Lochhead on Marketing

It is super important to know how social media and the online-world itself work, especially if you’re a business owner or an entrepreneur. This holds true because we are living in a digital-first world, where you can search for anything on the internet. Managing your digital reputation is indeed challenging and sometimes complicated. So today our guest, Josh Greene, CEO of The Mather Group,...

On episode 90, we talked about how complexity is the enemy of revenue and how to shave the marketing dog down. Now let’s talk about what we do once we shaved the dog down. We talk about the powerful marketing execution concept called the multiplier effect. The concept means taking our precious marketing dollars and getting maximum impact for them. “Imagine you’re going to make a $10,00...

If you’re currently doing a big initiative, say a new product launch, a new campaign, a sales kickoff or a lightning strike, let’s talk about why you are also, most probably, making a huge mistake. Shit sometimes, gets too complex and we know that complexity is the enemy of revenue. So on this episode, let’s talk about why it’s time to shave the marketing dog. Doing Too Much There’s 99.9% chance y...

Just because it turned January 1st and we’re into a new year doesn’t mean anything is going to change unless people make it change. We are all in a cocoon time and it means that we, as marketers, entrepreneurs and category designers can design the future of our choosing. The Future Is Not Like The Weather Christopher poses his observation on some people and how they comment about the f...

This is Christopher and I just wanted to take a little moment to share a couple quick things with you. First, just big thank you. Thank you for making me and our entire team part of your 2020. The second thing, I know it’s been a horrible year for many of us, for me and my family, it’s been the most horrible year of all. I also want you to know that I thought about quitting a lot this...

Steven Kotler has written one of the most important books of 202, The Art of the Impossible. One of the things discussed in the book is human evolutionary motivations. As a result, Christopher believes Steven has uncovered a key learning point for marketers, entrepreneurs and category designers. That is: the kind of human you are determines what kind of marketer and category designer you are. Bio:...

“Marketing is what you do when you have a shitty product.” Says an ex-CEO/Software Engineer who found himself wrapping his company around the lamppost, with his entire executive team leaving, and his investors getting f*cked up. In spite of many stories like this, there are still a lot of people in Silicon Valley (and in the business world in general) who believe the best product wins and that mar...

According to the January 2018 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics , the average person changes jobs 10 to 15 times within their career. If you take it from that perspective, if you’re 25 years old and you are serious in your career, you still get seven chances to do something legendary in your career before you hit the big 6-0. So in today’s episode, we ask, are you wasting your career? Mak...

In June of 2020, Netflix announced that it was moving 2% of its cash equal to about $100 million to bolster black owned and black run banks, allowing these banks to lend more. The way this works is pretty simple: when we make deposits in a bank, that allows them to make more loans. More and more corporations and nonprofits are jumping in to join the movement. In this episode, let’s go deep o...

In this episode, let’s talk about why, when you’re designing a new category, you need to be very careful who you listen to. Often times, listening to customers is the worst thing you can do. Whose Feedback Matters? Christopher shares one of the things that they discussed in their book Play Bigger, that new categories are often only obvious in hindsight. He further advises that if you&#...

On this episode, let’s talk about what the problem with your marketing plan might be in specifically three areas. Number one, calling it a “plan” might be a problem. Number two, it’s actually a legendary marketing plan that is about more than just marketing. Lastly, number three, your relationship with your CFO and finance team might be a problem, but I’m hoping it won’t be...

Most people look at acquisitions through a spreadsheet lens. Of course the financials matter for mergers and acquisition deals, but when viewed through a category design lens, acquisitions look very, very different. In this episode, we break down the differences using the Salesforce / Slack Deal as an example and Google purchasing YouTube way back 2006. Two Types of M&A Deals First one is cate...

In today’s episode, we dig into two how two companies approached a viral situation. First, Ocean Spray’s positive trendjack in response to Nathan Apodaca’s viral TikTok video . Second, is how Sherwin-Williams fired an employee who created viral Tiktok videos mixing paints. We ask the seminal question, how can you be more like Ocean Spray? Marketing Wins and Fails When Nathan Apodaca’s Tik Tok vide...

