What’s your exit plan? By Rob Dickson The proverb, “the shoemaker’s children go barefoot” aptly describes the approach taken by many entrepreneurs to the realisation of the value of the marketing communication (marcom) companies they build. Experts at building actionable strategies for their clients, little thought is given to the long term exit/ value creation… [Read more…]

Tangible Revelations By Mac Love Manager of Business Development, Sterling Brands I have a crush on the new Heineken can. Until recently, Heineken’s iconic green cans and bottles had 15 different designs in 170 different markets worldwide. When the Dutch brewer chose to address their inconsistencies, narrowing the range of design offerings down to 5,… [Read more…]

Build Your Brand and Help Women Flourish with the 4 C’s By Kelley Connors MPH, President and Chief Creative Officer KC Healthcare Communications, LLC Warren Buffet said it best. ” Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” It couldn’t be more compelling than in the health care space where big pharma, medical… [Read more…]

By Larry Gorkin Managing Director, Stonebridge Consulting Group When HP announced plans in August to exit the PC business and build a position in software, the market reaction was immediately negative. HP’s stock fell over 20% in a day. A few weeks later there was a new CEO. HP’s soap opera provides a great case study about the opportunities and challenges in choosing… [Read more…]

Words Matter Most: In Today’s Difficult Economy, What You Say Is What You Sell By Denis Jakuc Writer/Brand Strategist The expression used to be, “the more you tell, the more you sell.” Now that many marketing appeals come via smaller-sized channels like emails, web windows and tweets, the quantity of your story is often limited… [Read more…]

Is It Possible to Come Back from the Dead? By Andrew Salzman Principal, The Chasm Group Kodak and Polaroid.  DEC and Wang.  GM, Ford, and Chrysler.  Eastern and Northwest Airlines.  Borders, Barnes and Noble, Businessweek and Blockbuster. Companies that were once dominant market leaders who are no longer.  These companies were leaders in mature, established cyclical growth… [Read more…]

Call Center vs. Engagement Center – What’s the Difference? By Tim Searcy CEO, ACCENT Marketing Services For years, I have heard about a portion of the work that ACCENT does on behalf of our clients referred to as “the call center industry.”  Ironically, everything we did was lumped into this one rather narrow definition.  At… [Read more…]

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…]