Popular Speaking Topics

Is it a Brand or a Cult?

Brand cults have existed for more than a decade and that term used to apply to a handful of passion products, like Harley Davidson, Apple, or Oprah. Today, the north star for marketers is to reach brand cult status and they use cults tactics to do it. Learn how scarcity marketing, charismatic spokespeople, surreptitious persuasion, and community building are used to manipulate unsuspecting consumers.

Get #HoodwinkedWise: The Cult + Marketing Continuum

The Cult + Marketing Continuum, encompassing brand cults, influencers, and MLMs, is a powerful tool for understanding the digital marketing landscape. Within this framework, marketers may not realize they are using cult tactics, but they are. Consumers very likely do not understand how they are being persuaded—until they have been sucked into selling Herbalife, spent too much time at CrossFit, or paid untold sums of money to get your kid into “the right college.”

Marketing Straight Talk: You are being marketed to and you don’t even know it.

Most of us hate dealing with advertising. We fast forward through commercials, we hit the “skip ad” button on YouTube, and more than half of us use ad blockers. Learn the ways in which marketers get their messages in front of consumers without their knowing it, everywhere from online to in church. Tactics include branded content, product placement, and sensory marketing.

7 Reasons Why You Get Sucked In By Influencers

There are estimated to be 50 million influencers. Most create their content for free. Those who get paid—in cash (which is not typical) or in kind (with free product)—rarely disclose when they are sponsoring a product. They can’t, because it would hurt their “authenticity,” consumers’ belief that they are untouched by the market. Learn the ins-and-outs of the content economy, including how influencer networks tell influencers what to say, and why understanding “parasocial” relationships will help you protect yourself and your pocketbook.

Why MLMs Are Everywhere and Why They Shouldn’t Be

Amazon’s LuLaRich was the most watched docuseries on the platform. People couldn’t get enough information about MLMs. Why the obsession? Seems like everyone knows something affected by these companies, either as a consultant or a customer. Protected by regulations put into place in the 1970s, these thinly disguised pyramid schemes have thrived in the age of the gig economy when people are looking for much-needed supplemental income. Learn what MLMs are, how to spot an MLM, and why these companies may be on the decline.

College Marketing 101 for Parents: Get into College without Breaking the Bank…and why colleges don’t want you to know that.

College marketing exploded over the last 15 years in response to millennials aging out of their college years. Suddenly, colleges had chief marketing officers, many of whom came from traditional corporate marketing backgrounds and they brought their toolbox with them. Come away with practical tools for understanding how marketing technology (“martech”) is used to track you and your child, and why you don’t have to pay top dollar to get a great education.

From Eden to Elections: The hidden world of Marketing Religion and Politics

When I began writing about branding religion over a decade ago, no one wanted to talk about it. Today, interest in religion and marketing has taken off, in no small part because of their interconnection with politics. Yes, this relates to QAnon. More subtly, there is a vast network of church marketing companies that tap into online data to find people experiencing a major life event and then promote a bereavement or divorce support group to them. That is not new. What is new is that a significant number of these churches use personal data to persuade or dissuade members from voting, much like Cambridge Analytica did in the 2016 election. Find out how churches are using marketing, with and without politics.

Wokewashing: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Is your company committed to a cause, or are you jumping on the latest bandwagon? When your marketing misaligns with an issue, it’s woke washing and consumers know it (especially Gen Z)! Yet, marketers are caught between customers who expect them to embed values in the brand and jumping into an issue where they have no authority. Using case studies of what works (Ben & Jerry’s; Steak Ums) and what doesn’t (Disney and “don’t say gay”; the Pepsi/Kendal Jenner commercial), this talk will provide strategies for aligning mission with marketing, helping you to make a difference rather than merely virtue signaling. The bottom line: when you are clear about what issues to take on and make them part of our corporate DNA, you no longer have to jump into the fray.

Areas of Interest: Deceptive Marketing, Influencers, Wokewashing, Cause marketing (CSR, ESG), Higher Education, Multilevel Marketing (MLM), Marketing & Religion.

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