So I was driving to work today listening to the new album from the Flobots. First off, great album. But back to the point, in the album, there is this mini song called “There’s a war going on for your mind.”

As a marketer this rings truer everyday. What are you doing to break through the clutter and reach your customers. Do you have the weapons necessary to win the war for your customers mind?

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I was talking with a business owner last week, and he was giving me a sob story about how he can’t afford to market properly even though he really wants to. Below is a summary of our conversation…

First off, I explained to him that if he really wanted to, finding dollars for marketing would be easy. I know what kind of vehicle he drives…

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Everytime I pass a semi-trailer with nothing on it I think of what a waste of potential advertising space it could be. Someone should start getting the rights to this white space.

This morning likely Republican Nominee John McCain named Alaskan Govenor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate. Now we all know that McCain did not do this for a political reason, she pales in comparison to any of his other choices. But this is not a political blog, this is about marketing, and McCain’s choice could prove to be a smart marketing move.

Palin has a unique story, she’s a normal person who got into politics to make a difference, she has 5 kids, one who is serving in the armed forces. Let’s not forget she’s a woman, and McCain is trying to win points based on recent trends of a certain female politician. There is plenty to talk about here. But even more timely was this shocking news. Right after the end of the Democratic National Convention.

So what’s the marketing lesson here.

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When it comes to marketing, intelligence of your market is vital. Not knowing who your customers are is kind of like going into battle and not knowing who the enemy is. You end up shooting every direction, wasting a lot of time and bullets.

If you really want to be prepared to dominate your market you must come up with a system to market to your customers, and organize them appropriately. Behold color coding…

Customers will enter your organization as yellow, and depending on how you interact with them will move towards either green or red.

So here’s how it works:

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Seth Godin posted a topic on his blog called “The Dead Zone of Slick” . I’ll give you a quick summary, but if you haven’t read it, you should head over and read it.

Basically Seth was saying that when people or companies are used to operating in the hump of real and they try to migrate to slick, they get stuck in the dead zone in between.

This is very true of small businesses who don’t always have the skills to make the migration to slick. They may be the most honest, real business, but when its time to put a large presentation together to woo a large potential investor, they often fall short. The opposite can be true, a company could put together the slickest marketing materials, the best website, the best looking office, but when its time to become real and deliver the goods, they fall short. This exact problem caught a lot of business in the original dot com bust.

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I spend a lot of time traveling for various projects, and I often think that there has to be a better way to capitalize on the captive nature of an airplane. As a traveler, there isn’t anywhere to go once you board a plane (barring the occasional criminal turned skydiver). Isn’t that a perfect place for marketers to reach customers? You would think so, but usually the only two things on board are skymall magazine and the standard issue airplane magazine.

Goofing around with this concept, I stumbled across this unique in-air ad agency InterAir Media. They list a lot of ideas on their site, like flyers in seat back pockets, in-air video, etc. I’ve thought there is also the possibility for a modified seat back lightbox to display ads.

There are plenty of options, its just a matter of giving a couple a shot and seeing what happens. But if I was in the business of reaching business travelers, I would surely be trying to leverage some deals with the airlines.

So tonight while watching the Olympics, I was playing around on iTunes downloading a couple movies for some upcoming trips. I decided to download one of my favorite movies of all time, which also happens to be the greatest marketing movie ever created. Some of you may have heard of it. It’s a small indie flick.

Now before everyone thinks I’ve gone nuts, let me explain. In this movie there are three key elements that, if applied, will dramatically improve any business or marketing program.

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