What’s Your Think-to-Do Ratio? Are You Solving the Right Problems?

May 9, 2011

“In a world of ever-accelerating change, innovation is the only insurance against irrelevance.” ~Skarzynski & Gibson in Innovation to the Core Thinking is about imagining possibilities, of asking why and why not, of generating options for how to market your business. Doing is about selecting options already identified and launching them the best you can. […]

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Lessons from a Giant: Develop New Consumer Insights to Grow Revenue

May 8, 2011

“Beliefs and values that have held sway for thousands of years will be questioned as never before.” ~Carol P. Christ   Diageo is a global liquor and spirits giant. An orthodoxy is a widely held belief about what drives success for a company or for an industry.  For instance, you (or your management) may believe […]

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Understand the Difference Between Strategy and Tactics to Unlock the Power of Your Social Media Marketing

April 17, 2011

“Strategy is doing the right things. Tactics is doing things right.” ~various attributions, including Peter Drucker and paraphrased from Sun Tzu I recently posted a series of slides from prominent social media thought-leaders as to why social media is not a retail marketing strategy. The point was not to diminish the potential value of social […]

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Social media is not a retail marketing strategy

November 11, 2010

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.  Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." ~Sun Tzu Social media is a strategy no more than a telephone is a strategy. Social media facilitates conversation: between you and your customers, you and your prospects, you and your competitors, even you and your employees and […]

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Is your store showing up in Google Places?

November 10, 2010

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.” ~ Woody Allen Let’s say you own a café in San Francisco.  What if a prospect showed up at your store and neither you nor your staff was there to greet her, wasn’t there to let her sample your seasonal products such as a peppermint mocha or eggnog […]

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How to gunter glieben glauchen globen your marketing to success

July 28, 2010

“When people expect me to go right, I'll go left. I'm unpredictable." ~Paula Abdul Mutt Lange may be one of the most accomplished music song writers and producers you have never heard of.  He’s helped create the success of bands such as AC/DC with Back in Black  (approximately 22 million U.S. copies sold), Def Leppard […]

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5 Low Cost Consumer Research Ideas

November 10, 2009

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” ~Galileo Galilei I'm a firm believer that the key to marketing success is in uncovering a leverageable consumer insight.  Some people call this a consumer "wow,"  others the "big idea."  Whatever you want to call it, at its basic […]

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If somebody can differentiate a commodity, you can differentiate your products.

November 9, 2009

"A commodity is some good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market." ~Wikipedia "The brain is a commodity used to fertilize ideas." ~Elbert Hubbard Powerful marketing can come when a business creates alignment of a shared vision between owners, employees and customers .  It can also come […]

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A simple formula for creating a differentiated marketing position

November 1, 2009

“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be. Your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.” ~ James Allen "Chase the vision, not the money…if you are actually chasing the vision and not the money, the […]

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