Kaplan Marketing

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More Voldemorts?

May 15 in Uncategorized Written by: Don Kaplan

For years we’ve been lamenting the fact that there are no heroes. There seems to be at least a chink in the armor of any famous person of possible merit. Maybe that’s why the most popular movies feature comic book superheroes. In the meantime back at the ranch, we have loads of villains. And that may not be a bad thing. Villains aren’t boring. They are usually the most interesting characters in a drama – Hannibal Lechter, Heath Ledger/Jack Nicholson as The Joker, Professor Moriarty...
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Plight of the Luddite

Apr 24 in Uncategorized Written by: Don Kaplan

So I know a guy named Lew Dight. He has earned the nickname “Luddite” because even when he uses technology intelligently, it still bites him in the hand. He turns on his computer and is deluged with updates from Adobe, Logitech, Skype, anti-Malware, iPhone, and a browser; then the virus scan takes over. By actual count 7 updates in 4 days. When his computer is finally given back to his control, he discovers that it now takes 7 steps to do what he had accomplished in one. In the meantime,...
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Can Cold Calling Lead to Frostbite?

Apr 02 in Uncategorized Written by: Don Kaplan

Once again, I'm taking the advice I give to clients -- re-purpose good articles. Can Cold Calling Lead to Frostbite? In the 19th and early 20th centuries, sales were made mostly by pounding on doors (cold calling). Once the phone became ubiquitous, pounding on keys took over. (Actually it was spinning a dial). Today, with a multitude of purchasing alternatives such as cable, email, online advertising, malls, etc., a number of businesses (including,...
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The Missionary Position

Mar 20 in Uncategorized Written by: Don Kaplan

Words, content, focus or energy expended on thoughts that are not your main idea can obscure, or even worse, distract from your main idea. Of course, the most obvious way to accomplish this singularity of focus is to edit words and avoid digressions. Where do you start? ELIMINATE MISSION STATEMENTS Ask yourself, “Have you ever made a phone call, bought a product, or decided on a vendor based on its mission statement?” Most mission statements are either trite or utterly pretentious. ...
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Geek or Luddite?

Feb 06 in Uncategorized Written by: Don Kaplan

People have always been defined by their relationships to other things – nature, weather, gods, family, etc. Today what was once a small aspect of life has become paramount – or close to it – technology. How do we use, resist, adapt, or obsess over the latest app or cell tablet or globot? The news media are so enraptured that in the place of world news, we now hear about every new app and every update of mobile phones on an almost daily basis. Many of them fade in importance within...
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Under The Influence: Protect Your Brand

Dec 28 in Uncategorized Written by: Don Kaplan

Everybody’s a critic. Funny -- but truer than ever. We know that word of mouth and posts on Face Book can make or break a business, so, we should make sure that our employees (e.g., receptionist, sales staff, delivery people), our place of business, products and services reflect our brand to the public. Of course, it’s difficult to monitor how a delivery person drives or the appearance of an outside sales person. Here are five pragmatic ways to make impressions positive – and possibly...
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Ingredient #5 – Don’t Let It Be

Dec 08 in marketing Written by: Don Kaplan

Four previous posts described simple but important steps that make a web site more effective. All of them were low or no cost and are available on my blog. Now that you have taken these steps and your website is fortified with these essentials, you’re ready to leverage your site. Remember that your objective was to convert visitors to your site into customers. Now go get more visitors. Email, mail, publicity, viral marketing, networking, blogging, LI, FB, Tw, cross-marketing, advertising...
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Ingredient #4 – Coax Comments

Nov 21 in Uncategorized Written by: Don Kaplan

REVIEW - FIVE INGREDIENTS for WEB DEVELOPMENT This is the fourth of five posts - each describing a simple but important step to make a web site more effective. These steps are too often omitted by webmasters. All the previous posts are available here on my blog. The fourth ingredient is to take measures to elicit comments and/or participation from your visitors. Encouraging comments is critical because it provides: Valuable and direct insight into your prospects’ needs and wants A means...
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Ingredient #3 – Follow the Footprints

Nov 06 in Uncategorized Written by: Don Kaplan

The goal of your website is to have visitors to your site respond -- with a phone call, email, or order/purchase. It’s unlikely that all your visitors will be converted to a sale or contact, but you can still gain valuable insights from visitor behavior. Analytics (e.g., Google Analytics) will reveal such valuable information as: keywords that brought them to your site how they moved through the site which pages they fled from and which they pages enthralled them where they come from when...
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Why the Red Sox Fall Was Like Unprofessional Marketing

Oct 27 in Uncategorized Written by: Don Kaplan

The most common errors I see in marketing are hauntingly similar to the inept performance of the disappointing Boston Red Sox this fall: Misplaced Focus -- relying on a few “star” initiatives to carry the load Inadequate preparation – jumping into an “opportunity” without really setting your objectives and expectations Lack of coordination – individuals not leveraging the synergy of the team Poor timing – failure to sustain effort, quitting at the wrong time Ineffective...
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About Don Kaplan

Briefly, I started as a teacher (history, social science, constitutional law, etc.) and loved it. However, I promised myself that I wouldn’t limit myself to one definition in my epitaph. I wanted to keep informing, teaching, and writing. So I got into publishing penny savers, where I had to sell and create advertising to generate revenue. Customers liked the ads and asked me to do all their ads so I started my full service advertising agency Kaplan & Stuart Inc. Grew from one to ten people and represented hundreds of clients over a 10 year period. I supervised account service, wrote all the copy, directed the creative, and developed and produced TV and radio ads. In the early 90’s, I decided to expand the epitaph one more time and became a strategic marketing consultant.

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More Voldemorts?

Plight of the Luddite

Can Cold Calling Lead to Frostbite?

The Missionary Position

Geek or Luddite?

Under The Influence: Protect Your Brand

Ingredient #5 – Don’t Let It Be

Ingredient #4 – Coax Comments

Ingredient #3 – Follow the Footprints

Why the Red Sox Fall Was Like Unprofessional Marketing

DK4M Blog

About Don Kaplan

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