If some of you are wondering who Doc is, I suggest you take a ride in the Cluetrain -- one of the seminal works of our times that serves as an operations manual for businesses operating in this newly connected Doc Searls is one of the four authors of the ... more

Whoa -- and Hurray. I just read Ben McConnell's post Marketing isn't broke; it's Even though he cites the of Forrester's Peter Kim, it's clear Ben is pretty peeved. As for me, I am at once astounded that these issues are being addressed in "traditional" companies, and thrilled that the ... more

In our million-channel world, it is the brands whose customers tell the best stories that win. Yet how often do we give them "real stories" to How many of the things we communicate make their conversations more interesting? Is our brand's story actually sufficiently clear to tell, at So, to ... more

So I've been reading Mark Cuban's blog for a while and I usually find his non-basketball posts interesting, especially the one he posted the other day called The Movie Business The post starts off with this "This is an open challenge. You come up with a solution, you get a ... more

Recently Universal Studios did something incredibly smart. One of their representatives contacted Chris Thilk. Chris runs the blog Movie Marketing , which, as the name suggests, covers all things movie Periodically, Chris will publish a 'Movie Marketing Madness' post for a particular upcoming movie, where Chris will meticulously detail every ... more

Recently, with what I thought was reasonable clarity, I made a decision to attend an This week, after having attended the event, I realized that it actually "cost" me more -- not in money, but in the expenditure of personal energy -- to attend than I had originally thought it ... more

Just read an interesting article in Strategy + magazine. Rethinking the Value of by the Chairman and CEO of Manpower, Inc. (and a former senior VP of Strategy of the same company) makes some interesting (You'll need to sign up, but it's free and well worth your The opening premise ... more

Classic direct response copy .... direct mail and print .... was always long "Mail order" was part of the culture long before the Internet, television, and even radio. There was much less competition for the prospect or customer's attention and time, way fewer pieces in the In general, attention spans ... more

According to the Marketing Science Institute, there may be. They just published a working on how companies can encourage the diffusion and adoption of new products by creating positive buzz and avoiding negative I think this is a great idea. While word-of-mouth is one of the key drivers for any ... more

Both CBS and MTV have (and will come out, respectively) with their own versions of . And they certainly won't be the NBC has taken a rather erratic or even schitzophrenic approach, clearly demonstrating its indecisiveness or perhaps lack of (self-)confidence in the But this post isn't really about criticizing ... more

Hewlett-Packard's new ad campaign successfully sails clear out of the ballpark, to use a seasonal metaphor. Here's But first, some The HP campaign .... The Computer is Personal ," created by Goodby, Silverstein & .... features spots of how well-known celebrities use their personal computers. There's a print and online ... more

I jumped into a black cab yesterday in London and there it was, right in front of me, a giant TV screen. Yep, now even taxis have And this TV was advertising Blackberry between news clips. The TV sat between two other giant advertisements on the backs of the fold-down ... more

Sure, business is important, but people matter, too. All too often we forget they go hand in Check out the Happy Planet . Here's what the site "The Happy Planet Index addresses the relative success or failure of countries in supporting good life for their citizens, whilst repecting the environmental ... more

Like a sleeping giant, appears to be waking No doubt the public to their joining the conversation with their one2one has been a rude But still -- you could have knocked me over with a feather when I got a call from "Dell Resolution Rick South, who's promised to look ... more

What is The Mother of all It's the one inbound link to your content that matters the most for your content. It's the one type of link that can make or break you. It's the one type of link that will have the greatest ability to help your site attract ... more

Two of the most important words in the marketing world are and . The best lead generation is done by providing tons of great content - .... the best lead conversion is done by providing the right kind of Put content and contact together and you not only have a ... more

One of the most important axioms I ever learn about professional services marketplace leadership was from Carl Bochmann, a former Booz Allen partner, who taught me that "quality is your best No matter which professional sector I've advised, be it accounting or executive search, management consulting or architecture, or any ... more

CMO of Widget - Okay, let's get the meeting started to discuss promoting the New Widget 100. First, let's go around the table and see how everyone is making progress. Traditional Gal, you go Trad - We have billion dollars to spend on TV commercials starting Tuesday night on Nascar, ... more

The fact that the MarketingProfs blog has been down over the past day has given me an opportunity to consider some larger, more existential, issues. To Is a blogger still a blogger if she doesn't have a Tangentially, that question made me consider the label of "blogger." For example, I ... more

As you have probably noticed, I am completely obsessed with Every day, creative uses have come up in my life, but it wasn't until last week when I realized the B2B Here are two examples, and I would love to hear from you on this 1) Are you using YouTube ... more

I just met with a prospective client who seemed to know everything about me -- everything I have written, everything I have said to reporters, every comment I have posted to She told me she Googles consultants before she decides if she wants to meet with I felt fortunate that ... more

There's a lot of going on about whether bloggers should cut some now that they've finally started a (lame) . Frankly, Like , whose social media debut, Ford Bold , is pretty flaccid, Dell is wimping out on really joining the conversation. They both needed to hit the ground Here ... more

My last post was about how much foresight Ted Levitt had when he published "Marketing Myopia" in 1960. That got me thinking about the eye-opening book I stumbled upon 15 years ago. more

The most dangerous thing about social media for "big business" is that its influence is barely noticeable on traditional measurement Market share, mind share, recognition, recall... all measure the mass Would any big company recognize of their market-share disappearing? Should they really give a fuck about that paltry number, is ... more

I have said it already in prior , but I am convinced that the global nature of the blogosphere and its rapid global penetration is ...and poorly represented in the US-centric view of blogging. According to Dave Sifry's post on the state of the blogosphere (part two), April , less ... more