Value Talent over Experience when You Can

So maybe the truth is out: Microsoft is after Yahoo!’s talent in its hostile bid. In some respects, it makes sense, since no one else seems to think there are any other benefits to such a merger (ironically, Google “Microsoft, Yahoo” and you will find numerous results, particularly in blogs).
Talent, combined with a good [...]

Break Free

Some of the most common quick-run-to-the-grocery items—milk, eggs, bread—generally find themselves in the farthest reaches of the store, accessible only through a labyrinthine journey through the maze of aisles.
Of course it’s done purposefully. The stores want to you purchase more than you intended. And their research, for which they pay dearly, supports the [...]

Test Easy

The web is making testing ideas, concepts and even entire marketing campaigns a whole lot easier. I’m not talking about online surveys. Unless those are tightly controlled, your results will have little meaning.
What I am referring to are the various spaces across the internet where you can try different things here and there. [...]

Business Opportunities Abound

Yesterday, on my Fix It or Go! blog, I wrote this post about the controversial enforcement of an existing teenage curfew at a local mall. After lamenting some of the unfortunate reactions by teens, I offered suggestions for what they could have done differently, such as:

Work with the mall to create a Teen Zone, [...]

Be Level Headed

Last week, Geoffrey James wrote about research from CSO Insights defining the five levels of B2B relationships.

Approved Vendor—Seen as a legitimate provider of goods and services without a competitive edge over alternate offerings. Often competes on price.
Preferred Supplier—Reputation with existing customers leads preferred suppliers to continue to get the business, all things being equal.
Solutions [...]

Freshness versus Overload

Yesterday, after offering a comment on her post “The Plural Nature of Marketing Perfection”, Ardath Albee and I corresponded by e-mail. She had read my post “Use Web 2.0 when It Makes Sense” and questioned the idea of freshness:
“Is this becoming a constant struggle to always have something “new” available? It does feel that [...]

Use Web 2.0 when It Makes Sense

Articles, news features, blog posts and presentations about “what’s hot” are still, well, hot. We thirst for what is new and different. A few of us for idle curiosity. Others to be the first to use/own/know it. I do what I can to keep up. But there is a lot [...]

4Ps Are Not Enough

My wife and I are volunteering for Junior Achievement, presenting to our oldest daughter’s fifth-grade class. In reviewing the curriculum, I saw that one of the main topics is the 4Ps of Marketing–Product, Price, Promotion, Place. Ugh!
I have long disagreed with this assertion. It is shortsighted and too simplistic. Marketing is [...]

Preparing for Growth

Growing a business, brand or product line requires planning, decision-making and hard work. Most of it gut-wrenching. So many things can happen. Every decision you make along the way will, in some way, affect the final outcome. Sometimes in unforeseen ways.
When preparing for growth, it is important to answer some key [...]

Get the Most from Your Agency

Really, the best way to get the most out of your agency, regardless of who they are—advertising, PR, real estate, accounting, attorney—is to be a good client. And being a good client is easy, in theory. In practice, well, that is another matter. The keys for being a good client:

Be completely open [...]