Do One Thing Well? Be Careful

by Scott Cohen on February 8, 2010

in Other

Chris Brogan wrote a post on his blog a few weeks ago with the title “Do One Thing Well.” His premise, highlighting Cafe Du Monde, is that brands are always tempted to walk away from what they’re really good at for the sake of expansion. Brogan writes:

Not every brand has to be a sole product experience. We’re okay with Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Cherry Coke, for instance. but for others, and I’d suggest Cafe Du Monde’s Beignets are in this category, sticking to a core product and experience is key.

Dustin Hoffman in his iconic role - found on Salon.com

I agree with Chris in that brands must tread carefully when thinking of expansion so as not to damage their core product and experience. But I would argue that brands must also be careful not to forget to either expand or adapt to market forces to “keep up with the times.”

I’ve heard this adage that I think goes something like this: “To be good at everything means being great at nothing.”

I ask you what’s better? To be brilliant or great at one thing and just one thing? (There’s a reason it’s called “Idiot-Savant.”) Or be good in a variety of areas? What if you only really know how to do one thing and can’t adapt?

What if you were a world-renowned typewriter maker? How are you doing now?

Maybe Chris is partially right that it’s necessary to “do one thing well,” provided that one thing is adaptation.

What do you think? I’m not sure which way to go. Enlighten me.

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Writing Tip #2: Don’t Proofread Your Own Copy

by Scott Cohen on February 7, 2010

in Tips

My good Twitter buddy and fellow Email Zoo contributor Kelly Lorenz (from Bronto) sent me some ideas for writing tips this past week, and I thought I’d share this tidbit from her with you:

Do NOT proofread your own copy.

Trust me, I’m the worst proofreader of my own copy. And you are for your own as well. You know why? Because when you write the copy, you have a tendency to gloss over the words and assume they are all there. You also will make the assumption that you’ve corrected all of the spelling errors (and who doesn’t? Microsoft Word does most of the work for you, right?)

You need the objective eyes on your writing assignments because they won’t have that “writer’s bias.” They’ll be able to spot the errors better (provided the person you’ve selected is a good editor who can spell and showcase proper grammar).

This tactic works well with my first tip–reading your copy out loud. Between your aloud reading and your chosen editor’s proofreading, you have a pretty good chance of getting crisp, clean copy.

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Have some ideas for writing tips? Want to share what works for you? Hit me up!

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The Nora Chronicles: The Third Month

February 6, 2010 Fatherhood

I’m a week late on this post, but Nora has completed her first “quarter” of life.
Smiles and “Conversations.”
That’s how I can describe the third month of my daughter’s life.
Nora has learned how to smile on purpose, and her smile is lethal for hearts… mine in particular. She has the tendency to bust it out at [...]

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There’s No Such Thing as Best Practices in Email Marketing

February 5, 2010 Email Marketing

I was not able to attend this past week’s Email Evolution Conference in Miami, but as any avid Twitter user and email marketer would, I followed the #eec10 tweets. And one of the tweets really stood out to me:
“Best Practices = Best Practices that work for your client.”
Otherwise known as: there’s no such thing as [...]

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Quest for 50 Logo Challenge FAIL

February 2, 2010 Quest for 50

So a little while ago, I began “The Quest for 50 Logo Challenge.” Seemed like an easy enough challenge to get a couple of submissions at the least. After all, I know quite a few graphic designers and creatives who would possibly pass it along. Besides, it’d be a fun little aside and possible opportunity [...]

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