Because you are stuck with it for life.

But up until now the only way you could try out a tattoo before you had it done for real was using Henna, which I think looks ordinary at the best of times.

Now TatMash has come out with the ability to try out your tattoos online, with just a photo.

TatMash - Try your tattoo before you buy

You just select the tattoo you like, or upload a design of your own, upload a photo of yourself, and TatMash lets you move the design around to your liking on your own skin.

Sharing TatMash Tattoo with Social Media

Then when you are happy with it, TatMash helps you get the opinion of your friends by enabling you to post your new tattoo to a variety of social media sites.

From a marketing perspective

Firstly, TatMash enables customers to try before they buy, which is essential in any high involvement purchase. This will definitely appeal to Trysumers.

Secondly, it brings in the social element of buying with the ability to ask friends what they think of the tattoo you are thinking of getting.

For more on the link between tattoos and marketing see…

The name tattoo? Has personal branding finally gone too far?

Adidas hits back at Nike by shaving logo into kids heads!

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Maloney on Marketing Birthday Cake

I would personally like to thank everyone who has visited the site, and especially the 100 or so loyal email and RSS subscribers who are subjected to my rants on a regular basis.

Digging through the stats, from the 60 posts so far there are some that have stood out from the rest in terms of popularity.

So to make sure you haven’t missed them, here are links to the 5 most popular posts to date on Maloney on Marketing.

1. Top 10 ways to use Augmented Reality in your marketing strategy

5. Samsung Tap and Take Viral Teaser Campaign: How to accelerate diffusion of information

What’s next?

Over the next few months you will notice a truckload of new content on the site, including:

- thought leadership articles on multi-channel marketing, diffusion of innovation and the future of advertising

- interviews with senior marketers and up-and-coming entrepreneurs

- guest posts by subject matter experts

- campaigns reversed engineered to reveal the strategy behind them

- and of course, more funny advertising I find as I travel around the world

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to Maloney on Marketing via Email or RSS using the links below. You will get three new posts delivered directly to your email inbox or RSS reader each week.

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But it seems that anyone with an Internet connection can develop their own personal brand by starting their own blog, building a LinkedIn profile, or gaining followers on Twitter.

So with all this personal branding clutter, how do you make yours stand out?

Stand out so much that people see it wherever you go, and associate it with you forever.

How about making the ultimate brand commitment and getting it tattooed into your skin?

I did. But it was well before we started talking about personal branding.

My personal brand - the Maloney tattoo

A personal brand history

When I was younger I was heavily into the basketball scene, and like most kids growing up in the early 90’s I was addicted to the NBA. 

One finals series I was watching Stephon Marbury shoot free throws to win a game for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and I noticed that he had his family name “Marbury” tattooed across his right shoulder.

That stuck with me.

It is strange, but once you see someone who is committed to their heritage enough to get their own name tattooed into their skin, you never forget their name.

Consequently a few years later, shortly after turning 18 on the Macquarie University end of season rugby league trip, I decided it was time to get a tattoo.

And when you are going to get something that is going to stay with you for the rest of your days, you want something that is never going to change.

Like your family name.

So I got “Maloney” tattooed across my right shoulder.

Several years later, a great number of my close friends have done something similar.

Evolving brand meaning

I have no regrets about the tattoo. But without fail everyone who sees the tattoo cracks a joke about it, usually along the lines of:

“Is that so you don’t forget your name?”

Well, yes and no.

Yes. It acts as a constant personal reminder of where and who I have come from.

No. It’s not just for my recall. It is also so you don’t forget.

The personal branding lesson

As much as we like to think that branding has changed over the years, at the end of the day the goal of a brand is still the same as it always was on the ranch:

To make your cow look different to every other cow.

The name tattoo is a pretty literal interpretation of a personal brand, but it serves that objective. Now you know that I have “Maloney” tattooed on my arm, I bet you find it hard to  forget.

In summary, yes I probably have taken personal branding too far!

I don’t do things by half.

Update

Now you can try your tattoo digitally before you commit to it for life!

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Here are the top 5 things I have been working on, that have made a difference to my own marketing knowledge and ability.

1. Read more, widely

In an often subjective industry like marketing, knowledge is power. So you should be reading as much about marketing as you can to gain that knowledge.

I have compiled a list of marketing books that I have read over the years that have shaped my thinking. You can also try Amazon’s best sellers list.

Books are great as they go into depth, but in the current environment many are somewhat out of date by the time they are published, so to stay up to date you should also be reading marketing websites and blogs on a daily basis.

Check out some of the ones I recommend on the right of this page. Some useful marketing blog directories are the Australian Marketing Pioneers Blogs and Alltop Marketing News.

So that you can managing drinking from the firehose, set your favourite blogs up in an RSS feed platform such as iGoogle, Google Reader or Pageflakes.

My iGoogle

But, I think just as important as reading more, is the need to read more widely.

The marketing industry has many specializations. We often get into the habit of only reading about our specialization, which is great for deepening knowledge. 

But the downside is that it narrows our vision and means that we are more likely to miss innovations and opportunities in another area.

So recently I have started reading about advances in psychology, art design and copywriting even though I wouldn’t consider these my specialties.

They have allowed me to have more in depth conversations with my research and creative collegues. 

2. Know what best practice is

To deliver best practice work yourself, first you need to know what best practice is. The easiest way to do this is to review the award show annuals for work that is recognised as the benchmark.

Some, but definitely not all to check out are: Cannes Lions, One Show, Webbys, Effies, ADMA, B&T, AWARD

3. Surround yourself with the best

The best way to grow is to surround yourself with people that will expand and challenge your thinking. If you want to find people like this there are a few ways you can seek them out.

The first is to join industry associations and attend networking events. I have been getting a lot more involved with ADMA over the last few months and have had the opportunity to rub shoulders with such a diverse range of talented marketers.

The second is to attend seminars and hear the captains of industry speak, and not be afraid to go up to the speaker afterwards for a chat.

You will be surprised how accommodating people at the top of their game are for people on their way up, especially if you let them know who much you like their advice!

The best seminar I have attended recently was the mUmBRELLA Social Media Masterclass. I am now following most of the presenters on Twitter.

4. Intimately understand Return On Investment and the financial drivers of your business

This is critical if you are to gain respect outside of marketing, which is important as it is often not marketers that give approval on your campaign. You need to be able to demonstrate and use financial lingo if you are ever going to be able to sell your idea.

Ask your finance or product team for a tutorial on calculating and evaluating Return on Investment and understanding the financial drivers of your business.

They will really appreciate your willingness to learn their jargon. Then you can offer to give them a tutorial on marketing and we all win!

5. Start a blog

Over the last 2 months, I think developing this blog has taught me just as much about digital marketing as the last few years working in the digital marketing industry.

Specifically, I have learnt in detail about information architecture, page design, online copy writing, RSS feeds, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Bookmarking, and Twitter.

And I keep learning more every day as the analytics roll in and I read more blogs.

Another benefit of having a blog, and something that is also a key currency of social media, is the theory of generosity. I think Albert Einstein said it best:

“If I give you a pfennig, you will be one pfennig richer and I’ll be one pfennig poorer. But if I give you an idea, you will have a new idea, but I shall still have it, too.”

The more ideas we share, the more the marketing industry will benefit from the wisdom of crowds.

Update

Maloney on Marketing has now been around for 1 year and here are the top 5 posts so far.

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