When I was six or seven years old, my grandfather took a trip to Australia and brought me back a boomerang. While I thought it was the coolest thing, no matter how much I practiced throwing it, it would never come […]

Do you regularly attend networking events? Do you have a system for processing the names and business cards you gather to quickly follow-up with new contacts? New to my market, I’ve made it a goal to get out of the office […]

Ah… “Drive Sales.” Is there a company that doesn’t have “sales driving” as a key strategy? It can’t be much simpler than a choice of three levers. (1)Find New Customers Create a New Market with a new product or service, or […]

At Idea Sandbox we talk a lot about being childlike and using your imagination… how solving problems is about creativity and how creativity is driven by your ability to imagine new ideas… I found this interesting bit about being more like […]

One of the best starting points for a strategy session is at the end of it. Starting by clearly expressing what the end results should be, serves as a clear target for participants to aim for. I’m talking about more than […]

[The garage where Hewlett and Packard started HP, 1939 photo] Founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard had the right idea when they first built their company. They believed if you had passion for what you did – and did it with […]

We are proud to be contributing to the new “direct to fan” platform, Tidbitts. They’ve pulled together a wide variety of expert contributors who provide a weekly bite-sized chunk of interesting content. Idea Sandbox is providing innovative business growth ideas exclusive […]

POINT: John Moore The price of a product doesn’t necessarily affect its marketing plan. Objectives still need to be set. Strategies must be identified. Tactics need to be developed. Constraints (budget & timing) must be listed. None of that changes with […]

We all want our customers to return to us. In a moment of choice, we hope they would choose us again over a competitor. That they’ll be loyal to us. Google will provide you with thousands of ideas for both reward […]

POINT: John Moore “Give, and you shall receive.” It’s an old and overused proverb. And for good reason… it works. The more kindness we give others, the more kindness we receive. The more knowledge we share with others, the more knowledge […]

Today’s the final day of the virtual book tour for Converge: Transforming Business at the Intersection of Marketing and Technology by Bob Lord and Ray Velez. On Monday… Ray Velez expanded upon the major themes from the book over at Scott […]

POINT: John Moore The surest way a brand will form emotional connections with customers is through its unique personality. It’s also the surest (and strongest) way for us to form emotional connections with people. Think about your close circle of friends. […]

POINT: Paul Williams A unique selling proposition or unique selling point, or USP can be described as “what you would advertise that would make customers switch brands.” You’ll also see or hear POD – point of difference, and UPB – unique […]

John St., an advertising agency out of Canada, has a new service: Buyral. The tool that guarantees your video to go viral. With Buyral you don’t have to hope for thousands of views, it can guarantee millions. When it comes to […]

This Election Day, the Washington, DC area yoga community is offering complimentary yoga classes all day long…50 studios across DC, Virginia and Maryland all with free classes. The headline on local signage reads…”on a day of great divide, yoga unites. Election […]

Last Wednesday I participated in the Wines of Chile Blogger Tasting: A Chilean Terroir Master Class, a virtual tasting sponsored by Wines of Chile and organized by their agency, the thomas collective. This genius marketing event was a two hour virtual event […]

by Shannon Jones This weekend I was reminded of the power of a simple, inexpensive and easy marketing tool … the t-shirt. At last month’s Wine Bloggers Conference in Oregon, we visited Willamette Valley Vineyards. Willamette is the name of Oregon’s […]

I hope your week is off to a great start. I thought you might like to read two recent interviews featuring Idea Sandbox and our approach to creativity and problem solving. They were conducted just a few weeks ago. I hope […]

The three secrets to being more innovative and hosting better meetings are to… involve the right PEOPLE, choose and use the right PROCESS, and hold your meeting in the right PLACE. 99% of the time, hosting your meeting at your offices […]

When creating a marketing offer, you’ve got to make sure they are as meaningful to your customer as they are for your business. Today, my old* dentist sent the following automated email. As we near the end of 2011, I wanted […]

It is no surprise; there is more bad brainstorming than good. As someone who leads brainstorm sessions, you’re going to face jaded audiences—folks with rock bottom expectations. In addition to the ideas and solutions generated during the meeting, the way you […]

