100 Top Marketing Quotes

CREATIVITY

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein

“To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.” – George Kneller

“Creativity about life, in all aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” – Leo Burnett

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker

“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” – Edwin Land

“When all think alike, then no one is thinking.” — Walter Lippman

“Capital isn’t so important in business. Experience isn’t so important. You can get both these things. What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life.” — Harvey Firestone

“Great is the human who has not lost his childlike heart.” — Mencius (Meng-Tse), 4th century BCE

“Doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting different results, is the definition of crazy.” — Unknown

M. A. Rosanoff: “Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe.”

Edison: “There ain’t no rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish somep’n!” — Thomas Edison

“Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.” — George Kneller

“It’s easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date.” — Roger von Oech

“We all operate in two contrasting modes, which might be called open and closed. The open mode is more relaxed, more receptive, more exploratory, more democratic, more playful and more humorous. The closed mode is the tighter, more rigid, more hierarchical, more tunnel-visioned. Most people, unfortunately spend most of their time in the closed mode. Not that the closed mode cannot be helpful. If you are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time for considering alternative strategies. When you charge the enemy machine-gun post, don’t waste energy trying to see the funny side of it. Do it in the “closed” mode. But the moment the action is over, try to return to the “open” mode—to open your mind again to all the feedback from our action that enables us to tell whether the action has been successful, or whether further action is need to improve on what we have done. In other words, we must return to the open mode, because in that mode we are the most aware, most receptive, most creative, and therefore at our most intelligent.” — John Cleese

“Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” — Chuck Close, artist

“The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.” — Dr. Linus Pauling

“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” — Albert von Szent-Gyorgy

“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.” — Albert Einstein

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” — Howard Aiken

“Some men look at things the way they are and ask why? I dream of things that are not and ask why not?” — Robert Kennedy

“In every work of genius, we recognize our once rejected thoughts.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

MARKETING

“Whether B2B or B2C, I believe passionately that good marketing essentials are the same. We all are emotional beings looking for relevance, context and connection.” – Beth Comstock

“Good marketers see consumers as complete human beings with all the dimensions real people have.” – Jonah Sachs

“Our jobs as marketers are to understand how the customer wants to buy and help them do so.” – Bryan Eisenberg

“Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing.” – Mike Volpe

“If you’re a good marketing person, you have to be a little crazy.” – Jim Metcalf

“The consumer is not a moron; she is your wife.” – David Ogilvy

“Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.” – Joe Chernov

“Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they’d like to go.” – Seth Godin

“Make your marketing so useful people would pay you for it.” – Jay Baer

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” – Simon Sinek

“Today it’s important to be present, be relevant and add value.” – Nick Besbeas

“Great Execution is the Ultimate Differentiator.” – Margaret Molloy

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” – Tom Fishburne

“Know thyself. Know the customer. Innovate.” – Beth Comstock

“Instead of using technology to automate processes, think about using technology to enhance human interaction.” – Tony Zambito

“If you are an artist, learn science. If you are a scientist, cultivate art.” – Karin Timpone

“We’re all learning here; the best listeners will end up the smartest.” – Josh Bernoff

“Good branding without a good business plan is like prettying up a duck with no feathers. It may look good but it ain’t gonna fly.” – Paul Provost, August 2010

“For a business not to advertise is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but no one else does.” – Stuartt H. Britt, US advertising consultant

“The objective of all advertising is to buy new customers at a profit. Learn what your customers cost and what they buy…spend all of your ammunition where it counts.” – Claude Hopkins-Scientific Advertising (1923)

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is I do not know which half.” – Lord Leverhulme, British founder of Unilever and philanthropist

“In marketing I’ve seen only one strategy that can’t miss — and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last.” – John Romero

“What helps people, helps business.” – Leo Burnett

“Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.” – Leo Burnett

“Yes, I sell people things they don’t need. I can’t, however, sell them something they don’t want. Even with advertising. Even if I were of a mind to.“ – John O’Toole

“The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men — the man he is and the man he wants to be.” – William Feather

“In order for you to profit from your mistakes, you have to go out and make some.” – Unknown

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.” – Woody Allen

“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” – Japanese Proverb

“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Carl W. Buechner

”There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.” – Henri Matisse

“Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication” – Leonardo Da Vinci

STORYTELLING

“Content is the reason search began in the first place.” – Lee Odden

“YOU are not your customer, and they’re not your last campaign either.” – Emma Street

“You must market your marketing.” – Jay Baer

“Make the prospect a more informed buyer with content.” – Robert Simon

“Ask yourself, what simple twist on a familiar theme will entrap your audience?” – Drew Davis

