Marketing Spoonful

When you stop and think about it, successful brainstorming sessions require people to do two things: show up for the session and participate in a way that is meaningful for them and the group. I call this commitment and engagement.
I was talking with a client the other day about the difference between commitment and engagement.
Commitment, [...]

Tags: brainstorming, creative thinking, group planning, strategic planning

We just started reading Tom Asacker’s latest book, A Little Less Conversation, and boy, is it good.
Plus, it’s inexpensive, it’s thin and it’s by a proven author, so it’s worth the investment of time and money.
One of the great things Tom and other thinkers like him do is challenge us to think differently about the [...]

Tags: a little less conversation, blog, brainstorm, Branding, creative thinking, Creativity, Marketing, Tom Asacker

He’s your favorite beet farmer. And possibly the only volunteer sheriff’s deputy who also holds the title of top paper salesman for the Scranton office of Dunder Mifflin. But that’s not all that makes him special.
There’s so much more to the man, the myth, the legend: Dwight Schrute.

And today we explore the scintillating similarities between [...]

Tags: brain candy, creative thinking, Dwight Schrute, fun with brands, Rainn Wilson, The Office

It’s hard.
Not everyone can do it.
Everyone thinks they can do it.
It costs money.
Many people think it should cost less money than it does.
It unlocks doors.
It separates top performers from also-rans.
It won’t always make you popular.
It’s hard.
It’s not always intuitive.
Just when you think it shouldn’t be intuitive, it is.
You can’t learn everything about it from a [...]

Tags: business strategy, creative thinking, strategic thinking, Strategy

We don’t pretend to know everything about marketing and markets. But we do think you need to continue harping on value (low prices for what you get) and emotion when hawking your product or service.
In an earlier post, we commented about stocks that seem to be benefiting from the down economy and what makes them [...]

Tags: blog, Business, creative thinking, Food, Marketing, Restaurant, Strategy

It’s time to reintroduce you to the Web’s only place for catalytic thinking for food marketers: Marketing Spoonful.
We hope you’ll take the time to visit today and peruse a couple of our posts. We’ve covered such topics as:

Election-themed innovation brainstorming
How Subway teaches us that duality in marketing is a powerful thing
Why prospecting is a lot [...]

Tags: blog, Business, catalytic thinking, creative thinking, Creativity, Food, ideation, Innovation, Marketing, Product Development, Strategy

We talk so much about the consumer in this space that it’s easy to forget how important the B2B aspect of our business is to our success.
After all, if our channel partners are not fully informed and singularly focused on the end customer’s satisfaction then we cannot succeed.
But how do we keep them interested?
Consider the [...]

Tags: B2B, blog, business analogies, business to business, creative thinking, Creativity, flyfishing analogy, Food, Marketing, prospecting, Sales, Strategy

Take ten minutes today and put yourself in behind the desk of your fiercest competitor.
What are they thinking about?
How will their next promotion look?
Who will they hire next?
Where will they build next?
Why should they fear you?
That last one’s a trick question. Are you sure you’re even all that scary? If not, why not?
Ten minutes is [...]

Tags: blog, competition, competitor, creative thinking, Food, food marketing blog, Marketing, problem solving, Strategy

You may not have thought about it lately, but it might help to think about where (and when) you do your best thinking.
It is important for us to set time aside each day for thinking. That’s not always going to happen, but when it does, we should use our time as effectively as possible.
It may [...]

Tags: creative thinking, Creativity, fun, stimulation