I received an e-mail from a friend a few months ago with the subject line: DING.

I knew immediately what the e-mail was about. It wasn't an inside joke or something she and I recently discussed. It was the DING from Southwest Airline's commercials. In fact, she was e-mailing me with upcoming flights from my city to hers on Southwest.

"That's good marketing," we both commented. She was clever enough to use it as her subject line, and I had picked up it with no effort at all.

One idea I try to get across to people who ask for marketing advice is to do what it takes to break through the media clutter. We receive thousands of media messages each day—you can't even use the restroom in a public place without an advertisement staring back at you from the stall door. When you develop a marketing message, it needs to be one that can be communicated consistently so people will remember it. You want it to be different enough to stand out but not so different that you're miles away from everyone else's line of thinking.

Marketing is the classic teen-angst line: trying to be different, just like everyone else.