“Content isn’t King, it’s the Kingdom.” – Lee Odden

“Content is anything that adds value to the reader’s life.” – Avinash Kaushik

“Your goal should be to own quality time in your customer’s inbox.” – Drew Davis

“Your top of the funnel content must be intellectually divorced from your product but emotionally wed to it.” – Joe Chernov

“Content marketing is all about telling a compelling story.” – Joe Pulizzi

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” – Tom Fishburne

“Useful X Enjoyable X Inspired = Innovative Content” – Ann Handley

“Attract. Engage. Convert.” – Lee Odden

“Treat your content like a product.” – Drew Davis

“Stop thinking about flat websites and get your content out of the domain.” – Robert Simon

“Create content that satisfies your uber goals and desires.” – Tom Webster

“Content: there is no easy button.” – Scott Abel

“Marketers need to adapt a “members first” approach to content.” – David Hahn

“Publish everywhere.” – Robert Simon

“Branded content is created for a company. A content brand is created for a valuable company.” – Drew Davis

“The key ingredient to better content is separating the single from the stream.” – David Hahn

“Be the best answer.” – Lee Odden

“Create content that reaches your audience’s audience.” – Ann Handley

“Being different is all in a day’s work.” – David Still

“Good content is not storytelling. It’s telling your story well.” – Ann Handley

“Content should ask people to do something and reward them for it.” – Lee Odden

“Good content is the stuff of love affairs.” – Tom Webster

“You can’t be everything to everyone but you can be something to someone.” – Drew Davis

“Adapt to your customer’s needs. They expect it.” – Scott Abel

“The mantra should change from “Always Be Closing” to “Always He Helping.” – David Hahn

“This is the bar your content has to clear on social: “Are you more interesting to me than my wife?” – Jay Baer

“The future of content marketing is in your hands.” – David Hahn

“If your stories are all about your products and services, that’s not storytelling. It’s a brochure. Give yourself permission to make the story bigger.” – Jay Baer

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” – Seth Godin

“The stories that spread today empower us and give us belief in our own heroic potential.” – Jonah Sachs

“You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.” – Beth Comstock

“Speak to your audience in their language about what’s in their heart.” – Jonathan Lister

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

SOCIAL MEDIA

“Build it, and they will come” only works in the movies. Social Media is a “build it, nurture it, engage them and they may come and stay.” – Seth Godin

“Social media are tools. Real time is a mindset.” – David Meerman Scott

“Social media is a contact sport.” – Margaret Molloy

“Successful companies in social media function more like entertainment companies, publishers, or party planners than as traditional advertisers.” – Erik Qualman

“If you get bored with social media, it’s because you are trying to get more value than you create.” – Fast Company

“Social media is about the people. Not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide for you.” – Matt Goulart

“LinkedIn is for the people you know. Facebook is for the people you used to know. Twitter is for people you want to know.” – David Still

“You can buy attention (advertising). You can beg for attention from the media (PR). You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales). Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for free.” – David Meerman Scott

“Please Repeat: Influence is NOT Popularity!” – Brian Solis

“Twitter provides us with a wonderful platform to discuss/confront societal problems. We trend Justin Bieber instead.” – Lauren Leto

“A lot of people say that social media is making us all dumber, but I not think that.” – Alix Redmond

“On Twitter we get excited if someone follows us. In real life we get really scared and run away.” – Emma Street

“Just be nice, take genuine interest in the people you meet, and keep in touch with people you like. This will create a group of people who are invested in helping you because they know you and appreciate you.” – Guy Kawasaki

“Twitter is a great place to tell the world what you’re thinking before you’ve had a chance to think about it.” – Chris Pirillo

“The best way to engage honestly with the marketplace via Twitter is to never use the words “engage,” “honestly,” or “marketplace.” – Jeffrey Zeldman

“If content is king, then conversion is queen.” – John Munsell

“When you’ve got 5 minutes to fill, Twitter is a great way to fill 35 minutes.” – Matt Cutts

“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook

“In boxing, styles make fights. In blogging, styles make readership.” – Stuart Davidson

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas; what happens on Twitter stay on Google forever!” – Jure Klepic

“Social media is just a buzzword until you come up with a plan.” – David Still

“Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want plastered on a billboard with your face on it.” – Erin Bury

“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” – Jeff Bezos

“When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place.” – Mark Zuckerberg

CONTENT

“Good content isn’t about good storytelling. It’s about telling a true story well.” – Ann Handley

“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” – Andrew Davis

“If your content isn’t driving conversation, you’re doing it wrong.” – Dan Roth

“Content is anything that adds value to the reader’s life.” – Avinash Kaushik

“Content should ask people to do something and reward them for it.” – Lee Odden

“My goal is to spark something within the reader and allow it to initiate an idea they then can grow.” – Warren Whitlock

“Don’t settle: Don’t finish crappy books. If you don’t like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you’re not on the right path, get off it.” – Chris Brogan

