What’s Working in Marketing

In this day and age, everything seems to be about marketing — politics, education, philanthropy…and the vast array of products and services that are made and sold. There are zillions of books and articles about the “7 Wonders of the World.” So why haven’t I seen anything about the “Marketing Wonders of the World?” A [...]

I have lots of friends who work in traditional sales roles. The interesting issue is that fewer and fewer have traditional sales titles. The ones that do — inside sales, telemarketing, field sales, sales rep, etc — have to work extra hard to overcome the bad vibes of the stereotype. Daniel Pink, author of a [...]

The word “solution” is now part of the technology marketing landscape. It started to gain popularity back in the 1990s when we were trying to describe an integrated system that included hardware and software and services…a package that’s more application-focused and more directly solves customer problems. But now, as many of you know, I have [...]

A friend of mine, Gwyn Thakur, recently launched a new web site called ConventionCenterPlace.com which is a comprehensive information resource for trade show managers, event planners and even business travelers.  I had the unique opportunity to review this site in its early inception when it was focused just on the city of Boston, and it [...]

Social media is hot and for good reason. There’s a ton of activity on the social networks, public and private. Here’s a great overview designed to show senior management why we need to care about the new media: More and more, companies are working to find ways to participate in social media conversations. But there’s [...]

As the days progress with this oil spill, one thing keeps circulating in the back of my mind:  This could have been BP’s shining moment. But it’s not, and in fact, as every day passes, the brand perception of BP continues to swirl down the perception drain. Their CEO botched opportunities to build support and [...]

This great blog post by Rosabeth Moss Kanter is apropos as we wind our way through the summer in hopes of an economic turnaround this fall. Are you facing falling customer orders? Slower renewals? Cancellations? Requests for ever-deeper discounts? Those are silly questions. Of course you are experiencing these recession symptoms. And you have probably [...]

It’s a challenging time for selling anything lately.  We get that.  And we wanted to help get some answers about how companies in the automation industry can put their best foot forward and succeed despite the challenges out there.  So recently I had the opportuity to interview Julie Fraser from Cambashi, and recorded a podcast [...]

We’ve been talking about marketing budgets of late.  Seems to be a top of mind concern which is not surprising.  There are ways to be smart with your budget moving into the spring.  And those who are patient will have the last laugh because finally, you have the chance to be really noticed, because many [...]

Have companies pushed automation too far, to the point where customer service (if there is such a department) can take no responsibility? I’m sure we’ve all had experience with a voice mail system that never lets you get to a real person. Recently, Juliann talked about her run-in with Facebook and their less than stellar [...]