Episodes

Extraordinary times call for legendary leadership. Because of the Coronavirus, shit is getting very weird. As Hunter Thompson said, “When the going gets weird, the weird turns pro” which is why it’s time to become a Digital Leader and over-communicate. Primary Mode of Communication In times of crisis, people need to both see and hear from their leaders. Former navy seal and former Chief of Staff for 4-star General Stanley McCrystal, Chris Fussell was on FYD episode 38 and he made a comment on d...

Coronavirus has created and is still creating both horrible human and economic costs, around the world. However, it is during these times, where real leaders stand up and become legendary. Extra-ordinary times, call for legendary leadership. The difference in marketing can make in these tough times, is incalculable. In this episode, let’s talk about why Marketing is the Leadership Department. The goal is to share ideas but most importantly, to spark dialogue and thinking amongst you and your co...

Did you know, one of the top reasons why CMOs and marketing leaders get fired is: the sales force thinks they are a joke. In this episode, we talk about why it is important for marketers to become great at sales. Marketing Is Sales Scaled If you think about what marketing is, it is actually selling at scale. Christopher thinks that in 30 to 90 seconds, a marketer should be able to lay down a point of view that captures the imagination of the audience. If you can’t, you have a serious “sales” is...

In this episode, we have a thoughtful conversation about how to turbocharge your pipeline and drive revenue with Ryan Deiss, founder of DigitalMarketer.com. He has some provocative and engaging thoughts around what marketers can and should do to drive revenue today. We talk about the 8 stages of digital marketing and common mistakes marketers do within these stages. How To Get Attention Ryan shares that other than creating substantial and valuable content, companies should advertise. Facebook ...

In this episode, let’s talk about the strategic lens required to make marketing decisions. Marketing Decisions Marketers, over and over again, continue to make this big mistake: they come up with marketing decisions without having a discussion around its context. Context, in terms of the “lens” they will use to come up with the decision. “If you’re a regular listener and if you know me, you know one of my favorite expressions is, thinking about thinking is the most important kind of thinking.” –...

Every big decision involves a group of people.and so, in business, if you’re going to do something legendary, whether its a strategy or a campaign, it will be a group decision. In this episode, Christopher Lochhead shares why it is a legendary business trait to be able to get people to disagree and commit. Everybody has a Marketing Opinion Recently, Christopher had a discussion on with legendary tech executive Elisa Steele on Follow Your Different Episode 129. She talks about the power of bein...

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead asks the question, “is your marketing plan radical enough?” Most marketing plans are predictable, uncreative and safe. He will share today how to do away with your usual marketing plan and craft a radical one. 3x CMO Being an advisor to a lot of companies, Christopher shares how he has been part of creating, reviewing and critiquing a lot of these companies’ marketing plans. He further says that there are three things about these marketing plans: they are p...

This special episode of Lochhead on Marketing is the actual conversation of Christopher Lochhead and Carrie Palin, CMO of software company Splunk, during their appearance at Hypergrowth San Francisco. Carrie shares how she spearheaded the category creation of Data to Everything and brand re-launch of Splunk. Splunk at Hypergrowth Christopher Lochhead and Splunk CMO Carrie Palin were invited to speak at Hypergrowth San Francisco to talk about creating a new category and brand. Drift organized t...

On episode #023 with Paul Maher, we popped the hood on the secret marketing / PR black art of Trendjacking. Recently, actor Ryan Reynolds (aka Marvel’s Deadpool) who also owns the brand, Aviation American Gin, just pulled off the trendjack of the year. Let’s break down the 8 reasons why this was a legendary trend jack. The Peloton Ad The Peloton Ad shows a rich couple, with the husband, giving his thin wife an exercise bike. There was a public uproar as reaction to the ad. In fact, Business Ins...

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead takes listeners on an exercise in developing their eye for category creation and category design. Category Design is a new level of thinking in business. It is a whole different approach to marketing and Christopher stresses its importance in building a legendary business. See Things Differently Kevin Mainey wrote in the book Play Bigger, that “category design is a new lens on business. Once you have that lens, you see things in a very unique way.” However,...

In this episode, Christopher tackles an article that appeared in Harvard Business Review which he co-wrote with Nicolas Cole and special guest for today, Eddie Yoon. Eddie is the author of Super Consumers and is considered a Category Design Guru of Fortune 500. Today, we will discuss the thinking behind the article, specifically about the power of data flywheel and how high-growth companies used this to stay on top. Frustration with Misinformation Eddie discusses the reason behind writing this...

