free tools
and our favorite marketing quotes...

Its a marketing site... we had to get the word “free” on here somewhere. If the materials below are helpful to you, that’s great. They’ve been helpful to us, and we pass them along in the spirit of friendship. If they are not helpful to you... well, you got your money’s worth. Scroll down to the bottom or click here to jump to our fave quotes.

the theory of reasoned action

This is a very helpful method for quantifying beliefs and attitudes in order to identify good leverage points for affecting behavior. Originally developed by Izek Azjen & Martin Fishbein in 1980 for use in the public health arena, it is also very helpful as a marketing planning tool. More.

the creative brief

The creative brief is a planning tool widely used by advertising agencies and marketing personnel when designing or implementing a marketing program. It can be used for programs directed at clients, employees, shareholders, potential investors, the media, or any other target group. It is a cooperative tool by which those involved in a project focus their thoughts and ideas. When used properly, it can also reduce the time and cost associated with marketing projects, as it requires all the key participants to agree on important factors at the onset of the project. The attached sample provides an overview of the tool and a blank worksheet form.

sponsorship ambassador program

Want an idea on how to improve your sponsorship program and present a better value-proposition to your intended sponsors? What if it also got your members more involved in sponsorship and cost almost nothing extra? Read on.

survey basics

If you’ve got a couple-ten-thousand bucks to have a high-end market research company design your surveys, then don’t worry about it. But if you ever develop surveys in-house to give to employees, customers and the general public, take a look at our survey guidelines.

brand matrix

All right. You’ve finally settled on an overarching brand message. But you’ve got salespeople, ops folks, and regular-old-employees who only know about your products and services from before the brand gestalt descended. How do you take the same-old-stuff and communicate how it fits into the wonderful new brand strategy. You, my friend, need a brand matrix.
 

quotes

The first quote in this section, the one from “Alice in Wonderland,” is, in our opinion, the most important marketing quote in history. The number of times we have heard of (and, to our chagrin, been involved in) marketing programs that “don’t much care where they want to get to” continues to astonish us. Marketing without goals is like basketball without baskets; a whole lot of dribbling, but no real point. And if you like the sound of that pithy statement, feel free to quote us.
 

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" [said Alice]
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where," said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

     - From “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll


In the factory we make cosmetics; in the drugstore we sell hope. Charles Revson

Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them. David Ogilvy

Customers buy for their reasons, not yours. Orvel Ray Wilson

Don't confuse motion with action. Ernest Hemingway

I once used the word "obsolete" in a headline, only to discover that 43% of housewives had no idea what it meant. In another headline I used the word "ineffable," only to discover that I didn't know what it meant myself. David Ogilvy

If you think advertising doesn't work, consider the millions of Americans that now think yogurt tastes good. Joe L. Whitley

Define yourself clearly - even if you have to mutter. W.C. Fields

You must have mindshare before you can have marketshare. Christopher M. Knight

To have great poets, there must be great audiences too. Walt Whitman

Marketing is not an event, but a process . . . It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end, for it is a process. You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause it. But you never stop it completely. Jay Conrad Levinson

If you make a product good enough, even though you live in the depths of the forest the public will make a path to your door, says the philosopher. But if you want the public in sufficient numbers, you would better construct a highway.
William Randolph Hearst

If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think. David Ogilvy

I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing.
The first, of course, is ransom notes... Philip Dusenberry

You can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen. You've got to say it in a way that people will feel in their gut. Because if they don't feel it, nothing will happen. William Bernbach

If you are writing about baloney, don't try to make it a Cornish hen, because that is the worst kind of baloney there is. Just make it darned good baloney. Leo Burnett

We read advertisements to discover and enlarge our desires. We are always ready - even eager - to discover, from the announcement of a new product, what we have all along wanted without really knowing it. Daniel Boorstin

Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief. Leo Burnett