“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Back in the 1990s, I called for a brand revolution in direct and a direct revolution in brand advertising, and called it brand direct.

A couple of years after that, I started noticing a phenomenon in the UK – the rise of what was being called “brand response.”

I had long done my recruiting from the UK and New Zealand, because I found that the smaller, but more culturally uniform markets were hothouses for integration — ahead of the U.S. with its giant budgets and endless silos.

Since I thrived by getting and staying ahead on integration — on brand direct — I needed people who understood, and those people weren’t being trained in the U.S.

So, the U.K. now seems to have a wealth of resources on brand response and it’s phenomenal growth and history, as you’ll see in the article linked below:

https://www.marketingsociety.com/the-library/inexorable-rise-brand-response

-Mark DiMassimo

Used to be that companies made products and agencies sold them. Today, agencies work with clients to craft the products and services, build the customer experiences, and inspire the actions that bring more people into the experience.

An inspiring customer experience will spread, but it will also need help spreading. The brand is the most important part of the experience.

Functionality is important. But there are usually near equivalents for functionality.

Personal, psychological, spiritual, social and societal benefits and meaning are the keys today.

Emotion is critical.

Does the service – the total customer experience — inspire greatness (even in some small way) in the customer?

Does our service inspire greatness in the client?

Does our team member experience inspire greatness in our team members?

That’s what it’s all about today.

Someone just told me a great story about an intern she interviewed as a favor, about twenty years ago, who went on to be the CEO of LinkedIn, Jeff Weiner.

He was in business school at the time. She had already hired all the interns she could for the season. And, anyway, in their short interview, he hadn’t impressed her much.

She wanted to get him out of her office. She tried to usher him out.

“I’m sorry, I just don’t have any intern positions left for this summer.”

He said, “I have just one question.”

“O.K.” she said, “Shoot.”

“Do you have a five year plan?”

“A five year plan?! I have a plan for today.”

“If you hire me, I will write your five year plan.”

She hired him. He wrote her plan. It worked. He went on to great things, and no one was surprised, least of all her.

Great question. Great offer. Great career.

If you want to learn how to build a juggernaut of a brand through inspiring action, you could do a lot worse than to learn from the example of the late Don Roth, founder and proprietor of the sadly also late Don’s Drive In at the border of Livingston and Short Hills, New Jersey.

My grandmother lived for many years just a couple of blocks from Don’s, so I had the delicious experience of imbibing the phenomenon from a very impressionable age.

Some will say Don’s was just a restaurant. Hah! Don’s was a mega-brand in the area. Though Don and his namesake have been gone for years, so great is the demand for his food that several other food services in the area claim to sell “Don’s” burgers and other items.

I could tell you more, but you’ll learn so much from this article about the heart, soul, and work-ethic of a true brand-building genius. Enjoy!

Think of your social marketing strategy as one of mixers and mines.

Mixers, as in parties. You wouldn’t walk into a cocktail party, and immediately start selling your product or service, would you?

Imagine this in real life – this is clearly a strategy with diminishing returns. Why? Because you would get invited to fewer and fewer parties, right?

So, what do you do at a mixer? You get interested in people. You make some small talk, sure. You’re entertaining or interesting, up to a point. But mostly, you’re social.

You:
1) Get interested in other people, and share their interests.
2) Help others get heard, connected, and social.
3) Meet the people you want to meet, and let them get familiar with you.

Note that none of this looks or feels like selling, but of course one major reason we participate in the social networks is to sell – we just don’t act like the bore spouting product benefits over cocktails.

When you connect with people around genuine interest in their genuine interests, most of them will become interested in you. That’s where the mines come in.

Mines, because of the military analogy. Unlike a torpedo, a drone, a bullet or a missile, a mine doesn’t come to you. But when you step on it, you go off too.

Mines, also, because that’s where the precious jewels can be found – that’s where the gold is too.

Your mines include your profiles, which should be built for selling, your links, your website, and your content.

A note on your content: The further out in the field you are, the closer your content must touch on your prospect or customers problems rather than on your solutions. Start with the customers and work backward from there.

How does it work? You meet someone in the mixer, say on Twitter, who is a prospect for your service or a potential partner. You see from her posts that she is interested in, say, Singaporean Beetles. You used to collect Singaporean Beetles! You favorite some of her posts, and you reply with some helpful information. Over time, she checks out your profile, reads some of your other content, realizes you are in a business that interest her, and reaches out with a direct message, or through your contact information.

You’ve got a prospect!

Some call it Inbound Marketing, and it is. I call it the Social. It’s the art of Mixers & Mines.

Inspiring Action: Set your mines. Get out there and mix!

But how do you integrate this into your marketing machine? More on that in a post coming shortly.

By Chris Hansen, Sr. Copywriter at DiMassimo Goldstein

Earlier this week, I was asked to write a blog post describing my proudest moment while under the employ of DiMassimo Goldstein.

I couldn’t do it.

That’s not to say that I haven’t had my fair share of achievements and attaboys. Far from it. I’ve helped win new business pitches, created award-winning campaigns, swayed clients into buying great work, and all the other stuff that’s so frequently celebrated and glamorized in this business.

Who cares?

Seriously. Who gives a damn?

The way I look at it, as soon as you point to a singular moment as your crowning achievement, complacency starts to set in. You surrender to your own ego. You accept where the bar has been set and unwittingly say, “This is the best I can do.”

I’m not ready to settle so quickly.