Funny ad gets spoofed

Check out this TV spot:



and, its spoof:

100+ ways to improve your business, TODAY

Here's a compilation of very useful ideas. Browse this list for some goodies to help you succeed through all the current economic challenges you may be facing. Each idea will take you to its parent article, or you can scroll down to browse by article as well. Feel free to leave a comment about what you think or with any additions to the list. Enjoy —RT

1. Revamp your Web presence.


2. Start sending out e-newsletters.


3. Take advantage of your local media.


4. Get your name out there.


5. Go above and beyond with customer service.


6. Get everyone back to a very simple mission—exceeding sales goals by selling and implementing the company’s products and services.


7. Translate the sales goals into individual accountabilities for both sales and support staff.


8. Ensure each person has a valid plan of how to achieve his or her accountabilities.


9. Remove people who either do not like their accountability, or who cannot see how to achieve it.


10. Constantly hold people to your mission, their plan, and to their accountability.


11. Remove any silly obstacles that company HQ raises (many times, this means ignoring ridiculous edicts and messages from HQ altogether).


12. Constantly recognize and praise successes.


13. Forge connections.
    


14. Don't be afraid to rewrite the rules.
    


15. Focus on the results that matter.


16. Include Free Shipping on Everything (or Free Shipping without Conditions).
    


17. Include Free Shipping with a Minimum Order.
    


18. Include Free Shipping on Select Items.
    


19. Include Free Shipping Site-to-Store.
    


20. Include Free Shipping by Delivery Location.
    


21. Include Free Shipping by Membership.
    


22. Provide Flat Rate Shipping.


23. Plan Carefullly
    


24. Cooperate with others
    


25. Be Creative
    


26. Be Disciplined
    


27. Have Drive
    


28. Bring a Good attitude
    


29. Give the benefit of the doubt
    


30. Give your input
    


31. Be Optimistic
    


32. Be Organized
    


33. Promote Safe work behaviors
    


34. Be Well-informed
    


35. Be Sociable
    


36. Be Calm
    


37. Be Vigorous


38. Ask the right questions
    


39. Perfect Your Brochures and Website material.


40. Provide the hard evidence to prove your claims.


41. Don’t rely on longevity to give you reputation.


42. Match marketing materials with your sales team's ability.


43. Train your sales team to avoid the very tactics of persuasion they're being trained to embrace.


44. Explore ways to imbed your product or service into the typical habits and behavior patterns of your potential customers.


45. Tie your sale into a common theme that month, year or decade to enhance recall, retention, and common ground.


46. Think About Your Outcomes Before Going to Exhibitions.
    


47. Don’t Sell on the Stand.
    


48. Be on Top of Your Game at Events.
    


49. Always Follow Up Properly.


50. Align marketing with the business initiatives and insuring linkage between marketing programs and business results.


51. Collect and analyze relevant customer and market data.


52. Establish performance targets and measures needed to create a measurement framework that links marketing initiatives to business outcomes.


53. Monitor, report and communicate results using these results to make fact-based decisions.


54. Trim fat.


55. Target strategically.


56. Watch frequency.


57. Use games.


58. Make deals.


59. Cross-sell.


60. Contact them.


61. Show the love!


62. Let your audience know you are aware of and appreciate the current situation.


63. Provide Testimonials.


64. Tell them what you are going to give them and what you are going to do.


65. Be upfront about your deliverables and guarantees


66. Show them what you stand for.


67. Demonstrate how your company will contribute to making the world a better place.


68. Create clear company-wide reputation standards.


69. Appoint a VP of Reputation for the company.


70. Hire the best people and keep them happy.


71. Ask for customer feedback.


72. Know who you are; believe you can be better.


73. Appearance really does count—so upgrade your image.


74. Become an industry headliner by specializing in a market niche.


75. When you must choose between character and cash, go with the former.


76. Put your best reputation foot forward.


77. Build goodwill inside and outside your company.


78. Remove the Risk By Providing a Solid Guarantee


79. Crafting an Unusually Effective Guarantee by Creating Original Copy For Your Guarantee.


80. Lengthen Your Guarantee.


81. Compete Big With Your Guarantee.


82. Size Parcels Properly and Save


83. Stick with official USPS dimensions


84. Be a Lightweight with your paper stock


85. Tab or Fold for Automation Savings


86. Be Smart: Use the Intelligent Mail Barcode


87. Make Your Direct Mail Campaigns More Cost-Effective


88. Keep an Eye on Paper Costs


89. Try pre-printed products


90. Ditch the envelope


91. Work with your production provider to maximize postal efficiencies and savings


92. Keep your message foremost in every campaign.


93. Listen, speak, listen some more.

    


