Lochhead on Marketing

100 How To Write A Legendary Brand Story w/ Park Howell

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Stories are incredibly powerful. It is legendary. People fall in love based on the stories they tell themselves about each other. People go to war and start countries over stories. Furthermore, when stories are used to design a category and a brand, it creates massive enduring value.

In this episode of Lochhead on Marketing, we talk to the guru of the business of story himself, Park Howell, to educate us on how to construct legendary marketing stories and how story marketing and category design actually come together. Park also shares his fantastic thoughts on nursery rhymes and the Gettysburg address.

What Marketers Get Wrong About Storytelling

Most marketers are not award-winning screenwriters, they’re not great at long-form content like in Hollywood and Pixar. Park discusses how marketing comes down to just three words, one framework that is built on: and, but, and therefore (ABT). This perfect three-act structure is a complete customer framework that will allow the connection to the customer on an empathetic level and help develop the contrast in their problems.

“I've learned that this framework hooks the subconscious of your audience, which is always looking for this fight or flight. It’s a problem-solution dynamic that you are playing to the natural way your audience's brain creates meaning. Now what a lot of people do is they start with the problem in the ‘and’ statement. Start with the aspiration, what is it that your customer wants and then insert the problem in your ‘but’ statement. Therefore, here's my solution on how to help you get that. And the trick here is to have as much contrast between that aspiration and that problem as possible. A short, succinct, and specific contrast. If you do that, your audience will give you all the time you need in your therefore solution.” – Park Howell

How to End Up with A Captivating Story

Park encourages everyone to start in the middle through the ‘but’ statement and then proceed to answer the singular problem that needs to be solved. Once the singular problem is determined and boiled down, then jump to the ‘and’ statement, the specific audience, and lastly the ‘therefore statement’. Following the ABT framework can lead to amazing and captivating brand and founder stories.

He discusses that when somebody articulates the customer’s problem powerfully and effectively, the human brain makes the assumption that the person by definition must have the solution.

“A good story can kill a bad product quicker than anything. If you've got a great founder story, well told that has nothing to do with the product or offering, you create a disconnect there. There are a ton of those stories out there that have gone untold, and they are like gold sitting below your feet. You just have to unearth them and tell them well, but it has to tie to your why it is you do and what you do in your business. Huge believer in that.” – Park Howell

How Story Marketing and Category Design Unite

Christopher and Park discuss how to create legendary stories in context to the use of category design. Park comments one can do this by getting the ABT super focused so nobody can share the same ABT. Along with a little shadow on the category design, this little algorithm tool can help separate and differentiate from the competitors.

Park also discusses how the Gettysburg address and nursery rhymes all used ABT in their brilliant storytelling.

“If you go to the Gettysburg address, you'll see the Gettysburg address is a perfect and, but, therefore. Lincoln steps on stage and addresses the GRA crowd. Exactly two minutes, 272 words. Yet it's one of the most iconic, legendary leader addresses of all time. If you look at it, it's set up in a perfect and, but, and therefore for him to give. He was just a brilliant storyteller. He knew the power of contradiction and consequence, and that's what he was delivering that day. If you look at any nursery rhymer, most 90% of all nursery rhymes are an ABT.” – Park Howell

To know more about Park Howell and how to construct legendary marketing stories, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Park Howell is a 30+ year veteran of the advertising industry who has guided hundreds of purpose-driven brands and thousands of people who support them to substantial growth.

But everything changed in 2006. That's when he realized the advertising paradigm was being disrupted by the internet. Brands used to own the influence of mass media, but the masses had become the media creating a cacophony of communication.

Park learned that an anecdote is the antidote to help you stand out.

He now consults, teaches, coaches, and speaks internationally helping leaders and communicators rise above the noise of the Attention Economy and be heard using the power of the brand and business storytelling.

Many so-called storytelling experts tell you why story is important in business. Park actually shows you how to storytell.

Audiences are bewitched by his interactive keynotes, panel discussions and workshops.

Links:

Website: Park Howell

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

***

Following an exercise out of Lochhead’s playbook (we’re always on the lookout for new ways to make our Story Cycle system more powerful for brands that choose to leverage it), we arrived at the ideal market category design for their new product.

Here is the script we created to design their new category:

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099 Why CMOs Get Fired: Results Do Not Equal No Results Plus An Excuse

Wed, 10 Feb 2021 11:00:00 GMT

On this episode, let's talk about producing legendary results in the context of CMO tenure. According to the Wall Street Journal, based on research from Spencer Stewart, the median tenure of a CMO was only 27 and a half months in 2019, which was down from 31 months in 2017. This is in stark contrast to the CEO's average tenure of 88.4 months or about seven and a half years. CFOs have roughly 63 months or nearly five and a half years.

Success is about producing legendary results. So on this episode, let's talk about that.

Marketing Is A Constant Revolving Door

One legendary marketing consultant in Silicon Valley and friend of Christopher says that marketing is now a constant revolving door. CMO tenure is down to more or less two years and across all levels in the marketing department. Covid-19 made matters worse and we ask, what is driving this “revolving door”?

“One of them is, everybody in marketing is very busy all the time, very frenzied in a stimulus-response like we're trying to win the activity contest. Success in business is not about winning the activity contest. As a matter of fact, activity does not equal to results. So yes, shave the dog.” – Christopher Lochhead

Results Do Not Equal No Results Plus An Excuse

The big aha here is results do not equal no results, plus an excuse. Christopher describes sales as binary, you either hit the numbers, exceed the numbers or do not hit the numbers. It is the sole indicator that you are doing well, but this should not be the case for marketers.

“As a CEO, you live and die by the numbers. Every quarter, as the head of sales, chief revenue, officer, VP of sales, whatever title it is, head of sales, that's true too. The reality is, that should be true in marketing as well. This sort of leads us to the question, what are the marketing results that matter?” – Christopher Lochhead

Marketing Results That Matter

There are lots of things that marketing do so in this episode, Christopher discusses the results that matter. There are only three things that marketing organizations should be focused on:

“Number one, design and dominate a category that matters. Number two drive revenue near term midterm and longterm. And number three, create enduring value as measured by market cap or company valuation. We want to be creating the most valuable company in a category that matters.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more about the three marketing results that matter, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

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098 Social Media Marketing Lie: You Have Be Everywhere on Every Platform 100 Times a Day

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 11:00:00 GMT

In this episode, let's talk about one of the dumbest social media marketing lies out there: you have to be everywhere on every platform and you need to put out a hundred pieces of content today. This is terrible advice and it will exhaust you and your marketing team and will piss off your prospects and customers. Ultimately, it will not help you become a category queen and king.

Bio:

Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

Links:

Legendary copywriter Ben Settle

Category King of History Podcasts Dan Carlin

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097 You Are What You Subscribe To

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Today, let’s talk a little more about your career. My brother from another mother and co-creator of our new newsletter category pirates, Nicholas Cole has an interesting insight: “you are what you subscribe to.” Christopher thinks he’s right.

So in this episode, find out what media Christopher consumes that he finds life-changing.

“The content we subscribed to, the content we consume, it affects how and what we think about. Our thoughts affect our actions and our actions affect our outcomes, both professionally and personally.” – Christopher Lochhead

**F*ck The Hustle Porn Stars**

If you’ve been a long time listener, you would know that Christopher is not a fan of these hustle porn stars. He does not believe in hustlin’ all your life. Instead, Christopher pushes for being different and legendary.

“Porn stars say no one ever worked himself to death. Well in Japan, they have a word for it. It's called Karoshi and it translates into death by overwork. Maybe you can hustle all you want, but there's a difference between hard work and smart work.” – Christopher Lochhead

Choose What You Consume

We have very limited spaces in our brains so Christopher encourages you to choose what you read and listen to. He gives out a few recommendations such as below:

The OGS

Peter Drucker – The Effective Executive
David Ogilvy

New Thought Leaders

Malcolm Gladwell – The Masterclass
John Wall and Christopher Penn – Marketing Over Coffee Podcast
Mike Maples Jr. – Starting Greatness Podcast
Paul Martino and Randy Komisar – No Bull: Life-Changing Conversations with Bill Campbell

B2B World

Dave Gearhart – B2B Marketing Leaders Podcast
Brian Burns – B2B Revenue Leadership Podcast
Russell Brunson – The Secret Series (Books and Podcast)

A Couple of Key Questions

Those life-changing books and podcasts are just a couple to think about. Moreover, Christopher is encouraging you to sit down and ask yourself a couple of key questions:

“What's the kind of content I love? What do I most want to learn in the next 12 months? What should I stop consuming? What should I start consuming? And remember, be very careful whose ideas you let into your head because your thoughts become your actions, your actions become your outcomes and your outcomes become your life.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more about why you are what you subscribe to, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

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096 Silicon Valley’s Secret Marketing Assassin Rick Bennett

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Advertising is a powerful thing in the world of business. Whether you have a start-up or a successful company, you still need an effective advertisement to propel your brand forward. Silicon Valley's secret advertising weapon, Rick Bennett, is here with us today to give pieces of advice about advertising and marketing. Also, he talks about how being wise and having good decisions help us as human beings.

Technological Intimidation

Rick says that the best thing to do when advertising is to avoid saying anything that a competitor could say. You've got to rebut if a competitor tries to provoke you by saying he's wrong and it's not true. Also, he says that the trick is not to get sued for libel or slander.

“You have to use technological intimidation. You can only speak to the technological truth. We don't call someone a liar. We can say, well, this isn't true, and we prove why.” – Rick Bennett

Rhetorical War Gaming

Rick is a master at writing legendary headlines back in the day. Christopher asks him when is the right time to invest in an advertisement after creating a headline and then testing it. He says that rhetorical wargaming using SurveyMonkey to test a bunch of ideas is helpful and also giving a free product to the audience:

“Survey monkey is good, but the trick is the giveaway. You need to offer a free product that anybody can log on to and check out your AI. That could be very granular and atomic and just take off.” – Rick Bennett

How to Function Creatively

Christopher and Rick talk about the assault on the Capitol that happened on January 6, where several people died because of the riot. Christopher says that politics was about arguing to solve problems, and now it's just about arguing to continue to argue. Rick agrees, and he says that we can't change anybody's mind, so we have to change the playing field.

“One idea that I have is that creativity and genius cannot exist in a state of anger. In other words, you get angry on either side, and you have destroyed your ability to function creatively. Creativity is a curse. That's the way I kind of cloister myself in the pirate cottage here up in the mountainside, and I try not to let anything destroy my creativity as it is.” – Rick Bennett

To know more about Silicon Valley's Secret Marketing Assassin Rick Bennett, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Rick Bennett specializes in guerrilla warfare marketing.

He’s been the secret advertising weapon to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs for over 30 years.

Two of his most spectacular successes are Oracle and Salesforce.com.

Links:

Website: Rick Bennett

Linkedin: Rick Bennett

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095 How To Secure Your Financial Future

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT

In 2019, CNBC reported that 27% of Americans “would have to borrow or sell something to pay for a $400 emergency. Further, Nation.com reports in 2018, 4% of American adults reported not having enough food and by July of 2020, that figure had exploded to 11% and they say it will probably continue to increase as the pandemic worsens.

Most recently, Pew Research finds that one in four American adults have had trouble paying their bills since the coronavirus outbreak started. So the reality is, this pandemic has exposed how financially vulnerable many of us are.

So in this episode, let's talk about your career and how you can become financially free.

You Can Turn Your Situation Around

Christopher has his fair share of financial struggles growing up. He was raised in a single-parent household and experienced business failure in his early 20s. It was the most challenging financial situation of his life, as he describes.

“The goal here is a very simple one to understand when your investment income pays your living expenses, you're financially free. That's a very powerful day in a person's life. So I want to share with you a few things I've learned along the way. It's also important to know I am in no way, shape or form a financial advisor accountant or anything of the, like. I'm just a guy that's learned a few things along the way, and I've been taught a few things by some legendary folks.” – Christopher Lochhead

Build A Financial Egg Nest

Ultimately, the objective is to build a financial nest egg. The concept is over time, you convert getting paid for your time to getting paid from your investments. In simpler terms, you have to find a way to earn income while you are asleep. As Tim Rhode, founder of One Life Fully Lived, calls it, its horizontal income.

“In order to create a nest egg that starts producing horizontal income, you can, A. Lower your expenses or B. Increase your after-tax income. If you do both, then you'll have even more money to build your nest egg.” – Christopher Lochhead

Don't Buy Shit You Can't Afford

Christopher shares his observation among the younger generation nowadays and gives a reminder, to not buy shit you can’t afford. He also mentions listening to financial planning experts, as they say, credit card debt is a sure-fire way to keep yourself enslaved.

“Get out of credit card debt as quickly as you can. Don't buy shit you can't afford and, uh, and save up.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more how to secure your financial future, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

Links:

Covid-19 and the Nightmare of Food Insecurity

Economic Fallout From COVID-19 Continues To Hit Lower-Income Americans the Hardest

Tribe of Millionaires: What If One Choice Could Change Everything?

Wealth Can't Wait: Avoid the 7 Wealth Traps, Implement the 7 Business Pillars, and Complete a Life Audit Today!

The Wealthy Barber, Updated 3rd Edition: Everyone's Commonsense Guide to Becoming Financially Independent

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

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094 Clubhouse – Category Creation In Action, or Not So Much?

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Many people reached out to Christopher and asked for more episodes on category design. In future episodes, he will dig into a specific category and/or brands, and analyze what's going on and how that can be illustrative for the rest of us.

So for this episode, Christopher talks about a buzzy application in the social media world called Clubhouse. Today, let's examine the question: is clubhouse a legendary category queen in the making or a dumb idea?

New Hot Category, As They Claim

If you check Clubhouse’s valuation, they seem to be doing well. They're valued at a hundred million dollars or more. Clubhouse has done a great job in describing themselves or as we say, describe their category design.

According to their website, Clubhouse is a new type of social product based on voice that allows people everywhere to talk, tell stories, develop ideas, deepen friendships, and meet interesting new people around the world.

The Power of Category Design

Clubhouse has a very powerful profile but based on Christopher’s experience, the app is “kind of like a webinar scheduling platform with no video that has a shitty UX.” Regardless of our opinion about the app, they did a great job in telling a good story for investors and users.

“Clubhouse is doing a legendary job, convincing the world that they are the new, new thing, the new hot category.” – Christopher Lochhead

The Studio 54 Marketing

If you’ll remember Studio 54, it was the hottest hangout spot for celebrities in New York. Crowds would gather at the door, and people would do anything to get in, yet only a lucky few did. Clubhouse employed the same marketing mindset which made people want to have it more.

“They created scarcity and that's exactly what clubhouse has done in addition to their category design. They're doing Studio 54 marketing. They're creating scarcity. As a matter of fact, when you get on, the only way you can get onto Clubhouse is: an existing clubhouse user needs to invite you.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more if Clubhouse is category creation in action, or not so much, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

093 Are You Making This Sales Training Mistake?

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT

In this episode, let's talk about sales training slash sales enablement. Companies make a very big mistake on sales training. Christopher shares his thoughts about that mistake and how not to do that.

Bio:

Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

092 How To Manage Digital Reputations w/ Josh Greene

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT

It is super important to know how social media and the online-world itself work, especially if you're a business owner or an entrepreneur. This holds true because we are living in a digital-first world, where you can search for anything on the internet. Managing your digital reputation is indeed challenging and sometimes complicated.

So today our guest, Josh Greene, CEO of The Mather Group, explains how search engines work and what you can do to optimize them for your benefit.

Positive Google Outcome

Christopher asks Josh what he would advise him to get a positive Google outcome. Josh says that if you are doing a lot of “leading” in an industry, that will ultimately lead to good results in the search engines. For those who are not quite famous, he advises “sending Google a signal” to treat their content a certain way. Entrepreneurs should post and write about themselves (bio) so search engines can recognize them.

“If you write books, if you start a podcast, if you have a Twitter feed that lots of people find useful, or if your videos are getting lots of views, all of those things play a big role in what's showing up in the Google search results.” – Josh Greene

Google Search Ranking System

Having a common name is hard when you're trying to get a sweet spot for yourself in a search engine. Christopher asks Josh what are the highest order bits in terms of teaching Google to rank yourself. Josh says that the first thing you could do is take inventory of what your assets currently are and focus on your digital presence:

“That's a nice part for people who are very active in their field and sort of well respected because there's a sort of equivalent almost in terms of how Google's algorithm is viewing things.” – Josh Greene

Social Media Platforms

Social media marketing is one of the easiest ways to promote a product or a business. Christopher asks Josh how to decide which social media platform to use if he's only going to invest his time in one or two of these. Josh says that he should consider asking himself first if it plays to his strengths and who's the audience he's trying to reach with it.

“So, it could be that you're a fantastic guitarist. Instagram is a nice format for showing off your guitar playing chops. Twitter can be useful because you can curate news to a particular audience that might be following you. And if you're in a particular corporate role, sometimes LinkedIn can be really useful because you don't need to publish a ton to get a lot of eyeballs on something.” – Josh Greene

To know more about how to manage digital reputations with Josh Greene, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Josh Greene is the CEO for The Mather Group, a digital agency, that helps companies manage how they’re found online, through Wikipedia and Search Engine Optimization, and drives targeted high value leads for B2B companies.

Prior to The Mather Group, Greene was the VP of Marketing for both 1-800-PACK-RAT and Zippy Shell where he was responsible for all marketing including online, offline, and the launch of national television campaigns.

Prior to 1-800-PACK-RAT, Greene was the Vice President of Member Services for Shop.org where he oversaw membership recruitment and retention initiatives.

Additionally, Greene collaborated with NRF’s government relations staff to execute policy and advocacy strategies on behalf of Shop.org members.

He also served as a liaison to Shop.org’s Policy Advisory Group, developed industry initiatives, and managed Shop.org’s Ray M. Greenly Scholarship fund.

Greene joined Shop.org from Discovery Communications, where he was director of online marketing and business development.

At Discovery, Greene oversaw online marketing, direct response television, corporate gifting, and partner programs for DiscoveryStore.com.

Prior to Discovery Communications, Greene was director of e-marketing for Time Warner Cable and director of e-marketing for Road Runner.

He’s been a frequent speaker at industry events including ad:tech, SES, Channel Advisor’s Catalyst conference, and others.

Links:

Linkedin: Josh Greene

The Mather Group

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091 The Marketing Multiplier Effect

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT

On episode 90, we talked about how complexity is the enemy of revenue and how to shave the marketing dog down. Now let's talk about what we do once we shaved the dog down. We talk about the powerful marketing execution concept called the multiplier effect. The concept means taking our precious marketing dollars and getting maximum impact for them.

“Imagine you're going to make a $10,000 investment in some kind of marketing initiative. The question is how do you make it feel like a hundred or a hundred thousand dollar investment? How do you make it feel like a million or a million? How do you make it feel like 10?” – Christopher Lochhead

Disconnect in Departments

Once you “shaved the marketing dog down,” you’ll be down to a fewer number of marketing executions. However, there is also a downside to this cut-down. Companies often find a disconnect between the different departments. Christopher addresses this disconnect in this episode.

“Legendary marketing makes people feel like the company or the brand is a person. Everything from that person is authentic to them. That is to say, it's, it's rooted in a true North and all of their actions are deeply coordinated and effective.” – Christopher Lochhead

Have A Few, Clear Target/s

Christopher advises marketers to have a few, clear targets to have a more effective marketing campaign. After this, he encourages marketers to have the multiplier effect mindset.

“So here's how the mindset works. Every execution must multiply the value of every other execution. After you shaved the dog, it's critical to pick an anchor execution for your campaign or your lightning strike.” – Christopher Lochhead

CMOs Should Tie Everything Together

The CMOs job is to tie it all together. Christopher advises CMOs their duties and what are the interesting questions to ask when looking at a particular marketing execution.

“How does this tie? That is to say, how does this execution multiply the value of the anchor execution? How does this tie and remember, just to underscore it, there can only be one anchor.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more about the marketing multiplier effect, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

090 Complexity Is The Enemy of Revenue: Why It’s Time to Shave The Marketing Dog

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT

If you’re currently doing a big initiative, say a new product launch, a new campaign, a sales kickoff or a lightning strike, let’s talk about why you are also, most probably, making a huge mistake. Shit sometimes, gets too complex and we know that complexity is the enemy of revenue. So on this episode, let’s talk about why it’s time to shave the marketing dog.
Doing Too Much
There’s 99.9% chance you are doing too much in marketing. Christopher candidly shares that sometimes in life, it is not about winning the activity. For contests, as a matter of fact, there is an inverse relationship between activity and results.
“I see this a lot in marketing, a lot of activity, a lot of moving, a lot of bands, bouncing and dancing, and there's stupidities in marketing today. I hear stuff like, ‘Oh, you need to be everywhere. You need to be on every channel. You need to be putting out 200 pieces of content today across every channel.’ That stuff is ridiculous. All that stuff is bullshit.” - Christopher Lochhead
Where To Shave The Dog
Whenever Christopher is doing anything marketing related, he loves to pose the question, “where do we shave this dog?” He encourages every marketer to do a forced ranking of all the activities and choose top 3 (or more) that will guarantee the same level of results from doing a couple.
I learned everything I know about design from a couple of legendary designers and one of them is John Bielenberg. He's an incredible business and corporate marketing designer. He has a perspective, he calls thinking wrong. The idea is this, when you do anything creative, ask yourself ‘what is 180 degrees from what everybody else would do? What is wrong? What would be the wrong way to go do this?’” - Christopher Lochhead
Activities That Multiply Outcome
Christopher also shares another thinking of pursuing activities that multiple the outcomes of another former activity. One should always ask, “does this component of our plan, materially multiply our chances of achieving the outcome we want from this marketing activity?”
“Shave the dog. Shave that doggy down. Practice getting everything out. Consider getting even more radical.” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more why Complexity Is The Enemy of Revenue and Why It’s Time to Shave The Marketing Dog, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

087 Marketing is what you do when you have a shitty product, right?

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 11:00:00 GMT

“Marketing is what you do when you have a shitty product.”

