Talk with enough marketing professionals, and you discover one factor that many feel undermines their efforts: fear.  It might be fear on the part of ultimate decision-makers to do anything truly bold or different, or fear on the part of marketers themselves to present a really radical idea, even if they believe it could achieve…

Walk into a Claire’s retail store with a young girl in tow, and the first thing a smiling salesperson does is welcome you, hand you a small shopping basket and tell you about their specials.  That empty basket, small as it may be, is huge.  It sets up the expectation that you’ll make a purchase…

At a fast-food outlet recently, a customer was handed a coupon for a free meal.  The reason?  It had taken longer than 90 seconds to deliver the one he’d ordered.  The restaurant chain (KFC) has done more than set a higher mark for service; they’ve imposed their own rewards and penalties to drive them toward…

Andy Ihnatko wrote a piece in the Chicago Sun-Times about the importance of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs to the company’s astonishing success.  He describes Jobs as “the energizing and driving force who instinctively knew the story Apple was meant to tell with its products, and aimed Apple’s people and resources at clear targets.”  If…

According to Timothy Leary, the famous 1960s mantra has been widely misinterpreted, and the spin he puts on it is a three-step guide to better marketing.  “Turn On” – get energized and excited about spreading your message and reaching more people with your brand.  “Tune in” – get connected with your audience, and with their…

Ask any business owner, CEO or CFO this question: if you could invest $10,000 today, and get $15,000 back in a year, would you?  You’d have a lot of takers.  Then ask this question: if you could invest $10,000 in marketing today, and get $15,000 back in new business within a year, would you?  You’ll…

Nowhere does it say that Babe Ruth’s coaches ever took him to task for striking out.  Yet the slugger who held the career home run record of 714 for so many years (unaided by performance-enhancing anything) also struck out 1,330 times – nearly twice as often as he homered.  The application for marketers?  Every message…

If you’re in business, especially when the economy is shaky, you don’t have to go it alone.  One option: create an alliance with your competitors to share marketing costs, host joint events and boost awareness and business for all of you.  That’s what happened in St. Louis, when several locally-owned bookstores created a group to…

If foot traffic is important to your business, and if you need to be courting tech-savvy young professionals as your next generation of customers, considering creating a space where they can drop in, relax, maybe grab a snack or a beverage, enjoy free wifi and work from their laptops, tablets or smartphones.  Whether yours is…

A recent attempt to close out one satellite radio account and start another took nearly two hours.  Part of the reason: having to go through the entire process with two different representatives.  It’s a safe bet that management at the company has no idea how cumbersome this process is.  The lesson?  Go through every aspect…