Advertising existentialism? Really? Isn't that equal parts highbrow and stupid? No. Because if you understand the need for meaning, it prevents you from creating meaningless advertising. Understanding the need for a message helps your advertising matter--and helps you bring customers to your business. 

What will happen when Slow Burn marketing appears live and presents a new brand to 45 employees--changing the business's name and giving it a newly defined mission after 38 years? The results might surprise you. 

There may be no better category whose branding and advertising better shows us how to NOT brand and advertise than this one. Blather and ad-speak abound. But it's really not that hard for a small business to do it well--and we see an easy-to-understand example of how it can be done easily and simply with little effort. 

The Pepsi Cola and Kendall Jenner fiasco has been dramatically upstaged by Heineken's "Worlds Apart" video, where strangers with opposing world views are forced to cooperate and have a conversation. So, what does this big-brand throw-down have to offer the small-business marketer? Quite a lot actually--especially when it comes to cashing in on emotional content. 

Huge amounts of time, money and hot air are wasted on the notion of being a disruptive brand. Here now, we explain  how that makes no sense. Disruption is really just a repackaging of an old-fashioned, easy-to-understand quality that can make a smart business owner enormously wealthy. 

What is the deal with a brand that is unapproachable, that subjects the customer to mockery, that causes pain both physical and psychic, bleeding and blisters, and is intensely sought after and highly selective? Here you are: this is the Barkley...

We continue with the idea of overnight success as a sexy, internationally known cult brand. Is that even possible? Yes it is--if you're prepared to spend several years working your butt off. But this couple is following a dream, making stuff happen--and has climbed to #1 in their niche out of more than 200 similar businesses rated on a major social media site. Big-brand thinking for small-business marketing, indeed. 

Overnight success as a sexy, internationally known cult brand? is that even possible? Yes it is--if you're prepared to spend several years working your butt off. But this couple is following a dream, making stuff happen--and has climbed to #1 in their niche out of more than 200 similar businesses rated on a major social media site. Big-brand thinking for small-business marketing, indeed. 

Ask the internet. They'll tell ya, right? Crowd sourcing, focus grouping, asking ANYONE'S opinion without judiciously picking your subjects, and you will find a special kind of hellacious mayhem penetrates your branding and marketing. 

Accidentally tuning into a Hot AC station left me listening to some whole new advertising--and providing a profitable lesson in branding and advertising for the small-business owner, especially if you're a dentist or oral surgeon. It also provides a valuable lesson in how your branding and subsequent Google ads might not be stacking up against the competition.