Search Our Marketing Resources

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

By Deborah There are three "R" words–retention, repurchase and referral–that can help your company survive and thrive during the "R" word that's plaguing our economy, the recession. As costs are chopped and expenses shrunk, companies must understand more than ever the importance of customer loyalty, word-of-mouth and the profitability associated with promoters, and how to create

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

By Lou I recently entered the world of weekend-fishing warriors during a side ethnographic project. The business parallel between the strategy behind the fisherman's lure selection and an organizations approach to effectively initiate change became immediately evident. My intrigue hovered around the success factor of each situation, catching a fish or initiating internal change, as both

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

Walt Disney's Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) was a project of grandiose scale and lofty ideal. And while Disney passed away before his project became reality, EPCOT offers marketers four key takeaways (maybe more) in how to define problems, build on success, maintain flexibility and overcome Walt Disney was a man with bold dreams and

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

TJX–parent company of T.J. Maxx and Marshall's–has cleverly launched its first joint marketing campaign, per MediaPost's Marketing Daily article, TJX to Launch Joint Marketing for T.J. Maxx, Marshall's, Seek Shopping The advertising fashionistas chase down errant friends and admonish them for paying full price on their latest clothing purchases. In true friend fashion, they chide their

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

When the latest marketing answers fail to produce the results you expect, maybe it's time to start asking different questions. You don't need me to tell you that we're in a crisis of confidence: Consumers don't believe or act on the information we give them in the ways we'd hope, so we're losing faith in the strategies and tools we use to communicate with them. We're asked questions about sales, and we reply with answers about "engagement" and conversational "buzz." Budgets are down, expectations are up, and the proliferation of new solutions for "engaging" with consumers in conversations seems inversely proportional to results that our employers and clients can value. We believe that somehow, sometime, all those efforts will coalesce—the dots will connect—and yield stunning successes, just like those celebrated in case histories and magazine articles. I have news for you: We're chasing black swans. And if we keep doing it, we're doomed.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Social Media Marketing

You're a marketer who's hip to the idea of social media: You have a blog, you know Facebook inside and out, and you can Tweet with the best of them. But the big question is, Are you listening as well as talking? Here are some of the top tools for listening to and monitoring the online chatter about your brand.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

Sometimes we get so caught up in the procedural logistics of email marketing that we forget we're communicating with real people. We think in terms of lists, databases, target audiences, and segments. With email, as with conventional channels, it's important to remember that there are real people on the other end of our messages. When we press the send button, we're not just delivering messages to in-boxes, we're communicating with individuals. Here are three tips to help you personalize and "conversationalize" your email and, in so doing, remind yourself (or retrain your brain, if necessary) that there's a living, breathing person receiving those digital marketing messages you send.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

It's no secret that the business world is slow to change. Sure, it has made the evolution from typewriters to computers for word processing, and from snail mail to email for written communication. But in regard to the core of doing business—from the methods and measurements that are used to the way departments are siloed—many 21st-century companies might as well be stuck in the Stone Age. And now that the recession has set in, this unwillingness to replace old business models, strategies, and metrics with new ones is causing some companies hardship and leading many others to their deaths. Given the gloomy circumstances many businesses find themselves in today, I ask CEOs and marketing executives to reconsider one popular metric: Return on Investment (ROI) as a resource-allocation tool and measure of performance (including marketing productivity).

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

Oprah tweets, Ashton bests CNN, and even my hometown cops have an account. I'm talking about , of By this point, you are likely well aware that Twitter is a big deal. You know that it is more than a bright and shiny new toy. You know that it's a valuable tool that can help businesses

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

Here are some takeaways on a speech by C. K. Prahalad speaker at the World Innovation So we are beginning to see the impact of current economic crisis. The bad news is there is going to be significantly more regulation in the future but the good news is there is a tremendous access to global talent

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

Community .... the cultivated group of loyal users that you've built your platform around and equally, have helped you get your site to where it is today. Many of them have been through the same ups and downs that you have gone through; the outages, feature releases, issues, and the big media press mentions. They're as

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

Whether it's due to constant stability or tweaking the site's functionality, Twitter has constantly found a way to irritate it's unusually loyal users. This week's dustup over Twitter suddenly changing which replies you can see has me wondering, how much longer will Twitter's loyal user base stick with the I've blogged about this several times before,

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

The hospital gown has been around for centuries. It's no news that the ill-fitting, dignity-stealing flimsy covering clearly needs an The problem is, the way products are designed and redesigned needs an over-haul as well. In the case of this hospital gown, The Wall Street journal, in this , outlines the ill-fated 2.5 year process that

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: None

If anybody missed it, a few days before Earth Day last month, Pepsico FritoLay gave an interesting glimpse into its new packaging for its SunChips brand in a splash of TV ads. An empty SunChips bag slowly deteriorates on the ground before the viewer's eyes. The biodegradable bag is SunChips will be packaging its healthier-for-you snacks