3 People x 5 Ideas = 125 Ideas Grade school arithmetic would lead you to believe when you have three (3) people in a room, each with five (5) ideas, and you’ll have a total of 15 ideas. Luckily, brainstorming isn’t […]

When the German physiologist and physicist Hermann Helmholtz was seventy years old [in 1898], he was asked at his birthday party to analyze his thought processes. Later, Graham Wallas, in his [1926] book The Art of Thought, formulated Helmholtz’s ideas into […]

You’re nearly ready for next week’s problem solving session… × Problem clearly defined and the objectives of the day outlined? Check. × Silly-Puddy, Play-Doh, and Slinkys? Check. × Flip charts, colored markers, Post-It notes? Check. But what about snacks, drinks, and […]

At times, has your company or team ever felt lost at sea? I recently built an exercise for a company that was ready to grow… and while they had goals in mind – a destination – they weren’t sure where they […]

  Not too long ago… In a business galaxy not too far away… John Moore and I were retail marketing managers at Starbucks Coffee. Our hands were always dirty, working in the trenches designing and implementing marketing programs to acquire new […]

Meetings. We have too many of them. Many Most aren’t productive. They are a necessary evil. But they don’t necessarily have to be evil… There are all sorts of strategies when hosting meetings. If you keep them small, you’ll encounter less […]

Our current options for great places to hold meetings are minute compared to the number of important out-of-office meetings we conduct. While there are a handful of creatively crafted locations in the United States, our overwhelming options are hotel meeting rooms […]

Why haven’t you hired Idea Sandbox to work with you yet? I’m assuming either… (a)You have a crack team of brainstormers and strategists in-house, and therefore don’t need to hire me. (b)You desperately want to hire me, but your office currently […]

Happy Birthday Jules Verne! Thank goodness Jules pursued his passion for writing instead of law (for which he attended university). And, had a good publisher friend in Pierre-Jules Hetzel – who helped improve Verne’s writing. My impressions of Jules Verne have […]

The most up to date list of locations can be found on the Places page within Brainstorming Tools section. You have to love when someone “makes your case” – that is – says or supports something you believe in as well. […]

While I wouldn’t brand myself a meeting fairie, per se… Seth does a great job wrote today… What would happen if your organization hired a meeting fairie? The fairie’s job would be to ensure that meetings were short, efficient and effective. […]

Five secrets to make even stronger, meaningful connections with your Twitter followers. For each and every person who has chosen to follow you on Twitter: Read their profile. Follow and explore the link they provided in their bio. Send a personal […]

Sand For Your Inbox October 2010 I’m excited to share with you a free Guide To Great Reading which includes fifteen books we recommend in the categories of: Creative Thinking & Innovation, Be Remarkable, and Brand Building. I know you’ll love […]

The lead at your last brainstorm session probably preambled with something like this: “Remember team, there is no such things as a bad idea in brainstorming. And there are no boundaries. Let the sky be the limit!” They were correct. Yet, […]

A great quote found Roger von Oech’s book, ““A Whack on the Side of the Head” reads as follows… “Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone elseand thinking something different. The quote is attributed to the Nobel prize […]

For the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China wanted to ensure rain storms took place where and when they want them to… That did NOT include the opening ceremony. So, the Weather Modification Department in China seeded approaching clouds with activators to […]

“How do we define service at this company?” If you were to send that question in an e-mail to the person responsible for operations, the person responsible for hiring, the person responsible for marketing, the person responsible for sales, the head […]

John Moore, the marketing medic at Brand Autopsy, has written another book that offers succinct marketing and branding advice inspired by working at Starbucks Coffee Company. It is called: Tough Love: Scripting the Drive, Drama, and Decline Of Galaxy Coffee.” Although… […]

Starbucks is trying to repeat what brought them initial success as a company – taking a low quality product and offering a higher quality alternative. They started with brewing rich, bold coffee and introduced North America to European latte and cappuccino […]

Starbucks Coffee Company on Monday the 17th of May in the year 2010 has “jumped the whale.”* Starbucks announced today they will start offering Starbucks Natural Fusions, flavored coffee beans in grocery stores. For those of you who remember when Starbucks […]

