tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-100220502011-12-19T22:09:28.316-05:00Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.comBlogger4661100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1162646530620470332006-11-04T08:16:00.000-05:002006-11-04T08:25:37.890-05:00

It is time for me to take my blogging in a somewhat different direction: The Perfect Customer Experience.This is where I believe the concept of contextual marketing has evolved in the current economy.It is still all about relevance to customer needs. But with a new emphasis on the experience that we as marketers are creating for our customers.I hope you will move over with me to my new blog ...

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1147621705725553552006-05-14T11:40:00.000-04:002006-05-14T11:48:25.970-04:00

Gosh, apparently many of you noticed I was not blogging lately and sent me emails asking what was up.Well, actually, I am just really, really busy right now.Spring rains have me cutting my lawn twice a week, the gardens are full of weeds so tall I had to give some of them names. Work is really busy at the moment and I have to pay the bills. But most of all I have my first grandson now in his

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1146426320054752552006-04-30T15:38:00.001-04:002006-04-30T15:45:20.190-04:00

I was truly shocked the other day to learn that there were more computer chips produced last year than grains of rice harvested. That sits up there on the Believe it Or Not list. But cap it off with the fact that the chips cost less on average than the rice.That gives you an idea of how technology is impacting everything we do. What we're really marketing these days (unless you are selling grains

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1146413712273018622006-04-30T11:56:00.000-04:002006-04-30T12:15:12.606-04:00

Breakthrough thinking is a challenge. We get mired down in "the way we do things around here" and some of our toughest problems persist, starved of new ideas.I ran into a post by Bryan Coffman with a great example of an idea generation technique similar to one we used at my agency for years, adapted from Doug Hall's Eureka Methodology. It is useful at times to look outside your organization for a

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1146249910762636872006-04-28T14:44:00.000-04:002006-04-28T14:51:33.663-04:00

If you are wondering where the emerging markets lie, look no further than the one focused on small ideas -- nanotechnology.'Nanotechnology' is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale.It is a haven for clever marketing innovators. Business giants are looking at concepts that are built with atomic precision -- Procter & Gamble, Boeing, Merck, Kraft, Ford, the list is long and

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1146156050391752512006-04-27T12:40:00.000-04:002006-04-27T12:40:50.746-04:00

When billboards begin actively interacting with passersby, you know the marketing world is beginning to understand that it is time to change the way we converse with clients.Nationwide Insurance is the latest brand to speak to consumers through an interactive billboard located in New York's Times Square. Nike, Mountain Dew and Time Magazine launched similar campaigns in the past.The Nationwide

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1146076836220857242006-04-26T14:16:00.000-04:002006-04-26T14:40:51.900-04:00

Where's your comfort level? Entrepreneurs often innovate on their gut instincts of what the market needs without ever checking what customers in that market are looking for. Research tends to lead toward incremental growth while entrepreneurs seek explosive growth. By one account only 60% of such initiatives succeed and this number has been consistent for, believe it or not, several decades.Such

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1146075135227540012006-04-26T14:11:00.000-04:002006-04-26T15:04:56.320-04:00

Linden Labs' Second Life, is an online game that demonstrates clearly how this new market is exploding. Remember my previous post about user-generated content as one of the attributes of Web 2.0 businesses?Second Life is a privately-owned, subscription-based massively-multiplayer online real-life game (MMORLG) created in 2003 by San Francisco-based Linden Lab. Founded by former RealNetworks CTO

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145997624653731682006-04-25T16:35:00.000-04:002006-04-25T16:40:24.810-04:00

Did you ever wonder what it costs to get a celeb on your marketing payroll?Adrants and Adweek have listed the Top Ten Deals. Here you can marvel how a single celeb can, in one day, make more money than you will see in your entire life.1. Catherine Zeta-Jones, T-Mobile: $20 million2. Angelina Jolie, St. John: $12+ million3. Nicole Kidman, Chanel No. 5: $12 million4. Jessica Simpson, Guthy-Renker:

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145996774782219512006-04-25T16:18:00.000-04:002006-04-25T16:26:15.036-04:00

Let's assume that people who visit our websites from search are mission-driven. If their mission is not accomplished, and accomplished quickly, visitors will seek an alternative, and these metrics may turn out to be a red herring.We cannot put up eBarriers to enabling visitors to accomplish their missions. Instead, get them as fast as possible to relevant information. Most sites I visit do not do

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145989213288963622006-04-25T14:02:00.000-04:002006-04-25T14:22:07.436-04:00

There's a natural rivalry between marketing and sales, but both silos are (or ought to be) doing the same thing. Marketing might be a bit more focused on a consistent brand message and sales might be more focused on engaging specific prospects. But neither can succeed without the other. Too many in one of the silos want to take all the credit for successes and point at the other silo when there

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145984149092905762006-04-25T12:44:00.000-04:002006-04-25T12:55:49.736-04:00

As you may have read, the CEO of Sun after serving as CEO for 22 years has just passed the baton to a new CEO.The media hint that Scott McNealy did so because the company is mired in debt and has had no profit since 2002.The new CEO Jonathon Schwarz had this comment:Schwartz said Sun will spend the next 90 days assessing various aspects of its business and finding ways to become more efficient,

