of keeping it small and personable.
Of course, Jerry Maguire’s “mission statement” (less clients and more real relationships) got him fired, but for many businesses, staying small means, well, “Show me the money!”
(more…)

We all know that the pen is mightier than the sword, but is it mightier than your sales department?

Some companies are betting on it, and most likely you should, too.

This weekend, The New York Times wrote right past Groupon’s business model, their celestial rise, and their billion dollar Google dodge to focus on what truly makes the company stand aside from the rest of the group coupon and daily deal sites: their content.
“People have grown numb to the elements of advertising that pander to their fears and hopes,” says Groupon’s editor in chief Aaron With.  “[It] insults their intelligence with safe, bland approaches at creativity.”
(more…)

Last week we discussed how marketing where the sun don’t shine (literally), can make your potential customers deem you a skeevy marketer. After all, the point of marketing is to engage, not enrage.

To finish off this three-part “Skeevy Series”, we’re going to discuss marketing on the web. After all, as we at GoZapIT always say, successful websites do not happen by accident.

Here is a list –as told from a user’s perspective – of really bad web marketing techniques:
(more…)

To be fair, Starbucks doesn’t just sell coffee. They sell an experience. They sell an idea. They sell ambiance.

During the company’s boom years, almost everyone in your office probably came in with a Venti or Grande coffee cup sporting the green siren. But for many, it was more of a fashion statement than a caffeine fix.

Of course, the company made a huge profit being a fashion mocha, er, mecca.
(more…)

As if you didn’t already know, there’s a lot of information out there. Of course, your job as a marketer is to keep looking for the latest and most innovative ways to get your message across to the right audience.

You know about Twitter, Facebook, and even trans-media storytelling as new and effective ways of engaging and connecting with your customers. But with so much clutter and noise, is there a better way to keep an audience’s attention? (more…)