There has been much talk about the efficacy of advertising. It seems folks are especially questioning the “old line” stuff like direct mail, telemarketing, and print advertising. I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past several years. So I’ve developed a bit of a bias. I believe that advertising is in a fairly steep decline in efficacy. So …
Comparisons: Well-made analogies can be quite useful, informative, and enlightening. Or, they can be ill-formed and carried too far. Here’s a definition: a·nal·o·gy: a comparison between two things, typically based on their structure and for explanation or clarification. That seems straightforward enough. I like analogies and use them often. But some common analogies I find to be less than useful. …
There was a “spot” on the technology podcast I regularly watch which indicated that a company was going to make new software available for cell phone providers. What was interesting is that this new software is designed to strip ads out of content before it is delivered to the user. One telecom company has already signed up. Of course, there …
One evening this past weekend, my wife and I had the pleasure of attending a musical dinner. It was amazing. The food was wonderful, the wine plentiful and the music personal. I say “personal” because we were right there in the same room with the musicians, or in our case, on the balcony above. The musicians interacted with us. Each spoke …
From time-to-time it seems we do well to get back to some fundamentals when it comes to our businesses. Many in my network seem to be doing that these days, forced to do so by the economy. The question, popularized by many of the “management gurus” is, “If I were starting this business today, (a) would I? and if so …
I was speaking with a colleague the other day and he said something about wanting a change to take place in the company for which he works. After listening, I said, “You have to get out in front on this.” That started me thinking about our usual perception of leaders. Sometimes, it might be best to lead from behind. An …
Leaders do not fall in love with their own ideas. At their best, they also don’t let you fall in love with your own ideas. The do fall in love with the vision, the noble goal of the organization.
A colleague was complaining that “Obama is bashing business” and it wasn’t fair. He plans on punishing those who don’t support business by “voting the %^$*#&’s out of office.” I don’t see it that way. What I see is that business owners and C-suite folks need to think about this a bit more. Here’s why. Successful politicians are successful because they …
Businesses who don’t pay attention to their customers, their reputation and public perception will always wind up wasting assets in the long run. You can’t make everyone happy, but you’d better get out and visit customers and stop listening to internal chatter, opinions and perceptions. They don’t matter.
This article discusses the dilemma of Social Media Marketing. One can easily get sucked into the black hole and disappear as you or your employees spend way too much time blogging, tweeting, updating Facebook and keeping up with LinkedIn.