The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is spearheading a movement of major universities to put online lecture notes, coursework and required readings for MBA courses and other classes on the internet–for no charge! Why would prestigious universities consider giving away some of their intellectual property? The answer might surprise According to ... more

I often use the Daily Fix to rant about my poor customer service experiences. But this time, I feel it's only fair to pay tribute to one company that rates high in my books -- the one that warrantied my laptop -- In 2004, before my son headed off to ... more

I recently delivered a brief presentation on how women buy and what role storytelling -- or interpersonal narrative -- has in the process. In the course of becoming more aware of current examples of brands that are using this form, I noticed an ad on the in-flight television as I ... more

So now you know how I feel about doing spec work to win new business, eh? It's something we abandoned a long time ago, for many The main one being that if we did the spec and won the account, we spent the next 6-12 months trying to recoup the ... more

Last week, Chicago Tribune reporter Mary Umberger called me for a about new media and... of all things, real estate. I suddenly had a My first job out of college was as a reporter for a weekly business newspaper in Boston called the Banker & . I wrote about banking ... more

How do you take your business global? This Valentine's Day, let me count the Hope you find it useful in taking on the 50 Ways To Go more

Coffee drinkers are pretty passionate about their favorite brews. As freelance NYC writer Carol Vinzant recently wrote in an "After Starbucks proved that Americans were willing to spend more for a better–or at least fancier–cup of coffee, everyone wanted in on what is now an $8.4 billion retail coffee market. ... more

I've been ranting in a series of posts lately about what should be expected of marketing experts (and of course what we should expect from ourselves). Fiona Czerniawska's article on thought leadership last week from Mike McLaughlin's fantastic Management Consulting News brought new Czerniawska reported on her research about the ... more

In an age of instant messaging, you should take a lot more than an instant to consider what exactly it is you're communicating. tell us that controversial bloggers, Amanda Marcotte and Melissa , hired by the John Edwards US presidential , are in trouble. Their previous blog posts are being ... more

I was on my annual, too-short, snowboarding trip this past week, and came upon a great coffee shop in Breckenridge, CO (comfy couches and little nooks). While standing at the counter, I picked up a fancy brochure thing produced by American Express, entitled something like "the insider's guide to When ... more

more

A revelation is taking hold in medical schools across the country that deprving medical students may not be good for their cognitive skills required to care for patients! Talk about great customer In an industry that actually takes an oath to do the right thing for the people they serve, ... more

The Wall Street Journal deconstructed the job of "Blogger" in its "Paygrade" section yesterday, under Blogging for Web . The got some things right, Full-time news bloggers work like Mario Lavandeira, author of the Hollywood gossip blog , says he averages 19-hour workdays that start at a.m. Blogging is an ... more

One of the first '"blogging truths" most of us hear when we start blogging, is that you can measure the health of your blog by looking at its traffic. This idea has caused me some confusion for months, as I've watched my blog appear to be growing steadily, yet the ... more

Things have been so hectic here at the World Headquarters of that I completely skipped our birthday celebration last month. But here it With the start of 2007, MP celebrates its sixth That's six years of publishing marketing know-how from professors and professionals who have contributed close to 2,000 articles ... more

The first thing I learned in Journalism 101 is that the headline is the most important part of any story. Why? Because, like a great proverb, we only have a few words to get our message across. And if we fail, readers won't read our In today's world, where many ... more

PowerPoints are the curse of the intranet, and PDFs the curse of the Web. PDFs reflect print thinking. On the Web, we need Web The next time I download a PDF and the first thing I see is a big picture of someone sitting on a bicycle, smiling; or someone ... more

Dear Why do the mis-steps of our leaders get so much press? Why do we spend more time watching CEOs who have fallen into the potato salad on than the ones who are quietly leading their companies through troubled waters? This is unfortunate, so we're going to correct this with ... more

The WSJ Reported that TowerBrook Capital Partners LLP is close to an agreement to acquire fashion-shoe designer Jimmy Choo Ltd. for about £180 million, or $354 million. The question is, can a beloved brand retain its passion as the ownership torch is passed...? Reports are that creative director Sandra Choi ... more

Dear My newly purchased voice recorder may be wonderful... but why -- oh, why -- did you make me jump through hoops to register it, and I'm not even sure it worked? It all began with the URL on the product registration card. Guess what? It doesn't This is missing ... more

Dear A large part of the dust storm has settled at this point over the now infamous Aqua Teen Hunger Force case study in how to execute a campaign and wow your client. I won't rehash the facts of the case, which are all-too-well-known at this point. The point of ... more

It's exciting to watch as more and more brands take on this consumer-generated campaign concept -- and it has been especially noticeable in relation to the Super Bowl (whew.. I had forgotten how the media simply becomes the Super Bowl for a good month...) One thing that has been missing ... more

Where is the fizz, the pizazz, the let's-have-a-party and stand-in-line-groupie-thing, Vista-is-what-it's-all-about Oh, sure, CNET, CNN and newspapers around the globe ran the required articles, saying Vista has arrived. And Bill Gates appeared on The Daily . So the public relations side of marketing seems to be grinding on. But, hey, ... more

Yesterday, an innovative marketing gimmick for TBS' "Adult Swim" program, Aqua Teen Hunger , inadvertently froze Boston in a terrorist panic. What were intended to be buzz-worthy signs were interpreted to be potential terrorist This, despite the fact that these "threats" had been in place throughout the city for more ... more

Microsoft's new wunderkind has made its long-awaited appearance. Bill Gates unveiled his company's new Vista operating system in a three-hour performance worthy of Apple's Steve Jobs. Five years and millions of dollars worth of development have finally come to . The question how will it be received by an audience ... more