Top of Mind

Branding ~ Invest in One of Your Best Assets

Your brand should be the focal point of your marketing effort. Many times the sales and operations efforts will swamp the branding and eventually dilute the best. Starbucks saw this first hand in its efforts to improve efficiency when it …

Online and more

Hope It Sticks

I was at my bank on Saturday. The teller invited me to go to a special online promotion at “theirwebsite.com/teller.” I noticed this “register to win” promotion was also printed on my deposit slip. So a couple days later I …

Leadership and more

Change is Inevitable Progress is Optional

Change is often discouraged or debated in organizations until there are no other options, and sometimes at great calamity. Tom Neff, my mentor, taught me that organizations must embrace and plan for change by choosing progress instead of letting inevitable …

Leadership and more

Gut Check on Ethics

I belong to a professional business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, which was founded in 1904 in part to promote and advance ethics in business.

Over the years I served in leadership, and subsequently we have continued to wrestle with ethics …

Top of Mind

Develop your own Stimulus Package

Now is the time to develop and focus your promotional efforts to create your own stimulus package and grow your business. Don’t cut off your future by hunkering down and forgetting to promote for tomorrow. Whether it is your word-of-mouth …

and much much more

Fast Company Says Major Media Should Chill Out

I’m a big believer that in this environment, there is no one way to get to market. Both online and traditional media work in unique ways. You need to find the right mix of both that will serve and reach …

Leadership and more, Top of Mind

Start with the End

Many business and entities automatically assume certain outcomes and modes of operations for their given business model because of what is considered the norm. However, buy stepping back and evaluating Revenue Model options from the beginning and working backwards leads …

Entertainment and more

Live Music Lives

The record labels tell us that the Music Business is failing and in decline. What they mean is the Record Label business is headed on a downward slope.

As my good friend Tom Jackson claims, there is a “huge” difference! …

Online and more

No More Fish In A Bucket

It used to be that everyone marketed and bought ads on an age-based demographic. When we were coordinating millions of dollars in radio and TV buys, this was the only way to do it, because that is what Arbitron and …