Says an ex-CEO/Software Engineer who found himself wrapping his company around the lamppost, with his entire executive team leaving, and his investors getting f*cked up. In spite of many stories like this, there are still a lot of people in Silicon Valley (and in the business world in general) who believe the best product wins and that marketing isn't worth very much.

So in this episode, we dig into a research project involving one of the world's greatest violin players and the Washington post. They prove that the power of category design and marketing is actually, almost everything
Everything Else is Bullsh*t
Most CEOs believe the best product wins. In fact, the CEO we previously mentioned also told Christopher “we make shit and we sell shit and everything else is bullshit.” Christopher narrates his personal experiences with various non-believers of the power of marketing and the importance of category design.
The Social Experiment
In 2007, legendary violinist Joshua Bell partnered with two time Pulitzer prize writer, Gean Weingarten of the Washington Post. The premise is Bell would play in Washington D.C. Metro Station and Weingarten would film and analyze what will happen.

This was an experiment about context, perception and priorities.
“Here's what you need to know about Joshua Bell.. He has been called an internationally acclaimed virtuoso. Joshua regularly plays to massive sold-out crowds. Audiences hang on his every note. When he plays the violin, he tends to make a thousand dollars a minute.” - Christopher Lochhead
The Results of the Experiment
Bell played with his handcrafted $14 million violin. Weingarten wanted to know if people will be moved by the music of this master? If they were, how would they value the music that he was making? The results will shock you.
“The perception of your product or service is your product or service. Joshua plays and get paid a thousand dollars a minute because they've been told that he's legendary. When people aren't told that he's legendary, hardly anybody gives a shit. So as marketers and category designers, we must never forget. We are in the perception, manufacturing business.” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more if marketing is what you do when you have a shitty product, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect onreport from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person changes jobs 10 to 15 times within their career. If you take it from that perspective, if you’re 25 years old and you are serious in your career, you still get seven chances to do something legendary in your career before you hit the big 6-0.

So in today’s episode, we ask, are you wasting your career?
Make Every Career Count
You get a very few chances to do something legendary, so make them count. Mike Maples of podcast Starting Greatness says “start or join a company worthy of your talent.” Christopher adds that a lot of people make the mistake of trying to sell themselves to a company, instead of you evaluating the potential of a company.
“Most people look at this backwards. They look at things like the salary, title, who their boss is going to be, the health care plan, vacation time, the commute. I'm not saying all those things aren't important. They are important. I would start or suggest you start to look, ‘is this company. designing and dominating a giant space?’” - Christopher Lochhead
Work For Category Queens
Choose the best and the pioneers in their own space. That's how you can make money out of your career. First, you get the job security and assurance that the company is here to stay. Secondly, most companies offer stock option for long term employees, which enables you to build wealth.
“You have to ask yourself, is this company, the leadership, the founder, the CEO, the CMO, the head of sales, the head of engineering —do they have what it takes to design a legendary product company and category at the same time and become the category queen?” - Christopher Lochhead
Find Ways To Earn Horizontally
Wise people take a job where they are getting paid to work and they convert that cash into investments. Over time they build a real nest egg. Christopher believes that it is important to find a career that enables you to gain investment opportunities. These investments can later on earn passive income for you.
“Convert sweat for cash into an investment that sweats for you.” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more if you are wasting your career, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter,

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

085 Justice Deposits: How NetFlix, Twitter & Costco Are Leading Conscious Capital & You Can Too

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 11:00:00 GMT

In June of 2020, Netflix announced that it was moving 2% of its cash equal to about $100 million to bolster black owned and black run banks, allowing these banks to lend more. The way this works is pretty simple: when we make deposits in a bank, that allows them to make more loans. More and more corporations and nonprofits are jumping in to join the movement.

In this episode, let's go deep on the power of justice deposits.
Corporations Joining The Movement
After NetFlix’s announcement, Twitter announced its plan to move 1% of its cash or 100 million to community development financial institutions. Costco has pledged to move $25 million in deposits, Biogen has pledged to move 10 million and PayPal announced plans to move 500 million.
“The early adopters in this movement—the justice deposits—have pledged to move nearly $800 million. That is nearly equal to 20% of the current total assets held today in black owned and black run banks.” - Christopher Lochhead
Address The Root Cause of Inequality
Justice deposits inject capital into banks to banks to allow more Black Americans and minorities to gain access to capital. Aside from this, Christopher discusses on this episode why this is a very savvy marketing move. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, 60% of Americans say that brands should take steps to address the root cause of racial inequality. It turns out, 50% of Americans go further and say brands must actually educate the public about this matter.
“There can be no equality in America without equal access to capital.” - Christopher Lochhead
HBR Article About Justice Deposits
This episode is a companion of a recent article in Harvard Business Review: “Could Gen Z Consumer Behavior Make Capitalism More Ethical?” It’s a very eye-opening article that we encourage you to read as well. Christopher, together with Eddie Yoon, Pastor Dave Ferguson and Pastor Quentin M. Mumphery collaborated on this research piece.
“What I think this means for CEOs, CMOS and even CFOs, is we need to pay attention. The Next Generation really cares about this stuff. And it's very clear to me, and I think it should be clear to all of us that every company today needs what you could call a conscious capital strategy.” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more about justice deposits, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

084 Creating a Category? Do NOT listen to customers

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 11:00:33 GMT

In this episode, let's talk about why, when you're designing a new category, you need to be very careful who you listen to. Often times, listening to customers is the worst thing you can do.

Whose Feedback Matters?
Christopher shares one of the things that they discussed in their book Play Bigger, that new categories are often only obvious in hindsight. He further advises that if you're designing a new category, it's critical to be very, very careful whose feedback you listen to.
"You don't never forget. Nobody wanted a horseless carriage, never forget." - Christopher Lochhead
Breakthrough in Hindsight
We should not listen to customers and most people, when we're designing a breakthrough because most people can't see it. Now, when you're doing incremental things, customer feedback is awesome. But in general, most people cannot see a breakthrough, whether they're customers, partners, potential employees, or even potential investors.
"You want to talk about your new category in the early stages with people who can engage in what you might think the art of the possible with you." - Christopher Lochhead
To know more why you should not listen to customers when creating a legendary category, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive.

Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion. He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

083 The Problem With Your Marketing Plan

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 11:00:52 GMT

On this episode, let's talk about what the problem with your marketing plan might be in specifically three areas. Number one, calling it a “plan” might be a problem. Number two, it's actually a legendary marketing plan that is about more than just marketing. Lastly, number three, your relationship with your CFO and finance team might be a problem, but I'm hoping it won't be when we're done.
Create A Marketing Framework
Chris describes what a “plan” entails and how an actual marketing plan should be fluid and should be consistently open for changes and adjustments. He suggests calling it more of a “framework” than a plan. Lastly, he gave some important valuable points on which marketing activities to invest on.
“So as you start thinking about planning and budgeting, put things into big buckets, but assume change. That's why calling it a framework might be a more powerful thing.” - Christopher Lochhead
Involving Everyone On The Team
A marketing plan (or framework) is more than just marketing. Chris describes how you should have a valuable relationship with the Head of Product or Engineering and Finance in plotting your plans for the company.
“Drive a highly cross functional process with the team, interacting with marketing, sales, finance, customer support, and potentially other organizations to gather their input.” - Christopher Lochhead
Develop a Relationship With The CFO
Collaboration with other executives within your firm is very important in executing your marketing framework. Chris shares first hand experience as a CMO and how he developed a relationship with their CFO. He has some significant tips on how to adjust marketing investments that ultimately benefit Finance.
“If you work well with your CFO, marketing can be a place to park cash.” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more about the problem with your marketing plan, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

082 How Category Designers Do Acquisitions: Why Salesforce/Slack Is a Savvy Deal

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 11:00:43 GMT

Most people look at acquisitions through a spreadsheet lens. Of course the financials matter for mergers and acquisition deals, but when viewed through a category design lens, acquisitions look very, very different. In this episode, we break down the differences using the Salesforce / Slack Deal as an example and Google purchasing YouTube way back 2006.
Two Types of M&A Deals
First one is category consolidation deals, which is usually done in market categories that are slow or have no growth. The second type of M&A deals are category acceleration deals, which happens in early or high growth market categories.

In line with this, let’s step back in memory lane, October of 2006, when Google purchased YouTube For $1.65B. YouTube was two years old then with just 65 employees. Many experts said predictable things like “how can Google be so stupid” “they paid so much for a company with little revenue, no profits.”
“In 2006, google didn’t buy YouTube’s technology, customers, or revenue or profits. Google was the category queen in Search and they bought the category queen in Video. They bought the #1 position in category. A category with massive potential. Potential, that some others could not see.” - Christopher Lochhead
Youtube: #2 Search Engine In The World
Legendary new categories are often obvious to most people, in hindsight. To put a fine point on this one: in 2019 YouTube did $15B in Ad sales. Google made a category acceleration deal. They redesigned part of the category landscape on the internet and they've been benefiting as a result ever since then
“Think of what could have happened to Google if Microsoft, Yahoo, Disney or someone else owned Youtube? As Internet categories were getting designed and redesigned, without YouTube, Google could have found its ass on the floor in the game of category musical chairs.” - Christopher Lochhead
Salesforce $28 billion Deal To Buy Slack
After Salesforce bought Slack for $28billion, their stock got hammered down to 11%. In fact, headline of MarketWatch.com is: Salesforce stock drops as Wall Street questions necessity of Slack purchase.
“Now there is an epic mega category battle going down for the new distributed, digital workplace. Here’s what they don’t get…Salesforce just increased their odd in this epic category battle.” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more about How Category Designers Do Acquisitions: Why Salesforce/Slack Is a Savvy Deal, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Links:
Salesforce acquires S...

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081 Marketing Fail: Sherwin-Williams Vs. Ocean Spray

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 11:00:05 GMT

In today’s episode, we dig into two how two companies approached a viral situation. First, Ocean Spray’s positive trendjack in response to Nathan Apodaca’s viral TikTok video. Second, is how Sherwin-Williams fired an employee who created viral Tiktok videos mixing paints. We ask the seminal question, how can you be more like Ocean Spray?
Marketing Wins and Fails
When Nathan Apodaca’s Tik Tok video went viral (he was skateboarding, drinking his Ocean Spray, singing Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”), newly appointed Ocean Spray CEO, Tom Hayes took action. It was the trendjack of the year and Tom Hayes took it to a whole new level. It ultimately gave Ocean Spray positive PR.

Now, on the other hand, when Tony Piloseno, an Ohio University senior, who worked part-time at Sherwin Williams created a set of popular paint videos on TikTok, he got fired. What’s worse: Piloseno said he actually pitched Sherwin Williams Corporate Marketing Team the idea of being more active on TikTok with some of his videos.
“Piloseno says it took TWO MONTHS to get in touch with corporate marketing and they ‘basically told me that there wasn’t really any promotions going onso there wasn’t a need to see the presentation.’ %$#@!!!!” - Christopher Lochhead
What Savvy CEOs and CMOs Do
Do you work for a company like Ocean Spray or Sherwin Williams? If you want to be more like Ocean Spray, how do we do that? Most companies today, if they are smart, they have social media marketing departments trying to create what this guy has created.
“Savvy CEOs and CMOs invest heavily in creating legendary digital content. leaders want to share knowledge, they have a point of view, and as a result, they are mobilizing communities, they are creating movements and ultimately, they are growing their category and brands through a thought leadership owned media and earned media strategy.” - Christopher Lochhead
Seminal Questions To Ask
Christopher narrates one of his conversations with Robert Rosenberg, the former CEO of Dunkin Donuts. He and his team capitalized on one franchisee discovering a potential product, the munchkins and that is a great example providing support to your team.
“This brings us three seminal questions for all of us Marketers, number 1, are you building an Ocean Spray or Sherwin Williams-like culture? Number 2, are you encouraging radical creativity amongst your people and number? Number 3, are you building a digital owned media strategy and capability?” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more about marketing fail: Sherwin-Williams Vs. Ocean Spray story, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

080 3 Ideas To Have A Legendary Marketing Career to 50 and Beyond

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 11:00:29 GMT

At a time when career uncertainty is high and the need for economic security has maybe never been higher, let's talk about three ideas on how you can have a legendary marketing career to 50 and beyond. If you're younger or older than 50, Chris has got some ideas for you in this episode.
Ageism In Business
During the last episode with Dave Gerhardt, CEO of Privy, there was a question that popped up around the possibility of having a career in marketing past the age 50. Chris thinks there's ageism in business broadly and certainly, in the tech business as well. He further shares facts from an Harvard Business Review that says, “seven out of 18 top Silicon Valley companies having a median age of 30 or younger.”

“In addition, a study conducted by the San Francisco federal reserve bank showed that callback rates for jobs for older people, older applicants were much less. And with women having lower callback rates than men, additionally, more research from Stanford. The Stanford center on longevity says that, contrary to popular belief, older workers are healthy and have a strong work ethic and tend to be very loyal to their employers and are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs than their younger coworkers.” - Christopher Lochhead
If You Are Over 50
Some may claim that younger professionals have more energy to fulfill work. However, London Business School published a study which showed that people under 45 were exhausted. So now, Chris advises listeners, ages 50 and above, to become known for a niche that you own.
“You don't want to be just a generic marketing person. What you want to be is recognized as an expert, as a guru, as a Yoda, as a sensei in a particular type or style or approach or discipline of marketing said in a simple way, niche down.” - Christopher Lochhead
3 Ideas For Your Career
Number one, ask yourself the Seminole question, “what am I great at that few others are great at, that also delivers the most economic value.” Step two, niche down hard on that superpower skill. Third, name yourself in your niche, claim it and frame it.
“Now you know that your personal niche is working for you. You become known for a niche that you own. As that happens, as you age and, assuming you stay current, you do legendary work. You have to produce legendary results. There's no question about it. Of course, you have to build great relationships. So you do those other smart things along with being known for a niche that you own.” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more about the 3 Ideas To Have A Legendary Marketing Career to 50 and Beyond, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

079 How To Be A Legendary CMO w/ Dave Gerhardt

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 11:00:57 GMT

In this episode, one of the most high profile CMOs in the tech world, Dave Gearhart, aka DG, CMO of Privy is here. We have a fantastic conversation from marketing, planning to category, design, and more.

Christopher recently guested on his podcast, which is called B2B Marketing Leaders. In a lot of ways, this conversation is a continuation of that conversation. It's one younger CMO with one older CMO, we'll let you decide who's who. He's also got an awesome new marketing group on Facebook called Digi MG.

To know more about how to be a legendary CMO, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Dave Gerhardt is a B2B marketing leader & widely regarded as one of today’s leading brand builders.

Prior to Privy Dave was VP of Marketing at Drift where he helped the company grow into one of the fastest growing B2B SaaS businesses of all-time.

His work has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Inc., Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, and Harvard Business Review, and he’s the co-author of the definitive book on Conversational Marketing, which was a #1 new release on Amazon in Marketing & Sales and a top 20 business book in the U.S. He lives in Boston with his wife and two kids.
Links:
Linkedin: Dave Gerhardt

Privy

Twitter: @davegerhardt

The B2B Marketing Leaders Podcast

Patreon: @davegerhardt

Privy: Dave Gerhardt

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter,Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter,The Difference, for some amazing content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

078 Oceanspray’s Radically Generous Marketing TrendJack

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 10:00:31 GMT

This is a super fun episode. Christopher Lochhead talks about what was almost for sure, the most fun marketing trendjack of 2020. On September 25th, Nathan Apodaca was going to work when his truck broke down. He grabbed his longboard skateboard and his bottle of Oceanspray and shot a video of himself going to work, drinking his juice while smiling and singing Fleetwood Mac's classic song “Dreams.” The video went viral and Oceanspray and Fleetwood Mac just pulled off a feel-good trendjack of 2020.
Trendjacking In Past Episodes
If you’re a long time listener, you might remember Episode 23 with the legendary Paul Maher from Positive Marketing in the UK. He's the godfather of trendjacking. In that episode, we popped the hood on this powerful marketing concept called the trendjack. Moreover, on Episode 26, we looked at how actor Ryan Reynolds and his gin company, Aviation trendjacked a Peloton ad. Ultimately, he sold it for $160 million.

“Part of what got Ryan there was being creative and doing things like trendjacks. A trendjack is a simple, powerful idea, where you look at what's going on in the world of news and you find a creative way to put yourself in the middle of it.” - Christopher Lochhead
The Viral Video
Nathan Apodaca’s video has been viewed 61 million times on TikTok alone. His video started to go viral which led people to recreate his video while skateboarding or driving a bike or doing something with movement singing this song, including Mac Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks, herself and other celebrities, and normal, regular people.
“It created an absolute phenomenon on social media. Of course, the company Oceanspray was paying attention. Oceanspray CEO Tom Hayes got into the fun and he recorded his own version of Apodaca video. Now, as all of this was happening Fleetwood Mac's 1977 classic ‘Dreams,’ as billboard says, thundered into the Top 10. Think about that for a second. Fleetwood Mac, 1977 with a top 10 hit, thanks to a viral video from Nate.” - Christopher Lochhead
Oceanspray’s Radical Generosity
Ocean spray decided to get radically generous and thoughtfully aggressive with this incredible opportunity. They proceeded to buy Nathan a new truck because his truck had broken down and they made sure they got him one that they called “Oceanspray Red.” Of course, they stuffed it with juice.
“Recently, CEO Hayes said ‘we have about 15 billion media impressions.’ You think that's going to help sales. You think that's going to help grow the category and the brand for ocean spray. Fascinatingly, Hayes has only been the CEO for about three months of Oceanspray. So for a brand new CEO to mobilize the company to take action on this, I think is pretty extraordinary.” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more about Christopher’s thoughts on this recent trendjacking of Oceanspray, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former th...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

077 How Marketing Drives Market Cap / Company Valuation

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 10:00:07 GMT

Every time a tech company launches a successful IPOs, we end up hearing a lot of negation from the media. Claims such as “I can't believe this company is worth so much” or “so much money invested it must be crazy because they hardly have any revenue” or “they hardly have any profits or they rent.”

So in this episode, Christopher gives us a low-down on why market cap or valuation (the value of a company) is not only a function of financial metrics. He also talks about the crucial role marketing plays to actually help drive market cap.
What Really Drives The Value Of A Company
There are three principal drivers of a company's value. The first is investors' perception of the size and the growth rate of your market category. The second is the investor's perception of the company's ability to become the category queen. The third is the numbers and metrics in the context of the first two points that validate that this company is actually on a good path.
Breaking Down The Three
Christopher breaks down the characteristics of these three factors that drive the value of the company. He cites specific examples, such as Airbnb and how they were able to gain a successful IPO through these three factors.
“Marketing has to take a leading role here in helping the company articulate its category strategy. Why this category could be very big over time.” - Christopher Lochhead
What Does It Mean For You
Smart marketers, smart CEOs, smart founders, and certainly smart CFOs need to work together in the very early stages for your investor deck to cover these three factors. Christopher also discussed marketers and their major role in creating the perception of inevitability.

To know more about How Marketing Drives Market Cap / Company Valuation, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

076 Fighter or Farmer Chief Marketing Officer

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 10:00:07 GMT

In today’s episode, Christopher Lochhead's answer addresses a listener question, “what kind of CMO should we hire?” He further discusses what’s the difference between a fighter and a farmer CMO and what you, as a marketer, should keep in mind when you plan to pursue this role.
Get Clear On What You Want
Christopher discusses two things: first, identify the background of the CMO. This is highly specific based on the company and the current stage of the company and its category. Secondly, Christopher points out that it's very important that the CMO knows who he is, his strengths and weaknesses, and his specific legendary trait.
“What am I legendary at? What am I not? How do I build a team based on that, that multiplies or amplifies where I'm strong and that compensates for my weaknesses?” - Christopher Lochhead
A Fighter Or A Farmer CMO
If you have identified where your company stands, that is the best indicator of whether you should hire a fighter or a farmer CMO. Chris gives a specific discussion on the difference between a fighter and a farmer CMO in this episode.
“What are the skill sets that you think are critical? That's important, but it's not maybe as important as a lot of people think. Second, are they self-actualized? Self-aware enough to know where they're truly strong and truly weak? Do they have the capability to build a team around their strengths and weaknesses? And probably most importantly, are they a fighter, or a farmer?” - Christopher Lochhead
Advice For Marketers
Chris shares that if you're a CMO yourself, it is critical for you to figure out how to be self-actualized. It is important to realize, are you more of a farmer? Or are you more of a fighter?
“As a marketer, I think you'd have to decide ‘who am I,’ and again, I don't think there's a right answer, but I think you should know. The worst thing you can do as a CMO, or a wannabe CMO is go take a farmer job in a place that requires a fighter or vice versa.” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more about what is a fighter or a farmer CMO, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

075 Movement Marketing w/ David Sacks

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 10:00:32 GMT

Today, we go deep on a big powerful idea called Movement Marketing with a legendary entrepreneur, category designer, and company builder turned venture capitalist, David Sacks, from Craft Ventures.