94. Be transparent and disclose
    


95. Evaluate ROI continually
    


96. Spread the word, not the manure
    


97. Encourage an enterprise-wide Word-of-Mouth-Marketing culture
    


98. Employ online and offline Word-of-Mouth-Marketing


99. Have Fair Pricing.


100. Lead in Innovation and Service.


101. Be Authentic, Transparent, Honest.


102. Be more connected with your consumers.

Browse by Article Title:

1. Five Marketing Tips for Small Business Survival


2. Managing Sales in Tough Times


3. Free Shipping Strategies Gain Retailers Loyal Customers


4. 15 Personal Skills You Need on the Job
   


5. The Top 10 Dumb Sales Questions During a Bad Economy
   


6. Mastering the Psychology of Persuasion
   


7. The Sales Clinic: Four Ways to Lose Business at Exhibitions
   


8. Bridging the Gap: Four Processes to Fine Tune Your Marketing Organization's Performance


9. Eight Marketing Strategies to Gain Momentum in a Sluggish Economy
   


10. How to Master CRM like President Obama


11. Ten Ways to Upgrade Your Company's Reputation and Drive Business


12. Smart Marketing: Building Your Brand through Employees


13. The Fine Line between Personalization and Privacy in Marketing


14. Create Guarantees that Knock Clients off the Fence


15. How to Build Customer Loyalty Simply by Making and Keeping Credible Promises to the Marketplace


16. Five Ways to Mail Smarter and Save


17. With Budgets Spread Thin, Is There Room for Reinvention?


18. Making Your Direct Mail Campaigns More Cost-Effective


19. Peer-to-Peer | Six ways to leverage word-of-mouth marketing


20. Get Back to Basics. Win Back the Trust.

McDonald's Filet-o-Fish Commercial

Have fun with it and judge it from your marketing standpoint. This is the original in English:


Watch the Spanish version

McDonald's Filet-O-Fish ad makes a big splash
USA TODAY
People have been hooked by McDonald's Filet-O-Fish singing fish ad. The fish sings, "Give me back that Filet-O-Fish" as he hangs mounted on a wall plaque in a garage. Two friends watch the fish, but enjoy the sandwich without a word.

The ad and its infectious song have spawned a series of knockoff ads posted online and a ring tone. Google says searches for "McDonald's fish" are up 100% in the past four weeks and that the ad has been viewed on YouTube more than a million times.
"It took a life of its own," says Danya Proud, McDonald's spokeswoman.

The talking fish looks like the "Big Mouth Billy Bass" gag gift advertised on cable TV almost a decade ago. Agency Arnold Worldwide came up with the parody idea after struggling to create an ad local franchisees could air for the Filet-O-Fish promotion that is done every year around this time. Proud says that McDonald's sells about 300 million fish sandwiches annually, 25% during the 40-day Lenten period before Easter Sunday (April 12 this year).

"It was our third Saturday in a row working in a conference room that's known as the fish bowl," says Peter Harvey, senior copy writer at Arnold in Boston. "We started talking about the toy that everybody had 10 years ago, and it came to us."

Part of the creative challenge was that the actors don't speak, yet had to be funny. Actor Ray Conchado plays the guy who shrugs off the singing fish, while JR Reed is the friend surprised to see a fish singing when he walks into the garage.

"We had to run this in both English and Spanish," Harvey says. "We had to have the actors not speak. If they have to talk to make us crack up, it's not going to work." That put the pressure on the fish. "The fish was only going to take up 12 seconds, so he had to be fun and catchy really fast," Harvey says. Once the concept was nailed, they came up with lyrics and music and assigned a music agency to create six or seven versions of the tune that is sung by Joey Auch.

"We wound up choosing the song not because there was a science behind it but because when we heard it the first time we wanted to hear it again," Harvey says. They also needed a fish that wouldn't put people off. A Los Angeles taxidermist created a pollock with a remote control device to operate his mouth and tail. The sandwich is made with cod as well as pollock, but that fish looked too scary. Says Harvey, "We said, 'Let's make it a little more toy-like so it won't scare people completely.' "