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145971607748267662006-04-25T09:14:00.000-04:002006-04-25T09:34:20.276-04:00

Jeanne Jennings at ClickZ wrote this morning about predicting marketing results. Her comments reminded me of how difficult it is to get marketing managers to go out on the limb and post expectations and anticipated metrics before a campaign is launched. To me it was just a built-in part of the process, but in 20 years of working with many different clients at big companies and small, I could

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145970323818090982006-04-25T09:05:00.000-04:002006-04-25T09:05:24.206-04:00

Our portfolio of marketing touchpoint opportunities is expanding rapidly so it's smart to keep a few basics in mind as we tool down the road:WEBINARSA webinar does not need to be expensive -- 2 to 3K should be plenty.Ideally, customers should be the guest speakers -- they can validate the value message as well as make it compelling through their first hand knowledge.These should be regular and

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145471788768129662006-04-19T14:35:00.000-04:002006-04-19T14:36:28.993-04:00

Last Wednesday, I offered up that marketing must come up with a new magical sword -- at least periodically -- to keep itself fresh and inviting.Today The EMail Insider gave proof positive of what I was saying:While it is certain that improved spam filtering has had a significant impact, I think the real culprit is the incentive marketing industry itself. It has gone to the well too many times

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145290181157904902006-04-17T10:51:00.000-04:002006-04-17T12:09:41.580-04:00

Connecting with Connectors is New CRM StrategyPeppers and Rogers' latest newsletter offers keen insights into word of mouth marketing ... they present concepts from P&G, Mercedes and Starbucks:An excerpt on the P&G portion:Procter & Gamble has invested in word-of-mouth activities designed to connect with consumers on a more personal level. "Advocacy occurs in one-to-one conversations, not online,

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145115765914155832006-04-15T11:27:00.000-04:002006-04-15T11:56:55.253-04:00

While user-generated media are a hotspot for online advertising reaching younger audiences, technology buyers and influencers are also a concentrated market that uses RSS media.The explosion continues. User-generated media (a fancy term for blogs and online games) have proven a spectacular way to talk with the 18-34 crowd. That stands to reason. As MTV influence wanes, the new media offer high

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145113465311288672006-04-15T10:54:00.000-04:002006-04-15T11:04:25.650-04:00

According to a recent Forrester report release, nearly 98 million US households will have a mobile phone by 2010. That's the good news for mobile phone carriers.The bad news is bad indeed -- 24% of US mobile subscribers switched providers between 2004 and 2005, and another 16% plan to switch in the next two years.Number portability, commoditized mobile offerings, and lifestyle-based service

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145050907097554932006-04-14T17:17:00.000-04:002006-04-14T17:45:05.576-04:00

I am not talking about cold calling on the phone. What a waste. The federal government did us all a favor by taking such interruptive calls into our homes away from our marketing mix. Now we can stay riveted on calling as part of a coordinated lead generation process. It is not episodic, but instead is cleverly integrated into an overall process of helping customers make better buying

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1145049311085044312006-04-14T17:04:00.000-04:002006-04-14T17:16:24.383-04:00

Dion Hinchcliffe wrote an excellent piece on what Web 2.0 has evolved to ... so let me add his key attributes to the article I wrote two days ago.First off, he says that Web 2.0 is all about people. Well, that's just too high level to be useful -- everything pretty near is about people. But after this over-simplification, he gets at these five key concepts that reveal more what Web 2.0 is all

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144857325163667282006-04-12T11:53:00.000-04:002006-04-12T11:55:26.620-04:00

The gaming community offers an insight into value propositioning: Gamers often create avatars or game tools such as a “magic sword.” These magic swords can be sold on eBay so they have monetary value. But once everyone has a magic sword, the value of the sword drops precipitously. So it is with a marketing or branding model that has become common … we have to shift and offer a new sword or we

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144856938116891712006-04-12T11:39:00.000-04:002006-04-12T11:50:26.220-04:00

Web 2.0 businesses are fundamentally different. Web 2.0 businesses are delivering software as a service and using the Internet as a platform. A common attribute of all successful Web 2.0 businesses is that sharing control creates value for the producer.These businesses include the biggest most well-known companies and then some new, smaller ones are springing up everyday.Google is the leading

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144855989184538042006-04-12T11:27:00.000-04:002006-04-12T11:33:11.440-04:00

A recent analysis by PQ Media shows that 2005 advertising on user generated media (blogs, podcasts and wikis) at $20.4 million has leaped over 198% compared to 2004. A lot of this went to traditional blogs and to Web 2.0 businesses such as FlickR, MySpace, FaceBook because advertisers continue to chase the elusive 18-34 audience. Some percentage went to what I call serious B2B blogs that are fast

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144803551975127472006-04-11T20:54:00.000-04:002006-04-11T20:59:12.460-04:00

Use Open Source to Build a Community that Markets Your ProductIn the 18 months since Mozilla released its open-source Firefox browser, more than 150 million users have downloaded it.That's a pretty good performance for a nonprofit foundation that has virtually no marketing staff. The secret behind the success is SpreadFirefox.com, a Mozilla website where users post ideas for marketing schemes and

