If you want women to respond to marketing messages, consider some basic biology.  Women’s brains have quadruple the connections between right and left hemispheres compared to their male counterparts.  This means intuition and emotion play a much larger role in decision making.  They don’t ignore logic and reason, but they blend the rational and the…

The real beauty of Web 2.0 for marketers, especially aspects like social media and blogs, is that anyone can take advantage of these effective and inexpensive ways to connect with customers.  But very few businesses are truly seizing these golden opportunities.  The universal reason: they take time.  That vacuum creates an extraordinary opportunity for businesses…

A recent news story cited “the difficulty of developing consensus around how to solve the intractable problem of youth violence.”  But complex problems are rarely solved by consensus, and breakthrough ideas, the kind that are truly radical, almost never emerge from a group setting.  Albert Einstein, an idea man if ever there was one, observed,…

Of all the marketing decisions that get made every day, perhaps none is more arbitrary than color.  The vast majority of the time, color choices (for logos, for brochures, for websites) are made not on the basis of established color theory, but on personal preference by the decision maker.  Even though we know that certain…

Surveys show that Americans are less focused on purchasing big ticket items and more interested in making what they have last longer.  Their interest in maintenance and upkeep should be creating a boom for businesses who provide those services – if they capitalize on the trend with effective marketing.  A mechanic who helps you get…

Businesses often use a “hook” to get first-time buyers in the door – an introductory offer, a free sample, a coupon – even free luggage.  But what happens next is often neglected.  No one sets the hook.  You have an opportunity to show the new buyer why you’re different – to create an experience that…

Until a few years ago, most marketing relied on interrupting people.  A newspaper ad interrupted you on the sports page.  A radio spot delayed your favorite song or the latest news.  A TV commercial put your favorite program on pause.  Now that new media is threatening to sweep away the old, too much marketing still…

Here’s a question every business owner, manager or marketing director should ask from time to time.  Would you be a customer of your own company?  Given everything that you know, and all the choices you have, would you choose you?  Be honest.  If you would, why would you?  Therein lies your brand statement.  If you…

In the Mel Gibson film, “We Were Soldiers,” there’s a re-telling of a battle in Vietnam where American troops were at a clear disadvantage.  They found themselves in a valley, completely surrounded, and vastly outnumbered by an enemy who held the high ground around them and had an uninterrupted supply line.  All their opponents lacked…

More and more marketing is being targeted to the sexy 18 – 34 demographic.  This is a shame, because consumers over age 50, who are being widely ignored in this rush, are now responsible for half of all consumer spending.  That’s right.  Half.  And in some categories, like vacations and packaged goods, they spend even…