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Where do marketers turn once all the fat has long since been trimmed and all that's left is muscle and bone? And how do we break the downward spiral of cut, cut, and cut some more? Here are some ideas on what to cut... and (just as critically) what not to cut.

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For most CEOs, good marketing is a bit like pornography—it's hard to define precisely, but they know it when they see it. Still, it's clear that one of the problems is that most CEOs cannot put their finger on what Marketing isn't getting done—but they can envision that nothing much would likely change if the whole marketing team were to disappear. So, what's a CMO to do?

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There is clearly a lot of concern over companies entering the social media space. It's a new medium to be a part of and companies aren't sure how to act or how to respond to certain situations, for example negative feedback. I though it would be interesting to compare social media actions with real world actions

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Terrible times for marketing and public relations professionals. Hoards of us are on the street, or more accurately, hunched over our computers, emailing everyone we may know for a job lead. It is thankless, ego-deflating work and, worst of all, it pays absolutely I'm part of those job-seekers. My days are filled with Simply , Indeed.com

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Going the extra mile is seemingly missing in today's business world; from a company's customer support, team meetings, campaigns, and even client calls. We've seen examples where companies have taken that extra step to help their customers, thus creating a resounding positive word-of-mouth around that brand. So, why don't more companies go that extra Well, this

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Blame for the global financial crisis has been cast upon government leaders, bankers, home owners, and quantitative analysts. In fact, mathematical models and formulas such as Black , Gaussian , and have received particular attention as culprits in this financial And while these financial models had flaws, a more egregious error was the blind faith and

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Smaller, lighter packaging generally raises red flags with consumers. It usually signals they're getting less product for their money... instead of the steady, insidious price hikes which also cause consternation in a down economy. But I'm here to tell you that this isn't necessarily Some manufacturers have steadily worked to cut down on extraneous packaging materials

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Hyundai took the bull by the horns in this bear market and scored big. It used behavioral segmentation to identify what was keeping prospects from buying and then developed a strategy that made it easier for customers to part with their hard-earned dollars. What can you learn from its example? In every market change, even a downturn, there is an opportunity to use the power of behavioral segmentation to make your product or service stand out.

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One of the most dangerous trends emerging is that B2B marketers, and their extended search-marketing resources, are regularly making bad decisions based on "solid analytics data." All too often, marketers are deciding to spend either more or less money based solely on the conversion rate of how a certain search phrase, ad creative, or banner ad performs: in other words, the percentage of people who visited the site and requested a whitepaper, a demo, etc. While conversion rate, in the context of an analytics report, is one way to measure the effectiveness a search phrase, it can be extremely misleading.

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GM's CEO, Rick Wagoner, has opined that the automaker's biggest blunder was to walk away from the electric car. But GM's biggest strategic blunder might have been its failure to view Saturn strategically—and as a consequence not allowing it to fulfill its destiny as a domestic competitor to Toyota, Nissan, and Honda that could actually win. As the company makes hard decisions in the struggle to survive, the challenge to GM will be its ability to learn from—and not compound—that mistake.

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Every day we are bombarded with bad news about the economy: dismal corporate earnings, budget cuts, advertising gone dark, clients and agencies and people coming and going, and a sense of turbulence, malaise, and timidity. What can marketing do? Today's brand leaders should follow these 7 Ps of branding as a guide during the recession, and beyond....

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So I was reading Malcolm Gladwell's latest book The the other night and he goes into a discussion about violinists and on how long it takes them to become a master at their craft. So without spoiling the book for you .... the bottom line was .... it takes 10,000 hours to become a Master Violinist.

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Everyone is about bold . However, many are focusing on what I believe to be of lesser importance, the execution -- the "widget" that sits in the upper left-hand corner of the browser with links that point to places where Skittles has a Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook, While the this was done may appear faddish, the

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No matter how you look at things these days marketers are becoming more like publishers than ever before. And their tactics are shifting from more Outbound Marketing like email and direct mail to more Inbound using SEO, Blogging and Social So the game is changing right before our eyes! If you are pursuing a balanced approach

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OMAHA, NE - Well, it's Warren Buffett's annual letter to of Berkshire Hathaway. While you can read for Mr. Buffett's sober predictions of the economy being "in shambles throughout 2009 - and, for that matter, probably well beyond," job seekers can learn something about how to create real value for their current and potential employers --

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A perfect storm has converged on the bottled water business. I've been watching this unfold for some time now, and a recent Business Week article dubbed, Bottled Waters Lose Their , confirms recent Why have bottled water sales that rose so meteorically, fizzled out? That perfect bad press about bottled spring water actually coming from taps;

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When the going gets tough, the tough get... cheap. Today, a good marketing idea has to be as inexpensive as it is clever. In this first of a two-part series are five inexpensive suggestions that can lead to productive results.

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People succeed together because they share a unified sense of purpose and a common vision for what they need to do. This unified sense of purpose comes from core beliefs. Core beliefs help a team to create together because they share a common worldview that helps people filter their observations, establish values, and hold certain things in similar high esteem. Such a worldview also acts as a guiding beacon, orienting people regarding who they are and what they can do together.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Social Media Marketing

There's been a lot of brouhaha of late about Facebook's ill-fated attempt to change its terms of service to maintain licensing rights of terminated accounts—and understandably so. The issue of customer data ownership is an important one. However, many businesses with an active presence on the social site are now fearful of getting caught up in any ensuing consumer backlash, and they are wondering what to do—keep our Facebook pages or move on to someplace safer? The short answer is, Right now, just keep focusing on connecting with your customers wherever they are (and they are still, absolutely, on Facebook, in droves).

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Social Media Marketing

As part of the research I did in preparation for my recent book, BrandDigital, I interviewed some of the best and brightest people in the fields of marketing and digital technology, and they provided incredible insight on how digital tools and tactics can be used to not simply increase operating efficiency but also increase customer loyalty. Here I share some of those insights, with specific focus on my conversation with Bob Pearson, Vice-President of Communities and Conversations at Dell. Though Dell is a computer manufacturer, the ideas that Bob discussed can be adopted by any organization, no matter what size, industry, or level of technological acumen.