“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can – there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.” – Sarah Cardwell

“Either write sth worth reading or do sth worth writing about.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Why waste a sentence saying nothing?” – Seth Godin

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.” – Leo Burnett

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” – Pablo Picasso

“If plan A fails, remember there are 25 more letters.” – Chris Guillebeau

“Be specific enough to be believable and universal enough to be relevant.” – Ann Handley

“Above all, you want to create something you’re proud of.” – Richard Branson

“Stop writing about everything. So many brands create content and try to cover everything, instead of focusing on the core niche that they can position themselves as an expert around. No one cares about your special recipe… Find your niche, and then go even more niche.” – Joe Pulizzi

“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.” – Oprah Winfrey

“Don’t delay acting on a good idea. Chances are someone else has just thought of it, too. Success comes to the one who acts first.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Success is what comes after you stop making excuses.” – Luis Galarza

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Adrienne Gusoff

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martin

“Give them quality.That’s the best kind of advertising.”Milton Hershey

“Be passionateabout the culture andthe business, andremain positive,because it inspiresothers.” – Barry Liber

“Think of it more as publishing instead of marketing.Be authentic as a publisher and create content that helps you connect to everyone else…because they’re already connected.” – Mitch Joel

“Don’t try to do it all. It’s better to be awesome on one or two channels than to overextend on six.” – Cameron Chapman

“Every piece of your content should be excellent,enough that customers are compelled to share it.” – Joe Pulizzi

“Content is king.” – Bill Gates

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw

“The only way to win at content marketing is for the reader to say, ‘This was written specially for you’.” – JamieTurner

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” – Napoleon Hill

BRANDING

“Your brand is a story unfolding across all customer touch points.” – Jonah Sachs

“Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.” – Seth Godin

“The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources”- Albert Einstein

“Nobody really knows what strategy is” – The Economist

“If you can’t state your position in eight words or less, you don’t have a position” – Seth Godin

“Nobody really knows what strategy is or how to develop a good one” – Kostas Markides, LSE

“We have a strategic plan. It’s called doing things” – Herb Kelleher / founder, Southwest Airlines

“Ideas are in between strategy and execution” – MT Rainey

“The greatest danger formost of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is to low and we reach it” – Michelangelo

“The best possible solutions come only from a combination of a rational analysis based on the nature of things, and imaginative reintegration of all the different items into a new pattern, using non-linear brain power” – Kenichi Ohma

“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people” – William Butler Yeats

“The task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what no body yet has thought about that which everyone sees” – Arthur Schopenhauer

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results” – Winston Churchill

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” – Darwin

“The future of brands is interaction, not commodity. Because all products are information, molecules are secondary” – Hugh McLeod

“People build brands the way birds build nests. Through the straws and scraps they chance upon” – Jeremy Bullmore

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few” – Zen Buddhism Learning

“Your premium brand had better been delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business” – Warren Buffett

“If you are not a brand, you are a commodity” – Philip Kotler

INNOVATION

“Marketing’s job is never done. It’s about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day.” – Beth Comstock

“New ideas are sometimes found in the most granular details of a problem where few others bother to look.” – Nate Silver

“I’d rather apologize than to be so timid as to never try to do anything smart or brave.” – Lee Clow

“If you’re not failing now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything innovative.” – Woody Allen

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” – Tony Robbins

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford

“If you don’t have room to fail, you don’t have room to grow. – Jonathan Mildenhall

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates

“If you’re looking for the next big thing, and you’re looking where everyone else is, you’re looking in the wrong place.” – Mark Cuban

“Be where the world is going.” – Beth Comstock

“Think big and don’t listen to people who tell you it can’t be done. Life’s too short to think small.” – Tim Ferriss

LEADERSHIP

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” —Lao Tzu

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” —Proverbs 29:18

“I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” —Benjamin Disraeli

“You manage things; you lead people.” —Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” —Max DePree

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. —Warren Bennis

“Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.” — General George Patton

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” —Jack Welch

“A leader is a dealer in hope.” —Napoleon Bonaparte

“You don’t need a title to be a leader.” –Multiple Attributions

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” —John Maxwell

“My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence.” —General Montgomery

“Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” —Peter Drucker

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead

“The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground.” —Sir Winston Churchill

“The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” —Warren Bennis

“To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.” —Andre Malraux

“He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.” —Aristotle

“Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.” —Brian Tracy

“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” —Ralph Nader

“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.” —Peter Drucker

“Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” —Publilius Syrus

“A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.” —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” —Theodore Roosevelt

“Leadership is influence.” —John C. Maxwell

For those of you who actually sat down and counted these quotes, there are more than 100, quite a lot more in fact! But with such great advice around – why stop at 100?