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144776794634889632006-04-11T13:25:00.000-04:002006-04-11T13:33:14.956-04:00

Creating communities can drive marketing to a higher level of success.The biggest shift caused by the Web is not the technology that people use to gain access to information. It is not even the content (although you know I am a huge believer in creating contextually relevant content). The biggest shift is one that is underway right now -- using the Internet to create communities who share common

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144716392228545372006-04-10T20:24:00.000-04:002006-04-10T20:46:32.506-04:00

Putting my personal filter on what I've heard today at the eContent Conference.Content is what brings us closer to our prospects and customers. But the content must be perceived of as valuable and the concept of what is value-added content is changing like a twisting river. Your target audience has no trouble locating content. It is everywhere. What they have trouble getting is the sense of what

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144709578661884112006-04-10T18:42:00.000-04:002006-04-10T18:52:58.750-04:00

I am in Scottsdale at the 7th annual eContent Conference. I'm here mainly because of my conviction that content is driving marketing and we all must get better at creating and distributing content in all sorts of media if we are to be successful in the emerging world. Tim O'Reilly just finished a talk on Web.2.0. Why should we listen to him? Simple. He gets it. In fact, he was the person who

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144708922995858802006-04-10T18:38:00.000-04:002006-04-10T18:42:06.773-04:00

PR student Ashley has dug up a good discussion on office politics at Forward Blog. We all fight the situation. Sometimes we are even part of the situation. I keep in mind the adage that politics always trumps strategy -- always. That said, there are ways to make a bad situation better.

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144440210276623852006-04-07T15:45:00.000-04:002006-04-07T17:28:42.110-04:00

Customers and Technology Changing the RulesWe must stop the madness, folks.Here's one pathway to sanityJust as all entrepreneurial success is gained through the understanding and the following of right principles, and not rules, so too is success gained only by marketing and sales organizations which understand and follow faithfully proper principles.In the words of Robert McKee, a rule states '

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144413861013264912006-04-07T08:20:00.000-04:002006-04-07T08:44:21.503-04:00

Well, if you have not yet already gone to Google Earth or its counterparts on other search engines, you probably will be doing it soon. The Today Show just did a story on it and that puts Earth in a much higher level of visibility.Katie Curic showed how a real estate agent is using Google Earth to zoom in from a far off view of the earth spinning on its axis to a closeup, 3-D view of a

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144257716428600012006-04-05T13:00:00.000-04:002006-04-05T13:21:56.856-04:00

Can Marketers Take a Cue from TV Content Producers?MediaPost writer Cory Treffiletti has an intriguing article in which he points out that already we see that shows like "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" have emerged as cross-platform brands."Lost" is the best example, when we consider that the show airs on networkTV but is also available on iTunes, it's begun to spin out a series of

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144250432652276932006-04-05T10:49:00.000-04:002006-04-06T08:57:43.113-04:00

Currently, 1.3 million feeds in the Bloglines database have at least one subscriber on Bloglines, one of the major RSS Aggregators ... and the one I most often use myself to track other blogs that I read regularly.According to Jim Lanzone, Senior Vice President of Search Properties at Ask Jeeves, there are 36,000 blogs that "really matter" since they have 20+ subscribers. That means only a small

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144097424743631062006-04-03T16:49:00.000-04:002006-04-03T16:50:25.570-04:00

Here's a good tip for you for creating effective subject lines, and it's backed by facts.We did an A/B test of two different subject lines for a document composition whitepaper offer:“Why Document Composition is Mission–Critical”It received 7 clicks. Our privacy policy got more downloads. Re-writing the subject line as a list:"Document Composition -- 8 Principles of Success"It received 128

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144086907045213262006-04-03T13:45:00.000-04:002006-04-03T13:56:34.660-04:00

Anne Holland (if you don't know her, you should ... she's the brilliance behind MarketingSherpa) has a great story in this week's newsletter.Seems she was presenting a great case study at a conference. After the talk, a gentleman introduced himself to her as the manager of the project she had just raved about. Then comes the sad part of the story ... the project that worked so well was cancelled.

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144082216170615052006-04-03T12:36:00.000-04:002006-04-03T12:36:56.306-04:00

Nick Rice posted a link to my site, so curiosity got me and I went to his blog: Strategic Design. It's a good one and worth you taking a view.I liked his very simple approach to writing an elevator speech. We all struggle with this one. Most marketing writers craft elevator speeches as written documents instead of intentional conversation. Nick's approach pushes you into something that feels

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144081537606334562006-04-03T12:11:00.000-04:002006-04-03T12:25:37.980-04:00

We all like to cut up the market based on criteria that are important to us. Most of us can't help ourselves. We look at the world from our own perspective. We have it all figured out. We know what our customers want because we know what we want. Only one problem: Too often we are wrong. The result: we segment the market incorrectly. Well, maybe not incorrectly ... but we sure can sub-optimize

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144076335601676932006-04-03T10:55:00.000-04:002006-04-03T11:47:48.986-04:00

