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Is marketing tuberculosis?

Uncategorized
October 24, 2025/by
Is marketing tuberculosis? You might know him as the author of YA bestsellers like The Fault in Our Stars, but John Green's most recent book is a nonfiction defense of its own title: In Everything is Tuberculosis, he argues that tuberculosis has shaped everything around us. For instance: When a hatmaker in the 1850s started coughing up blood, his doctor told him to head West, where the dry air would heal him. The hats in the West, Green writes, “sucked” — they were either “bug-infested, brimless coonskin caps” or “wide-brimmed straw hats that … leaked in the rain.” So the consumptive hatmaker — one John B. Stetson — designed the cowboy hat. Upon finishing the book, I fired off an interview request to try to get an answer to my burning question: Could John Green make a connection between marketing and tuberculosis? John Green Author, YouTuber, TB fighter On brand deals When Green got invited to discuss a possible partnership with Dr Pepper, he was over the moon, so to speak. (He showed up 10 minutes early. To Zoom. Dude really likes Dr Pepper.) He had a modest proposal: that Dr Pepper sponsor humanity’s relationship with the moon. (Pause for impact.) Green would make videos about humanity’s relationship with the moon, sponsored by Dr Pepper. “I‘ve always thought this was a funny idea — that you can’t sponsor a heavenly body, but you can sponsor humanity's relationship with a heavenly body.” He didn’t get a follow-up...
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The buyer persona gap that’s costing you customers and making your marketing less authentic [+ the fix]

Buyer Persona
October 23, 2025/by
The buyer persona gap that’s costing you customers and making your marketing less authentic Buyer personas are a foundational component of many brands’ marketing strategy. Personas often serve as a blueprint that guides marketing campaigns, customer journeys, and even product development. Even though buyer personas are highly effective, they often miss the helpful context that marketers need to effectively serve the various identities their ideal customers possess. As a result, personas aren’t converting certain consumers at the rates that they could be. In this post, I’ll share where traditional buyer personas miss the mark and how to fix it. Table of Contents The Gap in Most Buyer Personas Consumer identities are often part of their decision-making process. How to Make Your Buyer Personas More Effective The Gap in Most Buyer Personas As an inclusive marketing strategist and consultant, I work with my clients to audit various components of their customer experience. This often includes reviewing and providing feedback on their creative briefs as they work on creating campaigns. It also involves getting consumer feedback on what they make. Whenever I flag materials that can be improved regarding consumers with specific identities, brands have included specific buyer personas in their creative brief. However, the execution of the materials wasn’t as successful. That’s often because the personas lacked the depth of information about the various identities of the consumers that the brand wanted to reach. And as a result, the corresponding campaigns...
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Starting a new business? Here are the AI tools I would use when building from scratch

ai-hidden, Artificial Intelligence
October 21, 2025/by
Starting a new business? Here are the AI tools I would use when building from scratch Building a business has never been easier, but the landscape is also more competitive. The difference between success and failure often comes down to how quickly you can execute. You need to understand your market and know how to scale your operations. AI tools can help you get off the ground. If I had to rebuild my business from scratch today, I'd lean heavily into AI tools to make the process faster, smarter, and more efficient than ever before. Here‘s exactly how I’d approach rebuilding from zero, and the specific AI tools that would make it possible. Table of Contents Two Approaches to AI Business Building Essential AI Tools for Modern Business Building Two Approaches to AI Business Building Approach 1: Use LLMs to flesh out your ideas. Every entrepreneur needs to know their niche. If you don’t have a unique angle, you’ll never stand out in the crowded market. So, you need to be specific. I'd approach it like a research sprint using AI tools to cut through the noise and find real opportunities. AI tools allow you to organize and vet your ideas. You can start a conversation with ChatGPT or OpenAI’s advanced voice mode and flesh out all your different ideas through the discussion. I would ask things like: What are the pros and cons of this idea? Do you see...
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Why SurveyMonkey’s Marketing Leader Says Your Foundation Is Broken

Uncategorized
October 20, 2025/by
Why SurveyMonkey's Marketing Leader Says Your Foundation Is Broken The way most marketing teams approach AI is probably the way I approach my inbox at 4:59 PM on a Friday. With reckless optimism and zero follow-through. But Katie Miserany, SurveyMonkey's Chief Communication Officer and SVP of Marketing, thinks the real problem isn't AI — it's that most marketers have forgotten a fundamental truth: Just because you can talk about something doesn't mean you should. Katie Miserany Chief Communications Officer and SVP, Marketing at SurveyMonkey Claim to fame: Miserany's proud accomplishment isn't a single launch or campaign... It's the people. She's felt fortunate to meet, hire, and mentor incredibly talented people who've chosen to follow Katie from team to team and company to company. Miserany told me, "Building workplaces people want to join again and again tells me I’m creating environments where people can grow, do their best work, and feel genuinely supported. That’s the kind of legacy that makes me proud." Lesson one: Stop doing random acts of marketing. Remember the TikTok ban?  SurveyMonkey's team was excited. Almost immediately, they knew they needed to hop on the trend by conducting a survey on how people were feeling about TikTok. (I can relate. I remember sitting in an airport lounge writing a panic-induced blog post on the TikTok ban because HubSpot felt we should cover it, too.)  And just as Miserany's team prepared to launch their findings… TikTok released its own study. "Guess what the...
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