At a time when career uncertainty is high and the need for economic security has maybe never been higher, let’s talk about three ideas on how you can have a legendary marketing career to 50 and beyond . If you’re younger or older than 50, Chris has got some ideas for you in this episode. Ageism In Business During the last episode with Dave Gerhardt, CEO of Privy, there was a question t...

In this episode, one of the most high profile CMOs in the tech world, Dave Gearhart , aka DG, CMO of Privy is here. We have a fantastic conversation from marketing, planning to category, design, and more. Christopher recently guested on his podcast, which is called B2B Marketing Leaders. In a lot of ways, this conversation is a continuation of that conversation. It’s one younger CMO with one...

This is a super fun episode. Christopher Lochhead talks about what was almost for sure, the most fun marketing trendjack of 2020. On September 25th, Nathan Apodaca was going to work when his truck broke down. He grabbed his longboard skateboard and his bottle of Oceanspray and shot a video of himself going to work, drinking his juice while smiling and singing Fleetwood Mac’s classic song “Dr...

Every time a tech company launches a successful IPOs, we end up hearing a lot of negation from the media. Claims such as “I can’t believe this company is worth so much” or “so much money invested it must be crazy because they hardly have any revenue” or “they hardly have any profits or they rent.” So in this episode, Christopher gives us a low-down on why market cap or valuation (the value o...

In today’s episode, Christopher Lochhead’s answer addresses a listener question, “ what kind of CMO should we hire?” He further discusses what’s the difference between a fighter and a farmer CMO and what you, as a marketer, should keep in mind when you plan to pursue this role. Get Clear On What You Want Christopher discusses two things: first, identify the background of the CMO. This is hig...

Today, we go deep on a big powerful idea called Movement Marketing with a legendary entrepreneur, category designer, and company builder turned venture capitalist, David Sacks , from Craft Ventures.  He’s written this blog post recently on this idea and it’s a simple, powerful idea that legendary innovators don’t just market a company or a product or a service, they create a move...

Welcome to Lochhead on Marketing. In this episode, Christopher Lochhead answers the question, what is the most important skill for marketers to have? Sales Skills Christopher shares that his frequent answer to the most important skill for marketers to have is sales skills . He says that a lot of marketing people have no sales experience at all. “Marketing is actually sales at scale.” &...

As this theme kept on coming up in Follow Your Different episodes, whether he spoke with entrepreneurs or venture capitalists, Christopher decided to finally talk about the purpose of business. Specifically, he dives into what his friend Gil Spencer calls a noble purpose and how noble purpose can tie to building categories companies brands. Mission-Driven and Mercenaries A noble purpose is a cool...

Today, Chris goes deep on how to design a legendary category , company product, and brand with his super special guest, Michelle Stacy. Michelle is a living consumer product marketing legend, honing her craft with brands such as Gilette, Oral B, Keurig, and now, HydraFacial. Putting Consumers First Michelle spent many years honing her craft at Gillette where she led Oral B. She launched a number o...

One listener writes: “This is such a confusing time and people are on edge. There’s a lot of arguing and mistrust in the US. It seems like we see more people acting out. In our case, we’ve had some customers behave really badly. When is it okay to turn a customer away?” In this episode, Christopher shares his views on this matter about your right, as a business, to refuse service to cu...

For the first time ever, we are dropping an episode from one of Christopher’s favorite podcast, Marketing Over Coffee, with host John Wall. Recently, they did an episode with the legendary author, Kevin Maney . Kevin, as you probably know, is a multi-time successful, bestselling author. He’s one of the co-authors of Play Bigger with Christopher. In this episode of Lochhead on Marketing / Mar...

In this episode, Christopher answers an email question from an entrepreneur who wants to become an author. We dive deep into the process of becoming an author, from pitching to publishers or agents, to actual writing, to marketing and promoting. He also talks about the pros and cons of self-publishing versus or seeking the help of top-tier publishers. The Process of Becoming An Author Christopher...