Archive for the Marketing Category

We spend a lot of our time working very hard to get sales and marketing teams to work together. And this involves questions like the following. What is an effective way in which marketing teams can refer leads to sales teams? What do sales teams do with the leads handed to them from marketing? What [...]

At first, it seems that delivery and sales are unrelated and that salespersons have nothing in common with account managers. This is not just a question of personalities. The roles themselves are often seen as completely distinct. Indeed many account managers loath selling, and many salespersons are uninterested in delivery. But is this distinction accurate? [...]

OK, it seems that about once a year the ‘next great social media tool’ emerges. This year, it seems to be Twitter. Last year, it was Facebook. A couple of years ago, LinkedIn was all the rage. That leads me to a couple of burning questions: At what point is it acceptable to abandon or [...]

Both missions and revivals try to attract converts, but they work in different ways. The “downtown mission” of movie lore attracts people by offering food and shelter. And, usually in unspoken exchange, they seek to convert these people. A revival directly caters only to those people who want to be converted. Which one is more [...]

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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I went to the Masters Golf Tournament this week in Augusta, GA. I could go on and on about the tournament itself, but I’ll just talk about branding for the purposes of this blog. We can talk golf in another blog elsewhere.