Imagineer Jargon: “Weenie” The Imagineer Term Weenie – Walt Disney’s playful term for a visual element that could be used to draw people into and around a space. According to Disney Imagineers, a weenie is big enough to be seen from […]

Being the first, the best, or the only one doing something (and in a way meaningful and relevant to your customers) is a strategy your company can use to stand out from your competition. Something that is relevant to all your […]

This short stack of used sticky notes contains, without exaggeration, tens of millions of dollars in good ideas. I wouldn’t classify them as “great” or “revolutionary” ideas. Not rocket science. Most, fairly basic. Yet, if these ideas were acted upon, they […]

Taking your business from good → to great → to remarkable can seem a daunting task. But, it may be easier than you think. The bad news from a customer perspective is that companies aren’t doing the basics properly, let alone […]

Mocha Valencia Frappuccino, was the one of the new beverages in the summer of 2002 at Starbucks Coffee. I was the marketing manager in charge of the summer promotion. The beverage team described the taste profile like eating pieces of “chocolate […]

I invite you to visit the Marketing Profs Daily Fix blog today, where I posted an article about a brilliant Amsterdam-based ad campaign for Mini Cooper cars. The ad was created locally by UbachsWisbrun/JWT. In the article, I also share what […]

Last week I prepared a recipe for an Italian dish that calls for fresh-peeled tomatoes. I have a vegetable peeler… nice and sharp with a rubber grip. I’ve used it for carrots, potatoes, zucchini, squash… However, have you ever tried to […]

Below is a word-for-word cut-and-paste from today’s Seth Godin’s blog post: “What do you need me to do?” “What do you need me to do?” This is a question that defines the person asking it. It is very different from, “here’s […]

Some weeks ago, I shared a decision making method that utilized a Two-By-Two Diagram to rank/filter ideas using two key parameters. While I received positive feedback, I was asked what to use when you need to rank/filter ideas that involve more […]

Unity promotes cohesiveness. Variety creates interest. A business lesson taken from classical music. Ultimately, all composition comes down to a balance between unity and variety. Too much unity, too much of the same thing, leads to boredom. But, too much variety […]

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a build-a-brand kit that provided all the pieces necessary to construct the perfect business? You could have it delivered to the office just like a cabinet from IKEA. The flat carton would contain the […]

So you are… …A marketer. …A sales person. …A blogger. …A [_ _ _ _ _ _ _]. But is that settling? Why be A, when you could be… …THE marketer? …THE sales person? …THE blogger? …THE [_ _ _ _ […]

I love tools that are simple to use, easy to learn, but offer profound impact. The performance chart is one of those tools. They consists of a group of continua (left-to-right axis) where you plot “where you are” versus “where you […]

This past weekend I visited Disneyland Paris.   [Fig. 1 – Sleeping Beauty Castle]In addition to themepark attractions and constant entertainment while browsing the merchandise/souvenir stores… among the mugs, hats, and shirts I came across the display pictured below…   [Fig. […]

The story of Little Red Riding Hood was told to Italian and French kids way back in the 1600’s. In the 1800’s, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm popularized this tale along with their other “Grimm Fairytales.” With 400 years, nearly 9,000 versions […]

It’s always an honor when someone cares to hear your advice. It is my pleasure to share with you a BlogRadio interview I was part of on Saturday evening that featured… well… me and Idea Sandbox! Jenny Ward, the Chief Play […]

The internet is like a multi-story department store… You could spend all day exploring different levels, come back the next day and find more stuff you hadn’t seen the day before. I originally missed finding this talk, but happy to share […]

Have you ever been in a brainstorming or strategy meeting where all the elements seemed just right and ideas just kept flowing and flowing? You and your team were able to hit ideas “out of the park?” Chances are you had… […]

Starbucks Coffee Company’s CMO, Terry Davenport, provided a preview of their new long-term brand campaign on their Ideas In Action blog. Terry declares that Starbucks is finally going to start telling its story. (1) I hope so. (2) I hope it […]

