Those who live and breathe marketing have a problem: we can never fully unplug. Marketing follows us wherever we go. The TV ads, the social media forums, the direct e-mail – there’s a constant wondering of the strategic idea behind a campaign, whether the target audience was properly selected, and whether the channel mix works. Or perhaps this is just me and I’m projecting. Let’s move on.
Following my last post on globalization and its ramifications for the structure of global marketing functions, I spent a week trying to unplug in Italy (thank you, Starwood points). What spurred the above introduction was the amazing difference in marketing communications techniques required in the Italian market versus the United States – both industrialized Western countries with heavy penetration of traditional and digital media. Similar on paper, far different in practice. Read More »




Advance warning: this post will likely open more doors than it closes. But they are important doors that need opening, especially if they aren’t already. Haniel Lynn pushed the first one open with his 

After my
Someone smarter than me has surely waxed poetic on the virtue of looking to the past to prepare for the future. Yet if 2009 taught marketers anything, it is that the past is no predictor or guarantee of future performance.
Global warming be darned, it snowed in Dallas last week and temperatures never reached 50 degrees. While I had the ‘pleasure’ of braving the elements for the week, I had the sincere pleasure of visiting with members as diverse as airlines and beauty products to discuss the impact of social media on their respective competitive landscapes. It occurred to me that the current state of social media for most organizations is the