Excuse me, but can FOX do ANYTHING without the American Idol gang? Just aired an exclusive performance by Paula Abdul, with Randy on guitar. She can still move, but I think she was lip syncing. This followed by an interview on the red carpet with Ryan Seacrest. I shouldn’t be surprised. What’s a Super Bowl, after all, without Ryan Seacrest and a red carpet show?!

Strategy and persistence move the marketing machine. Without strategy the wheels spin. Without persistence the wheels stop. With both you win the race.

My very skilled VA — Terry Green — has motivated me to make a final 2006 post on this New Year’s Eve by tagging me in her Farewell to 2006! I’ve been tagged? blog post. I’d never heard of this, but I’m game and it’s fun reading everyone’s 5 things. (Terry, no I didn’t know you adopted a son in Korea!)

So here we go…

1. I was the first in my family to go to college.
2. My husband and I went out nearly 22 years before we married in February 2006.

3. I use my last names interchangeably — Kyle, Kyle-Wagner, Wagner

4. I have a full room of oddball collectibles — Wheaties boxes; Star Trek figures and toys; Starting Lineup figures; comic books and other misc.

5. I love fiction novels — read at least one a week — but usually can’t tell you what one’s about a day after finishing.

Here’s a bonus thing just for Denise Aday. I have another mascot she can have to complete a threesome (Not reallly. We love our demon…most of the time. See her darling antics below.)

Some small business people I admire and would like to know more about are…

Bill Collier (newest — and extremely welcome member of the St. Louis Publishers Association board), fellow Bold Biz Babe Polly Schlafhauser, and fellow High Rankings forum moderators Scottie Claiborne and Michael Motherwell (actually, Scottie’s a hard-working admin).

Why in the world would Google go out of the way to send a unique gift each year to certain customers? Because from a strategic standpoint it’s smart.

- Influencer Relations. Google’s high-volume customers also tend to be highly visible on the Web where — surprise — low-volume and potential customers can also be found. In marketing-speak, many of the high-volume customers are influencers. Through our ezines, blogs, RSS feeds, forums, clients, etc. we are in a position to spread the word — both good and bad — about a particular company. Make us happy (or mad) and we tell the world.

- Goodwill. By sending a gift we think is nifty and useful, Google builds “warm-fuzzy” points with us. I still regularly use the nifty kit from last year. (Except for the top to the flash drive, which the cats confiscated and lost!)

- Envy (I’m sure there’s a marketing term for this, but I can’t dig it up right now). People covet what they cannot/do not have. When would-be or lower-volume customers see what others get, it’s another reason to consider increasing the Google budget for 2007 (conveniently, many marketing and business plans are being written now).

Add this to all the other reasons client/customer gift-giving thrives and you know what Google’s thinking! (BTW Google, thanks! Very cool.)