American Copywriter posted the other day about a recent speech by Malcolm Gladwell in which he articulated some excellent points about focus groups. Gladwell’s opening salvo:

“Focus groups are the primary institutional forum for inhibiting creativity. And Congress should enact a law prohibiting the freedom of assembly for the purpose of conducting a focus group.”

Takeaway for marketers: Focus groups are a tool for discussion, not a direct line to absolute truth and success.

Granted, I’m more than three months late coming to the party on this one, but it wasn’t until the other day that David Calhoun’s 2005 commencement speech at Virginia Tech crossed my screen. He’s the President and CEO of GE Transportation, and his comments make for excellent reading packed with sage advice.

Takeaway for marketers: Just read it.

“If you have made mistakes … there is always another chance for you … you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.”
—Mary Pickford

Interactive marketing “is sexy, and getting sexier.” This according to Harry Joiner, quoted in a MarketingVox article that makes for some interesting reading. I particularly like this bit regarding which traditional mindset tends to take better to the online world:

…direct mailers have an advantage in mentality: you pump in money and expect something in return, and if the return is worth it you pump in more. Brand marketers are more abstract. [Says Joiner:] “They’ll say, ‘Let’s have a website and make it look really cool,’ and they don’t realize that it’s going to take forever to load or it’s not friendly to search engines.”

Takeaway for marketers: Cool is cool, but cool don’t pay the bills. Balancing the cool with the utilitarian in a customer-centric and company-appropriate way is exactly what makes online marketing such a difficult specialty.

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