He's written this blog post recently on this idea and it's a simple, powerful idea that legendary innovators don't just market a company or a product or a service, they create a movement that changes things. Frankly, it's a seminal part of designing and dominating a new category. If you care about changing the future, this episode is pure gold with David.
Two Sections of Marketing
David likened marketing to LSAT, having math and verbal exams which ultimately give one final result. He says that marketing has a quantitative side, such as spending money on campaigns to generate x number of leads. It also has a qualitative side, which includes messaging, brand, content, press influencers, among others.
“Defining who you are to the world is one of the most important things that a founder can be doing. But the metrics are vague and elusive. So, therefore, because it's hard to measure, I think a lot of founders don't necessarily spend the time on it, they don't really know how to approach it.” - David Sacks
Movement Marketing
David shares that the founders who built great companies have done more than just “create a company” or even a category. They have created a movement around their company. He wrote a blog post recently on this idea which went viral. He mentioned some great examples of CEO who have done movement marketing such as Elon Musk of Tesla and Marc Benioff of Salesforce.
“What I've tried to do is layout the tactics. This area of marketing is typically called earned marketing because you can't just buy it, you have to earn it.” - David Sacks
Capturing Vs. Creating Demand
Christopher expounded on what David discuss the parts of marketing and how movement marketing is far from just quantitative and qualitative aspects of marketing. Movement marketing goes beyond capturing existing demand as it creates new demand.
“You're creating a movement to drive a set of thinking around an idea, around a vision for the future, around a problem that hasn't been addressed or viewed in the way that the founder views it. Or you see a possibility in the world, in the future.” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more about movement marketing, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
David Sacks is a highly accomplished entrepreneur and investor in internet technology firms.

He is a general partner of Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund he co-founded in late 2017. Previously as an entrepreneur, Sacks was the founding COO and product leader of PayPal (acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion) and Founder/CEO of Yammer (acquired by Microsoft in 2012 for $1.2 billion).

In 2016, he led the turnaround of Zenefits as interim CEO.

In 2017, Sacks co-founded blockchain startup Harbor as incubation of Craft Ventures.

His angel investments include

The Best Marketers Are Salesmen

Christopher recounts that the best marketers he know are those who have sales experience even at a young age.

"I think legendary marketers, and frankly, legendary executives, for that matter, regardless of what part of the business you're in, have a base level of a solid foundation of sales skills. So if you can't sell one on one, then you can't market at scale." - Christopher Lochhead

Marketing People Are A Joke

Second prime importance why sales is the essential skill to have as a marketer, is that many salespeople think marketers are a joke.

"I know this is harsh, but it's true. And the reason for that primarily, is that many people in the sales organization realize that many marketers suck in front of customers. And if you suck in front of one customer, how can you market to thousands or hundreds of thousands of potential customers." - Christopher Lochhead

To know more why marketing is sales at scale, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

073 Noble Purpose

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 10:00:00 GMT

As this theme kept on coming up in Follow Your Different episodes, whether he spoke with entrepreneurs or venture capitalists, Christopher decided to finally talk about the purpose of business. Specifically, he dives into what his friend Gil Spencer calls a noble purpose and how noble purpose can tie to building categories companies brands.
Mission-Driven and Mercenaries
A noble purpose is a cool way of thinking about things that we do hear about in business and entrepreneurship. Sequoia Capital and many others, talks about it a lot. The discussion revolves around this notion of being mission-driven. Are you a mission-driven entrepreneur?
Similarly, Eddie Yoon, who has been a guest many times on my podcasts, shares about the distinction between missionaries and mercenaries.

“People who are on a mission will literally crawl through flaming glass ⁠— if that's even a thing ⁠— to achieve their goal because they're up to something, and no matter how much you pay a mercenary, when the going gets tough, many mercenaries will tap out.” - Christopher Lochhead

What Is Your Noble Purpose?
Chris shares a few more examples of companies and brands and how their noble purpose differentiated them and allowed them to dominate their categories. He spoke about TOM’s shoes. Another example he shares is about Patagonia, which is an environment-based company.

“Regardless of how you think about it, I think now's a good time to think about what's your noble purpose? Specifically, can you tie this notion of noble purpose mission-driven being a missionary to the design and development of your category and brand?” - Christopher Lochhead

Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, is a proud supporter of LGBTQ+ rights movement. Vala Afshar of Salesforce shared about their noble missions in Follow Your Different Episode 116.

“Now's a great time to think about what's your noble purpose. Are we up to something greater than just making money and believe me, I'm a fan of making money. If you want to use this moment in time to clarify your noble purpose, why not think about how you can tie your noble purpose, to your category design, to your marketing, and maybe even to some level Have activism around topics that you think are important?” - Christopher Lochhead

To hear more about finding your noble purpose, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

Links:
TOMS Shoes
116 Dreamforce Special w/ Salesforce’s Vala Afshar
024 The Difference Between a First Mover and a Category Creator w/ Eddie Yoon
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

072 Designing Legendary Categories, Companies & Brands w/ Michelle Stacy

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Today, Chris goes deep on how to design a legendary category, company product, and brand with his super special guest, Michelle Stacy. Michelle is a living consumer product marketing legend, honing her craft with brands such as Gilette, Oral B, Keurig, and now, HydraFacial.
Putting Consumers First
Michelle spent many years honing her craft at Gillette where she led Oral B. She launched a number of great new products including the Pulsar battery powered manual toothbrush. She was the President of Keurig from 2010 to 2014, where the business grew from less than $1 billion in revenue to 4.5 billion.

Through her leadership, she took Keurig from being a category-defining product to becoming — what we, in tech call — a platform. She did this when they started inviting in the competition to sell their coffee for Keurig machines. Additionally, she's been a board member at iRobot, Coravin (a legendary wine preservation system), and Hydrafacial (Clint Carnell CEO on FYD #160)
“I think what always resonates with me is putting the consumer first and trying to think through ‘how do I make an emotional connection between what I want the consumer to buy and the product itself.’ To me, that's where longevity happens around products. When you can get a consumer to fall in love with your product, then you have the opportunity, to as you would put it, become a Category King.” - Michelle Stacy
The Keurig Story
Michelle started working with Keurig in November 2008, more or less the onset of the global financial crisis. She found herself contemplating if she could ever push forward a premium-priced business given the financial crisis at that time. With consumers in mind and with the right launch plan, they successfully introduced a well-loved product.
“Keurig was actually the fifth single-serve company to market. They're just the ones that got it right.” - Michelle Stacy
Creating Momentum
In this episode, Michelle walks us through the process of developing and launching Keurig machines. She mentions initially offering this to client-facing businesses, then slowly grew to every home through word of mouth. They also knew that customers do not like to be tied into a single brand of coffee, so they explored tying up with different coffee brands for their K-cups.
“In my DNA is the concept of looking at how you create value in every step of your environment so that you're creating value for the consumer, you're conveying value for the retailer, you're creating value for your suppliers that are supplying you with the product. So as everyone benefits within an ecosystem, it creates momentum.” - Michelle Stacy
To know more about designing legendary categories and to know more about Michell Stacy, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Michelle is a strong leader whose personal and professional skills have developed over a 35-year career. Keurig, Gillette, and P&G have all benefited from her ability to develop and articulate a clear vision and strategy, build brands, and identify avenues for growth.

Michelle’s key to managing and driving exceptional growth has been her ability to create a positive and focused culture that generates high employee engagement, as well as talent for creating company-wide commitment to lead with a higher purpose.

A few of the brands that Michelle has impacted include:

The Gillette Series

Gillette Mach3

Oral-B

Oral-B Stages

Keurig
Links:
Michelle Stacy

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to you are allowed to refuse anybody’s service, but you can't do it on the basis of color, race, gender, sexual orientation, and other subjects along those lines. What Christopher advises is to seek legal advice and make sure to have consistent guidelines to enforce on your business, so your employees are well-guided.
“I think it's okay to refuse service to Anybody who's being a shithead and we had a situation happen here in the Santa Cruz Monterey Bay Area.” - Christopher Lochhead
Kicked Out Due To Bad Behavior
Christopher shares an incident that happened recently in a restaurant in Santa Cruz Monterey Bay Area called Bernardus Lodge where an Asian-American was spending their Fourth of July holiday. A Tech CEO, named Michael Lofthouse, who was also dining in, gave out racial slurs to the family.

The restaurant attendant, Gennica Cochran, immediately asked Michael to leave the premises to protect their customers.
“Number one, the folks at the who run the Bernardus Lodge have some core values and that in one way or another, whether it was formal or informal, they had communicated to their team, including, of course, Gennica Cochran and that there were certain behaviors they would tolerate. Racism, acting out and being an asshole clearly was something they were not going to allow. Gennica felt empowered to do that. I don't know if she asked for permission. I don't know what she did. But she took action.” - Christopher Lochhead
Please Wear A Mask
Christopher also shares some of his personal experience with enforcing wearing a mask. He is a strong supporter of this and he has received some backlash because of being vocal about it
“If you don't like me, or you don't want to listen to my podcast, because I'm trying to promote wearing masks in the United States, that's okay. I think whatever the issue is, there comes a time in our lives as people and as business leaders, where we have to be clear about our core values and stand up for them.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about having the right to refuse customers, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Links:
Kevin Maney.com

email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, Peanut Butter vs Lightning Strikes. Lightning strikes are a concentrated set of marketing activities in a very short period of time, against a very tightly defined audience or target market.

“I would rather dominate somebody's mind space for a day or two, then be mostly irrelevant most of the time.” - Christopher Lochhead

Peanut Butter
Christopher notes the mistake he sees in virtually every marketing plan and every marketing budget. A disproportionate amount of investment and effort is spread equally over time, over product lines, and so forth.

“You can't stand out if you do that. You're going to disappear the noise if all you do is reach and frequency inspired.” - - Christopher Lochhead

To hear more about peanut butter and lightning sandwich as the new model for marketing execution, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter,The Difference, for some amazing content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

066 Questions and Cocktails: FB Live Q & A (Part 8) | Marketing PodStorm #28

Sun, 14 Jun 2020 13:00:00 GMT

During the PodStorm, we're doing a live Facebook Question and Answer session, every Friday, 11:30 a.m. PST. We are now on our last week for PodStorm Q&A and we hope to hear from you if you want us to do more live Q&As!

Today, podcast living legend Jason DeFillippo of Grumpy Old Geeks joins us to answer some questions about the importance of internal communications, how public relations and investor relations should work together, and a whole lot more!
Importance of Internal Communications
One listener asked about Christopher’s thoughts on the importance of internal communications and what function inside the company should own it. He narrated how Steve Jobs is the perfect example of this and how his words “there are no phenomenal products in our pipeline” was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“I think the role of marketing internally is at least equal to the value externally. In some ways more, when people pick up a newspaper or read something online, and they hear, for example, your CEO talking about the company's mission, or talking about a new product that you just launched, and how it's going to transform the category and make a difference to a giant number of people, things along those lines are my favorite examples.” - Christopher Lochhead
Public Relations and Investor Relations
Christopher shares candidly that IR and PR, Investor Relations and Public Relations need to be deeply connected. Although it is highly unusual to have IR in marketing since it is always in Finance. However, Christopher shares some instances where Finance would find the Marketing team handy.
“The best CFO I know are way more than accountants. They're strategic minds. They're great at mergers and acquisitions and operations. So a lot of companies, if they're smart, have a very big, big, big time CFO, and I think that's, particularly if you're planning on going public.” - Christopher Lochhead
When do we change the logo?
Unless it's ugly and bad, Christopher believes changing the logo is a strategic mistake, particularly in your first six months. It sends a message to a lot of people that you are tinkering with the creative, as opposed to getting deep in the business.
“You don't want to be seen as the moron who's like tinkering with the colors. When there's some big problem that needs to get addressed. Make sure we're getting on with the business at hand. You want to be seen as somebody who's deep in the business, making a giant difference, particularly for the field sales organization, and then the product and engineering organization.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about the Facebook Live Q&A with Christopher Lochhead, with Jason DeFillippo, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

064 The Secret Hack To Becoming A #1 Author & Podcaster, In 13 Minutes or Less | Marketing PodStorm 26

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 13:00:12 GMT

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead shares a secret hack to become a #1 author and podcaster in 13 minutes or less. Basically, the secret hack is to hire a 16-year-old Tiktoker and let her create funny content for you. You can also explore posting provocative poses, drinking provocative drinks, and being in provocative places.

If you know Christopher well, you will be certain, there is sarcasm in the above paragraph. Today, he will discuss the real deal on reaching the top of your game. It doesn’t include any secret hack or how-to of sorts, but a real-life narration of his personal experiences on how he did it.
No Secret Hack
There is no secret hack. In Christopher’s case, he did not experience a major breakthrough or a celebrity moment that kickstarted his career. We usually see influencers who brag about being on the “Oprah List” or have guested on big podcast shows. Christopher advises you that this is not the only way to the top.
“In my life, but I've always been somebody that's had to carry a lot of water to get any kind of a result. So the answer that I'm going to share with you today is both not satisfying — because there is no secret — and fantastic at the same time. I'm going to tell you right off the top, it's disappointing and empowering.” - Christopher Lochhead
Three Things That Matter
There are three things that matter if you want to become a content person. Number one category design. What's the category? What makes you different versus better? So that category design needs to get done for your book for your podcast for you.

Second, you got to do the work. Christopher cites the specifics on this point and third is you have to have a radically generous mindset.
No Self-Made People
Christopher also talks about how we can achieve success: that is through the help of other people. There are no self-made people because a huge chunk of success comes from customers, fans, family and friends who share your product or service (word of mouth).

Aside from word-of-mouth, Christopher also discusses the importance of paid advertising.
“There's no secret. You got to do the work. You got to invest. You're going to have to do some paid marketing. Some of the top digital celebrities out there want you to believe that they just became that way with no marketing at all because they have legendary products,” - Christopher Lochhead
To listen to the real secret hack to becoming a #1 author and top podcaster, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, product-market fit. Christopher believes it a dangerous idea because it insinuates that there's a market out there who would automatically consume whatever is offered to them.

“Typically what happens is: entrepreneurs start with a problem or something they're working on or tinkering with, and they get obsessed with the thing. That of course, is the product.” - Christopher Lochhead

Company Design
Company design is the purposeful creation of a business model, and an organization with culture, a point of view that fits the category. In a recent episode of Christopher about BHAGs, you'll see how a point of view with a big hairy audacious goal can come together and become a powerful motivator, driver, and unifier of culture.

“If you get category design, right, and you lock and load on a provocative point of view, that is deeply rooted in something you care about, such that you, your co-founders, your colleagues, your co-workers, the other executives in the company, etc. are on a mission centered around that point of view, it changes culture.” - Christopher Lochhead

Category Design
Category design is the mindful creation and development of a new market category. Successful category design will result in the consumers demanding the product from you and crowning you the queen.

“In marketing terms, category design is the ultimate air wars as distinct from ground wars. It's about winning the war for public opinion. It's about teaching the world to abandon something old and embrace something new. Category design builds the profile of the space while drawing attention to the company. Legendary companies market the category first and the company second.” - - Christopher Lochhead

To hear more about the magic triangle and specific examples for product, company, and category design, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

062 How to be a Category Designer | Marketing PodStorm 24

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 13:00:00 GMT

https://youtu.be/Rk9HcOU80Rs

In this episode, an incredibly important topic, we discuss how to be a category designer. Moreover, we dig into how to become the person that drives a new strategy for your company and introduces the world to something new, something different, something that makes a giant difference.
Category Design: A Discipline
Christopher narrates a portion of the book Play Bigger which states: "Category design is the discipline of creating and developing a new market category and conditioning the market so it will demand your solution and crown your company as its King."
“A category designer leads a company-wide strategy with the goal of becoming a category Queen of high value, high growth market category of your choosing.” - Christopher Lochhead
In the same book, Christopher and his co-authors did research and found out that in the tech space, one company takes two-thirds of the economics. As more and more companies behave like tech companies, more and more companies are taking two-thirds of the market.
Category Design: All-Encompassing
Category design is a discipline and for many a career. Christopher has mastered this discipline and has become a huge differentiator for his career as a 3x CMO and as an advisor.
“A category designer brings together all the critical functions in a business — the key strategic activities across your company, aligning sales, marketing, product development/engineering, and even HR — with the single focus of becoming a category queen.” - Christopher Lochhead
Category Design: The Drivers of Change
Category design is a collaborative effort between the CEO and all other Chief Officers of the company. Christopher digs deep into the process and how to go about designing your category.
“Now, category designers bring together the whole business. They help create a blueprint, a visual representation that generates a belief that you have a solution to an urgent problem. So they build this blueprint. They are the creators, and at least co-authors, if not primary authors of the provocative and engaging POV point of view that you're now going to evangelize.” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more about becoming a category designer, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, Here’s a WSJ story about IBM from Oct 2019: “IBM’s overall revenue still slipped by 4% to $18.03 billion in the quarter, coming in below Wall Street’s estimates and led mainly by the slowdown in global technology services.”

“You and I can't do shit about the weather but we can, in this case, the global technology services market category.” - Christopher Lochhead

Here is Why it’s Bullshit
There was zero demand for bubble gum until Walter Diemer created both the product and the category in 1928. Today, bubble gum is a $28.9 Billion category.
Another example is the e-sports category. Statista.com cites “in 2018, the global eSports market was nearly 865 million U.S. dollars and will reach 1.79 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Andy Stout suggests that 106 million people viewed the 2017 Worlds Esports competition eSports scholarships grew an astonishing 480% in 2018. The final prize pool for 2016 League of Legends World Championship, was $6.7 million.
Before Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce, there was no cloud. In 2019 it was a $266.0 billion category and it’s growing at 15%. Market categories are not the weather. Every category exists because someone designed it.
What’s The Point
Christopher could give you a million examples. We are living in a cocoon time and somebody is designing or redesigning the future of your market category. The question for you is, is it you?

“Our businesses are not victims, we are not victims of the market. We have the ability to affect how the market categories behave. Legends, by definition, do not accept the way it is.” - Christopher Lochhead

To know more about why market categories are not like the weather, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore,

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060 10 Commitments Companies Must Make to Advance Racial Justice | Marketing PodStorm 22

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 13:00:00 GMT

https://youtu.be/ZNBeBX2n-Io

In this episode, let's take a look at Mark R. Kramers's article for Harvard Business Review article entitled The 10 commitments companies must make to advance racial justice. Mark is a senior lecturer at Harvard University.
Although Christopher does not agree with Mark’s article in its entirety, he believes these are very powerful ideas worth discussing and advancing inside our companies. Frankly, these commitments should be a must for all business people.
Racial Justice On a Marketing Podcast?
Mark's list is fascinating and you might be asking why are we discussing this on Lochhead on Marketing. Aside from the fact that its a timely discussion, on a marketing perspective, Christopher believes marketing plays a huge part in creating a culture.

“It's hard to succeed in the marketplace when you go to market a shitty product. it's impossible to have legendary internal marketing and communications built on shitty products and policies. Additionally, we are living at a time of mass scrutiny, your category brand and therefore ultimately your revenue will suffer if you're not viewed as being forward on your skis on topics of race, equality, diversity, and the fair treatment of your people.” - Christopher Lochhead

The 10 Commitments
Christopher discusses each of the commitments and cites Mark’s examples, occasionally adding his thoughts, inputs,and views on these matters.
1. Commit to anti-racism personnel policies and racial-equity training.
Adopt a no-tolerance-for-racism policy like Franklin Templeton’s, which led to its swift, recent termination of Amy Cooper following her altercation with Christian Cooper,
2. Commit to pay equity.
Studies that show closing the racial pay gap would increase U.S. GDP by 14%, or more than $2 trillion.
3. Commit to giving employees a voice.
Ensure representation of hourly employees, women, and people of color in all employment policy decisions. Consider employee representation on your board — it’s a legal requirement in Germany and is one reason why its economy recovered more strongly from the Great Recession than America
4. Commit to supporting full participation in democracy.

“Mark advocates making election day, a paid day off. He’s right. I’m generally no fan of more regulations for business but I’ll go a step further and say, States should mandate election day as a day off, with pay. if an employee wants to vote BEFORE election day, they should be given any day in November off to vote.” - Christopher Lochhead

5. Commit to lobbying for good.

“Mark says, commit at least 50% of your lobbying expenditures to support bills that improve conditions for communities of color I think this is a cool idea and I also think there are a lot of important causes.” - Christopher Lochhead

6. Commit to paying a living wage.

“The national minimum wage hasn’t been raised in a decade and has not nearly kept up...

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059 Questions and Cocktails: FB Live Q & A (Part 6) | Marketing PodStorm 21

Sun, 07 Jun 2020 13:00:00 GMT

During the PodStorm, we're doing a live Facebook Question and Answer session, every Friday, 11:30 a.m. PST. This is the sixth part of the series.

Today, podcast living legend Jason DeFillippo of Grumpy Old Geeks joins us to answer some questions about the gig economy, key traits of a good marketing professional and staging a lightning strike.
Gig economy as displaced creative hubs
The term gig economy has received a lot more negative heat. Christopher says he agrees and disagrees with Jason’s opinions, as he stated in his podcast Grumpy Old Geeks about the gig economy. Jason also gave a few insightful comments about developing a sense of community and cooperation.
“We take responsibility for our career. We take responsibility for our financial security, and we decide the kind of work we want to do, with the kind of people want to do it, we decide where the fuck we want to do that.” - Christopher Lochhead
Looking to hire our first marketing person
One listener asked what traits should they look for as they are about to hire their first marketing person. Christopher gave a lot of insights here, basically to avoid “suits” and opt for someone well rounded, preferably from Product Development who could help you with Category Design.
“I know you're going to hate me for saying this, but it's a well-rounded marketing executive that can put on a scuba suit and can go deep and can put on a wingsuit and fly high. That is to say, air wars and ground wars strategy and tactics. I hate to say this because I didn't come from this background, but generally, those folks are found more in Product Marketing than in brand, or lead gen, or “corporate marketing,” because they tend to have more of a GM General Manager type mentality.” - Christopher Lochhead
Lightning Strike, Own Event or Hijack An Event?
Should you try to put on your own event planning capitalize on something else in your space, like in a big convention? What are some examples of lightning strike events for small entrepreneurs worth considering? What are other ways to create a lightning strike, especially if your product is a life event product?

