There are so many hotels to choose from today, how do we differentiate the overall experience? Is it the customer service, esthetics of the environment, amenities and services, or all of the above? What makes a 5-star hotel worth its I recently spent four nights at the Mandarin Oriental in ... more

Functionality and usefulness are far more important to the success of your Web site than how nice and elegant it The first time I saw the Grand Canyon was a truly memorable experience. The depth, distance and hazy rainbow of colors were like nothing I had ever seen before. The ... more

Here's Part Five of my six-part conversation about professional services firms and social networking, with Tim Gilchrist and Steve In many professions, there is almost a procurement mentality, where potential clients issue RFPs and firms respond. Will social networking change the way professional or business-to-business services are It doesn't have ... more

Talk about a 180-degree shift. A month ago, I wrote about a company that was bypassing their and instead, holding a contest so consumers could compete to name their new product. But apparently, those same Average Joes and Janes who are more than qualified to create the name for the ... more

Todd Andrlik, who publishes a list of the top 150 blogs, announced Monday that Ad Age will soon begin publishing his , which he calls the Power 150. As Todd explains, Ad Age can now reference bloggers in its articles such as "according to David Armano's Logic+Emotion, No. 15 on ... more

In response to yesterday's post about #3300ff;" mock sales presentation , my brother Eric, who writes the popular FreightDawg #3300ff;" logistics , takes me to Eric's comments were so spot-on that I thought you'd benefit from knowing how misguided I can be sometimes.  He's known this for From my point ... more

You know how it's so tedious to synchronize different people's agendas and find a date for a group meeting that suits The very hip Scott introduced a group of us Boston bloggers to a nifty little Web 2.0 tool called that is ideal for finding suitable dates for appointments with ... more

A friend of mine is interviewing for a new sales job. Today he received the following instructions for his upcoming interview. As both a sales manager and a #3300ff;" marketing #000000;" , I like this format a lot. Take a look Instructions to Candidates for "Mock Sales   Select a product or service ... more

Susan at MarketingBlurb Will "the buzz marketing associated with Harry Potter, which often manifests itself in the form of real and fake spoilers, will negatively impact sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly In other words, will sales nosedive because spoilers have spilled the Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans about ... more

After tonight's Democratic Presidential Debate, John Edwards will use and answer questions submitted by viewers. Ustream is a platform that provides live interactive video for everyone. This use of Ustream is very innovative and should be quite exciting to I believe that all marketers should pay attention to the implementation ... more

If you read lots of blogs, you likely have come across several posts that discusses selling blog advertising or exchanging space for such things as iPods. The most recent and the best, I think, is Mack Collier's post at The Viral entitled Blog Monetization; How Do We ALL Mack is ... more

And are pretty excited that WalMart.com, as of Thursday, is allowing customers to rate and review all the products it sells. That's right, all of them. The feature was rushed into implementation after a testing-phase produced twice the number of expected customer This is an interesting move that puts the ... more

The hottest topic in the MarketingProfs discussion forum -- from Day One -- has been names and taglines. There have been 2,481 conversations about In fact, there are 31 active discussions right now. Feel like brainstorming a few taglines for a house cleaning service, a software company, a savings account ... more

Social networks are multiplying like fruit flies! , , , (out) , (in), , , , and Benny Bix's fave, ... "Socnets" offer a glimpse into the Internet's future .... which will increasingly include mobile communication from devices like the iPhone with small screens. That's what makes them so The ... more

You want to read marketing information that helps you. I want to provide you with that very stuff. Let's make a deal... if you let me know what you're looking for... I will do my best to provide it for What topics, tips, techniques do you wish knew to make ... more

That's spas. Hotels -- from branded, global chains catering to business class or high end, jet-setting travelers -- have (or are building) spas. Ditto for boutique establishments and casino hotels that cater to guests seeking luxurious amenities. In fact, hotels of every stripe are hopping on this new trend. Note, ... more

Is doing a pretty major media blitz with their new campaign, Ask Someone Why They Love Their I think I've seen it 18 times, in either a business magazine or online within the last hour (just kidding). It's a good campaign for a lot of reasons, not the least of ... more

Here's Part Four of my six-part conversation about professional services firms and social networking, with Tim Gilchrist and Steve Professional service firms are very client-oriented. But in order for this social networking paradigm shift to occur, it's got to be the client of the professional service firms who wants to ... more

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, has been . It seems he's been blogging and commenting on chat lines for some time, hiding his identity and posting comments praising Whole Foods and sometimes knocking the Sneaky and For sure. Embarrassing, now that he's been Yes. But illegal? I hope And ... more

Running a corporate blog is a totally different ballgame from running a personal blog. Based on my experience starting the blog, here's a quick primer - just 10 easy steps (encompassing strategy, tactics and measurement) that you need to focus on to get any corporate blog off the ground. The ... more

As a relatively new blogger, I am intrigued by the process of "getting found." People spend a lot of time figuring out ways to be more Recently one of my Marketing Voices interviews for PodTech was Neil , co-founder of ACS Consulting, based in Orange County, Neil's business is search ... more

I started a new job last week at HP as Vice President, Marketing for its Digital Photography and Entertainment businesses. Think digital cameras, photo compact printers, Snapfish, retail photofinishing and DVD on I am very excited by the tremendous growth opportunities in all these businesses for HP and by the ... more

In time for this month's release of the new Harry Potter movie (Tuesday) and book (next week), Jelly Belly launched its new sausage and pickle flavors in the Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans line. Meanwhile, last week, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon's Kwik-E-Mart came to life in 12 locations in North America to ... more

Are you interested in looking up the daily wholesale prices of electricity and using that information to decide when and how long you'll run the air conditioning or the gas dryer? Ready or not, variable pricing is about to invade your The trend towards variable pricing is becoming more pronounced. ... more

Here's Part Three of my six-part conversation about professional services firms and social networking, with Tim Gilchrist and Steve When do you think the business world is going to "get it" about social networking, and what will it take? Do you know of any good examples of social networking from ... more