A marketing genius once said: “Rules enable one to follow. Knowledge enables one to lead.”
Genius Doesn’t Happen By Accident
Fact is, not all ideas are created equal. Not by a long shot.
I determine if an idea is valuable by a few criteria:
- Does it help isolate the correct target? Or does it disperse me?
- Does it help me in being (or improving myself as) a marketing genius?
- Does it simplify an area that seems complex?
- Does it move me toward action rather than idle contemplation and endless searching for more (and more and more) answers?
- Does it make me feel (and act) smarter or does it only make the writer seem smarter? (If I am only impressed with the writer’s insights versus my own new understandings, something is very wrong.)
You and I are in the business of succeeding. Of helping others in some way.
We like to succeed but don’t want to spend 2 months or half a year to find some useful insights to guide you to smart, informed and effective steps to take.
14 Genius Quotes from
Steve Jobs To Albert Einstein
I decided to put together some quotes I find useful when all else seems to be chaotic. Some are by those known to be marketing geniuses. Others are by great thinkers in different fields. But as you’ll see, they can be used by us to sharpen our marketing (and branding) genius skills. I present them to you here in no particular order.
- “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” Steve Jobs
- “Customers must recognize that you stand for something.” Howard Schultz, Starbucks
- “A brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com
- “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” George Bernard Shaw
- “If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.” David Ogilvy
- “Business to Business is a misnomer. Businesses don’t buy anything. People do.” Dan Kennedy
- “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Yogi Berra
- “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Henry Ford
- “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Peter Drucker, Management Consultant
- “Do or do not, there is no try.” Yoda
- “If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don’t let it worry you; nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else’s advertising.” David Ogilvy
- “I think the most important CEO task is defining the course that the business will take over the next five or so years. You have to have the ability to see what the business environment might be like a long way out, not just over the coming months. You need to be able to both set a broad direction, and also to take particular decisions along the way that make that broad direction unfold correctly.” Chris Corrigan, Famous Australian Businessman
- “Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.” Winston Churchill
- “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein
And just so nobody can accuse me of false advertising with my title, here’s that Albert Einstein quote on love:
- “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
Marketing Genius: Worth The Work
I have found the above quotes help to keep the ever-increasing epidemic of “guru-itis” at bay and our sanity properly protected from snake oil. By using a single quote to master each day, you and I move ourselves closer to being the marketing geniuses we each aspire (and need) to be.
Happy branding.