Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. We all use adjectives and adverbs when we write, and it doesn't always mean we're ignorant or lying. And of course all adjectives and adverbs aren't bad. But clear ideas are best expressed primarily through nouns.

We're all familiar with the importance of marketing and its role in the enterprise. Mainly, good marketing helps increase revenue and decrease costs. But there are other uses, especially in transforming a company's culture.

It's a common phrase: "strategic project". It's used a lot, but what does it mean? All too often, it's used to mean that a company's strategy is coincident with a project. But, this is exactly the wrong way of thinking.

In the current business climate, human marketing resources are under threat. They are too hard to manage and too expensive. At the same time, clients and potential clients are demanding more and more interaction with your company. If you were to nurture all these leads with human beings, it would cost too much. So, what should you do?

One thing that I encourage clients and agencies to do is to take advantage of all the print techniques that are available. Too many times, whether it be because they are in a rush or it just slips their minds, designers and creative directors opt for more typical printing methods: four-color process on the standard house sheet. Maybe using a spot color if the project warrants it.

American Apparel. Mac. Crate & Barrel. Target. The list of brands represented with the typeface Helvetica goes on and on. And on. I recently saw the documentary "Helvetica", written and directed by the filmmaker Gary Hustwit. The feature-length film uses the famous, yet controversial typeface to tell a comprehensive story about typography and visual culture over the last fifty years.

All the talk of lead nurturing is pretty exciting. Who doesn't want to increase their sales by recycling leads that aren't qualified right now? There is just one big hitch---you can't nurture people you don't know.

It's a common goal of marketers to start projects with research. (Well, most people want to, but they seldom do it. That's a topic for another time). The idea is that, armed with some measurements of the audience's attitudes, needs, and so on, we will have a better chance at structuring a successful solution. It's assumed that the hard work will be in interpreting and using this data, and almost no one thinks about the data itself. You need to be sure to ask is the data is even accurate.