Today is another special episode of Lochhead on Marketing as Paul Maher, Founder of Positive Marketing (UK) joins us to talk about Trendjacking Marketing and Public Relations. His firm, Positive, won the SABRE Award for Best-earned Media Agency in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Trendjacking Paul Maher discusses the secret black art of marketing, PR, communications, and media called the trendjacking. This PR strategy is widely used nowadays as marketers aim to position themselves to become con...

Christopher Lochhead discusses differentiation or differentiators of a brand, product or company. He further shares what legendary marketers do, makes their marketing better or makes it different? Differentiators We often hear this word a lot in marketing: differentiation. Christopher poses the question when speaking about a product or brand differentiation, is it really different or is it better? In reality, when most CEOs, CMOs, entrepreneurs and product investors say differentiators, what r...

In today’s episode, Christopher Lochhead dives down deep into the power of colors and how it affects your brand marketing. In a world where almost all brands are Blue (and some are red), how do you make your brand different and stand out? What’s With Color Blue? Christopher recently represented a tech company with a stand-out logo, it’s color pink and orange. According to this company, 70% of B2B company logos are blue. Christopher researched this claim and indeed found out, 33% of the world’s...

From time to time, we will bring on guests to go deep on a topic in a particular field. Today’s guest is Tom Schwab, founder of Interview Valet. As we celebrate International Podcast Day, we will discuss the power of podcast guesting and why it is a strategic component of legendary marketing today. Connecting with People Tom stresses the importance of podcast guesting, especially for business executives, authors, and entrepreneurs. He believes exposure brings opportunity and podcast guesting is...

Christopher Lochhead shares an excerpt today from his first book, Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets about the importance and the power of a point of view. He shares to us why legendary marketers opt to sell a POV, rather than sell a product or service. Market the POV, not the product! Legendary creators and designers, market the point of view or POV, not their product and services. When companies show consumers the idea or the problem that they envis...

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead talks about a giant topic in business today, personal branding. He further shares the difference between a brand and a person. Moreover, he discusses why legendary executives and marketers don’t give weigh to personal branding much. Personal Beef with Personal Branding Personal branding has become a giant issue in business today. It seems like people cannot fire up their social media, such as Linkedin and even Amazon, without personal branding. The idea sta...

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead talks about why the company that frames and markets the problem, the most effectively, wins. To illustrate, he cites a music company, m, and ho they recently pulled something off in the marketing and PR point of view. Frame the Problem, Not the Solution Wise marketers and category creators have a strategic way of creating legendary marketing. One of these is framing the problem. This strategy is a sure-fire way to win a category. “When the world agrees wit...

In today’s episode, Christopher Lochhead talks about why courage is a critical ingredient for legendary marketing and category design. He poses the question: “What does it take to make legendary marketing happen?” and he shares some except his book Niche Down to answer this. Break From The Pack What does it take to break from the pack? The pack, which usually means the general public, the people who think and does the same kind of marketing. What do we need to enable us to design a category and...

In most industries, product-market fit is an unquestioned gospel, even in Silicon Valley. On the contrary, Christopher believes that product-market fit is a dangerous idea. Why? Because legendary marketers create and design their own category, as opposed to competing in an existing category. Product-Market Fit In the tech startup world, achieving product-market fit is often considered a major milestone. However, Christopher argues that product-market fit is one of the most dangerous ideas in bu...

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead talks about how marketers strategically use language. Legendary marketers create a new language that educates the world on how they want their product or service perceived. Customer’s adaptation to that language is also a great tool to measure success. How People Perceive Us Christopher recently had Lee Hartley Carter on Follow Your Different Episode 099. Lee and her firm specialize in language strategy. We can infer that marketers pay very close attention ...

In today’s episode, Christopher gives us a rundown on why he thinks committees kill legendary marketing. Why is so much marketing, shitty? Christopher Lochhead candidly shares his honest observation on the industry today: a lot of marketing efforts suck. Aside from bad creatives, much of this onslaught of marketing stems from their inability to make a difference in designing and dominating a market category. Who’s to blame? Christopher says its the committees. “This is probably true for most m...

In this episode, Christopher Lochhead talks about the powerful, surprising winner-take-all realities of categories and why you want to be the category queen/king in your market. Christopher layout facts and data on category creation economics that you’ll find beneficial for your business, whether you’re in the tech industry or not. Winner Takes All In Christopher’s first book Play Bigger, they wrote about a research project they conducted on thousands of tech start-ups from 2000 to 2015, determ...

In this episode. Christopher Lochhead talks about what your real product or real service is. He discusses why product development and marketing should team because the perception of your product is your product. Marketing Defined One CEO, who is also a good friend of Christopher, once stated that “Marketing is what you do when you have a shitty product.” He was telling Christopher about their competitor who had a significantly inferior product but is, at that time, out-marketing them. Additional...