Ground Hog Day

Ground Hog Day - Feb 2

Ground Hog Day is one of those days that you might leverage to promote your business. Hold a special event, promotion or sale for ground hog day.

Years ago I decided to mail a Ground Hog Day post card to my database. That included clients, prospects and media contacts.

I ordered 500 Ground Hog day postcards from Wiarton, Ontario - the home of Wiarton Willie. The postcards arrived in November and I handwrote them over the Christmas holidays. On January 15 I dropped them into the mailbox.

I had hand addressed all 500 postcards with the message, "Willie predicts a great year, George Torok."

Willie died just before Ground Hog Day. He was 14 and for a ground hog that was like 90 in human years.

Because of that post card I got media coverage and business. The point for you is that if you do the right things it will pay off, never how you think or when you expect it.

George Torok

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Boston Globe
Groundhog Predicts More Winter Weather -
... groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, holds Phil as his other handler, Ben Hughes, pets him on the head Ground Hog's Day in Punxsutawney, Pa.


Groundhog .org - the Official Site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club
Official site of the Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Groundhog Club. Includes detailed history of the day, a listing of local events, and printable activity


Groundhog Day
The history of how Groundhog Day started and what it means.


Groundhog Day (1993)
Directed by Harold Ramis. With Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott. A weatherman finds himself living the same day over and over again.



Groundhog Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Open-content encyclopedia article covering the history of the holiday.


Groundhog Day (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Groundhog Day is a 1993 comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. It was written by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis and ...


Groundhog Day History from Stormfax® 2008
Punxsutawney Phil Groundhog Day history from Stormfax® with Folklore & Winter Weatherlore.


Groundhog Day: February 2nd. Great links to kids' crafts and ...
Get into Groundhogs this February with the kids! Here's a collection of Groundhog Day Fun from all over the web.


Groundhog Day - The Website
visitors from Groundhog Day, 2000 till Groundhog Day 2001 There were counter.1998.gif (1597 bytes) ... visitors from December 10, 1997 till Groundhog Day, 1998.



Groundhog Day Facts and Tradition - Is it Spring Yet? - Candlemas
How Did the Groundhog Get a Day of His Own? The lowly groundhog, often called a woodchuck, is the only mammal to have a day named in his honor.


Groundhog Day: The Movie
Groundhog Day, the movie, is about how we can break through to our true selves so that compassion, creativity and love are an inherent part of life.

Tom Cruise getting Ducati superbike

There is an important marketing lesson about getting media coverage in this recent news item about the new Ducati superbike.

Below is a copy of the news as reported on Yahoo News. If you Google "Tom Cruise Ducati" you will find the same item almost word-for-word from several other news sources. What does that tell you? That the news release aka press release was used word-for-word. It's not often that your news release gets used exactly as is because the media try to improve on it and add their own slant to your news. In this case the Ducati media relationships people did such a good job of their news releases that the media used it as is.

Read the news below and notice what Ducati did so well - and how you as a marketer can learn from this successful example.


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Tom Cruise getting Ducati superbike


BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Tom Cruise is the first on the list to get Ducati's newest motorcycle — a $72,500 superbike bristling with titanium, magnesium and carbon fiber technology that can scoot up to 200 mph.

Cruise is scheduled to take delivery of the Desmosedici RR at Beverly Hills Ducati this week. Only 1,500 of the red-and-white Moto GP racing replica motorcycles will be made and Cruise gets the first.

Michael Lock, chief of Cupertino-based Ducati North America, said the Desmosedici RR "is the impossible dream — made possible."
"We are delighted to be able to deliver the world's first production unit here in the USA to Tom Cruise, who is a well-known Ducati enthusiast," Lock said in a statement.

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The Media-Relations Lesson

Lead with the biggest story and in this case, Tom Cruise is a bigger story than Ducati. Ducati launching a new big is news to Ducati owners and fans and owners and fans of other makes of superbikes. And even fans and owners of other bikes might be interested to know about a $72,000 bike that can go 200 miles per hour. However the biggest audience is people who like or adore Tom Cruise. Many of these people don't even care about motorcycles but they want to read about almost anything that Tom Cruise does.

