Marketoonist is the thought bubble of Tom Fishburne. Marketing cartoons, content marketing with a sense of humor, keynote speaking.
Asking for a tip is increasingly part of the customer experience. Partly because of the ubiquitous touch screens now at most points of purchase, tipping has crept to just about every type of transaction — from takeout to self-service frozen yogurt to propane refills to buying a t-shirt at a concert. Service tips of 15-30% are commonly requested before service… Read More
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I recently heard the way marketers speak described as “Jargon-Monoxide Poisoning,” which made me laugh. I think “Jargon-Monoxide” is produced by every part of a business, but marketers are particularly adept at “Jargon-Monoxide Poisoning.” It’s ironic that the business discipline in charge of communications has such a hard time communicating what it does without jargon. There are multiple… Read More
There’s a funny conspiracy theory that the Internet secretly “died” six years ago — and is now mostly filled with bots communicating with other bots. As Kaitlyn Tiffany wrote in the Atlantic last year: “‘Dead-internet theory’ suggests that the internet has been almost entirely taken over by artificial intelligence … “YouTube, for a time, had such high bot traffic that… Read More
No matter how sophisticated the tools have gotten or how rich the data, I find it funny how much of marketing and sales still rely on blunt force, one-size-fits-all lead generation tactics like these. This scattershot approach is often described as “spray and pray” — broadcasting generic messages to large groups in hopes that a small percentage will magically… Read More
“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a decision,” is a truism strangely popularized both by René Descartes, the 17th century French philosopher, and Rush, the prog rock band. We can always analyze more data and write more decision trees, but we never have 100% confidence in how things are going to turn out after making a… Read More
Last Friday marked 20 years of Marketoonist. On October 21, 2002, I published my very first marketing cartoon, then called Brand Camp. It was a cartoon on the 8 Types of Brand Managers. I had just started as an Associate Marketing Manager at General Mills, working on Yoplait. I emailed this first cartoon to 35 co-workers from my cubicle on… Read More
There’s nothing spookier this Halloween than some of the headlines. Sapio Research recently found that a whopping 95% of global businesses are concerned about a potential recession, with 45% of US businesses “highly concerned.” Fear can drive a knee-jerk response in a recessionary environment to cut, cut, cut — marketing budgets, media spend, hiring, headcount, R&D investment. In 2010, Harvard… Read More
