“In modern Japanese slang, an otaku refers to an overly obsessive fan of any one particular theme, topic, or hobby.” (wikipedia)

Many hobbyists decide, “hey, I like doing X, I should go into the X business”. It’d be easy for someone who likes biking to consider going into the bike business - but riding a bike has nothing to do with selling one, fixing one, or managing a bike repair crew.

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Every now and then it pays to pick up a classic and see how marketing philosophy has evolved. Positioning (Ries & Trout) was such a classic. A lot of what it says holds, so toss it onto your reading list, but be warned: much of it is painfully out-of-touch.

Then again, in the pre-Internet days (Page 7: “…Philips has just introduced a 3.5 inch disk that holds 600 megabytes of data”!) businesses and consumers were out of touch. You made a product, and pushed it. There was no “permission marketing“, no online instant feedback, no e-pinions (or blogs!).

But one thing self-proclaimed “gurus” like to do is make blanket statements without data to back them. (more…)

Perhaps we need to add a category, ”it goes without saying“. If not for brainless acts of wannabe trendsetters it’d be a category, well, with nothing said.

But here we innaugurate this category with a sad act: giving a terrorist group a pet name. (more…)

If you want to kick your innovation into high gear, volunteer your work. There is no more challenging, creative and blue-sky client than a great charity.

Why? Charities understand more clearly than any business that their purpose is to connect with people.

Successful charities (and businesses!):

1. tell an emotional story
2. connect with each person on a personal level
3. leave room for each ‘client’ to transform their own experience
4. help members share their experience with others
5. work with similar organizations on shared causes

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Marketing guru (no relation) Seth Godin shares his insights on collaborating with a designer (link).We’d start by breaking down #5 - clearly outlining your goals:

1. Where do you want to be in 3-5 years?
1. See Guru Virtue 10: Vision . Design is an investment, returns should continue for years.
2. What makes you different?
1. Don’t compare, redefine the playing field.
3. What do you want people to say about you?
4. How will you get them to say it? (more…)

“It” is such an imprecise word that Google doesn’t bother including it in a search, so it’s pretty odd that two big names are selling “it” at the same time: ebay (you can get it on ebay) and Gatorade (is it in you?)

ebay’s “it” tagline is great - because it can mean anything, which is exactly what ebay sells. 

it isn’t going to be a classic for Gatorade, because it also means nothing. Gatorade isn’t making a promise (can they?) and we buy performance boosters because they promise confidence, respect, and acceptance into a team. 

Selling a sporting product is selling confidence, the confidence to “Just do It”.  (more…)

Next time you feel there’s no way to differentiate the style of your product, here’s an exercise to generate a few ideas, or at least a few extra lbs around the waist.

Get Influenced:

Wrapped, a Hersey’s “bar” and Nestle’s Crunch seem to have the same shape.

Inside, however, they are completely different animals… (more…)

The 12gurus blog will give you:

• tools for innovation
• book reviews
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• design fixes
• team invigorating exercises 

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