O’Keeffe & Company is running the “Tech PR Idol Challenge.” Contestants will be presented with a sample business/marketing challenge, and will write a public relations plan to address the challenge. Finalists will present and defend their plan to a panel of public relations executives. The winner will receive a cash prize of $10,000. Open to college seniors through senior executives, the

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144075584866226602006-04-03T10:36:00.000-04:002006-04-03T10:50:26.630-04:00

I think it's really good news!There's nothing like facts to override opinions.Nearly 90% of respondents plan on using more Web analytics tools in 2006. This according to Forrester's Customer Experience Peer Research Panel.It seems that marketers are finally starting to realize there's gold in those click streams and shopping carts. There are plenty of great tools, even free ones. We use Webtrends

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1144074668227187852006-04-03T10:28:00.000-04:002006-04-03T10:31:08.500-04:00

If you want a Prospect Relationship Marketing program to work, first step is to envision the win. Then backtrack through your organization and map all the steps and people who touch the that win that you can so clearly see. Everyone in that stream is either a propellent or a detractor. Politics will weigh heavily and unless you are very strong willed in developing a PRM process, get ready for

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143994032985778532006-04-02T11:56:00.000-04:002006-04-02T12:09:00.196-04:00

On the one hand, I commend Chevrolet for running ads where the message is somewhat relevant to the target audience.Chevy Tahoe has been running two print ads in the wedding and travel sections of several daily newspapers. Presumably, they want to sell a Tahoe to newly weds ... the ad copy tells a story of a newly wed couple who found each other not by using a Computerized Dating Service but who

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143914946703228352006-04-01T13:08:00.000-05:002006-04-01T13:16:46.726-05:00

Look out J.D. Power, there's a new kid on the block.Television ads often generate increased Internet search activity by increasing brand awareness or sparking curiosity. But a recent GM Television spot issignificant because it ends with an unusual call to action and a visual of an actual Google screenshot with Pontiac typed in the search box. "Don't take our word for it, Google 'Pontiac' to find

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143913791168761982006-04-01T12:44:00.000-05:002006-04-01T12:49:51.216-05:00

More and more advertising money enters the search arena every day.With the increase in advertising, the most recent edition of Fathom Online Keyword Price Index indicates that overall prices in the online keyword auction have stabilized, helped by increases in the inventory of keywords and phrases. The report found that in December 2005 KPI averages eased, dropping two percent to $1.43 from $1.46

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143899786983025982006-04-01T08:11:00.002-05:002006-04-01T09:13:32.940-05:00

Gaining a better understanding of the “other person” is now one of the essential tasks of marketing. Yes, you might respond, this has been true forever. Nothing new in this demand. But there is a new emphasis on taking this knowledge to a level beyond demographic segmentation. Now we have to get at the values and interests that cause individual prospects and customers to make

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143816802388739402006-03-31T09:31:00.000-05:002006-03-31T09:53:22.430-05:00

Content drives click-to-open rates; not images.That's a surprise to most marketers I talk to. We seem to have a love affair with spectacular grapic design to drive a visual concept. At least, I know I have a belief that such visual concepts work better ... and most marketers that I work with share this notion. And in most media, we're right.But, apparently not in email.A Jupiter Research survey

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143815133702067062006-03-31T09:23:00.000-05:002006-03-31T09:25:33.726-05:00

The transit strike in New York in December, 2005, has some interesting lessons for all of us in marketing.Our customer contact systems work just fine – most of the time. But when an emergency hits, most of us are unprepared to keep lines of communication open to prospects and customers. During the strike, research firm Basex conducted a survey of 100 New York businesses. The report, "

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143814183386027762006-03-31T09:00:00.000-05:002006-03-31T09:09:43.570-05:00

A new consumer study sponsored by Five9 found that 76% of customers rated 24-hour customer service as either important or extremely important to their purchasing decision. The report shows that bad call center experiences drive customers away from brands, callers hate giving lots of info, and no one likes IVR traps.Some of the key findings in this report are:52% reported 24x7 support to be

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143753240184881472006-03-30T16:05:00.000-05:002006-03-30T16:14:00.236-05:00

What is it that separates the good from the great, the superior from the average?Why is it that the average job tenure for a chief marketing officer is so alarmingly short?One of the differenatiators is that Great Marketing Managers see a future beyond the marketing budget. The budget is such an ugly place to get mired down. Great managers chart a bigger and more ambitious path, they understand

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143728569971484672006-03-30T08:58:00.000-05:002006-03-30T09:22:50.063-05:00

Low Hanging Fruit vs. As Much as You Can EatEvery sales department is desperate for sales. So the pressure on marketing is to generate leads and get them as quickly to sales as possible. This has for decades created the chase for low hanging fruit. Direct marketing programs are launched and bring in 2% of the list as leads. We turn them over to sales and go on to the next campaign. A rolling

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143657058745171172006-03-29T13:22:00.000-05:002006-04-01T09:08:59.066-05:00

I hope the columns in my math tables render correctly for you to read them properly.This part of ROI Math explores the variable cost impact of customer retention vs. customer acquisition.The two examples below illustrate the return on marketing to current customers is more efficient than new customer acquisition. While acquisition of new customers should not be abandoned, the increased response

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143485517620610702006-03-27T13:04:00.000-05:002006-03-27T13:51:57.863-05:00