Christopher answers all of these in this episode.
“The other place to look at for things like this, and I don't normally like to talk about it, because it's a secret that I don't like to share, Quora is one of the most under-exploited marketing opportunities out there. Why more thought leaders aren't on Quora? I don't understand.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about the Facebook Live Q&A with Christopher Lochhead, with Jason DeFillippo, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter,...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

058 Questions and Cocktails: FB Live Q & A (Part 5) | Marketing PodStorm 20

Sat, 06 Jun 2020 13:00:00 GMT

During the PodStorm, we're doing a live Facebook Question and Answer session, every Friday, 11:30 a.m. PST. We did our first and second one last week. We’re going to share with you our third one in this episode.

Today, podcast living legend Jason DeFillippo of Grumpy Old Geeks joins us to answer some questions about marketing and generating revenue in times of crisis, becoming a CMO who is hard to fire and masterminds for executives of color.
How do brands figure out what to do and say?
Given the current situation of the world, Christopher firmly believes there is no other time than now to make a stand. As he always shares, this is the time to be radically generous and thoughtfully aggressive. He also warns that brands should be prepared to receive a backlash.
“I think for a lot of brands, making a public statement right now is a very smart thing to do.” - Christopher Lochhead
Brands can do a lot of marketing in a positive light while also driving revenue. He encourages brands to take extra caution too with these efforts, as to not sound insensitive or tone-deaf.
“I might feel passionate and want to take a stand or say something or whatever but I am also being more purposely cautious, which is unusual for me. I think it's a good strategy right now. If you're going to step into the mix, so to speak, even if you're trying not necessarily to be controversial, I think it's a good time to be super thoughtful.” - Christopher Lochhead
What’s your advice for a B2B CMO?
One listener asked for Christopher’s advice, as she is a new CMO in a B2B company. She says she observed most CMOs get fired a lot! Christopher gives out a few pointers to remember, speaking as a 3x CMO himself.
“The first thing is: your entire ability to be effective and successful as a CMO is as a direct result of your relationship with the Chief Executive officer. The second one is one of the main reasons, particularly in the software business, CMOS get fired is they don't make the cash register sing. The third thing is to make friends with the field.” - Christopher Lochhead
Mastermind Group For People of Color
Another listener asked if Christopher could give reference to a mastermind group for people of color. He fully supports and knows quite a number of African-American entrepreneurs, however he is yet to find a group he could refer to.

To hear more about the Facebook Live Q&A with Christopher Lochhead, with Jason DeFillippo, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagra...

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057 Why Most Marketing Is Bullshit: 5 Marketing Lies | Marketing PodStorm 19

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 13:00:00 GMT

Christopher Lochhead debunks five marketing lies in this episode of Lochhead on Marketing. He talks about why so much of marketing thinking is actually bullshit.
Five Marketing Lies and Why
Number one, great marketing is about marketing into an existing market to increase market share.
“Most legendary innovators, creative creators, entrepreneurs, social change, agents, and so forth, did not play by the rules. They establish their own rules. They designed a new way of thinking As a result, they created new market categories. They did not compete in somebody else's game by somebody else's rules.” - Christopher Lochhead
Number two, marketing is about creating demand.
“The legends did not do that. They created demand. There's a huge distinction between capturing and creating.” - Christopher Lochhead
Number three, success comes from building a brand.
“Category makes the brand not the other way around. Success comes from being the company or the individual that designs a new way of thinking about an opportunity, or a problem that creates a category and your brand is valuable based on the power of the category.” - Christopher Lochhead
Number four, winning is about beating the competition.
“If you're competing in an existing market, you're in competition. Winning is not about beating anybody. Winning is about introducing the world to a new way of thinking about a problem and therefore a solution. When the world gets your thinking, bam, you stand alone, you become known for a niche that you own and you stand above everybody else, as opposed to competing with everybody else.” - Christopher Lochhead
And number five, you're going to win if you have the best product to market.
“As a marketer and an entrepreneur, I would much prefer to have a legendary product and pair that with legendary category design and marketing. That's what we're trying to do. Thinking or betting that all you have to do is have a better product. Not so much.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about specific examples on the five marketing lies and why they are BS, download, and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

056 Legendary Marketing Copywriting w/ Cole Schafer | Marketing PodStorm 18

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 13:00:00 GMT

https://youtu.be/7qngxkupxFE

Today, in this very special episode, we're going to go deep on one of the seminal, most powerful marketing skills there is — copywriting. To discuss more, we have the OG of copywriting, Cole Schaefer of Honeycopy.com. Pay special attention to a particular legendary idea that Cole shares about how you can use your favorite book or books to transform your own writing.
Marketers Should Be Writers
Cole believes all marketers should also be writers. He believes this is of prime importance if you want to reach a wider audience. If more marketers would focus on writing, the messages will be a lot more clear, crisp and ultimately, customers will comprehend messages better.

“The vast majority of business writing and marketing communication, to be honest, it's just really, really tough to read. I would say primarily because it's just littered with sort of business jargon and buzzwords. I hate to say but kind of like the showboating is what I feel like when I read a lot of brand writing and it doesn't feel that it can be understood by the wider audience.” - Cole Schafer

Writing in Third-Person POV
Another observation Cole shares is: brands write on a third-person point of view. Whether it is on their website or other communications, Cole says the rationale behind is the mentality of not being pompous.

“I think for us, any brand, be it big or small, the goal is for when someone sits down and reads their emails or their website, coffee or anything, we really want to feel like we're talking to another human being. Right?” - Cole Schafer

Become A Legendary Writer
Cole gives out valuable copywriting advice for marketers or even aspiring writers. From knowing your voice and your audience to rewriting ads just like how David Ogilvy does it, Cole gives a rundown on his personal processes.

“I would tell people if whether it's writing or podcasting or whatever, whatever craft you're trying to do, just absorb really really, really good art in that specific field. If you want to become a great writer, don't read bad writing. Pick up a really good book, look up the best writers of all time, start reading there and I think naturally it will imprint on your brain.” - Cole Schafer

To know more about Cole and how to become a legendary copywriter, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Cole Schafer likes to live fast, write often, and pet dogs.
He is a thinker, marketer, and writer that has been published in Business Insider, Entrepreneur Magazine, The Mission, Thought Catalog, and P.S. I Love You.
In addition, Cole is the Founder & Copy Chief at Honey Copy, a creative copywriting agency that helps big brands write valuable "stuff" that people actually want to read.
Links:
Honeycopy
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

055 How To Fight Injustice w/ Legendary Marketing | Marketing PodStorm 17

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 13:00:00 GMT

Today, let's take a look at the role of marketing in driving real, dramatic, impactful, important social change. We dig into topics like the battle against AIDS, the women's movement, and even the founding of the United States of America as actual acts of legendary marketing, and what you might think of as category design.
It moves the world
Christopher believes that legendary marketing does more than just drive sales. Legendary marketing does more. Marketing a provocative point of view creates a new category of social fabric that drives real societal change
“I would argue to you that the greatest marketers, the most legendary marketers are actually category designers. They introduced the world to new ways of thinking, playing, and working and for major societal change to happen. It requires new categories of thinking, what you might think of as very different points of view, points of view that move the world from the way it is today, to the way we want it to be.” - Christopher Lochhead
More on Societal Change
From spreading awareness about AIDS, to equality wage for equal work, to the establishment of the United States of America, Christopher carefully breaks down why these are provocative points of view that later on demanded societal changes.

He reads several quotes lifted from the actual Declaration of Independence and touches on self-governance, which is timely at the moment of recording, where there is civil unrest in the US because of the untimely death of African American George Floyd.
Designing The World of Your Choosing
As Christopher believes this is a cocoon time, a time in between pre-Covid19 and post Covid19, he poses a question on what kind of world we would like to design?
“So what am I saying to you? Whether it's a legendary entrepreneur, artist, or social change agent? The question facing all of us in the United States, particularly and frankly, around the world, is what kind of country and what kind of world do we want to design now?” - Christopher Lochhead
Ultimately, for exponential change to happen, it requires category design. It requires the marketing of a point of view that mobilizes a movement to take the world to an exponentially different future. This is why Christopher thinks a real social change requires category design and legendary marketing predicated on a powerful and different point of view.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Links:
African Americans are incarcerated more than 5 times the rate of white people

BHAG
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook,Honeycopy.com about Fender, a legendary guitar company that makes guitars and amps and other various musical equipment. Recently, they proved that radical generosity and thoughtfully aggressive can produce legendary results.

“You need to manufacture guitar players because there ain't no guitar-buying if there ain't no guitar players. So what Fender has done over time is they transform themselves from a hardware company into a software company. In doing so, they built their own data flywheel.” - Christopher Lochhead

The hardware company set up a software platform called Fender Play, designed to teach people to play guitar. Listen to the episode to find out what else happened when Fender decided to give access to its software, for free.
Don’t Forget About Colgate
Another story Cole Schaffer told Christopher happened way back in 2009. Colgate was devising of marketing efforts to get kinds onboard with the whole “brush your teeth twice a day” movement.

“Imagine you're the CEO or the CMO of Colgate, and you're trying to get kids to brush their teeth. What's the opposite of what most people would do? Well, give them ice cream, but that's exactly what Colgate did. So imagine instead of a generic stick inside, it's a stick that looks a lot like a toothbrush. It's in the shape of a toothbrush. It's a wooden Ice cream stick in the shape of a toothbrush with a copy on it that says, ‘Don't forget’, and Colgate started handing out Ice cream, ice cream bars to kids.” - Christopher Lochhead

Key Takeaway
These are both legendary examples of simple ideas that are very thoughtfully aggressive and radically generous at the same time. So how might that apply to your business?

“Think small, think simple, think cheap, sometimes not having much of a budget drives creativity. And ask yourself what is an insanely simple, cheap, thoughtfully aggressive, radically generous idea that we could pull off fast and then go do that?” - Christopher Lochhead

To hear more about how to devise little marketing ideas with legendary results, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software fi...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

052 Questions and Cocktails: FB Live Q & A (Part 4) | Marketing PodStorm 14

Sun, 31 May 2020 13:00:00 GMT

During the PodStorm, we're doing a live Facebook Question and Answer session, every Friday, 11:30 a.m. PST. We did our first and second one last week. We’re going to share with you our fourth part of the Q&A session in this episode. Today, podcast living legend Jason DeFillippo of Grumpy Old Geeks joins us to answer some questions about lightning strikes, taglines, how to launch a new category, and much more.
How long does a Lightning Strike Last?
Christopher answers this question about marketing lightning strikes: it ranges from a day to a week. He further says that this is a challenge of either rising above the noise or being part of the noise. During a lightning strike, you try to stand out and become undeniable to your target audience

“The key tenants of a lightning strike are maximum impact in minimum time. It's predicated on the premise that you can't peanut butter, your marketing, right.” - Christopher Lochhead

How do we come up with a tagline?
Christopher and Jason converses nicely about coming up with a powerful tagline. Christopher says the Grumpy Old Geeks have one of the best taglines in over the web: “What went wrong on the internet and who's to blame?” Christopher gives out other examples in this episode.

“The vast majority of taglines are complete bullshit. The reason they're bullshit is: they're some meaningless thing. Most importantly, they do not tie often to the brand. Category and legendary taglines are representative of a point of view, centered around the category.” - Christopher Lochhead

When is a good time to launch a new category?
Christopher gives out a few examples of companies that successfully launched their categories, such as Zoom. Jason chides in with a few more examples such as Reddit. Ultimately, what is worthy to take note are the megatrends that you could take advantage of to build a new category.

“I think it would be silly not to acknowledge the importance of timing, and to some degree, the importance of luck.” - Christopher Lochhead

To hear more about the Facebook Live Q&A with Christopher Lochhead, with Jason DeFillippo, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference,

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

051 Questions and Cocktails: FB Live Q & A (Part 3) | Marketing PodStorm 13

Sat, 30 May 2020 13:00:00 GMT

During the PodStorm, we're doing a live Facebook Question and Answer session, every Friday, 11:30 a.m. PST. We did our first and second one last week. We’re going to share with you our third one in this episode. Today, podcast living legend Jason DeFillippo of Grumpy Old Geeks joins us to answer some questions about podcasting, creativity and a whole lot more!
Podcasting at home
Christopher, together with Jason, answers a question posted in Follow Your Different Facebook Group asking if “this is the right time to go podcasting.” Both went into an interesting discussion about content creators levelling up the playing field and why there is no other time than now to start your own podcast.

Internet-produced podcasts sound way better now than studio-produced because of readily available internet solutions and movie-grade software, such as Squadcast.fm.
“We've got a little more experienced than they do. I mean, they're used to their million-dollar studios, we're used to a laptop and some software and flying by the seat of our pants. We got to make it sound good. Once you take away their studio, they just don't know what to do.” - Jason DeFillippo
Should we start a podcast now?
Jason shares the only reason not to start a podcast is because microphones are unavailable. There is no barrier to entry and he believes everybody is welcome to start one to get the industry booming.
“The more people that are podcasting, you know, a rising tide lifts all boats, because you're going to know people that have never listened to a podcast before which means that you are going to be out there beating the drum, teaching people how to listen.” - Jason DeFillippo
Creativity: Nature vs. Nurture
Christopher answers the question about how to be creative under pressure. He had an interesting exchange of conversation with Jason since Jason believes creativity can be taught and there is a formula to follow while Christopher believes it is innate to someone.
“At least in my experience, particularly with marketing and category design, often the first idea is directly right and then you have to, sort of, water it.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about the Facebook Live Q&A with Christopher Lochhead, with Jason DeFillippo, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

049 Do A Marketing Stunt | Marketing PodStorm #11

Thu, 28 May 2020 13:00:00 GMT

https://youtu.be/tiY3tLnVud0

In this episode, let's talk about the power of a well-timed stunt to gain attention, rise above the noise, and drive revenue. This is how we get our creative juices flowing. Do something that is maybe a little provocative, maybe a little risque. It should be designed to get a lot of attention, and maybe even drive some PR.
Black Friday Sale, Not!
Christopher shares about different brands and their provocative stunts. Max Temkin, founder of the Cards Against Humanity appeared on Follow Your Different Episode 60. Max and his team probably are the masters in terms of marketing stunts when they jacked up their prices, on Black Friday Sale.
“As a way of sort of doing the opposite of what every B2C company and brand does — and as a way of sort of calling bs on consumerism — they increased the price of Cards Against Humanity on Black Friday, and got a ton of PR for it. People thought it was hysterical. They paid the price. They stood out.” - Christopher Lochhead
Sponsoring The Golden Gate Bridge
CarsDirect.Com also pulled off one legendary stunt when they sent out press releases about their proposal to sponsor the Golden Gate Bridge. This press release stirred up a lot of controversies and reaction from the media, but they still ended up getting a lot of publicity for it.
“Now notice, they put forward a proposal, it wasn't actually happening. By putting that press release out, they caused a tremendous amount of controversy.” - Christopher Lochhead
Aliens Will Eat Fat People First
Another marketing stunt that got into a lot of controversies is the Ad of 24 Hour Fitness featuring an alien and caption that says, “when they come, they'll eat the fat ones first.”
“Their CEO is interviewed on the news. And he was talking about how they're just trying to have fun and shine a light on obesity and that people need to get fit and healthy and the like. And a lot of people were upset and there was all this kerfuffle again, but what were they talking about? 24 Hour Fitness.” - Christopher Lochhead
Christopher encourages companies to be provocative, be thoughtful be potentially willing to piss some people off (depending on your brand).
To hear more about doing a marketing stunt, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Links:
Follow Your Different Episode 60 - Max Temkin
Times Cards Against Humanity Pulled Amazing Publicity Stunts
Our Favorite Crazy Stunts From Salesforce Leader Marc Benioff

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048 How to Market with a Powerful Point of View | Marketing PodStorm #10

Wed, 27 May 2020 13:00:00 GMT

In today's PodStorm episode, let's go deep on how to market with a powerful point of view. POVs can be viewed as a mechanism for distinguishing your brand and most importantly, to design and dominate your market category. As wacky as it might sound, downturns can be very powerful times to do exactly that.

To discuss this in more detail, we invited Elie Kanaan. He is one of the most talented CMOS and category designers, who now works as the Head of Marketing for Ogury Europe.
One Big Challenge
Eli believes marketing a provocative POV is one of the biggest challenges any leader faces. Aside from marketing a POV, you must also know how to turn that POV into results. He says that a powerful POV starts with the CEO and CMOs should be fully supportive of it.
“I believe there are three different journeys that need to happen within the company that is led by the standard CEO, CMO. First, there's a product transformation journey. Then, there's a marketing transformation journey and there is a sales transformation journey. So for that, the CEO and the CMO needs to get on board, the Chief Product Officer, the Chief Technology Officer, and the Chief Revenue Officer. So those would be secondary, but equally important when it comes to execution.” - Elie Kanaan
Bringing Everyone Onboard
In presenting a POV, you need to do remember that everyone must believe and understand, your idea with bring good money to the company. Once this is defined, everybody on the board sees the light aka your powerful POV.

Aside from this, a POV becomes a strategy for the whole company and not some mere marketing message or tactic that you employ for a limited time period. A POV is a fixed lens where a company looks into a problem.
“When we declare a point of view, and we're evangelizing a problem, that's something that doesn't really change. That's it. That's a vision, right? This distinction between a point of view that really points to a true north North, ‘what's the mission’ or on ‘what's the problem we're solving?’ ‘Why should customers care’ ‘Why is this thing a new opportunity’ ‘Why is this thing, a new way of thinking about something that's gonna make a difference for customers?’ As opposed to a message called, ‘hey, this month only buy one, get one free, right?’ That's a message.” - Christopher Lochhead
Different Is Non-Negotiable
The next thing to do is: you have to convince everyone that your idea is different. Unique is different and hard to copy, but oftentimes, leaders confuse being different to what Eli and Christopher call as a “better drop.”
“Our minds have been molded into having a better conversation all the time because of alI the shitty marketing that happened before. I mean, there’s some good marketing that happened, but a lot of the marketing is better. This is one of the biggest pitfalls in creating the category — either on the marketing side or the product or the sales side. The Product Team wants to do better products, the Sales want to sell better features, Marketing have better value propositions. /you know, we always set it together actually, is that better is negotiable. Different isn't.” - Elie Kanaan
To learn more about how to market a powerful and provocative point of view, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Elie, is an engineering mind coupled with a passion for human psychology. His life, career and interests have been a direct consequence of these two attributes.

After graduating from Stanford University with a Master in Computer Sciences, he started his career as a developer at Oracle, when Oracle was a small company.

Quickly he realized that his calling was in creating and building market ca...

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047 We’re in a cocoon | Marketing PodStorm #9

Tue, 26 May 2020 13:00:00 GMT

https://youtu.be/Y0oQrse3rVo

It appears that we are in a great time of transition. There is that “before February” and then there is “whatever comes after Coronavirus.” The present moment seems like we're in a cocoon. We are at a cocoon time — an incredible in-between zone — where, in business sense, there is a good chance to have massive winners and horrible losers.
Let's talk about the mindset required to become one of those massive winners.
There’s No “Going Back”
We hear a lot of talk in the media, about opening back the economy and “going back to work.” Christopher strongly believes there is no “going back” to whatever we had, pre-coronavirus. We are currently live in a cocoon and we are facing a lot of changes in terms of how we do work
“I think what’s going on here is that almost every part of the way that we live, play and work has the potential, the strong potential to be materially different as result of C-19. I think there are megatrends that were going on anyway that are being materially accelerated,” - Christopher Lochhead
The most obvious change is a distance working or working from home. Another industry facing a massive change in the food industry and the supply chain.
What’s Likely To Be Different?
Christopher encourages you to think about every major component of your work and personal life and consider, what is likely to be different.
“You see, there are two headsets out there. There's a strategic mindset of people who say ‘well I’m going to bet on the world, being the same’ and ‘look, maybe somethings are the same.’ Then, there’s another headset that says, ‘we think the world is going to be different.” - Christopher Lochhead
Christopher believes there is an acceleration of different niches, which he also calls a Nichenado, an explosion of new innovation, of new categories of new niches.
What About Those Differences?
Christopher challenges you to ask yourself what you can do to ensure you can design and dominate your market category in the future. He further shares the concept of “backcasting” (as opposed to forecasting) which is a concept of Mike Maples of FloodGate Capital. You can listen to him on Follow Your Different Episode 163.
“What were the opportunities? What were the problems created or accelerated by C-19 and how can we be a part of solving them? Most importantly, how do you create the future of your choosing?” - Christopher Lochhead
To know more about why we live in a cocoon and how we can create the future of our choosing, download, and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook,email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

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045 Questions and Cocktails: Facebook Live Q & A (Part 2) | Marketing PodStorm #7

Sun, 24 May 2020 17:00:00 GMT

During the PodStorm, were doing a live Facebook Question and Answer session, every Friday, 11:30 a.m. PST. Here is the second part of our recording, for Q&A about marketing and category design. We talk about all things ranging from new category creation, how to craft problems positively, and creating demand during a crisis.
How to know if you have a new category?
As counterintuitive as it might sound, now is a great time to launch a new category. Christopher encourages you to ask yourself a couple of key questions: number 1, “what problem do I solve?” or “do I solve that in a different or unique way?” and “What kind of market insights do you have?” If you don’t think of it as a problem, maybe you create an opportunity.
“Nobody buys a solution unless they see a problem. You might consider asking what kind of insights do you have. One is technical insight. Somebody creates a new algorithm or somebody creates hardware. Another one is Market Insight, for example, ‘I want to be able to hire somebody to do an odd job, takes something from point a to point b, come over and help me with something.’ Do you have a technical insight or do you have a market insight? Regardless of what it is, begin to evangelize that insight, that difference.” - Christopher Lochhead
How do you talk about problems in a positive way?
Evangelizing a problem in a positive way can lead to mass differentiation and category creation. Christopher advises legendary marketers to frame the problem as deeply relatable. This way, we want to be seen as a hero, mobilizing people to come together to solve said problem.

