Successful marketing campaigns sell a lot of product, or move people into action.  While messaging and graphics are all over the spectrum from amusing to powerful, these campaigns usually cover the four basic foundations for success. They trust. If the consumer doesn’t trust the brand or the fact that the company can deliver on its promise, the campaign will fail. They respect. Guilt and shame don’t compel people into action. Treat your audience with respect and they will respond. Talk down to them and they will ignore you. They are relevant. Even the right message to the right  people at the wrong time will not bring results. Make sure you answer the bottom line question we all ask when faced with an ad: “Why should I bother?” They compel. Make the case for you. Even after you have covered the “why should I bother?” question, you still have another important…

“How do you sleep at night knowing that so many people are dependent on you for their livelihoods?” Asked a friend I hadn’t seen since The A Group was in its infancy. As a young entrepreneur he is quite aware of his responsibilities for those whom he hired. The question prompted a few realizations: The A Group has currently the largest overhead in its 10-year history Our projects are larger and more complex than ever before I sleep more soundly now than ever before By all accounts, my level of anxiety and stress should be proportional to the growth of my company. But the opposite is true. It’s not that my work has gotten easier with the growth of the company; it has, however, become more strategic. While there might be a number of factors that have contributed to my being in such professional place, I can think of one…

Facial hair has made a come back in the past decade as a fashion statement for the guys. Sorry ladies, not so much for you.  Interestingly a recent study in the Journal of Marketing Communications found that men with beards were deemed more credible than those who were clean-shaven. The study showed participants pictures of men endorsing certain products. In some photos, the men were clean-shaven. In others, the same men had beards. Participants thought the men with beards had greater expertise and were significantly more trustworthy when they were endorsing products like cell phones and toothpaste. Take a look at these trustworthy and famous bearded: But before you decide to grow a beard, take a look at the chart below because not all beard styles are created equal and while some might deem you trustworthy, others might make you not only un-appealing, but downright threatening. Since I first posted…

In this series of dealing with difficult people we must tackle one of the most disruptive personalities in any environment, especially in the work place: the drama queen. Before you label me a male chauvinist, let me say that the drama queen is not gender specific. Males can make some of the most disruptive drama queens, sexuality issues apart.  I do not refer to them as drama “kings” because that title sounds too dignified to represent the type of chaos this personality type brings into any group dynamic. A drama queen is someone who makes every issue and problem about herself. She always has to be the center of attention. Drama usually follows her or she’ll make sure to create it. Left unchecked, the drama queen will Keep tabs on everyone just in case she needs material to create drama Give with the expectation of receiving React, well, over react…

Dealing with difficult people is not an option; it’s a human dynamic we all face, sometimes daily. Next in this series, I want to address a type we all deal with, especially in lean times: the cheapskate client. There is a big difference between being frugal and being cheap. Frugal people: Maximize resources Optimizes opportunities Value quality Understand priorities Not afraid of spending on the right tools and opportunities Cheap people: cut corners to save a little sacrifice outcome or quality for the bottom-price deal do not value quality under-resource their organization see where they can save but seldom what they can gain Early in my career as a creative director/designer, I was hired by a former college teacher who was cheap…very cheap. I should have known my challenge when he hired me to develop a book cover. I remember seeing him buy a small soft drink with no ice…

As a general rule, we do not want to spend more money than we have to.  But for those of us who love a bargain, chasing the “best deal” can ultimately cost us a lot of more. I know. I have done it several times. It took a good friend to say, “Are you willing to lose a $250,000 deal over $1,500?” as I got caught in the trap of the haggling game I had created. Since then I have tried to wise up and get to the bottom line of every major purchase, construction project, or service contract. The question I try to answer is “What’s the true cost of my short cut?” That’s not an easy one to answer. Before I can come up with the true cost of my decision, here are some variables I have to consider: How much more of my time will this less…

Dealing with difficult people is not an option; it’s a human dynamic we all face, sometimes daily. There are different levels and types of difficult people. In this series, I would like to identify a specific type and how I try to deal with them in a professional environment. Anyone who works in any type of service industry must learn how to manage people well in order to survive, especially dealing with the know-it-all client. You know the type: they know more than anyone in the room, no matter the subject. They always, and I mean always, have an opinion about everything…sometimes even more than one opinion on any given subject. And now it’s your job to manage this person and get your project done to his or her standards. When the know-it-all client starts to pontificate on matters that you are suppose to lead and begins to tell you…

I used to believe one could not over communicate in a volunteer organization, specially church members, volunteers, or leadership, but I have changed my mind on that. Early in my career, communicating with a large group of constituents meant sending them letters, newsletter or post cards in the mail and for church members that would include a blurb in the bulletin and an announcement from the pulpit. The rule of thumb was that you needed to communicate seven times the same message before the majority of people would even become aware of it. Today we have more channels: email, text messages, social media to ad to the mix. But like anything else in life, sometimes more is not better but more is just, more noise, more junk mail, more interruptions. And instead of getting our message through, we become a nuisance to those we want to engage. So how should…

Learning has been a foundation of any growing society. Good education was costly because it employed the best minds to teach the fortunate who could afford it.  But content, much like everything else in our world that once cost to obtain is now available for free. Everywhere. Instead of buying a do-it-yourself book on how to lay tile at Home Depot, I can go online and find a dozen free videos that will walk me through the entire process better than any book could. With the democratization of digital tools and basically free storage, the knowledge base of the planet is growing at an exponential rate. Learning piracy has become a growing concern for content providers who are finding it more and more difficult to charge for their products—from book sellers to higher education providers. People have always found a way to violate copyrighted information by making illegal copies of…

Think of your favorite teacher, your favorite boss or coach. Positionally they all could have demanded the best from you; after all they had positional influence on you due to their professional status. But chances are that’s not the reason you liked them so much. If you are anything like I am, your favorite boss or teacher was not the one who let you get by easily or gave you easy assignments. It was the one who not only expected much from you, but also inspired you to continue to grow and outperform your own standards. Four years after arriving from Brazil with very little knowledge of English, I was asked to finish the last month of a senior-level Shakespearean course. I was surprised and shocked to be asked to lead the rest of the semester for several reasons, but the most compelling of them was the fact I was…