This is the win-win outcome. The media publishes a story that their readers want and Ducati gets the coverage both inside and outside of their market.

Notice too that the photo that accompanies each of these articles is of Tom Cruise. Not the Ducati, not even Tom Cruise near a motorcycle.

The big mistake would have been to write a news release that starts with "Ducati is pleased to announce..."

And yet that is the way that too many marketers write their news release.

So, tip of the hat to Ducati media relations people on a job very well done.

Here's another thing for you to think about. Do you think that Tom Cruise asked to be first? Of course not - why would he care. And do you think that Tom Cruise paid for this $72,000 bike? Of course not. I wonder how much Ducati paid Cruise over and above the value of the Ducati.

If you are launching a new product and you want publicity how will you tie it to a bigger story? Remember when Microsoft launched Windows 95 they used the Rolling Stones song "Start me Up" as the theme song

PS: I posted the photo of the Ducati here - because I would rather look at that than Tom Cruise.

PPS: If you want to see Tom Cruise photos click here

How to write your news release click here.

More tips on grabbing media exposure click here


George Torok
Marketing Expert and Author
Marketing Speaker
George Torok in the media

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Tom Cruise 1st in line to snag Ducati superbike - Autos- msnbc.com
29 Jan 2008 ... Tom Cruise is the first on the list to get Ducati's newest motorcycle — a $72500 superbike bristling with titanium, magnesium and carbon fiber technology

Tom Cruise Gets a Pricey Ducati - Luxist
With only 1500 of these primo bikes produced, he'll be part of an elite group of motorcycle enthusiasts and Ducati collectors. Now Cruise will have the ..

Top Celebrity News Stories for Wednesday Jan. 30, 2008 Donald ...
Sugar Bits — Tom Cruise Gets First Ducati Superbike ... Tom Cruise will be the first customer to receive the new $72500 Ducati "superbike,"

Valleywag: The Tom Cruise Ducati bike
This is the Ducati superbike that Hollywood star Tom Cruise will become the first person in the world to own.

Enterprise Magazine: 10 Years!

Enterprise Magazine celebrates 10 years of publication.

Congratulations to publisher, Hayden Bradshaw. The magazine business is a tough business. You have probably seen many magazines come and go. It's one of those businesses that look easy to outsiders. And a magazine aimed at entrepreneurs and business owners has got to be even tougher.

And yes that's me, George Torok on the cover of this aniversary issue. The cover text reads "Marketing Wizard George Torok: "What a Difference a Decade Makes!"

This feature article examines the trends, and changes in marketing over the last decade.

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What a Difference a Decade Makes in Marketing

Imagine that you could continue to market successfully the same way for ten years. Do you like that thought? Well delete that daydream because it just isn’t so. Welcome to marketing 2008. It’s more threatening, more promising and more exciting. Buckle your seatbelt, take your motion sickness pill and be prepared to be amazing. Because that is what you need to compete today.


Still the Same
Of course some things remained the same. Let’s establish our foundation before we venture into the swirl of the Time Tunnel.

The fundamentals are the same. That’s what makes them fundamentals. Marketing is still closely intertwined with selling and the purpose of marketing is to help you sell more. Marketing and selling are both strategies to help you make a profit. In fact marketing was and is a fundamental responsibility running through every function of your business.

“Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered a separate function. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of it final result, that is, from the client’s point of view.”
Peter Drucker

Strange that even though management guru, Peter Drucker, offered that advice more than a decade ago – many organizations ignored his wisdom. That’s why we still see marketing departments and sales departments with little cohesion and cooperation. Why? Perhaps too many marketers see themselves as artists or statisticians while they see sales representatives as slimy. And the sales department labels marketing as a bunch of flakes who don’t know about the real world.

The purpose of marketing is to do one or more of the following three things:
Grab Attention
Demonstrate value
Build relationships

The world is still round – or is it now flat? How is the “How” of those fundamentals changing?

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To read the rest of this article subscribe to Enterprise Magazine

Enterprise is Canada's magazine for small and medium enterprises.