We all use the words "wants" and "needs" when we focus on customer strategies.If we're doing our work right, we address these wants and needs with our products, our branding and our promotions. We get to using these two words a bit carelessly and almost interchangeably.But there is a vital distinction. Needs tend to be more objective requirements while wants are more emotional.I want sweets but I

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143241482864964752006-03-24T17:58:00.000-05:002006-03-24T18:07:17.013-05:00

The Justification is in the NumbersThe following scenario illustrates the case for contextual marketing as a more effective model for managing communications expenditures across the lifetime of the customer relationship. Until this is done, you cannot have cost effective, metrics-driven customer relationships.Let’s look at a business doing $100 million with a product cost of 45%, leaving a gross

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143240911896427762006-03-24T17:51:00.000-05:002006-03-24T17:57:58.976-05:00

A primary goal of all marketing campaigns is to cement the relationship so that you get priority treatment over your competition. One measure of this relationship is the interactivity you can create between your target audience and your enterprise. To do that, create what I call catalysts ... a special breed of content designed to trigger specific, pre-planned actions by your prospects.Catalysts

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143239997832483642006-03-24T17:32:00.000-05:002006-03-24T17:39:57.856-05:00

Overcome the Poor Performance of Most Marketing Campaigns:There are 3 objectives for story telling:First, to reveal the kind of company you are by communicating the vision behind your products --To show how your company is relevant to the customer's needs, wants and expectations;To show how your company delivers value … high value. No bs here, get at the real value you provide and demonstrate it

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1143145456896831822006-03-23T15:23:00.000-05:002006-03-23T15:24:16.936-05:00

Will Marketing and Sales Ever Get Along?In one company after another, it seems sales and marketing departments spend more time fighting turf wars with each other than in winning new business. Even if company executives recognize the problem, attempts to correct the misalignment fall short. As counselors to many companies over the years, the fact that each department mistrusts or wants to one-up

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142885128295003762006-03-20T15:04:00.000-05:002006-03-20T15:05:28.296-05:00

Forgive me also if a few of my words look strange. The letter "T" on my keyboard has decided to take a vacation. Guess I'll call the Help Desk.

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142884940645898042006-03-20T14:42:00.000-05:002006-03-20T15:02:20.683-05:00

The newest issue of Informaion Today arrived and I spotted an article that caught my attention ... I am always interested in trends so their "Top 10 Technology Trends" took me inside the publication.Trend 1 is that blogging software will be integrated with our other software. From my point of view, this is essential if blogging is to become a mainstream marketing tool. They missed, however, the

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142883706028519002006-03-20T14:38:00.000-05:002006-03-20T14:41:46.063-05:00

I had a lot of stuff I wanted to post in the last few days, but there were tech problems a Blogger. They might not yet be resolved, so if you have difficulty accessing me in next week or so, it is likely an outage at Google Blogger. They seem to be working hard at fixing he situation, but technology stuff can be difficult at times.Here's their notice:A clarification about the filer we restored

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142604472875128812006-03-17T08:50:00.000-05:002006-03-17T09:07:52.936-05:00

A recent analysis by AMR Research indicates that 68% of retail customer loyalty programs are not working effectively. Against such odds, you might wonder why even start one. It seems that those who have done so cannot determine how to provide enough value to motivate consumer behavior. That's a tough problem for stores that already promote every-day-low-price strategies. How can you give even

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142380772094279742006-03-14T18:03:00.000-05:002006-03-14T18:59:32.170-05:00

Steve Yastrow posted this on Tom Peters' blog ... his definition of a customer."Anyone whose actions affect your results."I think he has over-simplified things, missing a critical component -- that customers are people who buy stuff from us. Steve's definition takes the most liberal expression and in some situations, this is a useful connotation. Steve would consider employees to be customers.

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142347696275225102006-03-14T09:36:00.000-05:002006-03-14T09:48:16.303-05:00

My premise is that marketing should own the contact center. My rationale is that the role of the contact center is two-fold: to provide customer support (read that as customer retention) and to support outbound direct marketing campaigns (read that as customer acquisition). Both responsibilities should be under the management and supervision of the Marketing Department.Contact centers (

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142346958644133982006-03-14T09:26:00.000-05:002006-03-14T09:36:10.753-05:00

I just came across an old AMR Research slide showing the key drivers behind CRM. Wow, is it revealing!It reveals that corporations were (at least in 2002 when the study was done) totally fixated on themselves instead of on their customers. At that rate, CRM should never have been called Customer Relationship Marketing ... it should have simply been called Marketing and Sales Automation.The first

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142344980317585972006-03-14T08:41:00.000-05:002006-03-14T09:03:00.343-05:00

The realization that marketing is now responsible for maintaining clients as well as attracting new ones is slowly sinking in. Theoretically, it was the rationale for investing in CRM technologies. But the technologies came and we didn't change what we were doing all along. It proved culturally and organizationally difficult to separate acquisition efforts from service efforts. Managing customer

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142286416831212092006-03-13T16:30:00.000-05:002006-03-13T16:46:56.956-05:00

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.” – Mark TwainSteve Kayser, Cincom PR Manager, interviews Dr. David M. Abshire, who in 1987 served as a Special Counselor to President Reagan with Cabinet rank, to coordinate the Iran-Contra investigation, and had authority to meet with the President alone. Abshire writes about the experience in his new book "Saving the Regan Presidency.

