The Water Cooler (our blog) | The Idea Factory

Factory Emissions

Thoughts, ideas and plenty of hot air.

Posted by: Kevin Casey

Brett – I love you, man. I started watching football because of you. I love the NFL because of you. I have a 5′8″ (okay, 5″71/2) body divot in my couch because we’ve spent 3 hours together every Sunday for the past 19 years.

Categories:
News
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Tags:
branding
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8 Comments

Posted by: Kevin Casey

20 Ways to Bend the Trend.

So, things aren’t going so well… sales soft, traffic down, competition at your heels, customers not showing the love, team rowing in different directions.

Maybe you don’t need that fancy marketing plan in the 3 ring binder after all.

Instead, try all or as many of these 20 mini game changers and see what happens.

Categories:
News
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Tags:
strategy,
tips
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7 Comments

Posted by: Sid Williams

I’m sure we’re all very aware of the idea that by taking great risks we can sometimes reap great rewards. Unfortunately, in the business of marketing risk rarely seems to happen. Projects that push us creatively don’t seem to come along very frequently, and it’s not often that we do more then just what you would expect: what’s safe.

Categories:
News
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Tags:
branding,
social media,
viral videos
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0 Comments

Posted by: Bill Hickey

Live! From PEI!

Reading the news this morning, I noticed the VOCM question of the day — “Do you agree with ACOA contributing $200,000 to attract the show ‘Live! With Regis and Kelly’ to Prince Edward Island?”

Sadly, but not surprisingly, 60% of respondents felt this was a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.

Categories:
News
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Tags:
advertising,
Marketing,
tourism
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9 Comments

Posted by: Kevin Casey

MBWA, or “Managing By Wandering Around”, was a concept in the late 70’s.

Welcome to 2010. I think MBWA still works.

A VP Marketing that I have been dealing with for 24 months spends as much time wandering around in the trenches and his stores as he does on his desk. He even schedules it.

Categories:
News
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Tags:
strategy,
tips
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4 Comments

Posted by: Kevin Casey

Sorry for being repetitive, but I really, really hate mission statements.

Categories:
News
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Tags:
branding,
strategy
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4 Comments

Posted by: Sid Williams

So if you haven’t noticed, British Petroleum, better known as BP, has a bit of a public image problem. It’s something that many people and companies have had to deal with at some point in their lives. Unfortunately for BP though, this one is not going to be swept under the rug.

Categories:
News
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Tags:
environment,
ethics,
public relations
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1 Comment

Posted by: Ed Roche

Just ask Winston Churchill. Well, maybe that won’t be so easy unless of course you’re a clairvoyant with a direct line to the hereafter. But if you could, I’m sure the famous Prime Minister of England could teach you a thing or two about keeping it simple.

Categories:
News
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Tags:
branding,
strategy
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5 Comments

Posted by: Kevin Casey

Start with the WHY, not the WHAT.

I am neck deep in the middle of reading about a powerful principle from a guy I had never heard of before last week. His name is Simon Sinek (check him out at startwithwhy.com).

It goes something like this:

People don’t buy WHAT you do; they buy WHY you do it.

There’s a whole book on that simple sentence. Stay with me here for a minute, cause it’s powerful stuff.

Categories:
News
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6 Comments

Posted by: Kevin Casey

An empowered employee: A person that has the power to make decisions without a boss or supervisor lurking over their shoulder. A person that can go off-script, bend the rules and do what they believe is the right thing to do for the customer without fear of losing their job.