“Here's what I've learned, what you want to do in the way you talk about problems is, do it such that you create 'us.' You make the problem an enemy, a 'them.' You want to define the problem very powerfully, in a way that resonates with people, and then you say, this aggression will not stand, man.” - Christopher Lochhead
How do you create demand in a situation where your revenue is dropping?
Christopher chides that this is one tough question. We know many companies are having this problem. He drops a bunch of ideas that although might not exactly answer this question, but hopefully might stimulate some thinking.
“The first idea, take a handful of your smartest people and lock them and brainstorm 3-5 things that you go near term to stimulate revenue. If you are in the B2B space, create a white space analysis. What you do, you take your existing customer base, do a quick analysis to find out which of your products and services they are currently using. Once you know what they are using, then you immediately target existing customers. If you’re in the B2C, be visible in your neighborhood.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about the Facebook live Q&A session (Part 2) with Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free toemail him, connect on Facebook...

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043 Drive Revenue Now | Marketing PodStorm #5

Fri, 22 May 2020 13:00:00 GMT

https://youtu.be/3yCPhiRlVuE

Welcome to Lochhead on Marketing, where we are trying the first world's Marketing PodStorm — 30 days of strategies and ideas to help you create the future that you want because we believe that nothing legendary is going to happen, at any kind of scale, without legendary marketing.
Today, let’s talk about a few, very simple ideas that can help drive revenue for both B2C companies and B2B companies.
Get Radically Visible
As we are trying to come back and slowly opening up the economy, Christopher encourages B2C companies to get radically visible in their communities.

“The way to do that is to be thoughtfully aggressive and radically generous. A couple of ideas, sponsor some shit, food bank fundraiser, any kind of charity fundraiser. Be associated with helping to make good things happen in your community in a way that is very generous and that let’s people know you are back in business.” - Christopher Lochhead

Get Practical and Tactical
On the B2B side, Christopher shares similar, simple thoughts. He encourages B2B professionals to go back to the old school: cold calling and cold emailing.

“If you are in the B2B space, I highly recommend you get on a named account model because, we could do a whole podcast on it, but the net of this is, when you are on a named account model, your salespeople and your marketing people know exactly who to go after, especially in this case, we’re trying to drive revenue now.” - Christopher Lochhead

Final Advice
Christopher gives out clear examples of what you can do for your business at this time, whether you are in B2B or B2C. He shares that there are potential buyer avatars out there that are willing to drive revenues for your company.

“Reach out and touch ‘em. Try to do something creative and something radically generous to get their attention and hopefully set up some phone calls.” - Christopher Lochhead

Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
Gain the visibility and control you need in your business: https://netsuite.com/different
Turn data into doing: https://splunk.com/d2e

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042 Marketing Simple | Beware The “Bag Full of Door Knobs”| Marketing PodStorm #4

Thu, 21 May 2020 13:00:09 GMT

https://youtu.be/itibVmOMixM

Welcome to Lochhead on Marketing, where we are trying the first world's Marketing PodStorm — 30 days of strategies and ideas to help you create the future that you want because we believe that nothing legendary is going to happen, at any kind of scale, without legendary marketing.
Today, let’s talk about marketing simple aka beware the bag full of doorknobs.
Biznobabble
A lot of companies communicate and market in very confusing ways. Christopher says a lot of companies share their marketing messages in a “carnival barker kind of approach.”

“A lot of companies, even if they are a little more sophisticated, they are still barking a lot at people with a lot of stuff, in the tech world, we tend to speak on Biznobabble.” - Christopher Lochhead

One of the things that Christopher likes to do is read on a company's website, specifically the “About Us” and it does show how messed up their marketing messages are.

“I made this one up and I placed it in Playbigger, as this is illustrative of the problem:
Megatech dingdong corporation is headquartered in San Jose California and as a leading developer and global supplier of innovative highspeed world-class cloud infrastructure platform solutions to global worldwide customers and all industries
Megatech Dingdong big data application infrastructure platform solutions are highly scalable, reliable, flexible, secure and powerful, built by world-class team, with a deep understanding of global communications standards and software and hardware expertise and design architecture development and standard-based social IOT mobile, wireless, container enabled distributed hyper-converged cloud blah blah blah yada yada yada.” - Christopher Lochhead, reading an excerpt of Play Bigger

Communicate Clearly
Christopher shares that today, particularly now is the time to communicate clearly because when people are confused, the chances of them buying is from minimal to zero. It is now, more than ever, that companies have to communicate in clear and powerful ways
“When people are confused, they have to think about it and ‘think about it,’ it is code for ‘I’m not sure’ or ‘I don’t get it’ which is also code for, ‘I’m not buying!’.” - Christopher Lochhead
Getting Super Simple
How could you get super simple? Christopher advises companies to focus on the problem your company is solving and remember that legends market the problem, not the product. Market one simple product or service to solve that problem and use short, simple and powerful words.
To know more about marketing simple and how to avoid a bag full of doorknobs, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Links:
Fedex USA-Brazil Campaign
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to

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040 Making Your Market Category A Must Have | Marketing PodStorm Episode 2

Tue, 19 May 2020 13:00:00 GMT

https://youtu.be/myKVAJ6nFb0

Welcome to Lochhead on Marketing, where we are trying the first world's Marketing PodStorm — 30 days of strategies and ideas to help you create the future that you want because we believe that nothing legendary is going to happen, at any kind of scale, without legendary marketing.
In this episode, let’s talk about, arguably, the most important issue facing your marketing as you go forward powerfully: is your category a must-have, a nice to have or a don’t really need to have?
Customers Prioritize Categories When...
Christopher shares an important insight from a lot of CEOs and CMOs saying "our problem is that we are too much of a vitamin and not enough of an aspirin.” As it turns out, the more strategic, valuable, and urgent the market perceives a category, the greater the chances these customers will prioritize and buy from that business.

“I think there's something very important to understand about what’s going on right now in the economy. We are all in a game of wallet share, much more than a game of market share. Customers’ wallets, as a result of the recession, are much smaller. They are going on a prioritization, deciding what is more important and what they can live without.” - Christopher Lochhead

Becoming a Must-have Is Job Number 1
Christopher mentions his observation about the mistake most companies are making as the economy starts to open up. They are evangelizing their brand, not their category.

“A brand is about us, is about our company it is about our product. The category is about customers, their problems, their opportunities. Categories are about customers, brands are about us. Right now, savvy marketers are focused on their customers and making their space, their category, critical.” - Christopher Lochhead

A Couple of Examples
The Washington Post has a very powerful tagline "democracy dies in darkness." They are not hard-selling their brand, services, and company. The Washington Post is laying down a point of view about democracy and evangelizing this point of view results to elevating the value of Free Press.

“By evangelizing the category and keeping your brand more on the background, you also elevate your brand above everybody else in the category because, in the mind of the consumer, the company or the person evangelizing the category must be the category queen or king.” - Christopher Lochhead

To know more about how to make your market category a must-have, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter,Follow Your Different Episode 160, and Clint shares how they are dealing with the current C19 crisis, through radical business transformation.
How To Deal With “Ambush”
Last year was HydraFacial’s best year ever. When C19 hit, their entire category got stopped. Clint describes this as “being ambushed.” What do you do if this happens to your business?

“First of all, you summon your entrepreneurial spirit and you get, what my buddy Eddie Yoon call, thoughtfully aggressive and radically generous.” - Christopher Lochhead

HydraFacial partnered with a small company and they created the world's first reusable cotton mask, infused with copper, which has natural anti-bacterial properties. Second, they entered the ventilator manufacturing business. Lastly, their call centers were converted to “helplines” to support the community during this crisis.
Roaring Out This Recession
Walter Frick in an article he wrote for Harvard Business Review cited amazing facts and figures that prove it is possible to turn your business around this recession.

“Recessions of 1980, 1990, and 2000, 17% of the 4,700 public companies they studied fared particularly badly: They went bankrupt, went private, or were acquired. But just as striking, 9% of the companies didn’t simply recover in the three years after a recession—they flourished, outperforming competitors by at least 10% in sales and profits growth. A more recent analysis by Bain using data from the Great Recession reinforced that finding. The top 10% of companies in Bain’s analysis saw their earnings climb steadily throughout the period and continue to rise afterward. A third study, by McKinsey, found similar results.” - Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria, and Franz Wohlgezogen, Roaring Out of Recession

Christopher believes that you can come out of this downturn stronger when you commit and believe you can be a part of that 10%.
To know more about Christopher and why this recession will not stand, download, and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

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038 The Future Needs You

Thu, 07 May 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Today, let's talk about why the future needs you and frankly, why the future needs some legendary marketing. Entrepreneurs, pay attention to this episode because the future needs you and your innovations to move the human race forward.
Going Back To How It Was
We hear a lot of discussion about how the business people plan to reopen businesses and how the entire workforce will get back to work. Christopher candidly gives his viewpoint for this: there is no going back to how it was before.
“I think frankly, there is nothing to go back to. It's not about going back to work, it is about creating the future and I think that is where legendary marketing comes in.” - Christopher Lochhead
What Greatest Marketers Do
Christopher says the greatest marketers over time are the ones who move the world from the way it is now, to the way they want it to be. Further, he shares that legendary marketing is about making an exponential difference as opposed to creating an incremental change.
“I think we are witnessing the very beginning of the creation of a new future. Much is going to be different as we move forward. Work, the way we knew it, is different, Society, the way we knew it is different. I think people’s priorities are going to shift. I think what they value is going to shift. I think, therefore, what they are interested in buying is going to shift.” - Christopher Lochhead
The Power of Entrepreneurship
As a strong believer in the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to move the human race forward Christopher shares that most legendary marketers in the world have done exceptional work in doing exactly that.
“I think as we come out of this crisis there is a chance that we will begin to see the emergence of a whole new set of technologies, services, products and categories that design a more human future, frankly, a world that works for more of us, in a way that it never did before.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about Why The Future Needs You and more information about Christopher, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter,Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter,The Difference, for some amazing content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

037 How To Be Thoughtfully Aggressive & Radically Generous w/ Eddie Yoon

Tue, 21 Apr 2020 10:00:00 GMT

We have is a very special free form conversation with Eddie Yoon, author of Superconsumers. He is also the category design guru to the Fortune 500. Recently, we collaborated on an article for Harvard Business Review “5 Ways to Stimulate Cash Flow in a Downturn.”

In this episode, we bring that article to life as we talk about two big ideas: how to be thoughtfully aggressive and radically generous.
Innovations Through Adversities
Christopher and Eddie share some stories about what is currently happening in the US. Christopher acknowledges the fact that the figures during daily briefings are not just numbers, they are people who have friends, families, and relationships.
“I just feel deep sadness and concern right now for all small businesses and large businesses. I think a lot of innovations will come through it, as it always does in adversities but this is one of those I cant wait to be on the other side of it.” - Eddie Yoon
Thoughtfully Aggressive, Radically Generous
Christopher shares how they have been thinking and researching the book they are working on and how these two ideas started to resonate with people in this time of crisis.
“We have a unique opportunity now to be radically generous, best we can and that can be financially and thoughtfully aggressive. Some of our businesses are threatened. Most businesses are down in meaningful ways. As business leaders, we got to navigate through this the best we can.” - Christopher Lochhead
Eddie shares that in a time of uncertainty, we don’t know what is going to work. However, if we lean into being radically generous, and thoughtfully aggressive, we'll be fine throughout this.
“When you're in a crisis, you got to keep it simple and I think these principles are not that simple, but they are emotional. That's the key part, cause sometimes in fight or flight, your brain doesn't always work. Emotions are what you can hold on to and that's something people can use to discern. Is it a radically generous thing or not? Am I being a chicken or should I be more thoughtfully aggressive about it?” - Eddie Yoon
No Best Time To Launch Than Now
For companies and brands who got caught up in the planning stage of launching a new product, Christopher and Eddie give advice that there’s no best time to launch than now.
“I think, that self-awareness is the thing that makes me feel comfortable. Category creation and design is the ultimate growth strategy. You should be doing it anyway.” - Eddie Yoon
To learn more about how to be thoughtfully aggressive and radically generous. and more information about Eddie Yoon, download and listen to this episode
Bio:
Eddie Yoon is the founder of EddieWouldGrow, LLC, a think tank and advisory firm on growth strategy. Previously he was one of the senior partners at The Cambridge Group, a strategy consulting firm.

His work over the past two decades has driven over $8 billion dollars of annual incremental revenue. In particular, 8 of his clients have doubled or tripled in revenue in less than 8 years.

Eddie is one of the world’s leading experts on finding and monetizing superconsumers to grow and create new categories.

He is the author of the book, Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth (Harvard Business School Press, 2016).

His book was named as one of the Best Business Books of 2017 by Strategy & Business. He is also the author of over 100 articles, including “Make Your Best Customers Even Better” (Harvard Business Review magazine, March 2014) and “Why It Pays to Be a Category Creator” (Harvard Business Review magazine, March 2013).

Additionally, he has appeared on CNBC and MSNBC and been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Forbes and has been a keynote speaker in the U.S., Canada, Kenya, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark,

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036 Small Pond PR Strategy w/ Jeremy Ryan Slate

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 10:00:00 GMT

In this episode, we have a thoughtful conversation about how to create and execute what Marketing guru and entrepreneurial podcaster Jeremy Ryan Slate calls “A Small Pond PR Strategy.” We dig into why you should go small before you go big.
Small Pond PR Strategy
Jeremy is the host of Create Your Own Life Podcast and owner of firm Command Your Brand Media. He is on a mission to help entrepreneurs get their message out though podcast guesting. Likewise, he also helps podcasters become more profitable.
He is also spreading the word about Small Pond PR Strategy

“You have to figure out what’s your small area. Honestly, one of the best ways that I found to do that is: start writing press releases to promote to the area because they're hungry for news and you got to tell them about it.” - Jeremy Ryan Slate

Start Small Before Going Big
Jeremy shares that oftentimes, people disconnect with their local community and focus on targeting big-time media outlets such as Forbes or INC. It is the belief that a featured article from these big media will move the needle.

“If you shoot right for that stuff, you have to realize that there are stairs to get in the media and you have to know how to actually get up those stairs and actually get your local areas for you. So, by saying that its a small pond, what I mean is, everybody has a small community group or whatever it may be that they are a part of.” - Jeremy Ryan Slate

To cite an example, Jeremy shares he did an exchange with Rotary International, where he spoke in front of 30 different groups in Peru. He was promoted via the newsletter. This is a great avenue to become an opinion leader in a certain field.
Maximize Press Releases
Jeremy also shared about writing press releases and tapping community newspapers. Christopher also said local bloggers who have an enthusiastic following is also a good medium.
In writing press releases, Jeremy advised to ask these questions:

“What’s newsworthy about our business? If you don't have a reason your different, or reason that the media should care—an interesting statistic, an interesting achievement, something that you're doing to help the community.” - Jeremy Ryan Slate

To learn more about Small Pond PR Strategy and more information about Jeremy Ryan Slate, download and listen to this episode
Bio:
Jeremy Ryan Slate is the founder of the Create Your Own Life Podcast, which studies the highest performers in the world.
He studied literature at Oxford University and is a former champion powerlifter turned new media entrepreneur.
Specializes in using podcasting and new media to create celebrity and was ranked #1 in iTunes New and Noteworthy and #1 in the business category, as well as ranked # 78 in the iTunes Top 100.
Jeremy was named one of the top 26 podcasts for entrepreneurs to listen to in 2017 + 18 by CIO Magazine, a top podcast to listen to by INC Magazine in 2019 and Millennial Influencer to follow in 2018 by Buzzfeed.
The Create Your Own Life Podcast has been downloaded over a million times.
He’s also a featured writer for Influencive and Business.com, as well as a contributing editor of New Theory Magazine and Grit Daily.
After his success in podcasting, Jeremy Slate and his wife, Brielle Slate, founded Command Your Brand Media to help entrepreneurs get their message out by appearing as guests on podcasts and to help podcasters be more profitable.
Links:
Jeremy Ryan Slate
Twitter: @jeremyryanslate
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to James Dyson designed a new ventilator in 10 days. He's making 15,000 for the pandemic fight

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Chris Fussell was on FYD episode 38 and he made a comment on digital leadership in an article he wrote on NY Times.
He made a comment on “digital leadership and said “first, don’t hunker down. Second, demonstrate candor.” Christopher thinks this is good advice especially in times like this, the only way people are experiencing their leaders is digital.

“Going forward once we get through this crisis, it is very clear, digital communication will become, if it is not already, the primary way that your employees hear from you and see you.” - Christopher Lochhead

Leaders Are Not Overcommunicating
Christopher observed that CEOs, CMOs or any business leaders at the moment are not communicating much. This to him is a big mistake. He shares that Fussel and McCrystal are right on, from a tactical point of view. He also encourages leaders, not only to improve public speaking skills but to get comfortable with technology such as Zoom.

“I don’t think you can be a leader anymore unless you’re a digital leader.” - Christopher Lochhead

To cite an example, Chris Fussel talked about McChrystal doing daily briefings. He couldn’t take a top-down approach on communications that he needed to be front and center with all of his people and so he started daily briefings using video and audio.
Becoming a Digital Leader
As a CEO, CMO, of business leader the first a-ha here is that you can’t be a leader unless you’re a digital leader. Since its the only way for people to experience you, you must get comfortable with technology. Make the necessary upgrades on your hardware such as microphone, camera, among others.
Consider having daily CEO briefings. Learn how to motivate your employees and ask the tough questions. Be radically candid and keep in mind, LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN.
To hear more about Christopher’s thoughts digital leadership and overcommunicating. download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Links:
What 9/11 Taught Us About Leadership in a Crisis, NY Times
Radical Candor...

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033 Marketing Is The Leadership Department

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Coronavirus has created and is still creating both horrible human and economic costs, around the world. However, it is during these times, where real leaders stand up and become legendary. Extra-ordinary times, call for legendary leadership.

The difference in marketing can make in these tough times, is incalculable. In this episode, let’s talk about why Marketing is the Leadership Department. The goal is to share ideas but most importantly, to spark dialogue and thinking amongst you and your colleagues,
Let’s Face It
Let’s state the obvious. We are likely heading into a downturn: revenues are likely coming down, as well as budgets and spending. Both private and public enterprises are definitely affected.
“From a human perspective, the coronavirus is going to cause more loss and suffering that’s just where we are at.” - Christopher Lochhead
Marketing as Leaders
As this is the perfect time for marketing leaders to stand up, here are some of Christopher’s thoughts on how to make it legendary.

1) Real leaders stand up

If you’re a CEO, please think about leading your company and your category through marketing. If you’re a CMO, please think about yourself as the personal press secretary for your CEO. In challenging times, the CEO and CMO want to be stapled to each other because marketing sets the tone for the company
“Marketing unifies all communications and spokespeople.” - Christopher Lochhead
On the offensive side, legendary marketing in bad times can drive the agenda for the category and position the company to gain a meaningful category share.

2) Now is a good time to do some good

If you or your company is in a position to help, see if you can. Let’s all try and be kind to each other. This is the right time to ask ourselves if we’re doing all that we can for our people. This epidemic is going to affect us in one way or another.
“I know of several high-profile Silicon Valley tech companies that are donating technology, money and/or resources, of one sort or another to try and help with this situation.” - Christopher Lochhead
3) Look to make smart budget cuts / re-allocations

Use this situation as an excuse to stop doing any activities that don’t give returns to the company. Most marketing plans have at least 20% of stupid in them. Cut more than you think you have to. Measure twice, cut once.

4) Practice radical transparency

Now is the time for clear, plain decisive language with your people, customers, partners, and investors. It is attractive, endearing and it makes people want to help this troubled company because the most legendary leaders are radically transparent.

5) Get thoughtfully aggressive

Research from Firms like McKinsey and Bain, published in places like the HBR suggest that the pathway to success is “Act fast, make changes or cuts if needed, then be thoughtfully aggressive, ahead of the recovery. The research says: Between 9%-14% of companies (depending on the study) actually outperformed competitors by at least 10% in sales and profit growth

Aim to be one of them!

6) Evangelize the category

Evangelize the problem. Most of your competitors will cut big M, marketing and over-focus on “demand generation.” That will open the door for you to grab category, POV leadership, We are all focusing on demand generation right now. That will probably open the door,
“CEOs often say to me, ‘Our problem is we are too much of a vitamin, not enough of an aspirin’ In downtimes, you want to make sure that people think that your category is a must-have, not a nice to have” - Christopher Lochhead
7) Drive short-term revenue

Get your 5 smartest marketers and your 5 smartest salespeople in a room for a day. Brain storm short term campaign ideas. Pick the simplest,

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032 Want to do Legendary Marketing? Learn to Sell!

