October, 2009

Recession/Depression Prescription

I recorded this video a year ago. Revisiting it today, I was surprised at my own profundity. If you haven’t seen this, you really should take a look. If you have seen it, it bears watching again. It’s a good prescription for what you can do to save yourself from today’s economy.
Click on the link [...]

The End of the Branding Era

Hail the end of an era. A bad era at that, in my humble opinion. Hail the end of the “branding era.”
I’m not saying it’s the end of brands. There will never be an end to brands. But this notion of “branding” has got to go. And it is going quickly… although this is probably [...]

Crashing a Focus Group

Yes, it’s true. I crashed a focus group the other night. I say “crashed” because they typically don’t let people who work  in the marketing business to participate in focus groups. Not that we’re any more or less typical than the average guy. But we might be counted on to skew the results by talking [...]

Happy Birthday Little Recession…

Hooray! Happy birthday to the recession! We’ve recently passed the one-year mark since the official crash and resultant “little” recession. How did you celebrate?
Actually, it hasn’t been just a little recession, has it? It has been, and continues to be, a big recession. A devastating one for many people. Unemployment at higher levels than it [...]

The Paralysis of Politics

It is with considerable trepidation that I approach this post.
I’m a marketing expert. I help people sell stuff. I help them advertise more effectively and efficiently. I help them get more bang for their marketing buck. I’m all about testing and tracking, chasing cost per lead, cost per sale, profit per sale.
I don’t have a [...]

The Home & Phone of Good Customer Service

After a couple of columns worth of bad news, how about some good news? How about a couple of companies that  are doing things right?
I’ve complained almost tirelessly about the phone company over the years. If you’re a faithful follower of this column, or a reader of my latest book, How To Market Your Crap [...]