Mega-communicator Roger Ailes notes that the first seven seconds of contact represent the critical ones. All kinds of events transpire. In those seven seconds, you make up your mind whether you like something or someone, and if you have a choice, you decide whether or not to continue a relationship,...Read More
Near-blasphemous, anti-growth blather? Particularly when U.S. auto sales are peaking at a six year high and people are congratulating each other for a bull-like market? Well, I didn’t come up with this headline. It was recently penned by Alan Sloan, Fortune magazine’s senior editor-at-large for finance...Read More
Every year truckloads of money get spent on brand developers, brand managers, creative design firms, and other marketing groups to fashion highly effective and expensive brand logos and corporate identities. Do they work? There no question brands are important. Brands—good or bad, strong or weak—often...Read More
With today’s media fragmentation, is your marketing creative doing its share of heavy lifting? In a mobile, tablet-driven, what’s-on-now environment, strategic creative design must perform under the most difficult pressures imaginable. How long have you got to stop a pair of roaming eyeballs? Barely...Read More
The news wasn’t totally unexpected by any means: ExactTarget, Hoosierland’s marquee tech company, announced June 4 that it was being acquired by CRM giant SalesForce.com for a hot $2.5 billion. For a company that just a few years was more than happy to secure a second round of $70 million in private...Read More
Is automation driving your marketing? Is your advertising and creative work dependent on templates and populated by clip art? Does your social media messaging automatically appear on Facebook, then on Twitter, then on your Web site – popping up over and over again until it’s digital tapioca? What...Read More
Systemic redesign. Cultural diagnostics. Cross-functionality. These phrases may tempt our eyes to glaze over, but in times of major turmoil and change, they pop up frequently. Why? In tough times (or even in perceived soon-to-be tough times) companies and organizations often cast about for new platforms...Read More
Seth Godin defines “remarkable marketing” as “the Purple Cow.” As he notes, “Something remarkable is worth talking about. Worth noticing. Exceptional.” However, when a brand breaks a promise or service isn’t delivered, then you have achieved “exceptional” in a counter-productive...Read More
