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For years in the automotive industry, marketers have known that getting someone to actually purchase a car depends on much more than the features and latest gadgetry. No one buys a car solely for the face detection alert software – though certainly something like that can influence the decision. What really sells those cars, though, … Read more

There was an interesting story recently in the Wall Street Journal talking about how computer manufacturers are heavily pushing into rural parts of China to convince more customers outside of major metropolitan areas to buy and start using computers. One particular campaign from Lenovo* uses a slogan featured in the WSJ piece of "Buy A … Read more

Tonight On September 14th at 10pm EST in the US, a new experiment in television will take place that is both a sign of the times, and a quiet revolution in the way that broadcast TV (and perhaps media itself) will work. The Jay Leno Show will debut at its new time slot of 10pm … Read more

This may come as a surprise, but your competition is not based on who sells the same thing you do. In fact, often it's not even about your product or your service.  The simplest way that most businesses define who they are competing against is other companies in the same category as you. If you … Read more

During the brief fleeting time when The Apprentice used to be great, it was about business. Reality television, at its core, is typically about showcasing some type of conflict. Most often that conflict comes from relationships and unrealistic portrayals of “real people” acting badly, hornily or greedily. So when I first watched Shark Tank – … Read more

Twanker – An egocentric individual, celebrity or organization who uses Twitter only for one-way broadcasting about their own greatness. Twidiot – An individual or organization that uses Twitter only to talk about insignificant things no one cares about, like what they had for breakfast or their latest press release. One of the funniest things about … Read more

The digital business card is not really a new idea. Over the past several years, it has evolved from the basic level of people including a URL on their physical business cards, to services now like Dropcard where you can send your details automatically by email, to sms based services like Contxts where you can … Read more

Have you ever heard the expression – “to eat your own dog food?” It’s a rather crude cliché to make the point that sometimes the best way to understand your customer is to experience your product the way that they do. In the automotive industry, this was often cited as the principal behind giving people … Read more

In the field of medicine, sometimes a patient armed with the right information can make an impact in their own healthcare through self diagnosis and get the right treatment faster as a result. This idea of self diagnosis is relevant in the legal world as well, only it's not about diagnosing a problem. There is … Read more

The US Postal service has a special kind of stamp. After raising the postage rates a few times in the relatively short timeframe of a few years, the USPS was getting criticized by people across the country for making their current stamps they had at home obsolete. If you bought your stamps at a time … Read more