Many of us have read Thomas Friedman's The World Is , and now comes a new by Ronald Aronica and Mtetwa Ramdoo who put air -- not sure hot or cold -- into Friedman's flat After reading their let me ask you Do you think Friedman's vision of the globalized ... more

Word of Mouth . Brand . . These are not just words and phrases. These are tactics that might make the difference in your business growing or dying. Each depends on the same link for people. We sometimes call them Like customers, we need to know what those influencers look ... more

Imagine you are very rich and you have a big house. One evening you have guests over. One of the guests asks you where the toilet is. You give them instructions and off they After a few turns they end up in the garden. They backtrack, apologize for their ignorance ... more

An NPR story I heard just moments ago inspired me to write. In Tom Goldman's about Barbaro and what his passing might mean for Derby Week, we get a little snippet of the power of * * * * One of the keys to transparent marketing is to "be authentic," ... more

Harry Potter, boy wizard. Cultural phenom. This generation's Boy Wonder. The seventh and final installment about Harry's last year at Harry Potter and the Deathly –goes to press on July 21st of this year. Author J.K. Rowling made the announcement recently, but remained tight-lipped about any of the This leads ... more

Aquent's Matt Grant emailed me the other day to request an interview to chat about my marketing career. I had to set him straight right away. I said yes to the interview, but added, "Just so you know, I'm not a marketer -- I'm an editor of a marketing publication. ... more

I don't watch much TV, but lately I've been noticing a lot of ads on the tube where companies call out their competition. And I have to tell you, it's just one of those things that gets all stuck in my craw. So I have to Why would you spend ... more

Recently became the latest company to include bloggers in its promotional efforts when it launched its 'Picture This' blogger-outreach program. The program involved sending a Nikon D80 digital camera to 50 "online personalities," including myself. We are allowed to use the "loaner" cameras for six At the end of the ... more

Socially and environmentally responsible living and business practices are becoming more and more of a priority - thanks to peer influence and consumer demand. From the gem industry to the furniture industry to the lawncare industry, our and, as marketers, our customers, are questioning where things come from and where ... more

I was getting some errors on the MarketingProfs content management system yesterday. So I did what any proper technophobe would do–I sent up a panicked flair to our patient and attentive Chief Technology Officer, Aaron Lorentz. As always, Aaron resolved the problem. But this time he did something a little ... more

I'm one of those anal marketers who loves receiving direct mail each day. I review the contents as if I were giving them a marketing grade. (Must be the former teacher in So far this week, I received a personalized letter from a local couple advertising their real estate services. ... more

The Web brand is useful, clear, simple, interactive, and most importantly, "Google has knocked Microsoft off the top spot and been named the most powerful global brand of 2007," Gemma Simpson wrote for Silicon.com in April 2007. "It's the second year in a row a tech brand has beaten household ... more

New research by Cone shows that yes, consumers are paying attention to social and environmental responsibility to a much greater extent these days -- and that they appreciate learning about it via ad campaigns. In the ecent MediaPost on the findings, Sarah Mahoney "In its survey, of respondents say that ... more

What is it going to take to make the contamination of our pet and human food supply the number one story in America? A pile of dead babies who drank melamine-contaminated baby Where are the ads from Kraft, General Mills, McDonald's, and other huge manufacturers and sellers of foods that ... more

There are several ways to read that question. To clarify, I speak of your local Chamber of Commerce. I know. They don't seem huggable. But think of a virtual action that says, "I like you, and I want to thank you for all you do." So what would that look ... more

Two keys to transparent marketing (which is the main concept in my book, Don't Think ) are narrowing your focus and getting to know your customer community intimately. I tend to assume that this is a lot easier for businesses to follow through on than it might be for larger ... more

Most working journalists have to deal with hundreds, if not thousands, of press releases that cross the transom every year. That's more than they're going to read, of course. And of the ones they "read," all but a few are destined to receive a half-hearted skimming, followed by a click ... more

When last week I uploaded a endorsing the importance social media, David pointed out - tongue in cheek - that someone had forgotten to send me the memo that Web 2.0 was going down the drain. With this post on Daily , I'd like to broaden the debate and get ... more

Sunday, April 22nd was Earth Day. Time for companies to take stock of what can be done and to applaud what's already being done This year's Fortune 500 Ranking of America's largest corporations has been published. What I focused on is the "Most Admired Companies of Fortune's survey was conducted ... more

It's and you've leisurely rolled in the office, with your coffee in hand. Suddenly your boss pokes her head in your office and says, "Charlie called in sick today and he's supposed to give a customer presentation this morning in the briefing center. Can you cover it?" Are you ready ... more

More than 25 percent of critical data in Fortune 1,000 companies is poor quality because organizations have little experience in managing content. Gartner believes that very few organizations are making progress towards professionally managing their most important data. Research Vice-President Andreas Bitterer said that "dirty data" is often overlooked as ... more

I flew to Dallas this past week, and man, are my arms tired. Well, actually American flew me there and back. Just wanted to tell a bad So anyway, there I am in St. Louis on a layover, and I started thinking about how much I love people watching, and ... more

One of the truths about how women buy involves the "inside scoop" factor. All things being equal experience), the smaller the perceived "club" of existing buyers, the hipper the brand will seem and the more those in-the-know will want to tell Yeah - that's women are attracted to the idea ... more

I had to buy new tires for my Subaru last year, and one of the biggest things on my mind where will the old ones end up? And, here along the Vermont side of Lake Champlain, we recently had much about a possible tire-burning plant just across from us in ... more

It's not a typo. For the last nine years, I've been engulfed in permission-based marketing and I've finally come to the conclusion that it's more about a relationship -- not necessarily trying to From a technology standpoint, Customer Relationship Management is still fitting. However, I believe it's no longer appropriate ... more