Imagine a bank has a business customer teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.  Now imagine that the bank, instead of writing off the customer, brings in an ad agency to help that customer turn things around.  Inconceivable?  It is today.  But that’s exactly what happened fifty years ago.  The customer was Levy’s, a small Jewish…

Every market has bloggers devoted to a particular group or subject – mom bloggers, tech bloggers, sports bloggers, culture bloggers and many, many more.  Your task is two-fold: identify those bloggers who are read by your best prospects, then find ways to engage with them without overtly selling to them.  SeaWorld in San Antonio invited…

Back in the early 1960s, ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (the original Mad Men) changed advertising forever with their campaign for Volkswagen.  Realizing that they wouldn’t make a dent in consumer perception by doing “traditional” car ads, they chose instead to give VW a unique voice – a writing and visual style that was less…

Smart companies know that one of the keys to effective marketing is to ask every new customer how he or she found about you.  While customers’ memories aren’t perfect, they’ll certainly help you understand what’s working and what isn’t.  Best of all, it costs nothing to ask, and very little time to record the answers. …

In most industries, all of the competitors’ marketing has a similar look, feel and message.  Whether this comes from a lack of real creativity or timid management that won’t risk real creative solutions, the result is the same: fewer customers.  If your company can break through that wall, and understand that the only way to…

There are reasons Coke is a market leader, and one of them is presentation.  Coke was the first to introduce vending machines where customers could watch their bottle being selected and delivered.  The company’s new Freestyle machine is actually a soda fountain, letting you choose from over 100 combinations.  And in the U.S., Coke is…

When Proctor and Gamble was exploring new ideas for its line of floor cleaning products, it turned to an outside firm.  After hours of videotaping and watching people mop their floors, they noticed two things.  First, cleaning out the mop was hard, nasty work that took more time than the mopping itself.  But the real…

When Starbucks’ Howard Schultz was considering a return as CEO after a 7-year absence – a return to a company that had begun to wither while he was away – he sought the advice of Michael Dell, who had been through a similar experience at Dell Computer.  When Steve Jobs was relieved of management duties…

If you’re using social media to engage customers, influencers and prospects, are you asking them to help?  You’d be surprised how much more quickly your message will spread if you encourage that behavior.  Request retweets and offer a good reason to do so.  Ask Facebook fans to invite friends to an event or share a…

If you use salespeople, here’s something to consider, especially if you have a lot of competitors who offer what you offer.  It’s great to have a strong brand – a truly unique position among your competition – but it’s even better to supplement that with salespeople who also stand out from the rest.  Why not…