What’s holding you back? Ten bold steps that define gutsy leaders. By Robert J. Herbold Managing Director, Herbold Group LLC Why do managers at all levels shy away from the tough decisions that lead to success rather than mediocrity?  What’s holding them back? My book What’s Holding You Back? is about why managers often have… [Read more…]

The Changing MO of the CMO – How the Convergence of Brand and Reputation Is Affecting Marketers By MaryLee Sachs The principal analyst in marketing leadership at Forrester, Chris Stutzman, recently spoke at the CMO Club Spring Summit and echoed many findings from the white paper he created for his organization, “CMO Mandate: Adapt Or… [Read more…]

Pre-Commerce: How Companies and Customers Are Transforming Business….Together By Bob Pearson Chief Technology and Media Officer, WCG Since its birth in 1995, the age of e-commerce has been centered on the transaction.  However, we spend less than one percent of our time online involved in a transaction. On the other hand, 99 percent of our… [Read more…]

Are you flying in the dark with your marketing budgets? By Michael Wolfe Senior Director of Marketing Science, BBDO Marketing-mix modeling is, in fact, a major undertaking to link all of a firm’s individual marketing efforts, including direct marketing, mass media, online and offline media, to retail or end-user sales over time.  This is done… [Read more…]

The Challenge of True Integration By Jeff Harris, President and Chief Creative Officer at Cupani In the world of marketing, the word “integrated” is thrown around a lot today. It’s the new buzzword as “CRM” or “one-to-one marketing” was a few years ago. The idea of true integration is a good one. But, if done… [Read more…]

Go Ahead and Jump on the Social Media Wave–But Don’t Forget Your Marketing Umbrella By Debbie Laskey, MBA Marketing and Brand Specialist Buzz. We’ve all heard the word, and we all know what it is. What’s more, we all want to create buzz for our products, services, and above all, for our brands. However, today,… [Read more…]

A Moveable Feast: Is the broadcast and/or narrowcasting of rich media to handheld devices the “television” of the 21st Century? By David C. Hickman Thought Leader, Idea Distillery I’ll give you the executive summary, with answer right at the top–Yes! Mobile is the “television” of the 21st Century, but, not simply for the obvious reasons…. [Read more…]

The Perfect Match By David Zaritsky Managing Director, Harte-Hanks The most meaningful client-agency relationships are mutually beneficial – both organizations work together toward agreed-upon objectives. What makes a client-agency relationship click? How does a marketer know if they’re benefiting fully from the partnership – or if a potential new partner will bring the right perspective,… [Read more…]

Evolving and Winning in the Healthcare Industry by Jeffrey Spanbauer Principal, Healthcare Regional Marketing Given the economy, there is increasing pressure on sales and marketing budgets. Marketing and sales executives know that questions continue regarding where best to spend my next dollar. This dilemma is especially true in the healthcare industry. There are many changes… [Read more…]

Stop the Insanity! By Jim Wheaton Principal, Wheaton Group  Most database marketers are fooling themselves when they think they understand what is driving their existing customers to buy from them.  This is because they try to allocate responses to individual promotions, using source codes and matchback processing.  As we will see shortly, this is a… [Read more…]

Breaking Through the Database Ceiling By Dennis Troyanos Database Marketers can undermine their careers when they focus on technical COMPETENCE instead of business LEADERSHIP. Last month, my Partner and I facilitated a “Thought Leadership Forum” at the National Center for Database Marketing (NCDM) convention in Miami, Florida. For those of you who were in attendance,… [Read more…]