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 11:00:00 GMT

Did you know, one of the top reasons why CMOs and marketing leaders get fired is: the sales force thinks they are a joke. In this episode, we talk about why it is important for marketers to become great at sales.
Marketing Is Sales Scaled
If you think about what marketing is, it is actually selling at scale. Christopher thinks that in 30 to 90 seconds, a marketer should be able to lay down a point of view that captures the imagination of the audience. If you can't, you have a serious “sales” issue.
“I think, as counterintuitive as this might sound, the number one skill set required to be legendary at marketing, is to have a black belt in sales.” - Christopher Lochhead
Spend Time in The Field
Christopher thinks that as a marketer, you should spend a disproportionate amount of time in the field. If you spend time with customers, you get a pulse on their problems and what opportunities are out there.
“When you spend a lot of time in the field, the needs of the category sort of get into your bones, into your soul. It also enables you to have more empathy for both customers and your sales organization.” - Christopher Lochhead
Train and Set Goals
As important as getting adequate sales traning and gathering first hand information, marketers should also set a goal to become a requested person during sales calls. This means that you get the approval and respect of the sales force, which in turn means you are a legendary marketer.

To add, Christopher provided mentioned The Ziglar Show Podcast (Kevin Miller), The Brutal Truth about Sales & Selling (Brian Burns) and book What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School (Mark McCormack), as great resources to improve your marketing skills.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

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031 8 Stages of Digital Marketing w/ Ryan Deiss

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 11:00:00 GMT

In this episode, we have a thoughtful conversation about how to turbocharge your pipeline and drive revenue with Ryan Deiss, founder of DigitalMarketer.com. He has some provocative and engaging thoughts around what marketers can and should do to drive revenue today.

We talk about the 8 stages of digital marketing and common mistakes marketers do within these stages.
How To Get Attention
Ryan shares that other than creating substantial and valuable content, companies should advertise. Facebook and Google ads are his recommendations because it represents 86% of the total digital ad spent annually.

He also points out the importance of having the right offer, at the right time.
“You have to do great content marketing and then you have to pay to get this great content, noticed.” - Ryan Deiss
8 Stages of Digital Marketing
One of the biggest problems companies do today is: they take a prospect too quickly from “interest” to “HEY BUY NOW.” Ryan teases out, exactly, what marketers need to do to own the whole process from interest to purchase and beyond.

The 8 stages of digital marketing are as follows:

Stage 1 - Awareness

Stage 2- Engagement

Stage 3 - Subscription

Stage 4 - Conversion

Stage 5 - Excitement

Stage 6 - Ascencion

Stage 7 - Advocacy

Stage 8 - Promotion

He discusses each on this episode with easy to digest, real-life examples.
Playing The Blame Game
Ryan also discusses the importance of owning these stages, as this is similar to the customer value journey. Most of the time, Marketing passes leads to Sales, which expects them to close the deal. Sales, on the other hand, know the importance of diligently following the stages and reverts back to Marketing.

He proposes that every company identifies what stage a certain lead is at and work their way around, encompassing other departments such as Product and Customer Care.
“That is what it takes to win today. The companies that do it, they're just gonna be the ones who will win and the ones who complain this is hard, they will lose.” - Ryan Deiss
To hear more about the 8 stages of digital marketing, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Ryan Deiss is a best selling author, founder of multiple companies collectively employing hundreds around the globe, and one of the most dynamic speakers on marketing in the United States today.

He is the founder and CEO of DigitalMarketer.com and Founder and Managing Partner of RivalBrands.com and plattr.com. Ryan is the creator of the “Customer Value Optimization” methodology and have introduced and popularized many of the digital selling strategies that modern companies now take for granted.

Additionally, he is also the founder and host of the Traffic & Conversion Summit, the largest digital marketing conversion conference in North America.
Links:
Linkedin: Ryan Deiss

Twitter: @ryandeiss

Digital Marketer

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him,

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030 How To Make Marketing Decisions

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 11:00:00 GMT

In this episode, let’s talk about the strategic lens required to make marketing decisions.
Marketing Decisions
Marketers, over and over again, continue to make this big mistake: they come up with marketing decisions without having a discussion around its context. Context, in terms of the “lens” they will use to come up with the decision.
“If you’re a regular listener and if you know me, you know one of my favorite expressions is, thinking about thinking is the most important kind of thinking.” - Christopher Lochhead
Overly Simplistic Lens
When people go and make a decision, they have an implied assumption that everyone on their team are on the same page. This holds true in different types of teams, whether its a department or a board room discussion.

In marketing, in particular, people use different kinds of lenses. Christopher points out that most people, even seniors executives, board members or giant public companies, use an overly simplistic lens in making a decision.
“Do I like it or do I not like it? Essentially the same lens that they use for naming a cat.” - Christopher Lochhead
Strategic Thinking
Christopher emphasizes that asking the questions whether you like something or not like something is just the same approach to naming a pet cat. This shouldn’t be done, especially when we’re talking about picking a category or designing a creative campaign or anything in between.

Hence, he is proposing the following lens when coming up with a marketing decision:

1) When you’re looking at any kind of marketing strategy or execution, ask, is this legendary?

2) Does this, execution, strategy or campaign enable us to design and dominate our category?

3) Does this decision drive near both term and long term revenue and customer loyalty?

To hear more about how to make marketing decisions, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

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029 Disagree and Commit

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 11:00:00 GMT

Every big decision involves a group of people.and so, in business, if you’re going to do something legendary, whether its a strategy or a campaign, it will be a group decision.

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead shares why it is a legendary business trait to be able to get people to disagree and commit.
Everybody has a Marketing Opinion
Recently, Christopher had a discussion on with legendary tech executive Elisa Steele on Follow Your Different Episode 129. She talks about the power of being able to disagree and commit. She also talks about the importance of being a consensus builder.
“Getting people to disagree and commit is one of the most important skills an executive can have. Why? Because everyone has a Marketing Opinion.” - Christopher Lochhead
CMO’s get a lot of “HELP” from internal stakeholders. Debate, discussion, and disagreement are GOOD, when you are working on strategies, creative ideas, campaign ideas or category design. However, consensus is BAD.
“If everyone agrees, by definition it sucks. If someone isn’t scared, upset or at least concerned, it’s probably not legendary.” - Christopher Lochhead
How Do You Get In Front of This
Christopher advises that from the 1st meeting, tell the people involved the following:

1) we want to do something legendary

2) we want to generate legendary ideas/creative "ideation stage"

3) and when we decide, we are going to execute like “a pack of speedy, crazed wolverines:”

It is essential to lay upfront during the first meeting that the objective is not to please everybody but to create a strategic desition that will reap legendary results. It is also important to address who is the final decision maker.
Strategic Decision Over Consensus
Addressing these concerns from the very beginning will definitely receive negative responses from a lot of people, including some board members or senior executives. Christopher says that “this is okay.” We are aiming for strategic decisions, not consensus.

It would be nice to acknowledge that businesses need “feedback.” However, it would also be better to get everyone’s commitment that they will support and execute the final strategic decision. Be firm on expecting everybody to commit, even if they hate the decision or the direction taken. This trait would separate legendary leaders from the ordinary ones.

To hear more about why it is a legendary trait to learn how to disagree and commit, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter,

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028 Is Your Marketing Plan Radical Enough?

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 11:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead asks the question, “is your marketing plan radical enough?” Most marketing plans are predictable, uncreative and safe. He will share today how to do away with your usual marketing plan and craft a radical one.
3x CMO
Being an advisor to a lot of companies, Christopher shares how he has been part of creating, reviewing and critiquing a lot of these companies’ marketing plans. He further says that there are three things about these marketing plans: they are predictable, uncreative and safe.

Safe as in, most CMOs are more concerned with making their “internal customers” happy. The reason behind this is that most CMOs are trying to keep their jobs. Ultimately, this ends up in mundane marketing plans.
“The longer I do this, the more I think that, if it’s legendary, its probably radical, at least in some way.” - Christopher Lochhead
3 Ideas For Radical Thinking
Our job, ultimately in business is to be a leader, who enables our company to design and dominate a giant category that matters. The goal is to earn 2/3rds of the economics in a space that we created.
“That in my opinion that, is the real job of the CMO, CEO and the entire C-suite. So I urge you when building or evaluating a marketing plan, ask yourself: Will this plan enable us to design and dominate a giant category that matters?” - Christopher Lochhead
The second idea is that, do we have a radical way to evangelize our category POV?

Legends market the category, not the brand but this is one of the common mistakes marketing leaders make.
“You want them to buy into the thinking and to the language. and as they do that, they'll see things the way you do and your new way or different way of doing things will become the defacto standard. What you're really creating is this fear of missing out” - Christopher Lochhead
Lastly, ask yourself: what’s a radical way to generate leads and drive revenue? Legendary CMOs design the category for the mid-long term and drive revenue in the “ASAP, right now” term.
3 Questions
Again, to recap, here are the three radical ideas to consider before creating a marketing plan.

1) Will this plan, enable us to design and dominate a giant category that matters?

2) Do we have a radical way to evangelize our category POV?

3) What’s a radical way to generate leads and drive revenue?

To hear more about creating a radical marketing plan, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Insta...

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027 How To Create a New Category & Brand w/ Carrie Palin, CMO of $20B Splunk

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 11:00:00 GMT

This special episode of Lochhead on Marketing is the actual conversation of Christopher Lochhead and Carrie Palin, CMO of software company Splunk, during their appearance at Hypergrowth San Francisco.

Carrie shares how she spearheaded the category creation of Data to Everything and brand re-launch of Splunk.
Splunk at Hypergrowth
Christopher Lochhead and Splunk CMO Carrie Palin were invited to speak at Hypergrowth San Francisco to talk about creating a new category and brand. Drift organized this awesome business and marketing conference. This conversation is a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes of a very successful, super high-growth company like Splunk.
“At Splunk, we’re very proud of our culture. We’re very proud of our history. There's something we call Splunkiness.” - Carrie Palin
Splunk is a publicly-traded software company worth $20B and they have recently launched a new category called Data to Everything. They have also relaunched their brand, changing their logo from green and black to orange and pink.
Rough Start
Carrie shared that her forte is in demand generation and she found category creation and branding to be quite challenging. She notes that aside from having a great branding team, she had great bosses who believed in her vision.

It was a rough start for Carrie, as three days into her new role, she received a piece of unfortunate news about her ailing father. It was one of the challenging events of her life but she acknowledged that Splunk CEO and President had been supportive of her grief.
“Splunk stuck with me. They treated me like I’ve been there 20 years versus 3 days. Four months after that, it was crazier than I ever anticipated. Now that was through that, I know that it was absolutely the right place for me to be.” - Carrie Palin
On-boarding the BOD
Carrie shared amazing stories on how she on-boarded the Board of Directors with her ideas. She gave a lot of weight on conviction and commitment to the Board.
“Listen to your data. Turn your data into doing, which is exactly what our clients are doing. They’re doing really incredible things.” - Carrie Palin
To hear more about How To Create a New Category & Brand w/ Carrie Palin, CMO of $20B Splunk, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Carrie Palin has been Splunk’s Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer since 2019.

Prior, Ms. Palin served as the Chief Marketing Officer at SendGrid, a digital communications platform company acquired by Twilio, from 2018 to 2019.

From 2016 to 2018, Ms. Palin served as the first Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President at Box, a cloud content management company.

Ms. Palin served as the Vice President of Marketing for IBM’s Cloud Data Services and Analytics Software Division from 2015 to 2016.

She also previously spent over 15 years at Dell leading various marketing organizations. Ms. Palin holds a B.S. Communications degree from Texas Christian University.
Links:
Twitter: @carriepsandstad

Linkedin: Carrie Palin

Splunk

Drift Hypergrowth

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook,

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026 Ryan Reynolds Legendary Peloton Trendjack For Gin Brand

Thu, 12 Dec 2019 11:00:00 GMT

On episode #023 with Paul Maher, we popped the hood on the secret marketing / PR black art of Trendjacking. Recently, actor Ryan Reynolds (aka Marvel’s Deadpool) who also owns the brand, Aviation American Gin, just pulled off the trendjack of the year. Let’s break down the 8 reasons why this was a legendary trend jack.
The Peloton Ad
The Peloton Ad shows a rich couple, with the husband, giving his thin wife an exercise bike. There was a public uproar as reaction to the ad. In fact, Business Insider reported: “Peloton's nightmare before Christmas: $1.5 billion vanished from its market value in 3 days amid holiday ad backlash.”

Additionally, Busines Insider reported “backlash over a holiday ad that has been widely panned as sexist, tone-deaf, and dystopian.” This forced Peloton to cut the cost of a monthly subscription to its workout apps.
Trendjack of the Year
Actor, celebrity, and owner of Aviation American Gin, Ryan Reynolds, pulled off, what Christopher claims, as the trendjack of the year. What he and his team did was, they inserted themselves into the controversy around the recent Peloton Bike Ad.

For less than $100K, they hired the actor who played the wife and shot a response ad.
"The ad is funny. It captures what it's like to break up with somebody. It’s a real jab on Peloton and they never even mentioned the name Peloton." - Christopher Lochhead
8 Reasons Why It’s Legendary

* They found a way to trendjack the biggest Ad flop of the year
* Radically FAST: They acted in a matter of days.
* Aviation’s response is pitch-perfect. People loved their response as opposed to the original, which was way off-pitch.
* Radically creative. In the ad, she has clearly left her husband who bought her the Peloton.
* The ad was built to be viral. It was posted on social media, starting on Ryan Reynolds's Twitter.
* This was a move that is virtually impossible for their major competitors, such as Beefeater or Tanqueray, to pull off.
* They did it in “less that $100K.” (NY Times)
* This ad made them the good guys. Yahoo reports: “Ryan Reynolds says he hired actress from viral Peloton ad because backlash can be 'alienating'”

“This example begs the question: how can we be radically smart, radically creative and radically fast to trendjack the news to build our brand and category?” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about Ryan Reynolds Legendary Peloton Trendjack For Gin Brand, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition,

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025 Category Creation & Category Design: A New Lens On Business

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 11:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead takes listeners on an exercise in developing their eye for category creation and category design. Category Design is a new level of thinking in business. It is a whole different approach to marketing and Christopher stresses its importance in building a legendary business.
See Things Differently
Kevin Mainey wrote in the book Play Bigger, that “category design is a new lens on business. Once you have that lens, you see things in a very unique way.” However, listeners often ask Christopher how can they specifically apply these to their businesses.

In this episode, Christopher uses a recent story in the WSJ as an example of how category design is powerful force, that most people don’t know is there. He breaks down a recent story about Google buying FitBit, with the hopes of assisting listeners on how to develop their eyes and ears on category design lens.
Google Buys Fitbit: A Category Design Example
Headline:
Google to Buy Fitbit, Amping Up Wearables Race
By Rob Copeland and Patrick Thomas
Updated Nov. 1, 2019

Sub-head:
Deal to acquire maker of wearable fitness products for $2.1 billion extends Google’s reach in consumer electronics
Wearables is a niche in the consumer electronics mega category.
Google reached a deal to buy wearable fitness products company Fitbit Inc. FIT 15.53% for roughly $2.1 billion, a move that intensifies the battle among technology giants to capture consumers through devices other than smartphones.

Category name before company name, its an example of the fact that people need to know what it is, before knowing who it is. The second sentence is framing the category battle.

For Google, the deal marks a further push into health. as it faces regulatory threats to its massive internet-search and advertising business.
Underscoring Google moving into mega category of health tech, then stating Google’s category king positing in search.
It also puts Google in renewed and direct competition with Silicon Valley neighbor Apple Inc., which in the past week said rising sales of wearables and related services were becoming a bigger driver of its business.
Framing the competition in new wearables category and wearables category growth.
Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. will spend just a sliver of its $121 billion cash hoard to branch out with Fitbit’s products. Alphabet’s $2.1 billion bid was for $7.35 a share in cash, a 19% premium to Fitbit’s closing price Thursday and more than 70% above where the stock was trading last week before deal talks were first reported by Reuters.
Speaks to the premium price category queens get in M&A.
Fitbit shares rose more than 15% to $7.14 on Friday, while Alphabet’s shares ticked up slightly.

The deal lands at a moment when Google and other tech giants are under scrutiny on a number of fronts over their competitive practices and dominance of certain businesses,
“certain businesses” means categories. This points to the domination category queens achieve.
including through acquisitions. But the Mountain View, Calif., company continues to expand aggressively.
Translation: moves into new categories through internal efforts and M&A.
Founded in 2007, Fitbit makes so-called wearables, or watches and bracelets that primarily track health information like heart rate. Such products have fascinated Silicon Valley
Speaks to early adopters embracing the category.
where technology executives of all ages proudly w...

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024 The Difference Between a First Mover and a Category Creator w/ Eddie Yoon

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 11:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Christopher tackles an article that appeared in Harvard Business Review which he co-wrote with Nicolas Cole and special guest for today, Eddie Yoon. Eddie is the author of Super Consumers and is considered a Category Design Guru of Fortune 500.

Today, we will discuss the thinking behind the article, specifically about the power of data flywheel and how high-growth companies used this to stay on top.
Frustration with Misinformation
Eddie discusses the reason behind writing this article with Christopher and Nicolas. Basically, it was sharing the same frustration about companies commensurate misinformation or misunderstanding on becoming the first-mover versus category creators.
“I just think, not only are they being misled, companies are in the relentless pursuit of being first. Let’s think about how to actually build a sustainable advantage at a category queen.” - Eddie Yoon
Furthermore, Eddie shares how he has observed this everywhere and that he is hopeful that people would take that energy that’s been misdirected to “being first”, towards building a flywheel.
Missionary vs. Mercenary
Eddie shares they did tons of analysis which basically asks “what’s your motivation for creating a category, are you a missionary or a mercenary?”

He says that mercenaries see the economics and they try to shortcut what is the fastest way to get to 76% to get the valuation. On the other hand, Missionaries are those who care about the product and the category being screwed up and would work towards improvement.

Eddie further discusses where radical differentiation would come in along with the transformational outcomes. He also says radical generosity is behind this.
Data Flywheel
Eddie shares the study they conducted for the article. Basically, he looked at 10 years worth of Fortune 100`fastest growing company list. He determined if he can identify fast-growing companies between those that were truly category creators. The markers he used were great product, service, company and data flywheel.
“If you are growing in a very specific way, if you have this flywheel, your valuation is meaningfully higher. You have 5x market cap for every dollar in revenue.” - Eddie Yoon
To hear more about The Difference Between a First Mover and a Category Creator and more relevant information from Eddie Yoon, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Eddie Yoon is the founder of EddieWouldGrow, LLC, a think tank and advisory firm on growth strategy.

Previously he was one of the senior partners at The Cambridge Group, a strategy consulting firm.

His work over the past two decades has driven over $8 billion dollars of annual incremental revenue.

In particular, 8 of his clients have doubled or tripled in revenue in less than 8 years.

Eddie is one of the world’s leading experts on finding and monetizing superconsumers to grow and create new categories.

He is the author of the book, Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth (Harvard Business School Press, 2016).

His book was named as one of the Best Business Books of 2017 by Strategy & Business.

He is also the author of over 100 articles, including “Make Your Best Customers Even Better” (Harvard Business Review magazine, March 2014) and “Why It Pays to Be a Category Creator” (Harvard Business Review magazine, March 2013).

Additionally, he has appeared on CNBC and MSNBC.

The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Forbes has quotes several of his pieces.

Eddie has been a keynote speaker in the U.S., Canada, Kenya, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, the UK and Japan.

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023 Trendjacking Marketing and Public Relations w/ Paul Maher

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 11:00:15 GMT

Today is another special episode of Lochhead on Marketing as Paul Maher, Founder of Positive Marketing (UK) joins us to talk about Trendjacking Marketing and Public Relations. His firm, Positive, won the SABRE Award for Best-earned Media Agency in Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
Trendjacking
Paul Maher discusses the secret black art of marketing, PR, communications, and media called the trendjacking. This PR strategy is widely used nowadays as marketers aim to position themselves to become consistently relevant to their market.
“Trendjacking is all about how do we take what’s happening in the news and attach ourselves to that, use that as an advantage to become an expert, to become known, to position ourselves effectively.” - Paul Maher
Christopher and Paul have worked in several projects in the past and have actually the promulgators of trendjacking when they diverted a mergers and acquisition news of a competitor in the past.
Seven Secrets of Trendjacking
1. BE POSITIVE

The news happens anyway, why not be in it? Category leaders make rather than observe the news.

2. BE PROVOCATIVE

To do this you need to recognize the very definition of news is what you DIDN’T know, or as William Randolph Hearst, the biggest news baron of the pre-Facebook world famously said, ‘WHAT SOMEONE ELSE DOES NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW’. Get creative and find out who does not want to know what you want to say.

3. PREDICT (IT’S CALLED A NEWS CYCLE FOR A REASON)

As well as great content, you need great timing. To know when is the optimal time to drop your bomb, you need to read patterns and become a news junkie, not an expert on everything from Celebrity Diets to Robot Brain Surgery, but at least stay across what’s going on in your sector. Preferably twice or more a day. Alternatively hire help, in the form of an agency or consultant who will.

4. PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE

Set the trap and give yourself options. So perhaps have a set of pitches for each eventuality. England’s new Prime Minister Boris Johnston, also until recently one of the UK’s highest-paid newspaper columnists wrote two versions of an opinion piece, one for and one against Brexit. This way he hedged his bets and prevented a last-minute rewrite, we do this often for clients who want to trendjack major Government data announcements, such as Non-Farm jobs, GDP, etc. This brings us to.

5. BE PROMPT - ONLY EARLY BIRDS CATCH WORMS

As a former journalist, dealing with hundreds of inbound calls each day, I would react to the ‘News no one else wants you to hear’ positively the first time. I also understand the second time a fresh angle is pitched, it is just plain old. Many of those who work on flagship news programs start their day earlier than the rest of the world. As the news rolls 24x7 it makes sense to make that early morning call or speak to Planning Departments the night before you drop.

