Lots of GPS devices and software can help you know where you are and assist you in reaching your destination.  But we’re as likely to need directions indoors as we are on the road.  That was the insight that led Point Inside and Meijer to create the Meijer Find-It app, which gets you to within…

Marketing is as much about when you reach prospects as it is about where.  There’s a reason pizza chains don’t advertise on the morning news shows.  Think about when your target audience is most likely to consider your message.  If you’re a B2B company, your message probably needs to arrive during the workday, regardless of…

Here’s a question about Duck Dynasty, the A&E reality show that follows the antics of the Robertson family and their multi-million dollar duck call empire in Monroe, Louisiana.  Who’s their audience?  Turns out it’s a pretty mixed bag: Christians who like the praying part, outdoor types who like all the camo, regular folks who like…

Your company’s website has three jobs.  First, be an accurate reflection of your brand.  If you sell upscale or high ticket products or services, your website should reflect that, or else it’s undermining your credibility.  Second, get the attention of search engines.  The content should include the most frequently-used search terms, and should be updated…

Think about your industry for a moment.  All of the advanced management approaches, tools to enhance productivity and lean processes have probably been introduced and adopted.  So in a world that changes with blinding speed, what’s left?  Increasingly, it’s creativity.  Creativity unlocks new ways to serve customers that can give you a true competitive advantage. …

If you buy a Mini Cooper, something interesting happens.  You continue to get messages from them long after the purchase is complete.  And not just maintenance reminders or announcements about the new model year, either.  You’ll get fun stuff that reminds you how different your car is, and why you chose it.  Those marketing messages,…

You’ve heard this hundreds of times in your life.  It’s probably used most often as a warning to an employee.  It’s been heard so often that no one ever questions the truth of it.  They should.  The history of business is littered with people who turned out to be indispensable to the success of their…

That was the claim handwritten on a flyer that a landscaping service stuck in the mailbox.  Sounds like a strong competitive advantage.  But what do those four words say about the company?  Will they do professional work?  Will their employees be people you’d want around your home?  If they make a mistake, will they make…

It’s happened to everyone.  You walk into or out of a business with double doors, only to find that one of the two doors is locked, forcing you to use the other.  Why is that other door locked?  It has nothing to do with you, the customer.  For one reason or another, it’s easier or…

Every day, someone has a new pitch on how to get more traffic to your website.  But unless you’re actually selling online, that’s just a means to an end, not the end itself.  In fact, you could argue that all this emphasis on the online world makes the sales cycle longer, not shorter, by adding…