George Torok

Marketing Wizard, George Torok in the media

Order the book, Secrets of Power Marketing

Arrange a presentation or speech

Marketing Blog Milestone: Post 200

Marketing Blog Milestone: Post 200

200 Posts on this blog!

Celebrate your milestones!

Your milestones are a reason to pat yourself on the back and it’s a reason to market.

This is Marketing Blog Post 200. That’s reason to celebrate – even if that means quietly sipping some fine brandy in my easy chair.

Two hundred of anything is worth celebrating. What milestones have you reached or are approaching? Do something to let folks know. Why? Because everyone loves a party and everyone wants to associate with winners.

If you were here since the beginning – thank you for your loyalty. And of course you read many insightful marketing ideas and tips.

If you joined us along the way then you might appreciate this list of high points of our marketing blog. Look back at the provocative and helpful marketing gems.


Post Alpha
January 1, 2006
A realization hit me. Blogs might be a good marketing thing. This was the start of my blogging. At last count I have at least five four active blogs. This from a guy who thought blogs were a waste of time.



Aspirin – relief from pain
April 13, 2006
We take aspirin or equivalent when it hurts. We seek a solution when the pain or threat of more pain is enough to move us to change. Have you noticed that the changes you make in your life are more often the result of pain than anything else?



Harry Houdini – the great brand
November 16, 2006
The first look at the power of branding – especially personal branding as demonstrated by Escape artist – Harry Houdini.



Travelodge Hotel Accuses you
January 28, 2007
One of several exposés of really bad customer service.



Over 100 Posts
February 23 2007
We failed to flag the 100th post so this post was the recognition of passing that milestone.



Flick Off: Powerful Viral Marketing
April 26, 2007
Out first embrace of controversial viral marketing by acknowledging the strengths of the controversial Flick Off campaign. This post led to posts about Mac’s convenience stores and their Bloody Zit and WTF Nun poster. Also had a few media interviews about this topic.



Richard Branson has Chahones
October 8, 2007
Our first nude photo on this blog. Might be the only one. It’s Richard Branson running through the surf covering his chahones. He's a great marketer. And yes he has billionare sized chahones.



George Torok

Power Marketing

Marketing Author and Expert

Marketing Speaker

Networking Guru Interview

Networking Guru Interview
Part One

I contacted Networking Guru, Michael Hughes, in Ottawa, Canada. I asked him a few questions about networking hoping to gain more insights about the dos and don'ts of networking. You might be interested in reading his answers. His response was so good that I divided this interview into three portions to make it easier to read and digest.


Enjoy part one of this interview with Networking Guru, Michael Hughes
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Networking Question
Why do so many smart people fail at networking?


Answer from Networking Guru, Michael Hughes

It’s an accepted fact that success, in business and in life, is directly related to the quality and diversity of the relationships we have, or acquire. Relationships, by their very nature, require trust, time and investment. Smart people know this, often intuitively. But we live in a world that mistakenly promotes instant gratification: instant soup, instant credit, instant results. It’s an almost-overwhelming message that, for the most part, goes against both the research of experts and the reality of life. Many professionals, even the smart ones, fall prey to this fallacy when it comes to networking.

The misguided mindset that simply showing up at an event, connecting with a few people and passing around business cards will cause the phone to ring or deliver instant results is one of the most common misconceptions about networking. When was the last time you did business with someone after a thirty-second to three-minute conversation? It just doesn’t happen. Yet invariably, sales and business professionals, event the smart ones, succumb to the premise that networking is a tell-and-sell “instant-results” activity.

Networking cannot, and will not, produce instant results. That is not its purpose, nor should it be the premise. Its primary purpose is to act as a powerful ignition point for a relationship. Its premise is to create a starting point, a foundation if you will, that can, and does, accelerate the relationship-building process.

The smartest (and most successful) people long ago realized this fact and have the ability to leverage the power and potential of a networking conversation, no matter how brief. They focus primarily on using these interactions to create a basis for future contact, taking responsibility for fostering on-going contact as they explore mutual value areas.

