It’s Raining Marketing Bullshit It’s a marketing crap explosion out there. There is too much content and jargon-laden stuff chasing too little mindshare. In 2010, Google’s then CEO, Eric Schmidt, proclaimed that there is more content created every two days than in all of human history up through 2003. More recently, IBM stated that 90% [...]

Kathy sat down with Laurie Kretchmar recently to discuss “Caine’s Arcade,” a viral sensation, and why everyone needs a “Nirvan.” Laurie is a communications pro and social media evangelist for great causes and companies. A former journalist for Fortune and Working Woman magazines, Laurie served as Editor in Chief and VP at Women.com Networks, the [...]

I’ve written about Hubspot before. The company has a great sense of humor and it shows in its content, videos, and social media marketing. All business happens between people. And small businesses have to have a sense of humor to make it these days. It’s tough out there with big data, clutter, and all the [...]

Yesterday, May 23rd, I had the opportunity to chat with one of my favorite people on my radio show – fellow improviser, instructor, and facilitator, Jeff Ringgold. Jeff – my friend, mentor and tor-mentor! – has been performing and teaching improvisation for years in the SF Bay Area and in Los Angeles. When he’s not [...]

I gave a workshop recently about humanizing products and marketing, and we talked about why narrative and great stories matter during design and in our customer communications. Stories of empathy and customer needs inform the design process, and, when we know what challenge we’re addressing with our products, we then know how to tell the [...]

On Saturday, May 18, I gave a workshop to the SVPMA – the Silicon Valley Product Management Association – on how to use customers’ human needs to design better products and craft marketing stories. That’s how you humanize and align product with marketing! Stories don’t just happen after a product is designed. Stories about customers [...]

As a stage improviser, I love playing with the audience and creating stories in real-time. As a marketer that often applies improvisational tools to improve client outcomes, being prepared and still knowing when to ditch the playbook is a very important balancing act. Improvisation does not mean “winging it.” Improvising requires preparation, fluency, and knowledge [...]

I had the great pleasure of chatting with my friend and fellow marketing colleague, Jennifer LeBlanc, on Thursday, May 9th about leapfrogging your brand. Your brand is an asset and one we don’t give as much attention to these days – we’re too busy being buried in tactical busy-ness. It’s time to elevate the discussion, [...]

On Thursday, May 2nd, I talked about the latest research on neuroscience and neuromarketing and how it applies to storytelling. What should marketers know so they can better connect with customers? Listen to the podcast and find out. Listen to internet radio with kathyklotzguest on BlogTalkRadio Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook [...]

I’ve written a lot about knowing your core purpose and telling that story in marketing. It’s your most important one. And I’ve had a number of conversations recently on this exact topic. So the blog post below is an updated version of the original piece I wrote about 1.5 years ago: Great Marketing Answers the [...]

Stories are currency. They travel, persuade and differentiate. They speak to who we are and what we value. Sometimes the best stories require us to get naked – metaphorically speaking, of course. That means being vulnerable. And we hate being vulnerable. Naked Conversations, a seminal book by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, talked about authenticity [...]

We all know there is way too much jargon in tech. I make it my mission to fight it. It’s pervasive. Jargon, like a virus, multiplies. Jargon hurts your business. There is just too much noise out there; and if I can’t ‘get’ what you do, I’ll move on. Venture Beat Magazine had a great [...]

Crapendectomy. One silly, made-up word caused quite a stir this week. I was asked to provide a webinar to an organization recently. They invited me and, by extension, my voice. My *authentic* voice. There is too much noise in the world and too much marketing that lacks meaning. In an age of so much “data,” [...]