If you were going on an interview today for a position you really wanted, what would you wear?  Consider this: you’re sending your brand out every single day on “interviews” with prospects you really hope to attract.  How well-dressed is your brand?  Does the physical representation of your company – logo, website, collateral, offices –…

When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. uttered those words, he was referring to racial equality.  But they apply to business as well.  Right now, while you read this, one of your competitors is calling on one of your customers.  One of your prospects is hearing from another provider.  There’s no status quo; your company is…

A magazine recently devoted several pages to the dozens of “beloved” restaurants in their city that have since closed their doors.  Each received a glowing review, with the writer rhapsodizing about its virtues.  And each is out of business.  It’s another reminder that having a great product or service is just the beginning, yet there’s…

In marketing, there are two challenges: to get the attention of your audience, and to present them with a message that sticks.  So why is it that the vast majority of marketing messages are so easy to overlook?  It could be timid decision-makers, the wrong creative partner or any of a dozen other reasons, but…

One of the subtle obstacles to innovation or change is posed by conventional wisdom.  Once an idea or position is accepted as conventional, it escapes all scrutiny.  Ironically, those widely-held beliefs are often hiding opportunity; it’s just that no one is looking.  So it pays to examine the conventional wisdom in your company or industry,…

When singer Andy Williams died, every news story began with the same thing: a clip from the hit, “Moon River” from the film, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” starring Audrey Hepburn.  This, in spite of the fact that Williams scored 27 other Top 40 hits, including two songs from bigger movies (Love Story and The Godfather), had…

Even if you don’t play yourself, you’ve probably watched someone play Minecraft, the video game that lets you build your own world (while warding off creepers and other nuisances).  The game has two modes: survivor mode and creator mode.  Interestingly, while you’re in creator mode, the baddies can’t get you.  This is true for your…

You hear it all the time, tossed around as if it were a fact: people don’t read anymore.  The problem?  It’s dead wrong.  In fact, you could say that all anyone does anymore is read.  People are crashing their cars because they’re reading text messages and e-mails.  Billions of dollars are trading hands for tablets…

Payroll cards are such a simple idea, it’s astonishing they haven’t become commonplace already.  Employees receive a debit card that gets recharged with their net pay each pay period.  What does this eliminate the need for?  Checking accounts, service charges and overdraft fees, to name a few.  If you’re a bank, this innovation stands to…

One of the most under-utilized tools in marketing is the question-as-headline.  Questions beg an answer, so a reader, listener or viewer presented with a question instinctively begins the mental process of answering that question.  Of course, the question — and its answer — have to be carefully designed to lead the consumer back to you…