6. BE PRAGMATIC - ORIGINAL BUT READY TO FLEX YOUR ANGLES

Ambitious and original trendjackers are luckier trendjackers. Flip your angle, be more counter-intuitive, find the perfect image to accompany your trendjack. Smartest of all, chalk up your failures, wait for the news cycle to roll around and point to a ‘Told you so’ prediction when it does.

We regularly issue ‘Open Letters’ to regulators, government bodies or even the entire tech industry when we scratch on a trendjack, just SO WE CAN GO BACK. Predictions are hard, especially in the future. So better to make them early and forget those which don’t come off.

7. BE PERSISTENT

Recognize these perennial stories? They are not going away.

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022 Is Your Marketing Better or Different?

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 10:00:15 GMT

Christopher Lochhead discusses differentiation or differentiators of a brand, product or company. He further shares what legendary marketers do, makes their marketing better or makes it different?
Differentiators
We often hear this word a lot in marketing: differentiation. Christopher poses the question when speaking about a product or brand differentiation, is it really different or is it better?

In reality, when most CEOs, CMOs, entrepreneurs and product investors say differentiators, what really comes out of their mouth is better. Christopher however, believes making a difference is the better choice.
True Differentiation
Christopher suggests a brainstorming session with people in order to determine true differentiation. Create a list of “what makes you different.” Step back and look at your extensive list and tick what makes you different.
“If you have a list of 50 differentiators out there, if five of them are truly different, you'll be doing well, I think.” - Christopher Lochhead
Why does this matter? It matters because different forces a choice, and better is a comparison game. Legendary marketers want to own a position where they can’t be easily knocked off. They prefer the perception of being unique, distinct, hard to replace and as someone who solves a problem and creates value.
The “Better” Game
Christopher cites Pepsi as the top contender in this “better” game. They run a series of campaigns comparing themselves to Coke. However, this still proves to be ineffective.
“The problem with this better game is, whatever you’re comparing yourself better with, ultimately, is the thing you’re giving power to.” - Christopher Lochhead
One of the legendary things that category designers and creators tend to do is to never talk about competitors. Exactly, for this reason, the different conversation, forces a choice. Fundamentally, marketing is about distinguishing oneself.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

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021 Is Your Brand Blue?

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 10:00:54 GMT

In today’s episode, Christopher Lochhead dives down deep into the power of colors and how it affects your brand marketing. In a world where almost all brands are Blue (and some are red), how do you make your brand different and stand out?
What’s With Color Blue?
Christopher recently represented a tech company with a stand-out logo, it's color pink and orange. According to this company, 70% of B2B company logos are blue.

Christopher researched this claim and indeed found out, 33% of the world’s top brands companies are blue. Some 29% are red, 28% are black or grey and 13% are yellow or gold.
“A big part of doing legendary marketing is standing out, being different, being unique. Then for the most part, if you’re gonna be blue, you’re not going to stand out and frankly if you’re gonna be red, you’re probably not gonna stand out, too.” - Christopher Lochhead
Colors and Lack Thereof
One of the guests of Follow Your Different David Rendall, Ph.D., author of Freak Factor, is one unique example. He embraced the color pink. In fact, he wears pink shirts, pink suits and even his eyeglass frames are pink.

As a public speaker, he wears pink not only to stand out but to send a message to the world that its okay to express oneself and let go of what others might think of you. Another example is Max Temkin, the creator of Cards Against Humanity. He shared that he has no eye for color so he just went with black and white, with a distinct font.
“If you think about brands how many brands do you know that actually are strategic in their use of color?” - Christopher Lochhead
An Underexploited Opportunity
Legendary companies and legendary brands stand out because they are different. Color is an underexploited opportunity to stand out. Christopher encourages marketers and designers to think strategically about color.
“If you are involved with the re-brand or brand launch, I would encourage you to take a look at all of the brands in your near-space categories and hold it against the wall and look at what they look like [against your brand]” - Christopher Lochhead.
Christopher further asks, “how can you use color as part of your brand, as part of your logo to stand out? Ultimately, he asks what color or colors can you own? This is a great opportunity to gain a strategic advantage over the competition.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Links:
Follow Your Different - Max Temkin

Follow Your Different - David Rendall

Vowels Advertising

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to Linkedin - Thomas Schwab

Interview Valet

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners.

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019 Power of a Point of View: Play Bigger Unplugged

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 10:00:03 GMT

Christopher Lochhead shares an excerpt today from his first book, Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets about the importance and the power of a point of view. He shares to us why legendary marketers opt to sell a POV, rather than sell a product or service.
Market the POV, not the product!
Legendary creators and designers, market the point of view or POV, not their product and services. When companies show consumers the idea or the problem that they envision to solve, consumers will most likely become interested in the products and services around that idea.
“Its counter-intuitive for most marketers, innovators and CEOs. We think what we're doing in marketing, is marketing a product with features and maybe, benefits. When in reality, category creators and designers market the POV, because once people subscribe to your way of looking at things, they are going to be interested in what you have to market.” - Christopher Lochhead
POVs are timeless
POV is the company’s true North. It doesn’t change over time, unlike messaging. Companies such as Salesforce or American Airlines have consistently focused on their POV. These are companies who have anchored their business to a point of view, about what they stand for in the world.
Messaging is Tailored POV for an Audience
Christopher cites examples on how messages are tailored POVs for an audience, idea or a trend. He shares how they train an entire company on how to deliver their POV. Employees watch a 10-min presentation on thePOV of the company. The ultimate goal is for the employees to be able to deliver the POV.
Play Bigger Chapter 5
Here is an excerpt from Chapter 5 of the book Play Bigger:
"Stories have always been an industrial-strength force in human progress, from the epic poems of Homer to the tales of Marco Polo, Shakespeare’s historical plays, the novels of Ayn Rand, and biographies of Steve Jobs.

Stories alter perspectives and exert influence.

When traders on Wall Street consider a stock, they often ask, “What’s the story?”

When pitching a venture capitalist, entrepreneurs get funding when they craft a great story, and now a cottage industry offers pitch training.

Raw information reaches us on an intellectual level, but stories reach into our hearts and our pants.

Decades of brain research have demonstrated that stories have a more lasting impact than facts.

One 1969 Stanford study, “Narrative Stories as Mediators for Serial Learning," showed that students remembered six to seven times more words embedded in a story compared to random words. [i]

In the 2010s, Paul Zak, a professor at Claremont Graduate University found that character-driven, attention-grabbing stories actually increase oxytocin in the brain.

Oxytocin is an empathy chemical, and it motivates cooperation and understanding—quite important when trying to convince someone to, as Apple used to say, think different.

“My experiments show that character-driven stories with emotional content result in a better understanding of the key points a speaker wishes to make and enable better recall of these points weeks later,” Zack wrote.

He added a swipe at the way too much business has been conducted for far too long:

“In terms of making an impact, [storytelling] blows the standard PowerPoint presentation to bits.”[ii]

That’s why category designers tell a story. We call that story a point of view, or POV.

After you come up with an aha of an initial market or technology insight,

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018 Personal Branding is Bullshit

Tue, 24 Sep 2019 10:00:38 GMT

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead talks about a giant topic in business today, personal branding. He further shares the difference between a brand and a person. Moreover, he discusses why legendary executives and marketers don't give weigh to personal branding much.
Personal Beef with Personal Branding
Personal branding has become a giant issue in business today. It seems like people cannot fire up their social media, such as Linkedin and even Amazon, without personal branding. The idea started around the late 80s or early 90s and has become effed up overtime.

Christopher lays out his argument on the difference between a brand and a person. People have a mental connection with a brand while with a person, people develop relationships.
“I have a very different relationship with my friend Sue Barsamian. She’s the most effective exec I know. Guess how much time she spent thinking about and working on her personal brand? Zero!” - Christopher Lochhead
Developing A Reputation
Sue Barsamian was the guest on Follow Your Different Episode 083. She has a solid 36-years in Silicon Valley, working with Startups and multinationals such as HP. Christopher shares that she has zero efforts in maintaining a personal brand, instead, she aims to develop a reputation.

Silicon Valley respects Sue for producing legendary results and creating massive value. Moreover, she dominated her own niche: “Legendary Enterprise Tech Executive, who scales.” In developing a reputation, Christopher poses the following questions:
“What’s your personal Niche Down? Where are you going to focus your talent? What results are you going to produce? Who are the kinds of people you want to surround yourself with?” - Christopher Lochhead
Rethink this Personal Branding Bullshit
Christopher encourages everyone to re-think this idea of personal branding because he believes that what people prefer is a reputation.
“Reputations come from producing legendary results. Personal branding, by definition, is contrived and inauthentic.” - Christopher Lochhead
People would best be deemed as a person of character, who produces results and is doing legendary work. In conclusion, Christopher advises everyone to spend zero time on personal branding and focus, instead, on the following:

1) Your personal Niche Down - what niche do you want to be known for owning

2) Producing legendary results - people who produce legendary results are highly sought after in business. They are unique by definition and they hang out with people who also do legendary things.

3) and making a difference.
“Because in my experience, people who do that, get the most valuable thing in business: a reputation.” -Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about why personal branding is bullshit and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Links:
TechCrunch: How Kobalt is simplifying the killer complexities of the music industry

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook,

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016 Category Creation Courage

Tue, 17 Sep 2019 10:00:03 GMT

In today’s episode, Christopher Lochhead talks about why courage is a critical ingredient for legendary marketing and category design. He poses the question: “What does it take to make legendary marketing happen?” and he shares some except his book Niche Down to answer this.
Break From The Pack
What does it take to break from the pack? The pack, which usually means the general public, the people who think and does the same kind of marketing. What do we need to enable us to design a category and from then, execute to dominate that category?

On Christopher’s second book, Niche Down, co-writer Heather Clancy wrote some very important pointers in creating a category
“I hope you find it informative and inspiring as it relates to summoning the courage to actually do something legendary, design and dominate a category.” - Christopher Lochhead
Excerpts from Niche Down
Heather Clancy wrote in the book:
Category design actually requires going against that pack mentality. Humans have a primordial need to feel safe in numbers. We get a lot of positive feedback from being the same as others. Our challenge to you is to break from the pack. Free the creative part, the innovative part,the legendary part of you — and let that part be different.

Our dream is that you harness the exponential power of what makes you different versus the incrementalism of just being better. Because it is being different that makes a difference. And we know how tough that can be.

“Kermit The Frog” famously sang: “It’s not easy being green.”

Bill Walton, the NBA legend commiserates: “In life, things go wrong. In life, things collapse….People try to drag you down and people try to say ‘No’ to you.”

He goes on to posit, “I want to live in a world of ‘Yes’.” Of course, there will be a lot of “losery” along the way. To be legendary is to be ready for setbacks, disappointments and failures.

Because shit happens. Sometimes, life can be crushing. We’ve both been crushed more times than we can count. It’s okay to be a loser.

We all are. Failure is our teacher. Failure is our friend. Failure is our coach. Failure gives us humility. Failure gives us grit. Failure gives us a foundation. Losing is an essential ingredient for being legendary. Every time we lose we have a choice.

Give up.

Or, take the loss head on, learn from it and execute like a badass legend.
It Takes Courage to be Legendary
What Heather and Christopher are trying to communicate is the "emotional or psychological” barrier in doing legendary marketing. To put it simply, it takes a lot of courage to be legendary. Courage is moving forward in pursuing your plans, even though a lot of evidence states it won’t work.

Christopher cited his other podcast, Follow Your Different as an example. Regardless of what the experts in the podcasting industry were telling him — that business people will not listen to a long-form, unedited conversation podcast — FYD has become a top 200 overall charting podcast in the United States.
“If you believe in the problem you're solving and you believe in your vision, then go with it. Be different, stick to it and have the courage to be legendary and execute like a badass legend.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about Category Creation Courage and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company,

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015 Product-Market Fit Is A Dangerous Idea

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 10:00:10 GMT

In most industries, product-market fit is an unquestioned gospel, even in Silicon Valley. On the contrary, Christopher believes that product-market fit is a dangerous idea. Why? Because legendary marketers create and design their own category, as opposed to competing in an existing category.
Product-Market Fit
In the tech startup world, achieving product-market fit is often considered a major milestone. However, Christopher argues that product-market fit is one of the most dangerous ideas in business today.
“The problem with product-market fit is that language can trick marketers into thinking that what you’re doing is building a product and you’re trying to fit it in a market.” - Christopher Lochhead
Legendary creators are not looking to “fit” into a market, instead, they want to stand out. Standing out means to design their own market category.
Category King and Queens
Christopher cites some of the category kings and queens of today. Think about Jeff Bezos, he is equated with the term eCommerce, just as we equate Pablo Picasso with Cubism. We also have Sara Blakely of Spanx, who created her own category of Shapeware, not just trying to fit into the girdle category.
"Think about the most respected entrepreneurs, creators, and innovators. a huge part of why we all respect them is because they broke or took new ground." - Christopher Lochhead
Some other great examples are AirBNB, which presented a new idea and experience for tourists and travelers. Another one is Evian, who deviated from the idea that water is free. Red Bull also dominated their energy drink category, as opposed to hydration drinks, where Gatorade was category king.
“The greatest innovators teach the world to think differently. With a fresh idea, a new take on an old problem or by solving a problem we didn’t even know we had.” - Christopher Lochhead
Where the Challenge Lies
The challenge of product-market fit is, it can trap inventors and creators into thinking that they can test their product and service to people and f they consume it, they equate it to the future success of the product. If these people do not consume the product intuitively, then they can just go back and work on the product.

This is in opposition to Henry Ford’s mindset who said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Moreover, even Steve Jobs has the same ideas on product-market fit, saying “customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.”
“The big ah-ha here is that there is a massive distinction between fitting into an existing market category and competing versus creating your own new market category.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about why Product-Market Fit Is A Dangerous Idea and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Links:
Lee Hartley Carter on Follow Your Different Episode 099. Lee and her firm specialize in language strategy. We can infer that marketers pay very close attention to the use of words.

Christopher reminds us that the usage of some phrases undermines a person’s credibility. Some examples include phrases such as “don’t take my word for it” or “let me be honest with you.”

“Legendary Marketers and Category Designers know that a demarcation point in language creates a demarcation point in thinking, which creates a demarcation in action, usage, and consumption.” - Christopher Lochhead
Create New, Powerful Language
Christopher discusses how legendary marketers use language to create new thinking that educates the world. This language teaches customers what they do, why it matters and how to value it.

Some important examples are Starbucks and their “Double Grande Latte” instead of medium coffee. Another one is selling “pre-owned vehicles” versus “used cars.” Moreover, cloud-based software benefitted greatly with the usage of “on-premise software"
Indication of Success
It’s far too common to hear at almost every other coffee shop other than Starbucks — customers are asking for Grande or Frappe. Customers adapting to a new language is a great indication of success.
“You know you’re winning when customers start using your language, parrot them back to you, and they use it in the competitor’s stores.” - Christopher Lochhead
Christopher stresses Lee’s point, marketers need a language strategy! Category creators and designers create a new language to create a demarcation point in thinking, action, usage, and consumption.

To hear more about don’t take my word for it and more relevant information about language strategy from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Link:
Lochhead.com

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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013 Committees Kill Legendary Marketing

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 10:00:18 GMT

In today’s episode, Christopher gives us a rundown on why he thinks committees kill legendary marketing.
Why is so much marketing, shitty?
Christopher Lochhead candidly shares his honest observation on the industry today: a lot of marketing efforts suck. Aside from bad creatives, much of this onslaught of marketing stems from their inability to make a difference in designing and dominating a market category. Who’s to blame? Christopher says its the committees.
“This is probably true for most major initiatives in business, but it’s especially true in marketing because, fundamentally, legendary marketing is about leadership.” - Christopher Lochhead
To become the leader in your space — the category queen — a company must define and dominate a market niche. This not only holds true in tech companies but for almost all industries today. To dominate a market, every company’s objective should focus on building the company that wins, with a clear point of view on problem-solving.
The problem with committees
A famous automotive engineer and businessman, Charles Kettering, once said: “If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.” Why does committees hinder legendary marketing?
“The problem with most committees is that they are focused on process, not results.” - Christopher Lochhead
Committees generally try to incorporate everyone’s “feedback,” spend time “socializing ideas” and analyzing data. In the end, they are trying too hard to make everyone happy. Committees strive to be collaborative and ensure that all constituents have a say.
More issues with committees
A structural problem with many committees is that a lot of people can say no, while at the same time, they are not clear about who can say yes. By definition, if everybody agrees, that's not a legendary idea.
“As a result, committees produce a compromise. They settle on the ideas that everyone could agree on. Not legendary ideas.” - Christopher Lochhead
Additionally, people involved in committees are oftentimes not subject matter experts themselves, which further leads to mediocre marketing efforts.
“It's not about what people like, it's about what's gonna work. Particularly what's gonna work through the lens. Will these help us design and dominate a giant category that matters and take 2/3 of the economics?” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about committees kill legendary marketing and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founder/CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Link:
Book: Play Bigger

Lochhead.com

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to “every company is a software company.” Tech company dynamics are now applicable to non-tech companies.
VCs “Me Too Strategy”
Christopher quoted a portion from his book Play Bigger. VCs oftentimes fall for the Me Too strategy where every firm would invest in some company in an emerging category, thinking it will succeed just like the first one who did.
“In Silicon Valley, we’ve watched venture capitalists (VCs) increasingly adopt a category king investment philosophy. Paul Martino of Bullpen Capital notes that VCs used to have a “me-too” strategy. If a start-up hit it big and opened up a hot new category, the many VC firms in Silicon Valley assumed that there was room for a lot of winners in that category.” - Christopher Lochhead, Play Bigger
Furthermore, Paul Martino tells us "it’s now apparent that one company wins big and dominates a healthy c0ategory, and the rest struggle, get acquired or perish. That means that as soon as one company appears to be the category king, the smart money competes to invest in that company, bidding up its value.”
Category Creation is the Ultimate Strategy
Christopher’s friend and category guru to Fortune 500 companies Eddie Yoon wrote for Harvard Business Review on the financial impacts of category creation.

He reported that “top 20 firms in Fortune‘s 2010 list of fastest-growing companies received $3.40 in incremental market capitalization for every $1.00 of revenue growth. Half the top 20 companies grew via category creation. Wall Street exponentially rewards the category creation companies, giving them $5.60 in incremental market capitalization for $1.00 in revenue growth.”
“No matter how you want to look at it, the bottom line is category kings take the vast majority of economics and are massively rewarded for becoming the category queen of the space.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about the category creation economics 101 and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher advised over 50 venture-backed startups. He is a Venture Capital Limited Partner and a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO, entrepreneur. In addition, he co-authored two bestsellers: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

After he flunked school, with few other options, Christopher started his first company at the age of 18.

He was a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard, in 2006, acquired that company for $4.5 billion.

Further, he also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD. Christopher was the founder/CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient. He also served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

Christopher loves his family and friends.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

011 The Perception of Your Product is Your Product

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 10:00:27 GMT

In this episode. Christopher Lochhead talks about what your real product or real service is. He discusses why product development and marketing should team because the perception of your product is your product.
Marketing Defined
One CEO, who is also a good friend of Christopher, once stated that “Marketing is what you do when you have a shitty product.” He was telling Christopher about their competitor who had a significantly inferior product but is, at that time, out-marketing them. Additionally, quite a lot of people in Silicon Valley also think this way.

Wikipedia defines marketing and product as such: “In marketing, a product is an object or system made available for consumer use; it is everything that can be offered to a market to satisfy the desire or need of a customer."
“I actually don’t want to disagree with Wikipedia, but I do want to propose a different perspective. Your real product, your real service, is people’s perception of your product and service." - Christopher Lochhead
The People’s Perception of Your Products
Christopher asserts that your product and service is not your product, but what people say it is, think it is and feel about it. He thinks that what other people say about the product or the service, is the truth, regardless if we think of it as true or not.

He cites examples such as Harley Davidson and Jack Daniels. These brands may not be the most efficient in performance or the most premium whiskey available, but they have made a mark in the minds and the hearts of consumers. In fact, they are considered category kings.

However, Christopher also cited instances when people's perceptions of product change, such as that of Facebook and Boeing 737 MAX. They can fix their products but the perceptions will take forever to change.
The “Perception Manufacturing Business”
Christopher believes that we are in the “perception manufacturing business.” Further, he mentions that not only does the perception of the product more important than the product itself, but it is also actually what the developer is building when he builds and market the products.
"You don’t make products, you make perceptions about products. That is why legendary marketing is equally important to building legendary products.” - Christopher Lochhead
In conclusion, Christopher says that product engineering, product development, and marketing need to come together. They must realize that they are in the “perception manufacturing business.”
“It is ludicrous to say marketing is what you do when you have a shitty product. Marketing is what you do when you have a legendary product and you want people to perceive it as such.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about the Perception of Your Product is Your Product and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher advised over 50 venture-backed startups. He is a venture capital limited partner and a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO, entrepreneur. In addition, he co-authored two bestsellers: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

After he flunked school, with few other options, Christopher started his first company at the age of 18.

He was a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard, in 2006, acquired that company for $4.5 billion.