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142282176819066142006-03-13T15:32:00.000-05:002006-03-13T15:36:16.820-05:00

The individual opinions blasted out in in the blogosphere are becoming an increasingly powerful force. Together, they form the fabric of online word of mouth that can determine the hottest new product, make or break a TV show, or set off a customer revolt. Eager to tap into the buzz, a growing number of companies are turning to sophisticated new technologies that track what's said on Internet

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142281927379714232006-03-13T15:24:00.000-05:002006-03-13T15:32:07.413-05:00

The maker of BlackBerry email devices, fresh from settling a lawsuit that threatened its very business, is buying a company that will allow it to marry BlackBerrys with corporate phone systems, The Associated Press reports. "It makes your BlackBerry perform just like your desktop phone," said Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of the company behind the BlackBerry, Research in Motion. All of us in

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1142278129622773832006-03-13T13:16:00.000-05:002006-03-13T14:28:49.663-05:00

A lot of my recent email has been people asking for advice on how to create more effective C-level decision maker marketing programs. Since you have never held their position, you don't really know what their day looks like, what problems they struggle with most and how to relate your campaigns to their real world.You need to understand enough about their world that your campaigns will engage

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141833124218204402006-03-08T10:39:00.000-05:002006-03-08T10:52:04.273-05:00

Marketing it seems to me has a responsibility for developing products that customers can use. But in her thesis of the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Elke den Ouden discovered sad evidence that we are failing the mark.When you consider the number of "new technology" products that now fill the shelves -- MP3 players, home cinema systems with remote controls so complex we

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141762997304348482006-03-07T15:17:00.000-05:002006-03-07T15:23:17.353-05:00

The move from broadcast marketing to conversational marketing will come slowly and all-too painfully to many companies that have spent billions on one-way advertising.

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141761051402045362006-03-07T14:21:00.000-05:002006-03-07T14:50:51.453-05:00

Enron Revelations as Revealed by Business Finance Magazine's eNewsletter:For anyone who has read Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind's "The Smartest Guys in the Room" (Portfolio, 2003) or watched the documentary of the same name, the headline of this Associated Press article, Witness: Enron Gained from Energy Crisis (free registration required), will illicit a "Duh." The article explains how the

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141754658342085312006-03-07T13:00:00.000-05:002006-03-07T13:04:18.386-05:00

Just sitting here pondering how to convince our senior managers to invest in a new customer relationship marketing program.But lest I reveal any trade secrets, let me move the line of thinking to a B2B provider of package delivery services (you know, UPS or FedEx or that new one with red and yellow trucks). The company’s books tell senior managers that the trucks and aircraft that carry the

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141747615294013592006-03-07T10:51:00.000-05:002006-03-07T11:06:55.343-05:00

A survey for Sears concluded that a woman's best friend is her tool kit and reports: "Three out of five women would rather receive an hour of advice from Bob Vila than Dr. Phil.If you are running marketing campaigns aimed at women, that should be useful advice. They don't want to be preached at but instead prefer advice they can use around their homes. Marketing, after all, must be relevant to

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141741670011509842006-03-07T09:01:00.000-05:002006-03-07T09:27:50.043-05:00

Melinda Krueger of Krueger Direct/Interactive must have known I was going to post today about eMail Marketing (my previous post).As soon as I published "eMail Marketing Made Better," I got an email from MediaPost with an article she wrote about using and abusing eMail lists. It was so timely and relevant to my discussion that I felt compelled to pass along a link for you to follow up on. Melinda

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141739496435135442006-03-07T08:17:00.000-05:002006-03-07T08:55:37.703-05:00

We all use it. It's so alluringly cheap compared to the Post Office.But most eMail marketing campaigns respond back to us with results under 1%.So cheap is not the answer unless we learn how to do it better ... and better ... and better.The first problem begins before we ever create the eMail itself. It starts with the list. And eMail address lists are bottled up like gold at Ft. Knox. The

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141682164291004782006-03-06T16:42:00.000-05:002006-03-06T16:56:04.360-05:00

Physician, heal thyself!It is never easy to accept criticism, but it is how we learn.The CMO Council conducted a 4-month study into how we practice marketing ... how we run our marketing departments.Leading marketing execs admit that their department performance is not top-notch. Only 10 percent see their marketing groups as "highly influential and strategic" within their company. Under half

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141678403796886752006-03-06T15:40:00.000-05:002006-03-06T15:53:23.830-05:00

My faith has been restored.Since this morning when Google was still placing pharmaceutical ads on this blog, I posted several articles where I purposely optimized the content for the word "marketing."Now, understand that I do not tend to write here with SEO as a prime objective ... I feel I have more of an obligation to write for you than an engine. So I won't drive you nuts with a lot of

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141669699804617762006-03-06T13:21:00.000-05:002006-03-06T13:59:50.283-05:00