Accepting networking as a delayed-gratification activity is the first step to accelerating relationship-building and increasing results. But of course, as a smart person, you already knew this, right?


Michael Hughes Bio
Known as Canada’s Networking Guru, Michael J. Hughes specializes in helping business professionals increase sales, build their business or advance their career by utilizing networking as business strategy. Get more details on his programs and services by visiting http://www.networkingforresults.com/.

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That was only the first question. If you are interesting in improving your networking then watch for the next installments from this interview with networking guru, Michael Hughes.

George Torok

Order The Guide to Networking Success

Read How Networking Can Save Your Life

Radio Interviews - how to be guest expert

Radio Interviews - you as the guest expert

One simple way to build your brand, your credibility and reach is to be the guest expert featured in radio interviews. It is simple efficient and effective - if you know the techniques.

I love radio because of the simplicity compared to TV. I have been featured in dozens of radio interviews and as host of my own radio show, Business in Motion, I have interviewed over 400 business leaders.

So how do you get on radio and what tips should you know?

Here is a collection of helpful tips and articles from a company that specilializes in getting people like you on the radio. Read the tips if you want to try it yourself of call them to do it for you. The articles offer alot of useful information.

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Articles about Getting Featured on Radio Interviews

Bryan Farrish provides free articles about radio interview promotion (i.e., "radio publicity"), and they are available for reading and printing here:

1. Why Radio Interviews?

2. Which Radio Stations to Choose?

3. Picking the Proper Format, part 1 of 2

4. Picking the Proper Format, part 2 of 2

5. Best Topics for Radio

6. How to Practice for Radio Interviews

7. Paid Benefits of Free Interviews

8. Why Repeated Phone Calls Are Necessary

9. Why The Topic Does Not Matter

10. Why Smaller Stations Can Be Better

11. Dayparts

12. Investors, part 1

Click on any of the above to read that article or see the whole list here.

The above list is from

Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion

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George Torok

Host of Business in Motion

Business Speaker

Marketing Expert & Author

Online Tools for Working with Words

Online tools for working with words

The following is from an email that I received from Internet Marketing expert Perry Marshall.
If you are picking words for your webpages or writing marketing copy you can find these tools very helpful. Marketing is more about words than about logos and images.

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First, I always liked the idea of a thesaurus but when I'm actually trying to write something, somehow I don't find most of them the least bit helpful. But here's an online tool I just love:

http://visualthesaurus.com - Generates visual trees of related keywords, sort of like a mind map. You type in a term and rich word trees spring up. Then you can click on the next word and the next word and the tree continues to morph. I just sent the latest Renaissance Club newsletter to the printer and I think I used it six or seven times to find just the perfect word. There's a free demo and a yearly membership is a paltry $20. Give it a whirl.

Spy Intelligence: Sometimes it's quite useful to have an idea of what your competitors are doing on Pay Per Click, what keywords they're bidding on, what they're spending, stuff like that. Disclaimer: Neither of these tools provides a completely accurate picture but they're both very useful:

http://spyfoo.com/ - Gives you a list of major keywords your competition is bidding on, an estimate of their daily budget, data about their organic listings, average bid position, and how many competitors they have. Rather insightful.

http://www.googspy.com/ - A related technology, but presented in a different way. The keyword list it generates is incomplete but quite helpful.

http://www.lexfn.com/ - Type in a word and it gives you related terms and concepts.

http://buzz.yahoo.com/ - Following pop culture to see what's hot this week? This is a great place to do it, 'cuz the clicks always tell a story. I don't know that this is terribly useful for keyword research per se (unless you have a very deliberate strategy that plays on celebs & stuff like that) but it certainly gives you topic ideas that you can tie into newsletters, rants, etc.

The equivalent tool on Google is called Zeitgeist:
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

Google's Keyword Suggest - http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en - as you type a search term, Google suggests related words.

Have fun with this stuff.
Perry Marshall
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Here's a great tool for writing killer headlines - because headlines are the welcome mat for your website or marketing copy.
Headline Creator Pro


George Torok

Personal Marketing

Marketing Speaker for conferences and corporate meetings