Crystal ball time........................

 

Bull markets can last longer than you think but we can’t have above-average returns forever.

Therein lies the biggest risk in 2026…or 2027 or 2028 or some undetermined year in the future.

Eventually, above-average returns lead to below-average returns. Sometimes the biggest reason for bad returns is because good returns lasted for so long.

Predictions are hard.

This is so wrong..............................

 

..................More than thirty days before Halloween and Macy's is offering Christmas decorations.  Stop it:

Belief.......................

 There’s no need to sign up for the endless uphill battle of marketing against a positive trend. Sell something you believe in, to people who are eager to believe in it as well.

You’ll do your best work on behalf of an audience and a cause that deserves it, appreciates it and applauds it. If it’s just a job, you’ve sacrificed your best energy for a paycheck.

Pick your client, pick your future.

-Seth Godin, from here

Be generous with change...................

........................and brave with your business.

Generosity in terms of free work,  constant discounts, and plenty of uncompensated overtime isn't really generous.   Because you can't sustain it.  Because soon you'll be breaking the promises you made.
     On the other hand, showing generosity with your bravery, your empathy, and your respect is generous indeed.
     What you customers want from you is for you to care enough to change them.
     To create tension that leads to forward motion.
     To exert emotional labor that will open them up to what's possible.
     And if you need to charge a lot to pull that off, it's still a bargain.

-Seth Godin,  This Is Marketing:  You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn To See

Let's dance...................

People don't believe what you believe.
     They don't know what you know.
     They don't want what you want.
     It's true, but we'd rather not accept this.
     Sonder is defined as that moment when you realize that everyone around you has an internal life as rich and as conflicted as yours.
     Everyone has noise in their heads.
     Everyone thinks they are right, and that they have suffered affronts and disrespect at the hands of others.
     Everyone is afraid.  And everyone realizes that they are also lucky.
     Everyone has an impulse to make things better, to connect and to contribute.
     Everyone wants something that they can't possibly have.  And if they could have it, they'd discover that they really didn't want it all along.
     Everyone is lonely, insecure, and a bit of a fraud.  And everyone cares about something.
     As a marketer, then, we have little chance of doing marketing to others, in insisting that they get with our program, that they realize how hard we've worked, how loud the noise is in our heads, how important our cause is . . .
     It's so much more productive to dance with them instead.

-Seth Godin, from This Is Marketing:  You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See

Some smart thoughts......................

..........................................................about the housing market.

P.S.  Have I told you lately we have some wondrous, wooded, building lots available?  If you want to help solve the supply problem, we'll sell you one.

On marketing and sales.................

"Because marketing is everything. It’s the promises we make, the work we do, the people we connect with, the folks we lead, the hard decisions we make, our values, our ability change the status quo…that’s all marketing."

"Just about everyone is selling a good or a service, whether they realize it or not. And right or wrong, people are susceptible to a good story or narrative. So if you’re like me and weren’t born to always be closing, this is something you have to work on."

-Ben Carlson, as pulled from this blog post

Marketing, circa 2016....................

Christmas gifts for those "hard to buy for" folk?

via

Something makes me think..............

........that Seth Godin believes most marketing money is wasted.

"It turns out that activating people who already like you is far more productive and profitable than it is to spend time and money yelling at people who are ignoring you."

Marketing 101..........................................

Friend Bilbo points to this priceless Generic Brand Video.   Now, if only they were selling something.....

Making lemonade............

In finding the silver lining, the marketing creativity of the real estate industry knows no bounds ...................................

via

Inquiring minds wondered...............

..........from whence came this red-nosed reindeer named Rudolph.  Guesses included the well-know Christmas song, an unknown book, and an ancient legend.  The all-knowing Oracle Google was consulted.  Turns out Rudolph was a slick 1939 American marketing ploy that exceeded all expectations and then some.  Full Wikipedia entry, aka the Gospel Truth, is here.  Excerpts here:

Robert L. May created Rudolph in 1939 as an assignment for Montgomery Ward. The retailer had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year and it was decided that creating their own book would save money. May considered naming the reindeer "Rollo" and "Reginald" before deciding upon using the name "Rudolph".   In its first year of publication, 2.5 million copies of Rudolph's story were distributed by Montgomery Ward.

May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, adapted the story of Rudolph into a song. Gene Autry's recording of the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop singles chart the week of Christmas 1949. Autry's recording sold 2.5 million copies the first year, eventually selling a total of 25 million, and it remained the second best-selling record of all time until the 1980s.

Just for grins, here's The Singing Cowboy himself: