Marketing Tips video: Gain an Unfair Advantage from Your Marketing

Test your marketing with this question. Is your marketing giving you an unfair advantage over the competition? If the answer is no, your marketing isn't helping you.

Hear the brutal truth about marketing from George Torok in this Marketing Report from the Big City streets.

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

BMO Customer Service Shines: Kudos to Bank of Montreal

The Bank of Montreal has been impressing me with their customer service lately.

I received a phone call from the bank that my line of credit was over drawn. The message requested that I take care of that differennce today.

It was my mistake. I had miscalculated. I was delighted to receive that call for two reasons.

1. BMO did not bounce the cheque that put it over.
2. BMO called to alert me to the problem.

Naturally I returned the call and corrected the overage that afternoon.

BMO did two simple things that I appreciate. Apparently it is possible for the bank to do that.

Contrast that with my experience with the TD Bank. When faced with a similar situation TD bounced my cheque and did not call me. Instead, they mailed me a noticed that arrived a week later. And TD charged me for a bounced cheque from them and the other bank plus an overdraft charge.

When I received the notice I called immediatley. I visited the bank and fixed the overage. I asked the TD Bank to call me when and if this happens again. They informed me that they didn't have time to call everybody... What that really meant is that they had no intention of calling me because I wasn't important to them.

I have been a customer of both the TD and and BMO banks for at least 30 years.

Just imagine that. There is a problem - so you call your customer and let them know. That is so easy to do. Why don't they all do that?

I know. Some of them are too busy to talk to customers.

Kudos to Bank of Montreal.
Lumps of coal to TD Bank.


George Torok
Marketing Expert
Marketing Speaker
Radio Show Host of Business in Motion

Marketing is an Imperfect Science

Marketing is not art. It is a science. However it is a behavioral science and therefore an imperfect science. Anything dealing with human behavior is imperfect at best. Yet it is still a science. You can predict and measure cause and effects.

Marketing is not art and it is not magic.

In order to be an effective marketer you must understand people and how to influence their behaviors.

Marketing is about guessing that if we do this, people will do that. The guessing part is important. The significant part is guessing how many people will do that.

What do you do? Predict – test – measure and adjust.


George Torok

Marketing Speaker

Motivational Business Speaker

Crazy People: Movie about Advertising Truth

This old movie with Dudley Moore might offend some of you with the language - but it is a real look at advertising.

Chevy vs Chevrolet Branding Hoax

The Real Question
Are the marketing folks at Chevrolet, (don’t call us Chevy), brilliant or just thrashing around like Homer Simpson in the backyard wading pool?

The Scenario
A memo signed by both Alan Batey, the VP for Chevrolet Sales and Jim Campbell the VP for Chevrolet Marketing addressed to corporate staff apparently instructed corporate staff to expunge the word “Chevy” from their lexicon. They would be punished by paying 25 cents to the sin bucket every time they used the banned word “Chevy”. Instead they were ordered to substitute the word “Chevrolet” in all discussions with other staff, supplier, dealers, media and family. I wonder who got the money.

The explanation for this dogmatic command was that Chevy (Oops I mean Chevrolet) needed to be consistent to build a stronger brand.

This is an excerpt from that memo.

“Why is this consistency so important? The more consistent a brand becomes the more prominent and recognizable it is with the consumer.”


Possible Brilliance?
Maybe the marketers at Chevrolet are attempting to create a New Coke reaction. When Coke announced the New Coke there was an unexpected and overwhelming response of “Hell no – don’t you dare change our Coke”.

The marketing geniuses and Sergio Zyman, Chief Marketing Officer, at Coke were blindsided. They had created the New Coke based on their extensive marketing research. Then they discovered that they were wrong and customers wanted the old Coke. Coke was smart enough to introduce the old Coke as Coke Classic and retain their market.

Are the marketers at GM/Chevrolet so smart, confident and so devious that they pretended to be stupid and stumble just to ignite a firestorm of protest?

There is no question that this particular boondoggle has generated a viral storm of blog posts, discussions and activity across the Internet. If that was the purpose – then it was a bold and brilliant move. Did GM send that memo hoping that some employee would send it to a major media player?

The formula that Coke inadvertently used is “Annoy your best customers and pray that they will protest instead of walking away.”


It takes greatness to be smart yet play dumb for the sake of your brand.

Were the executives at Chevorlet that brilliant? Where they just reading The Art of War or The Prince?

I don’t believe that they are that bold or prescient.


George Torok

Read more Articles on Marketing by George Torok

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