A peek at my notes from the SEO Srategies conference:The headline title for the ad is the most important elementGet the keyword and a differentiator in the title … a 50% improvementBold your company or brand nameBe specific … vague copy fails every timeTwo examples of specific copy for Cincom: Learn how Product Configuration worksProduct Configuration in half the timeAnother example of being

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141669065306126142006-03-06T13:11:00.000-05:002006-03-06T13:17:45.306-05:00

Just as I was feeling sorry for the marketing department at H&R Block, I hit a blunder of my own. I went away from blogging for a week while attending the SEO Strategies Conference in New York.No posts from me for a week.The result: my blog traffic went down by 90%!Moral of lesson for me and all bloggers ... keep up with regular posting ... give your readers the steady flow of interesting and

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141668596148065032006-03-06T12:48:00.000-05:002006-03-06T13:09:56.193-05:00

A marketing miscue could not have come at a worse time of the year ... right when consumers are considering who they want to prepare their tax returns for the dreaded April 15 hit in our pocketbooks. Well, actually it wasn't a marketing miscue, but it sure is a marketing headache.All the hard marketing work that H&R Block has done in building its brand name, with hundreds of thousands of dollars

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141597975418355202006-03-05T17:06:00.000-05:002006-03-05T17:32:55.526-05:00

I rather suspect we all believe we have the foresight to do great marketing. But clearly, some of us need to sharpen our tacks before we pin them to the bulletin board of success. I am talking about the kind of foresight that lifts our marketing programs out of the ordinary ... that touch prospects and customers in ways that are so relevant that our audiences know for certain we are talking with

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141595289151436512006-03-05T16:30:00.000-05:002006-03-05T16:48:09.176-05:00

Here's a different kind of Google Bomb.I was away last week attending a seminar and while I was gone and not blogging, it looks as if Google has lost its scent. The previous ads in this space were well matched with the content, but this week they have gone to pot. Search engine marketing is being tested here, and not doing so well.Out of five ads, two were pharmaceutical-related. In the course of

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1141594136120862022006-03-05T16:12:00.000-05:002006-03-05T16:28:56.186-05:00

We can do all the customer surveys we want. We can dig at all kinds of attributes that give us the knowledge to shape marketing success. But when it comes down to the most important goal all of us in marketing have, there's just one question. Put this in every marketing survey you do with customers and you will have a benchmark to all marketing efforts:Will you refer us to someone else?If you get

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140827922569973182006-02-24T19:35:00.000-05:002006-02-24T19:41:25.183-05:00

David Verklin, CEO Carat Americas and chairman of Asia Pacific delivered a keynote address at a summit about search marketing arranged by Yahoo. "Search," he said, "is becoming the behavior of choice. Our job as advertisers is to put our clients' products in the path of search behavior." The full story.

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140826448972891592006-02-24T19:02:00.000-05:002006-02-24T19:14:09.010-05:00

Nothing accelerates the path to value more than capturing and understanding what your customers want to accomplish in the next five minutes, and delivering a relevant and personalized experience that makes it possible for them to achieve their objectives.Do this and you will connect faster.To do this, obviously, you need to change your internal marketing processes. You need to capture the

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140815062382657442006-02-24T15:21:00.000-05:002006-02-24T16:05:22.383-05:00

Marketing is among other things about innovation to differentiate.And the king of marketing innovation has to belong to Procter & Gamble.And they don't do innovate the way everyone else does.Most pharmaceutical companies innovate by hiring leagues of scientists who invent new drugs. P&G has been among those that were innovating by this traditional means. But now, they are turning the cart upside

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140809785081024072006-02-24T14:35:00.000-05:002006-02-24T14:43:26.230-05:00

The “Smalltalk Tidbits/Industry Rants” blog by James Robertson, product manager, Cincom Smalltalk, is ranked seventh in the Google and Technorati Software Development Sites’ Top 10. Robertson’s Smalltalk blog has been up and running for four years."This is cool--writing a blog with a bent towards a product that has been used to create the blog itself. Nice engine," said one reviewer.The Smalltalk

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140798233881575672006-02-24T09:51:00.000-05:002006-02-24T11:23:53.980-05:00

The goal is to generate more sales leads, get them qualified and move them as fast as possible through their buying cycle.It starts with the list.Get the list wrong and you WILL fail!Presumably, the list has been well chosen to have a high percentage of prospects in your target market. There is waste in the list, but not nearly as much waste as with mass media, or even targeted mass media.But the

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140788050721988722006-02-24T08:15:00.000-05:002006-02-24T08:34:10.786-05:00

This search engine optimization stuff is driving me nuts.We've done all the obvious things like optimizing pages in our Cincom website for keywords, adding metatags, adding keywords to alt text, putting key words in page headers and URLs.But there are techniques to drive performance that seem to change every day. With a relatively small web team, we struggle with making all these tricks work ...

