Most products offer customers as many features and benefits as possible in order to lure shoppers toward a purchase. But then there are some companies that offer you less, and profit more. We’ll look at a book company that eliminated their books and made millions, an electronics company that broke all the rules by eliminating the recording function from a tape machine and made history, and how two companies looked at a shoe and made millions by throwing away the laces. 

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In our first episode of 2016, we look at how the marketing industry created many of our everyday rituals. We don't think twice about having bacon & eggs for breakfast, or taking a coffee break, or using soap to wash our hands. But each of those routine rituals was invented by marketing companies to sell more product. You may even be surprised to learn that when our kids trick or treat has a marketing story behind it.

Join us as we explore how these and many more rituals began and how they influence your life. 

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This is the final episode of our 10th season on CBC. And to celebrate, we turn the show over to you. That means Terry will be answering listener questions. He’ll talk about why he chose advertising as a profession, how political marketing differs from product marketing, whether the jingle is definitely dead, why some bad commercials actually work, and how he would advertise marijuana if it ever became legal. The questions are fun, insightful and amusing.

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This week, we take the marketing lessons from big brands and apply them… to you. If you have to sell yourself, sell your services, if you want more “likes” and followers, or if you’re looking for a job - this episode explores how to manage your social media, how to pick the best profile photo, how to maintain a consistent tone of voice, how to avoid cliches in your resume. It’s time to overhaul your personal brand.

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This week, we look at the impact of the Internet of Things on the world of marketing. Soon, most of the devices in our lives will be given a digital voice. Your fridge will be doing your weekly grocery shopping for you - and that means marketers will have to send discount coupons to your appliances now. Your car will be able to make appointments with a mechanic all by itself, and you can now order laundry detergent, coffee and bathroom tissue with the push of Wi-Fi Amazon Dash button in your home. We’ll look at the fine line between convenience and intrusion, and why marketers are looking forward the Internet of (marketing) Things.

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This is our annual episode dedicated to great stories from our Under The Influence research books that didn’t make our regular season. We’ll tell the story of why Tim Hortons always chooses brown bricks for their stores, how Best Buy helped men set up their electronics without offending their manhood, an amusing story about the problem of Ronald McDonald taking naps between scenes of a television commercial, and how Levis sold a product to the teenagers of Europe that they didn’t even want - but eventually loved.

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This week, we look at Famous Advertising Lawsuits. Because the stakes are so high in the world of marketing, it leads to some interesting - and odd - lawsuits. We’ll tell the story of how an elderly woman sued McDonald’s because her coffee spilled on her lap and why she won the case, how Microsoft came gunning for a 17 year-old Mike Rowe's website with the domain name www.MikeRoweSoft. com, how a Hollywood actress sued a store for tweeting a photo of her shopping there, and the amusing story of Hall & Oates suing a company over a cereal called Haulin’ Oats. Everyone rise, court is in session.

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This week, we explore how Product Packaging influences what you buy. We'll tell the story of how the famous Coke bottle was born, how the psychology behind packaging designs influence you in grocery stores, and how Tropicana and Tide learned the hard way that package design can be bad even when it's good.

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This week, we explore the world of product placement. From the first product placement in a movie in 1927, to E.T., to the latest movies and TV shows, advertisers look for opportunities to give their products starring roles. We’ll look at the history of product placement, how it evolved, and the most famous examples of how it went right - and how it went horribly wrong.

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This week, it’s Terry's annual look at his favourite brands. They may not be the coolest brands, or the newest or the biggest - they are just fascinating studies in marketing. Terry looks at an armoured truck company that decided to transport money instead of packages, a business that started because of spilt milk, a board game created to protest capitalism, and a 51 year-old game show that still attracts over 25 millions viewers per week.

Each wildly successful, each still going today, and each one of them survived because of an unforeseen opportunity.

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