McMarketing

I am writing this article with a FREE WI-FI connection from the #1 restaurant in the world… McDonald’s.  It’s just a part of a massive change that McDonald’s seems to be undergoing.

Marketing-wise, it seems McDonald’s is tired of being seen as just a kiddie place for cheap food and burgeoning waist lines, and they’ve decided to “class up the joint”, so to speak.  Either that, or they realize that kids cannot drive themselves, so they are trying to appeal to people my age that may or may not have kids.

Maybe it is because the Baby Boomers are becoming senior citizens, Gen-X’ers have entered mid-life, and Generation Y has crossed into their 30′s, but McDonald’s, too, has grown up!

The Bart Simpson Breakthrough

There is nothing new under the sun.  However, it is through the combination of non-new things that new breakthroughs occur.

Many of the greatest inventions and business ideas are really just combinations of other products, practices, and concepts.

• Combine a phonograph with a laser and you get the CD player.
• Combine a copy machine and a telephone, and presto!…fax machine.
• Most importantly, combine rich chocolate with delicious peanut butter and you get a scrumptious treat and a multi-million dollar candy business.

Combinations are not just used for inventing nifty new products.  By examining another industry and applying some of their concepts to your work, you can also make major advancements.

Real Life Combination Breakthroughs

Combination is how  Federal Express

Marketing is NOT Advertising!

Thanks to years of writing and producing radio commercials in Texas, the misuse (or fabrication) of several words has become “fingernails-on-the-chalkboard” to my ears.

These include so-called words and phrases like “supposebly” to mean “supposedly”, “irregardless” instead of just “regardless”, and “could care less” when people mean to say “could NOT care less”.

My most grating misuse of the English language?  “Two thousand AND nine” instead of “two thousand nine”.

One verbal pet peeve of mine is not as obvious as those.  It is the casual interchange of the terms “marketing” and “advertising”.

It seems many people, even advertising professionals, are under the mistaken impression that “marketing” is synonymous with “advertising”.