Once upon a time, a daughter asked her Mother why she cut the ends off the roast before putting it into the oven. “Because that’s how my Mother taught me,” she answered. Curious, the girl asked her Grandmother why this trick made a better roast. “Well I’m not sure, but my Mother taught me to […]
Once upon a time, in the land of Catalog Design, there lived a monster named “Templates.” This beast sucked the creativity out of the village of designers and wiped out an entire generation of innovative spreads. Its goal was to make all catalog pages look the same and remove any sign of brand uniqueness or […]
You might not realize this, but I have a lot in common with Elon Musk. Yes, the billionaire Tesla mogul and I share several things that might surprise you, including: 1. Fascination with space, and Mars in particular. Like Musk, I want to die on the red planet. Unlike Musk, I’d be fine if it […]
As 2018 came to a close and I archived my work for the year, it quickly registered that more B2B catalog pages moved across my desk last year than B2C catalog pages. A lot more. Catalogs play a critical role in B2B marketing in all the same ways they work in any consumer marketing mix. […]
We took a holiday hiatus here at J.Schmid. It was a chance for everyone to take stock of what’s happening outside the office and connect with family and friends. The extra time also provided the opportunity to dive deeper into news, podcasts and movies, and to generally get out more. Now, I’ve understood for a […]
Well, it’s a new year and, according to the experts, retail in 2019 will be driven by new technologies and evolving consumer attitudes and preferences as buyer demographics continue to skew younger. It’s both new AND old news, in that we hear some version of this every year. However, that’s because it’s true. Marketers who […]
What’s worth more than topline sales? Ask J.Crew, who just killed two of its fashion brands and accepted the resignation of a CEO who was successfully turning around a sales slump. What the heck? Why let someone who was successfully driving the biggest sales increase in 5 years go? To understand, first you need to […]
T’was two weeks before Christmas, and all through the night The CMO was thinking “What can we do better? What are we doing right?” A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is the person who sits up at night worrying about the customer journey and brand messaging – especially in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The […]
People don’t like to be sold to. Too many brands only sell; they only try to convince people to buy, buy, buy. But that’s not what customers want to hear. If you want to connect to people on a more emotional level, tell them your story. Tell them what you stand for, where you came […]
