When most people talk about work-family balance, they focus on juggling their business or job responsibilities with their responsibilities as an individual, spouse, parent and caregiver. But there’s another important aspect of work-family balance that often gets left out of … Read the rest
Organizations, especially global Fortune 500 companies, have been using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) system to measure customer satisfaction for a decade. Recently, I’ve encountered many smaller companies relying on their NPS, in my opinion, much too heavily. For … Read the rest
When your company is in the start-up or development stage, you’re probably focused almost entirely on product development and delivery and don’t have much time to think about another key driver of success—marketing. But without marketing, your target customers may … Read the rest
Recently, I was asked to judge a business plan competition sponsored by a local incubator. Because my passion is helping start-ups get up and running successfully, I was happy to take part in the judging and share my viewpoint and … Read the rest
Ingredient branding can be a powerful marketing tool, but there’s more to successful ingredient branding than simply letting potential customers know that your product is central to the performance or value of the product it is a component part of. … Read the rest
In my last blog about setting goals, I shared with you the excitement I felt after having completed my first duathlon, an event that included a two mile run, 13 mile bike ride, and another two mile run. What I … Read the rest
The value proposition or positioning statement is one of the most important elements of creating a winning marketing plan. Many smaller companies just jump into marketing tactics like signing up for Google Adwords or sending out an e:mail campaign or … Read the rest
This weekend I achieved my goal of completing a duathlon that included a two mile run, 13 mile bike ride, and another two mile run. I had trained for over two months for this event and knew it would require … Read the rest
Creative brief. An oxymoron? After all, creativity encompasses multiple stages like preparation (research); ideation (brewing ideas); illumination (the “aha” moment); and presentation (sharing/critiquing ideas). Creativity is not brief. The creative brief, however, is just one element of the entire creative … Read the rest
The use of online video as a powerful marketing tool is turning the internet into a virtual social campfire on steroids. While communication technology has changed over the years, the human brain has remained pretty much the same. We humans … Read the rest