Further, he also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD. Christopher was the founder/CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient. He also served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

Christopher loves his family and friends. He thinks the Ramones are legendary and loves riding the mountains and waves of Northern California.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

010 Artificial Intelligence In Marketing

Mon, 26 Aug 2019 10:00:09 GMT

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead shares two eye-opening stories about Artificial Intelligence in Marketing. First is about Nike buying an AI marketing analytics company and second, Chase Bank using AI to write marketing copies. He further discusses how these two leverages technology to produce massive results.
Nike Acquires AI Startup
Tech Crunch reported that Nike announced its acquisition of the Boston-area startup Celect. This is to help Nike beef up its predictive analytics strengths. The startup’s tech focuses on delivering data insights based on structured and unstructured retail data.
"What we do know is Nike spent a lot of money to get their hands on a company that specializes in crunching a shit ton of data, of many thousands of customers, to anticipate their needs going forward." - Christopher Lochhead
Christopher noted that this move of a giant brand has never happened in the past. In conclusion, this proves that analytics plays a huge role in Marketing. AI provides marketers data on customer’s wants and needs — even before they do.
"What kind of big data analytics and AI are we using to understand our market categories and what might we do in this area?" - Christopher Lochhead
AI Machines Outperforming Humans
AdAge published an experiment that they conducted about the bank company Chase. They compared the advertising copies written by humans versus that of AI technology. The result is: AI outperformed humans — with higher consumers clicking on the copy written by an AI machine.
“The folks at Chase Bank entered a five-year agreement with this company Persado to use machine learning to write their ad copy.” - Christopher Lochhead
The Implications of AI Marketing
Legendary marketers should always be experimenting with both the art and the science of marketing.
“We're gonna see more companies benchmarking the two — whether ad headlines and copy, logo design and a lot of other creative things. What many of us in marketing thought technology wouldn't touch — are now being touch by that.” - Christopher Lochhead
As the lines of Science and Art blur, Christopher calls out to fellow Creative professionals to stay in tune with technology. Never be complacent about our jobs because AI is coming to replace everything. The best action to do at the moment is to leverage this technology and not to resist it.
“Leverage the science and be super strategically creative at the same time.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about Artificial Intelligence Marketing and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher advised over 50 venture-backed startups. He is a venture capital limited partner and a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO, entrepreneur. In addition, he co-authored two bestsellers: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

After he flunked school, with few other options, Christopher started his first company at the age of 18.

He was a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard, in 2006, acquired that company for $4.5 billion.

Further, he also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD. Christopher was the founder/CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient. He also served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

Christopher loves his family and friends.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

009 Marketing Strategy vs. Tactics

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 10:00:23 GMT

The difference between Marketing Strategy and Tactics, oftentimes, confuses most people. In this episode of Lochhead on Marketing, Christopher Lochhead talks about some of the pressing questions people have on strategy and tactics.
Quoting Dushka Zappata
A good friend of Lochhead, Senior Communication and PR Executive Dushka Zappata⁠ helps shine a light on this confusion marketers have about strategy and tactics. She has 20 years experience in the tech industry and she amassed 140 million views in Q&A site Quora with her writing⁠.
Strategy
Dushka Zappata answered the distinction between strategy and tactics. According to her, strategy answers the question “why?” To give an example for this, one may ask, "why are we doing this, why do we think it's a good idea?”
“For strategy, the answer should be a blend of data, understanding of trends and creativity.” - Dushka Zappata
Tactics
She further continued that tactics, on the other hand, answers the question “how.” This pertains to questions such as, “how will we get this done," "what are the actions needed" and "what will get executed⁠."

Working on your marketing strategy and tactics need not be confusing. To be clear, strategy answers, “why,” and tactics answers, “how.”

To hear more about Marketing Strategy vs. Tactics and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Link:
Lochhead.com

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitt e r, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

008 7 Recession Marketing Ideas

Mon, 19 Aug 2019 10:00:58 GMT

Christopher Lochhead discusses some of his marketing ideas timely for a potential (we hope not, but economists say otherwise) recession. Here are 7 recession marketing ideas for our listeners that you might want to consider for your business.
1. Never Let A Good Recession Go To Waste!
History proved that recessions are the impetus for change. With change comes both threats and opportunities. Ordinary business people usually panic and focus on threats. However, legendary marketers focus on both. Recessions are a great excuse for taking action, especially those that should have been taken anyway.
“Get on your recession planning now! Do not wait for the recession to happen. Get on it, regardless of whether or not we’re going to have a recession. They are great excuse to tighten up shit on your ship!” - Christopher Lochhead
2. Assume you can’t raise any more money
Recession talks are best paired with the assumption that there is no money available for lending ⁠— no more VCs, bank loans, operating lines or rich uncles. If you do raise equity or debt, expect that your valuation or market cap is likely coming down, so you will have to give up more equity to raise VC. Likewise your costs to service loans or operating lines is going up.
“Focus on your cash and remember that paying customers are your best VCs, your best bankers.” - Christopher Lochhead
3, Measure twice, cut once
Go through your marketing plans and budget with a magnifying glass. Christopher advises to categorize every single investment ⁠— either one time or on-going investments ⁠— into three buckets: must do, good to do, nice to do.
“Do not have more than a 3rd of your investments in ‘Must Do.’ Find at least 10% of your investments that you can cut now. If you want to get aggressive, find 25%. Plan to cut or re-deploy at least 5%, no matter what happens – recession or not.” - Christopher Lochhead
4. Brainstorm short-term ways to increase revenue
Come up with some packages or offerings you can promote to your best customers now. Brainstorm around 25 ideas on how to increase revenue immediately. Ideas that aims to provide customers with an incentive to buy more from you right now are the key to this before they start cutting back spending hard.
5. Market & Sell Into The Whitespace
Get a list of all of your existing customers and figure out which customers, own / use which of your products and services. This is to identify the white space or which customers are not users of all of your offerings.
6. Consider a competitor trade-in.
Recessions are a unique opportunity to destroy your completion.
7. Double Down on Your Category
This is an area you should focus on a recession. Chances are, most of your competition is going to panic and they most likely will over-cut marketing. Take advantage of the lower cost of marketing and go hard on content marketing, especially in social media.
“Your prospects and customers will be hearing less noise. Take advantage of this, to evangelize your category point-of-view. Become more visible, while your competition is hiding under a desk, asking for their mommies.” - Christopher Lochhead
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive ⁠— which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2006 for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOC...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SPECIAL OFFER!

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 11:00:35 GMT

This is Christopher and I sure hope you are enjoying some of the first episodes of Lochhead on Marketing. I want to tell you about a special offer we’re making and why.

Radical Generosity

I am not a fan of self-promotion (which may sound crazy, coming from a three-time marketing guy), so I have thought about how I’m going to market and promote the podcast.

On one hand, I wanted to do some marketing that would feel comfortable without the overly self-promotional crap. This brings us to my buddy and co-conspirator on category creation and design and legendary marketing, Eddie Yoon.

He has this powerful idea: that legendary category designers practice “radical generosity.”

If you think about the word ‘creation’, in a lot of ways, you could argue creation is about bringing something to the world and Eddie says if you wanted to create a design category -- having a radical generosity mindset matters.

We’re Gonna Spend A Bunch Of Money

Legendary category designers and creators come from a place of generosity. So, to promote this podcast, I am going to spend a bunch of money. Rather than buying a ton of ads, I thought I might include you. I’m doing it in a way that is radically generous.

Here's the offer: I’d love it if you will rate and review Lochhead on Marketing, take a screenshot of that review, email it to blackhole@lochhead.com. For the next 7 days, I am going to make a $20 donation to four of my chosen charities.

We will publish on our website with full transparency, how much money we raise and how much money we gave away as a result of you participating in helping us market the new marketing podcast.

The Beneficiaries

What I’m asking you to do is rate and review the podcast, share it on social media and email us at blackhole@lochhead.com.

Once you do that, we will drop $20 in one of the following charities:

1. As we all know, I love animals. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is one of my chosen beneficiaries.

2. Frontrow Foundation is a charity that works with people, often kids, who are facing life-threatening conditions to give them one legendary experience.

3. If you’re a regular listener, I'm sure you know how much I love 1LifefullyLived.org. Founded by my buddy, Tim Rhode, this nonprofit has tried to put together programs and content around life planning and design, financial planning and design, and entrepreneurship. They try to do this as close to free as possible.

4. The fourth one is a non-profit called DonorsChoose. This is an extraordinary organization that allows school teachers around the country, to tell people what they need and people can go ahead and fund those things for their students and their classrooms.

So thank you so much!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

007 Category Creation is the Strategy

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 03:11:49 GMT

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead discusses why category creation is the new growth strategy for legendary marketing.

Great companies do not focus on incremental growth, rather, they focus on being exponentially different. These leading companies introduce people to new businesses and provide them with new ways of doing things.
Making A Different Future
Legendary companies shape our lives and design a different future. They are on a mission to make the future different. Further, these companies create something exciting ⁠— a new way of living, thinking and doing business ⁠— category creation. Through category creation, these companies are pioneering the way to the future.
“Many times they are solving a problem we didn’t know we had—or a problem we didn’t pay attention to because we never thought there was another way.” - Christopher Lochhead
These legendary companies make ordinary companies run for their lives. These ordinary companies want to profit from the world for offering it the same set of products and services.
Big Es and Small Es
Lochhead cites different big enterprises as well as small enterprises as an example. Huge companies now started as small when they changed our way of thinking. Companies such as AirBNB, Google, Amazon, Palo Alto Networks, Cisco and Salesforce not only created great products⁠—they created a good company and a great category.
“They had to courage to stand on their own to create a new category of products / services they niched down. And by designing a different niche, they got to own it.” - Christopher Lochhead
Category First, Brands Come Second
Categories make the company, not the other way around. In relation to this, if we carefully examine big brands, there are no legendary companies in a bad category. There will be no customer-recall of brands if these brands are not tailored to cater to a category.
“Brands only matter if they dominate categories that matter. Category design is a new lens, play with it!” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about Category Creation as the new growth strategy and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive ⁠— which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2006 for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Link:
Lochhead.com

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitt e r, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

006 Peanut Butter vs. Lightning

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 03:07:34 GMT

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead looks into the age-old marketing approach of peanut butter marketing and why it is not an applicable strategy in today’s world. Instead, he introduces us to the concept of lightning marketing, as mentioned in his first book “Play Bigger.”
PB and Lightning Defined
In Lochhead’s book “Play Bigger,” he defined the terms Lightning Strike and Peanut Butter marketing. With the traditional Peanut Butter approach, marketers spread the marketing and PR across all sorts of markets⁠—over a long period of time⁠—with the hopes that somewhere, somewhat, the message would “stick.”
“Peanut butter marketing does not break through in this era of ca-co-pho-nous media and never-ending swarms of new start-ups seeking attention. A lightning strike must overcome the noise.” - Christopher Lochhead
In today’s society⁠—where ads are all over social media, television, radio, and print media⁠—most people consider Peanut Butter marketing as noise. This definitely calls for a different kind of approach, hence, a lightning strike.
“A Lightning Strike is an event meant to explode onto the market, grab the attention of customers, investors, analysts, and media, and make any potential competitors crap their drawers. It is the full concentration of the company’s resources on a high-intensity strike.” - Christopher Lochhead, Play Bigger
Ground Wars and Air Wars
Lochhead quotes more information from his book, this time, about ground wars and air wars. Air-wars⁠ is a campaign to change potential customers’ minds so they would consider buying from the company. On the other hand, ground wars refer to more hand-to-hand work such as lead generation, sales, calls, and closing deals.
“Some companies know they need both air wars and ground wars to move their target’s brains so they then move their buying patterns. Lighting strike gets air wars off with a resounding bang. One of the best strikes is to hijack an event⁠—an industry conference or trade show⁠—where a good number of the target audience will be gathered.” - Christopher Lochhead, Play Bigger
It is a Company Event
Lochhead further shares that the most important thing to understand about a lightning strike is: it’s not a marketing event, it’s a company event. It becomes a forcing function for every part of the company.
“Once the work is done to define the category and set up the vision, the lightning strike is meant to show the world that the category and vision are real, imminent, and inevitable.” - Christopher Lochhead
He gives further advise on strategies when to best employ the lightning strike approach.

To hear more about Peanut Butter vs. Lightning and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive ⁠— which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2006 for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Link:
Lochhead.com

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

005 Mystery Shopping

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 02:43:26 GMT

Retailers or B2C market often uses the term mystery shopping. It is a concept to understand the customer’s journey in your services. For the fifth episode, Lochhead tackles the importance of mystery shopping for your company.
Embracing Mystery Shopping
Retailers employ the concept of mystery shopping⁠—where they pay someone to visit their store and document their experience. This is also applicable to online retailers as they commission mystery shoppers to test their website. It is important for marketers to look into the “funnel” and the “journey” because the key trick is simplifying the process.
“I think it’s really critical whether you are in B2B or B2C, that we embrace the idea of Mystery Shopping.” - Christopher Lochhead
Third-party participation is not always required for mystery shopping. Any individual can check their own websites and see how easy it is to navigate on it. Marketers should consider this in improving the overall buying experience.
How hard is it to buy from myself?
Lochhead discusses the importance of mystery shopping⁠—whether its for B2B, B2C, digital or physical. These companies should be able to identify how easy or hard it is to do business with their company.

Further, Lochhead advises even the CEO or business owners themselves, to regularly mystery-shop. In doing so, they will be able able to experience first hand what their customers. This is a good ground to see what needs improvements as well.
“Mystery Shopping always uncovers one or two, often small changes we could make to incrementally increase our sales.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about Mystery Shopping and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive ⁠— which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2006 for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Link:
Lochhead.com

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitt e r, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

004 5 Traits of Legendary Brands

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 02:40:49 GMT

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead discusses the 5 traits of legendary brands⁠—different, stands for something, point of view, consistent and prioritizes category creation. We’re positive marketers will learn a lot from this mindset-oriented podcast!
1. Be Different
Legendary brands are unique, interesting and groundbreaking. Marketers must continuously ask themselves how to become different from their existing competitors.
“When you hear most CEOs, CMOs, entrepreneurs, business people, talk about their differentiators⁠—most of what comes out of their mouths is a comparison from their competition⁠—as opposed to a distinction from their competition.” - Christopher Lochhead
2. Stand-up For Something
Moreover, legendary brands have a mission, they stand up for something. Interestingly, more legendary companies of today are committed to creating more impact in society. It is often called a “double bottom line”, where they also build projects with a social or human impact.
“You got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.” - Christopher Lochhead quoting singer/songwriter John Melencamp
3. Point of View
Legendary brands have a point of view. A company should have a true north that they believe in. A lot of brands have provocative POV and it has proven to skyrocket their revenues, especially when they associate with personalities who have strong positions and opinions.
4. Consistency
Because POVs don't change, this brings us to the fourth trait, which is consistency. Legendary brands do not deviate from their core, but they can evolve and embrace new things.
“Legendary brands are consistent, their colors, their point of view, and if you will, the place from which they come stays the same.” - Christopher Lochhead
5. Category First
Arguably, for Lochhead, the most important trait of a legendary brand is category-first. These brands do not attack the category, in fact, they promote it. They help improve the category by expanding and leading the category in different ways.
“Most legendary marketers know that categories make the brand, not the other way around.” - Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about the 5 traits of legendary brands and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive ⁠— which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2006 for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Link:
Lochhead.com

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

003 What is category creation?

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 02:38:12 GMT

On today’s episode of Lochhead on Marketing, Christopher Lochhead delves into the concept of category creation. He discusses why legendary entrepreneurs, CEOs, and marketers see category creation or category design as the new approach to winning.
What is it?
Category design is a new management discipline that is focused on creating and monetizing new markets. Moreover, Lochhead sees category creation or category design as a radical differentiation of oneself.
“Winning today is not about beating the competition. The most legendary entrepreneurs, CEOs and marketers are the people who invent a whole new game by defining a new market category, developing that market category and ultimately executing, so that they dominate it over time.” - Christopher Lochhead
Distinguishing Oneself
Legendary marketers and innovators refuse to be in comparison to what came before them. Due to this, customers look at legends as unique, or someone who broke or took a new ground.

Most importantly, legendary marketers want others to be compared to them. They are the agenda setters. They’re the ones defining the game and the rules.
Moving the World
Legendary marketers educate the world about an idea or a problem. Therefore, they provide a solution in a completely different way. They also have the ability to create value and urgency around the idea or problem.
“When the world accepts your point of view about a problem and solution, you change everything. That is what category design is about.” - Christopher Lochhead
Lochhead also discusses the fact that categories are everywhere. Further, he states that category comes first and the brand comes second. According to him, “category is the human filing system that we have, so we can relate to things and most importantly, value things.”

In the end, Lochhead poses the question any marketer should ask oneself, “are you playing someone else’s game or do you have the courage in creating and designing your own category?”

To hear more about category creation and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive ⁠— which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2006 for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Link:
Lochhead.com

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

002 10 Attributes of Legendary Marketing

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 07:32:24 GMT

For the second episode of Lochhead on Marketing, Christopher Lochhead dives into what makes Legendary Marketing, legendary. He discusses the 10 attributes of legendary marketing ⁠— which range from creating demand, dominating a niche market to leveraging technologies and changing the world.
1. Creates Demand Rather Than Capturing Demand
In all imaginable areas⁠—books, conversations, podcasts or discussions⁠—marketing is described as “having a market and capturing the demand to increase revenue and growth for your company.”

Legendary marketing, though, is more interested in creating new demand. They are focused on setting that agenda.
2. Designs and Dominates a Giant Category That Matters
Legendary marketing design and dominate their own categories. On creating this demand, they position themselves as unique and distinct. They may also opt to create a new category or sub-category of an existing market category.
“When you’re the first in a new category, people are drawn towards you.” - Christopher Lochhead
3. Creates a “Before” and “After”
Legendary marketing creates a distinct before and after. When a customer experiences legendary marketing for the first time, the expected initial reaction is “Wow, I just saw something! That's incredible!” That is Legendary Marketing.
“Remember the first time you heard Netflix, it presented a provocative idea which is: why do you have to go to a video store if you could go to a website?” - Christopher Lochhead
4. Mobilizes People to Think and Act in New and Different Ways
Legendary marketing is not just about evangelizing a product. It is about mobilizing people into action and getting them to change their actions. This would mean hundreds of people for small enterprises or even millions of people, for big multinational corporations.
5. Causes Competition to Have Emergency Board Meetings
Rick Bennett, the marketing assassin of Silicon Valley says that his advertising campaigns aim to freak out the competition and manage the psychology of the bad guys. This is one of the attributes of a legendary marketing campaign.
“When the competition sees this, how are they going to react and will they have an emergency board meeting?” - Christopher Lochhead
6. Makes You Think “I Wish I Had Done That!”
Millions of businesses fail because they are undifferentiated. Christopher says legendary marketing focuses on finding their own niche and dominating it, regardless of how simple or basic their product or service is.
“There is a bakery that scaled to 250 locations and sells franchises because they niched down. Its called Nothing but Bundt Cake. You’d say, that is such a simple idea, they niched down. Instead of being a generic bakery that fails, they dominated its niche market that they created.” - Christopher Lochhead
7. Creates New, Enduring Value Over-Time
It is a must for any CMO, C-level executive or anybody in Marketing—as well as entrepreneurs—to create enduring value, which is measured by employees, customers, and investors, partners and even the ecosystem.
8. Leverages New Technologies
Technology today allows marketers to know, in real-time, what’s resonating to the customers and what's not. A lot of data is now readily available for companies to ensure we attract the right customers and build relationships with them, in a measurable way.
“If you’re a marketer, you would want to be a technology genius ⁠— understanding these technologies and specifically how they can impact, attract and retain and build long term relationships with customers.” - Christopher Lochhead
9. Makes a Giant Impact Outside and Inside
Legendary marketing creates an impact both internally and externally. Legendary marketers believe to inspire both customers and employees.
“The most important thing marketing does is inspire your own employees to do legendary work,

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001 Who is this podcast for?

Fri, 26 Jul 2019 16:14:12 GMT

It’s an awesome day to be legendary! This is the first episode of our new podcast, Lochhead on Marketing, hosted by our very own, Christopher Lochhead. In this episode, he talks about who is this podcast for and what sets it apart from other marketing podcasts.

Join us as we define what makes this podcast, different⁠—ultimately, what makes it legendary!
Who’s Who in Marketing
Entrepreneur and VC partner Christopher Lochhead is an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups. He is a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and co-author of two bestsellers: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

To add, he a dyslexic high school drop-out who started his own company at the age of 18. Christopher sees his setbacks as his springs to success—the farther he’s pulled down, the higher he is launched to the top.
“I have a unique perspective in working with early-stage companies, being an entrepreneur myself. Since then I have done a lot of advising and investing and I focused a lot on podcasting.” - Christopher Lochhead
Who is this podcast for?
This is the podcast for the pirates, dreamers, and innovators⁠—those who want to introduce the world to new ways of doing things. These people want the world to be different. They want to explore what it takes to produce legendary results. Basically, this podcast is for anybody who wants the world to be different.

Entrepreneurial marketers, Founders, CEOs—of course, CMOs and business leaders who want to design and dominate their own market categories—would benefit highly from this podcast.
“This is for people who give a sh*t about winning! People who want to create the game, not play someone else’s. People who want to move the world from the way it is, to the way they want it to be” - Christopher Lochhhead
What more should you expect?
The show Lochhead on Marketing will examine the strategies behind what makes legendary marketing, legendary. Moreover, this podcast will share not only the strategies but the mind-set required for winning. Most of the episodes will be short and practical and will have simple take-aways.
“Having some marketing savvy, particularly around designing and dominating categories is an incredibly important skillset, regardless where you are in the C-suite” - Christopher Lochhead
Who is this podcast for? It will be for both B2B and B2C markets, especially now that these two concepts are merging in terms of marketing ideas. We will feature technology as well, as it is one of the key drivers of the industry. Technology enables marketers to be precise in measuring reach and accessing new mediums, just like podcasting.

To hear more about who this podcast is for and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive ⁠— which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2006 for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Links:
Lochhead.com

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to