As small business owners, managers, and marketers one of the issues we must confront each holiday season is whether or not to give price discounts as part of your planned marketing programs. The uncertainty can seem enormous. How much should the discount be? When should you run it? In what situations should it apply? Will [...]

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Most small business owners know that positioning their companies as providing the same products or services in the same way as the industry giant can lead to disaster. Kind of like a Chihuahua waving a red flag in front of a bull; one twitch from the giant and they’re dead. Studying the competition and acting [...]

The 2009 Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest entrants seem to have stepped it up a notch this year. Similar to past contests, the winner’s 30-second spot becomes a Super Bowl commercial. Since the recession and the fear of being perceived as frivolous is causing many former Super Bowl advertisers to dial down their lineups [...]

Coupon users tend to have higher income and more education than non-users. And the wealthiest among us are some of the most frugal. Think about it.

Sometimes a formula just isn’t enough. A reader, who recently read the Figuring Break Even Point piece from a few years back, was confused about how to use the CPM formula. I responded, explaining — in words and figures — how to figure the break even point using his numbers. Analytical Bobette was pleased with [...]

When updating your marketing plan, do you imagine the future and take into account how your business environment will change? Throw the current environment out the door, predict what will happen to turn your industry on its head, and plan for that? Perhaps too few of us take that approach. Most (including yours truly) tend [...]

If you had any doubts about the power (or swiftness) of social media, think again. Over the last several days, Johnson & Johnson has felt the downside of this power. Through social media such as Twitter (#MotrinMoms) and YouTube — and blogs across the Internet — moms rebelled at a commercial many saw as patronizing. [...]

Writing and distributing articles can be a high-ROI activity (thanks, Chris Knight, for that post), but the potential marketing uses do not stop there. Any place you use the written word represents an opportunity to “recycle” that content. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
- Convert part of an article to [...]

As marketers and business managers, we always claim to seek the highest ROI, but if you ask me that is not the case. Strategies slip when things are going well. We get lazy when profitable choices abound and go for easy instead of best. We conveniently forget the strategically sound practices of evaluating alternatives [...]