Marketing has two distinct, if overlapping, missions. Mission #1 is to drive immediate revenue and support sales. This is the function that most people think about when they think of marketing. And this is the function that makes far too many people think that marketing and sales are the same thing. They are not, of…
Marketers like to talk to each other about the importance of marketing. We discuss branding and name recognition, channel marketing, social media tactics, market research techniques, etc. We work hard to keep up with the ever-exploding proliferation of buzz words. And along side these satisfying discussions and neologisms, we bemoan how misunderstood we are; how…
When I was getting my dog, I asked for the puppy that was the most mischievous and got into the most trouble. Everyone laughed. But my thinking was that she’d be the smartest and healthiest of the bunch. Certainly training her was, at best, an arduous experience. In the end, however, I got an exceptionally…
Hadoop is the latest tool and technique in the never-ending quest to mine the best and most subtle information from the astonishing amount of data a digitally-based economy and society generate daily. Stripped to its essentials, it puts dozens (or hundreds) of computers on finite tasks of data mining (and, occasionally, data visualization) simultaneously. This…
There is a tremendous amount of noise in the marketplace. And it is difficult to find someone who doesn’t feel over-burdened with the stresses of day-to-day living, and earning a living. There is no doubt about it. It is hard – and getting harder – to get, and keep, anyone’s attention. Every businessperson knows this. …
Six Sigma is an increasingly popular approach to measuring and managing quality. Its ultimate aim is “perfection,” the concept being that with continuing incremental improvement, there can be a reduction in variation approaching zero. Six Sigma is a process quality control tool, created by Motorola in 1985. It was designed as a manufacturing process tool. …
Pedestrian marketing – marketing that fits squarely into the norms of your market space and carefully adheres to the guidelines and rules of what everyone knows are the currently right ways to do things – offers some real and tangible benefits to marketers and business. ♦ When you do what everyone knows…
At its core, marketing is a numbers oriented profession. We segment the market and size it. We worry about demographics and demographic trends. We do statistically significant market research (or, at least, we should). Marketers are given to counting the number of hits, likes, connects, and follows. We are constantly looking for new and more…
I recently published a blog wondering how someone could consider himself a professional marketer if all he knows is how to post on social media – or worse, doesn’t understand digital marketing at all. I got some interesting responses And one in particular, I think, points out a fatal flaw in too much of what…
We all know that there are far too many people out there who call themselves marketers who only know how to tweet or post to Facebook or Instagram. But recently I had a conversation with several people who claim to be high-powered, senior level marketing executives who didn’t have a clue about what a digital…