When spending must be cut, and it's just a matter of determining where, you face a process fraught with potential pitfalls. Here's some help. In a post at Harvard Business Online, Rita McGrath highlights key takeaways from a workshop on avoiding the traps that companies often encounter when trying to ... more

When you have customers scrambling to make ends meet, or cutting back on unnecessary expenditures, it might seem foolhardy to let them set prices for your product or service. But Sam Lippert of the Java Street Cafe in Kettering, Ohio, took a chance on that risky strategy. He told diners ... more

In Part I, we suggested a few cuts to make in your current marketing budget to help keep your bottom line healthy during these tough times. Now let's take a look at a few line items you should probably keep intact—or even fund a bit more. According to Pat LaPointe ... more

Welcome to MarketingProfs' inaugural issue of Marketing in a Downturn. We are glad you signed on to receive these once-a-week guides to navigating rough economic seas—and safely making it through to the upturn. We will chart this course together. But if you wish to opt out, just click on the link below. ... more

Knowing what to improve and by how much is vital to establishing realistic performance targets and metrics. This two-part article discusses how to use benchmarking to assess your organization's performance and to understand what changes to make. Part 1 defined benchmarking and explored its value. This second and final part identifies marketing ... more

In a recent post at Harvard Business Online, Scott Anthony coined the term Great Disruption to describe our current economic climate. "In the Great Depression," he reasons, "demand, output and wages declined across the board. Today's times are different. It isn't just that demand is sagging. It's that change is ... more

Is your company packaging experiences? Are they sought—or are they sold? And, drilling the concept down one more level: have you ever looked at yourself and considered the package that you offer and the experience you provide? In the current downturn, where layoffs loom large, those with the better shot at ... more

"Online behavior is not limited to purchasing activity alone," says Sheldon Gilbert in an article at MarketingProfs. "To truly understand someone's buying potential, you need to see more than that. You need to know what they are looking at, what they are searching for and what they have recommended to ... more

Once upon a time, when customers didn't have enough money to make an immediate purchase, they would put it on layaway. Laya-what? you ask facetiously. "Doesn't that involve some kind of a system where you pay for the merchandise BEFORE you take it home?" notes the Direct Dispatch blog. "We ... more

Senior management at scuba-supply outfit Divers Direct weren't convinced they needed to run promotions or offer discounts to increase Web sales. A test using Sitebrand's personalization platform quickly changed that perception. more

Sales promotions that offer either price discounts or free goods (premiums) are often used to entice customers to buy products. But which is better? Every family has one or two bargain shoppers—always looking for discounted products, and priding themselves on never paying full price. So, logically, marketers would assume that ... more

No doubt you've noticed it with your cable bill, your phone bill or anything else you pay on a regular basis—prices that creep slowly, and steadily, upward for no readily apparent reason. Most of us shrug off the extra cost as a minor annoyance; we won't go to the trouble ... more

Imagine you're Alissa Bayer—owner of the upscale milk + honey day spa in Austin, Texas—and a client has directed you to the Church of the Customer Blog, where a post by Jackie Huba takes your business to task for selling gift certificates with a $1.50 "handling fee." You scan through ... more

In a post at the Neuromarketing blog, Roger Dooley talks about staring at a shelf filled with shaving gels and creams, unsure of the actual difference between those labeled "Aloe" and those touting an "Advanced" formula, when a particular can caught his eye. "[It] was identical to several other cans ... more

If there's one thing your customers can't resist, it's the idea of getting something for free. Those who want some proof need look no further than an article written by Alina Tugend for the New York Times, in which she discusses the results of a study headed by Dan Ariely, ... more

How does a university up its visibility with an increasingly wired target market of both students of alumni? By orchestrating a Web 2.0-focused Web site redesign that set the foundation for an ongoing social media campaign. more

Continental Warranty used pay-per-click ads to generate leads by providing free quotes for extended-warranty coverage. But lead volume had plateaued. So it began to profile its web visitors, then direct them to microsites matching their profiles—and nearly doubled leads. more

Internt fax service provider MyFax wanted to tap into the power of word-of-mouth referrals by improving the customer experience and maintaining highly personalized customer interactions. But as an online company, it faced the issue of how to individually engage customers to ensure long-term relationships. Here's what it did. more

Makana Solutions needed an inexpensive way to reach the elusive small business market. Rather than chase small businesses, it hired an online "inbound marketing system" to help small businesses find Makana. The results: Web site traffic climbed 75%, and sales leads have doubled. more

A strong commitment to environmental sustainability in product design and manufacturing can yield significant opportunities to grow your business, to innovate, and to build brand equity. In fact, if you don't manage your business with respect to environmental and social sustainability, your business may not be sustained! more

Softrax Corp.'s enterprise software automates a company's entire revenue cycle. With the advantages of automation not always apparent to potential customers, Softrax based its marketing strategy on educating the market, while competitors relied mostly on advertising. Webcasts featuring government and industry experts—with only an indirect connection to Softrax apparent—formed the ... more

The manufacturing sector is more traditional than most. Many of its customers aren't high tech—some don't even have Internet access. Fabcon, a Minnesota builder of precast wall panels, struggled with marrying its desire for high-tech operational efficiency and its need to service customers in the method that they preferred. more

Earthlink, one of the country's smaller Internet service providers, serves just over 5 million customers. To differentiate itself, it has decided to provide superior customer service. An early adopter of chat technology, it has sought to actively offer efficient online customer service via chat—both shifting customer support away from the ... more

The nonprofit Oregon Sports Authority (OSA) was striving to bring new sporting events, teams, and tourist dollars to the state. It also wanted to become the official sports resource for state residents. An overhaul of its promotions and more compelling communication of its brand were the ambitious goals that the ... more

With Web hosting fast becoming a commodity, Web hosting firm Rackspace realized it needed to stand out from the pack. Its founders decided they would stake a claim to "fanatical" commitment to customer service. Rackspace wove the concept into its very business structure, even trademarking the term "Fanatical Support." And ... more