Thomas Edison, who owned over 1,000 patents, famously observed, “I have not failed.  I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”  What Edison understood – and what most companies have forgotten – is that failure is neither futile nor fatal.  The only way to separate your company from the rest is to bring something different…

If you’re in nearly any consumer business – health care, retail, financial – your target audience is predominantly female.  And generally speaking, women respond more to value than price, especially during an economic slowdown.  Women understand that paying a little more for something that will last a lot longer is a smarter purchase, especially when…

If a prospect walks in the door, calls on the phone or goes to your website and is ready to buy, you don’t need a crack sales team to close the deal.  What would put the prospect in the mood to buy from you?  A brand that’s different from – and better than – your…

If e-mail is a part of your overall marketing strategy, then a key element is building your list.  If someone visits your website, how easy is it for them to subscribe to your e-mails?  Is that link one of the very first things they see, or is it buried somewhere?  Do you have a sample…

The second most common question in marketing is how much to budget.  And the answer is, it depends on what you need to do.  Are you the established market leader or the brash young upstart?  Are you marketing to a large urban area or a lot of smaller communities?  To consumers or other businesses?  What…

Scott Ackerson, a producer for ESPN, recalls trying to fill a 7-minute hole in a Sunday edition of SportsCenter during the British Open.  He arranged a short interview with golf legend Jack Nicklaus about the state of his sport.  The following week, during the Davis Cup, the same scenario occurred, and he filled this time…

Albert Einstein is credited with the observation, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”  This is especially true in business.  If you find yourself running out of options for bringing in new business, the same approaches you’ve used all along probably won’t work.  New challenges take new…

Years ago, Pan Am surveyed passengers who had flown with them.  If the flight had departed and arrived on time, passengers awarded the airline high marks for everything – food, service and so on.  If the plane left or landed late, fliers gave low marks for everything.  Pan Am realized that what mattered most to…

A facilitator at a planning session recently shared a few companies’ old and new vision statements.  While the originals were mostly short, clear and passionate, the newer ones were longer, much more formal and mostly bloodless.  This defies logic.  A vision is supposed to be breathtaking – something that grabs you and motivates you.  When…

Once in awhile, there’s a harsh reality that needs addressed – the elephant in the room – but nobody wants to acknowledge it.  Maybe it’s something your company mishandled, a problem that’s plagued your whole industry, or even a common misconception about your company.  Whatever the case my be, the direct approach is always best. …