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140720924228016082006-02-23T13:37:00.000-05:002006-02-23T13:55:24.253-05:00

A funny thing happened on the way to ...I put Google ads on this blog to help offset some of the cost, but did not realize that they would be personally useful to me. I found myself looking over the ads mostly to see how well Google was matching ads with my content ... were they really doing contextual matchups? Within a week or so I was satisfied that they were doing what they promised.Then I

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140718348208222492006-02-23T12:46:00.000-05:002006-02-23T13:12:28.246-05:00

In a magazine for the Quest Users Group, it was cited that a recent study of more than 300 companies involved in technological changes showed that failure most often resulted from a lack of change management . From my experience in working with many of America's best marketing organizations and some that were not so good, the same obstacle persists within marketing departments. We seem unable to

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140559356941659262006-02-21T16:54:00.000-05:002006-02-21T17:04:30.260-05:00

The newest edition of Trendwatching just came out. Often off-the-wall ideas resonate from the pages of this newsletter. Today's trend is something they call "insperiences." I think they have hit something that spells opportunity for some clever entrepreneur ... but more importantly for the rest of us marketers who just want to understand what makes consumers tick ... Trendwatching is worth the

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140556814301245292006-02-21T16:14:00.000-05:002006-02-21T16:20:14.350-05:00

A niche market is not a sales opportunity.It is a service opportunity.Look back to my previous post and inhale Bob Herbold's comment.We offer value to the people in a targeted niche ... we help make them more successful, happier, more content, more secure, more of something.When you are direct marketing to the niche, think of the value your mailing must deliver if it is to be opened and consumed.

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140555614765723272006-02-21T15:53:00.000-05:002006-02-21T16:02:55.543-05:00

LEAP – The Longitudinal, Evolving, Accountable ProtocolBob Herbold, recently retired EVP for Microsoft and prior to that, Herbold spent 26 years with Procter & Gamble, and during his last 6 years with P & G, he served as Senior Vice President, Advertising and Information Services. In short, Herbold knows what he's talking about when he talks about marketing. Here's what he said about our futures:

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140459018743887632006-02-20T13:02:00.000-05:002006-02-20T13:10:18.776-05:00

Another good example of contextual advertising found on this blog ...Forrester has a Google ad running currently on my blog (check it out below) ...Business BlogHow Businesses Should Use Blogs. Read Forrester's Latest Research.I cite this not so much as a plug for Forrester as I find it impressive that Google is in fact placing ads here that should be relevant to the content I am writing. At

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140457692183524072006-02-20T12:38:00.000-05:002006-02-20T12:48:12.186-05:00

This tidbit goes hand-in-hand with my previous posts on how we make decisions ... we listen to inputs that fit our worldview and we block out contrary opinions. This makes it very hard for marketers to involve prospects in pitches ... unless we happen to understand the decision maker's worldview.Now the seventh annual Edelman Trust Barometer confirms yet another aspect of this phenomenon. In

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140456818597585802006-02-20T12:26:00.000-05:002006-02-20T12:33:38.600-05:00

We all look back ... those of us with any history and the gray hair to match. The good ole' days when we did things right. The edges are blurred by time. We recall now only what fits our current view of the world. We rewrite the history and offer it as proof that we should do things the way we did them in the past.Been there. Done that. Don't want to do it again.The past legends are often

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140455871311932362006-02-20T12:08:00.000-05:002006-02-20T12:18:29.360-05:00

Forbes magazine has a slide program featuring the nastiest countries in the world: Chad tops the list of most corrupt. Following are Bangeledesh, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Haiti, Nigeria, Equatorial Quinea, Cote DiVoire, Angola, Tajikistan, Sudan, Somalia, Paraquay, Pakistan, Kenya, and the Congo.When you consider the countries we all know are dangerous places for free enterprise that are NOT on

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140450226396021832006-02-20T10:36:00.000-05:002006-02-20T10:43:46.443-05:00

Cut it back says Piper Jaffray. Expand it says Best Buy.It is always nice to see how best practices in marketing are so clear cut.Internet Retailer tells the story:Aaron Kessler, senior research analyst who follows e-retailers for investment research firm Piper Jaffray & Co., says "As retailers deal with rising competition over Internet paid-search keywords, they need to rely less on search

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140437618078708552006-02-20T06:56:00.000-05:002006-02-20T07:29:32.300-05:00

We all have different experiences in life, and these experiences teach us lessons.One lesson I have learned is to buy marketing automation software instead of trying to build it in-house. There is substantial pain in my learning so you can imagine that it is a very strong lesson I will not soon forget.This is yet another side to the story of rebuilding the Cincom Systems website.Two years ago we

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140436453717358302006-02-20T06:20:00.000-05:002006-02-20T06:54:25.746-05:00

We are most of the way through the development of our website implementation, with about 20 additional major site tasks still to go. But finally we can begin to see the fruit of our labor.I'm talking about the Cincom Systems Corporate Website -- an ambitious project that has been over a year in the making.There are many traps that you can walk into when you launch a redesign of a website that

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10022050.post-1140389446612020892006-02-19T17:33:00.000-05:002006-02-19T17:52:54.593-05:00

The Internet works in America. In fact, it works wherever freedom exists.Our Internet sites are so open, that the quality and access -- not just one or the other, but the combination of the two -- is what makes it work.Not so in other countries -- there we discover how limited some people are, even when they get on the Internet, to what they can access.The power of the Internet has challenged

Dale Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03812019272454100113noreply@blogger.com0