It’s one thing for me to tell you what a great resource Idea Sandbox is. I sure think so, and my mom does as well. However, when a third party makes an unsolicited recommendation, the advice is more credible. In the […]

New York based comedian Demetri Martin has a new show called “Important Things With Demetri Martin.” It airs on Comedy Central at 10:30 pm. (I’ve included Demetri’s flyer here to the right.) In each half-hour episode, Demetri explores a single topic… […]

Hilton Group Hotels (Hilton Hotels, Doubletree Hotels, Embassy Suites Hotels) have recently launched a new, concierge-style program called Requests Upon Arrival. When booking online, hotel guests can pre-order items delivered to their room for arrival. They include no-charge items such as […]

Check out Jena McGregor’s piece at BusinessWeek. Jena highlights great ideas that came about as a result of/during tough times. Very interesting. Makes you wonder what will come of our tough times. A History Of Big Ideas Enjoy.

Kindle is an electronic book reader created by Amazon. There’s been some hubbub lately as the new, upgraded version is now available. Seth Godin reviews it on his site today offering a slew of great ideas for Amazon to consider. Why […]

I don’t currently live near an L.L.Bean. I don’t currently own L.L. Bean product. But from this moment forward, I will stop in an L.L. Bean any chance I get. I will visit their website to see if there is anything […]

I snapped this a couple of weeks ago while shopping in Washington DC… L.L.Bean has it right. They’re not offering unusual discounts, slashing prices, cutting quality or any non-sense. As Chris McCormick the CEO says… they’ve never played games with their […]

How would you like some free advice that may help to grow your business? This “Friday the 13th” is your lucky day! A couple of weeks ago, I crafted a post for the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog… I asked for help […]

This panel is part of marketer/author/artist Tom Fishburne’s Brand Camp cartoon series. The “Idea Factory” is Tom’s evaluation of “factory-thinking,” a thought inspired by Seth Godin’s book, Tribes. Tom’s illustration points out how many organizations have constructed an efficient “factory” equipped […]

This ad just arrived in my inbox. Very clever. This is to promote Valentine’s giving… The tagline reads: “The ultimate love note. Give an engraved iPod nano this Valentine’s Day.” The ad is clean. Clever. Features the product. It’s fresh and […]

Today is “Black Friday,” the beginning of the American Christmas shopping season, and one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year. Some shoppers think it is called Black Friday because – to take advantage of the deals – you […]

The Wall Street Journal published a piece, by writer Raymund Flandez, highlighting methods restaurants are taking to cut costs to offset reduced customer traffic and record-high cost of goods. Restaurants are having to find creative ways to cover costs without increasing […]

As of this moment, Starbucks stock is trading at $8.65. That’s pretty low considering they were over $40 around 18-months ago. One of the challenges Starbucks has faced in recent years has been growth pressure from Wall Street. There were times […]

The Age of Conversation, that is… I’m excited to share with you that The Age of Conversation: Why Don’t They Get It – the new marketing book written by 237 writers, marketers, and business people (including me) from 15 countries – […]

Originally featured as post on the MarketingProfs Daily Fix site. When times are bad the future is uncertain. But, quite honestly, when times are good the future is *just* as uncertain. The only way to predict the future is to create […]

Grow Your Business (1) of (2) Announcements It’s been sorta quite in the Sandbox lately. I’ve been working behind-the-scenes to make what I do more targeted, and more meaningful for you. Just as I recommend to clients, it is important to […]

Suffering from idea block? Like writer’s block, you know your idea or solution is just below the surface… but you can’t quite dig it out. You need an idea shovel. Well, Idea Sandbox has help! We present to you, the Idea […]

It’s listed in the official handbook of marketers, that for at least 36 hours after the Super Bowl, you must work as many references into your daily speaking and writing as possible. I didn’t have the benefit of being able to […]

Starbucks announced it is going to stop selling heated sandwiches as the smell interferes with the scent of the coffee. Gutsy move. Killing a significant cash contributor in the name of experience takes moxie. But it is the right thing to […]

Are you trying to figure out what to do with your life? What to be when you grow up? This installment of “Sand for Your Inbox” is a special edition. I have handcrafted a proven technique that will help you answer […]

