It's the first session of the morning and we're learning all about Antonio Perez, a 38-year-old former teacher responsible for standardized testing in the Sunnydale High School We get detailed information on his personal life–married, with twin sons–and even more about his professional concerns. (He's frustrated, for instance, with profit-oriented ... more

Too many. If you have ever needed a plumber you know what I mean. This past week, I needed one. And many calls and voice mails later, one of them finally returned my plea for help. But, of course, after he came to fix my problem, I had to reschedule. ... more

What motivates people in terms of health issues, from diabetes to smoking, can be a fascinating topic - all the more so for anyone with marketing on the brain. So, I'm guessing a lot of us take note of any new approach or ad campaign that might inspire change for ... more

Lois Kelly, author of Beyond Buzz and principal of , recently posted something rather profound on her blog. In a recent meeting, Mike Lundgren, Creative Technology Director for interactive agency VML, made a comment that made me sit up in my chair when I first read "It's not about how ... more

A few weeks ago, I created the Fans of MarketingProfs group on Facebook. I saw it as yet another way for us to talk to our audience–to let them get to know the people behind MarketingProfs–and for us to listen, to get feedback on what we don't do well, or ... more

The marketing of some children's books is getting increasingly gender-specific. In fact, some book marketers are forcing a gender stereotype that needn't be forced. The same can happen in marketing certain products to grown-up girls and boys. Don't let this happen to * * * * I attended a baby ... more

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The story created a media frenzy in mid-August. In Barrow, , of all places. Up on the Arctic Circle, on the Arctic Ocean. NBC and ABC were there. So was . The media was covering the Barrow Whalers football team come from two touchdown scores behind to beat out a ... more

What customer behaviors drive bottom line profitability? While many firms, at best, muddle around this KNOWS! Stellar data analyses has shown the bank that its mortgage customer is THE "gravy train" reports that the typical BofA mortgage customer will eventually have an astonishing six BofA products (credit card, debit card, ... more

Last week, I delivered an overview on the social media universe to a client entitled Social Media University. During the conversation about social networking, one of the executives asked me for my opinion of whether or not they ought to consider starting their own channel or network on one of ... more

Yom Kippur was observed this past weekend. It's a time when Jews ask forgiveness from God for the sins they have committed in the past year. So, I decided to make a list of my marketing sins. Surely, we all have some of , Forgive my marketing 1. For sometimes ... more

Several get-togethers of bloggers who met in the virtual world happened last week, and from all reports a good time was had by all and new friendships were In the Big Apple, met quite a few of her virtual friends at a local watering hole called the . Among the ... more

Peter , President of Adaptive , asked this question in his presentation to the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association ) last And, like any good presenter, Merholz strung us along before providing his Is it "Can't live without Is it "never Is it "highly The highest compliment a product can receive ... more

Wouldn't it be great if there were a build-a-brand kit that provided all the pieces necessary to construct the perfect You could have it delivered to the office just like a cabinet from . The flat carton would contain the components, the fasteners in a bag, and a special tool ... more

A new report from promises to track the readership for blogs, both popular and obscure. The report, entitled Conversational Media , according to ComScore comes from working with Federated Media Publishing, which sells advertising on many existing The report could go a long way toward validating the use of advertising ... more

A colleague sent this video around to his network today, calling it a "brilliant use of video" explaining a relatively boring product -- Google And I totally agree. Yet it's not "brilliant" because it's especially creative. It's brilliant because it introduces a very complex product and explains it very clearly, ... more

Can we make assumptions about who feels most comfortable ordering or buying wine? At first glance, findings of a recent Harris Mondavi Private Selection point to a generation and gender gap, but I say - look a bit Damon Musha, the marketing director for that brand wisely made this point ... more

"This happened once before, when I came to your No - The Beatles, "No Reply" from Beatles When asked to define social media, here is one way I have done "Social media is about effectively using online media to enable create conversation." Of course, the next question is usually "How ... more

Finally! A terrific Business Week highlighted a potentially devastating problem in one of its recent articles, dubbed Feeling Trashed on the recently, and I just had to comment on The article's points, and its examples, can be summed up by this sentence at the end of the first "Smart companies ... more

Yesterday's Wall Street reported Ikea To Pluck Ads Focus on Love of House to Combat Market . Smart move by The home-furnishings giant is hoping its "Home is the most important place in the world" campaign will help homeowners fret less about the effects of the housing slump and think ... more

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Here's how it plays out in many companies, state agencies and other entities today. The would-be client sends out a confusing, ambiguous document that suggests that they might be open to working with an outside vendor. They ask you to answer 328 questions and you must number them in the ... more

What's the most common mistake companies make in crafting collateral? What are the keys to creating content that reflects a company's credibility? And how does a company stop talking about itself... and focus on its customers? Here, the author of "Writing Copy for Dummies" shares his insider secrets and ... more

Where was or at the Emmys? I was watching the Emmys last night and was quite disappointed to see the same old method of presentation of the Nothing like the Democrats debate on where I was quite impressed with the way that YouTube made the debates more worthwhile and Given ... more

Senior managers don't take content seriously because people who write content don't come across as being serious. If content professionals want more respect, they need to present content as a science, not an I have spent most of my adult life writing content, or else advising people on how best ... more