In Steve Martin’s memoir, Born Standing Up, Steve shares the challenge of trying to consistently provide a “good” performance. I see a direct relationship between what Steve comments about and the same concept in business… specifically customer service. The consistent work […]

I have a quick story for you that involves my mom, dad, a latte, and creative problem solving. Mom and dad were out-of-town on a business trip. In the hotel room, minutes before they had to leave for a dinner event, […]

As stated about three-quarters of the way into your Marketing 101 book… Products, like people, have been viewed as having a life cycle. The product life cycle concept describes the stages a product goes through in the marketplace. [click for larger […]

Personal effectiveness. Time management. Productivity. We’re on the lookout for tools and methods that may grease our personal productivity gears and help us get more done, more efficiently. In that spirit, the folks at the Idea Sandbox Institute have compiled this […]

Washington DC-area California Tortilla restaurants offered a $1-off your purchase if you beat the cashier playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. A really cool idea. I just heard about this from John Moore (from Brand Autopsy), who saw it on the website of […]

I was really impressed with the delivery company DHL when I saw that they had a moving office in Amsterdam in the form of a canal boat. What a great idea… Canals weave all over Amsterdam (actually more canals than Venice), […]

Last week I had the privilege of visiting Monticello. The home, plantation, and community designed and built by Thomas Jefferson in Virginia in 1769. You’ve seen Monticello a million times, but may have never thought about it… It’s the image on […]

Do you look for “Aha!” moments when you read? I do. I read mostly business related books – once in a while dive into the classics – but mostly business and creativity related books. I read especially for those Aha! moments… […]

This article is the 5th in a series of 5 where John Moore and I, two former Starbucks marketers, offer recommended changes based upon Howard Schultz’s email to the Starbucks leadership team. I have said for 20 years that our success is […]

In the late 1800s, in a time when lack of clean water and sanitation was causing epidemics, a local chemical maker in Vienna, Austria needed a publicity stunt to let the public know how well his products worked. He purchased two […]

The crux of Guy Kawasaki’s book “The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything” is about turning ideas into action! In chapter 9, “The Art of Branding,” Guy offers advice on how to create a remarkable […]

It’s important to pay attention to the points of contact you have with your customers. These are known as customer touchpoints. These are all the times/places when you or your business comes in contact with customers or potential customers. A simple […]

The beginning of a new year is resolution season. How do you avoid the let-down, after you have enthusiastically created resolutions for a new year, starting with a clean slate, and by February you’ve stopped working at them? Here is a […]

In their book “Why Johnny Can’t Brand: Rediscovering the Lost Art of the Big Idea,” Bill Schley and Carl Nichols Jr. share their idea of the dominant selling idea (DSI) and how to create a #1 brand. While you may be […]

In his book “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable” Seth Godin points out that… “In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.” What stands out more in a field of average cows than a […]

Not just different, but dramatically different is what Doug Hall prescribes… Who: Doug Hall Inventor, author, consultant, and recent judge on the ABC television network show “American Inventor.” What: “Dramatic Difference” What is it?: Your job is to create a MONOPOLY. […]

How do you break your company or product away from the pack of sameness? Welcome to the first in a series of guides highlighting techniques marketing experts suggest to be different and build awareness… Here are some thoughts by Tom Peters… […]

Many of us are charged with the job of building awareness of our brand, company, product, and/or ourselves. The best minds in business agree, to get noticed you need to be different. Not just slightly, but very different… Tom Peters writes […]

A friend of mine, Virginia Miracle (great name, huh?) is the Director of Word of Mouth (great title, huh?) at Brains on Fire – a naming and identity company based in Greenville, SC. They “help companies build and sustain excitement about […]

Historic photograph reveals that an Imaginary Board of Directors was consulted to invent time travel. Scientist Dr. Emmet “Doc” Brown (b. 1920) consulted his Imaginary Board for each of his key projects, including the invention of time travel. As seen in […]

My original plans for an Idea Sandbox location included a place in Seattle for people to come to brainstorm… A Disneyland for creative thinking… a three-roomed brainstorming theme park. You could book themed rooms… a mad inventor’s lab (complete with bubbling […]