I recently met with a CEO who asked me “so what’s your usual playbook?”  Wow.  There are a lot of problems with that question and the person who asked it.  First and foremost, any marketer who thinks they can create a playbook of tactics that will fit any given company should: (a) find a different … More Death of the Playbook

I spent a few days last week in a sales kickoff meeting.  Hungry for qualified leads, the sales team was quite enthusiastic about how we would improve the company’s marketing efforts.   Of course, I love this, but frankly, much of what I said seemed obvious.  Then I realized, for whatever reason, sometimes marketers think too … More Three (Duh) Ways to Improve Your Marketing

I’ve been waiting a few weeks to figure out how I can politely address what may seem like a pet peeve. I’ve finally decided to not be so sensitive and accept that some people will see themselves in the blog post and will need to accept they are less than experts when it comes to … More Creative or Analytical? – It’s the Wrong Question

If 2011 was a game, it would be baseball. There haven’t been any grand slams this year, but there have been some solid hits. In the end, several companies have made enough overall progress that this year will be a win for them. As we round third and head for home, I want to look … More Marketing Evolution Continues Into 2012

Whether Oracle actually cancelled Marc Benioff’s keynote speech or simply “rescheduled it” to Thursday, a day Benioff couldn’t be there, is immaterial. Oracle World is clearly huge and very focused on all things Oracle. I walked on the bridgeway above Howard Street yesterday and even from the outside, you can see it dwarfs the Dreamforce … More Benioff Wins This Round

When I was in the VOD business many years ago, the weak link in the business model was access to content (film and television distribution deals).  Flash forward to today’s world of video streaming – nothing has changed. Now that Netflix has separated into two companies: Netflix for streaming and Qwikster (side note: really dumb … More Netflix’s Future Depends On Distribution Deals

It is rare to find a founder who is visionary and can grow a $1+ Billion organization. For every Jeff Bezos, there are 100s of founders who create very good concepts and then allow their companies to miss their true potential because they don’t know how to move beyond being the founder, CEO and company … More Where Founders Should Go After They’re Done Founding

Last week, I attended Dreamforce, Salesforce’s conference. Like the now defunct TechCrunch 50, it is a great place to see a lot of very different companies; in this case with a thin layer of similarity. It is the common ground of Salesforce integration that makes the companies so ripe for assessment and comparison. I met … More What’s Coming and What Could Hold Us Back

For years, I’ve preached the benefits of integrated marketing, so it is time I write about it here as well. Too many companies silo their marketing approaches into narrow disciplines without creating a plan for them to support each other. The answer is not to only hire generalists without any expertise, but in addition to … More Integrated Marketing: The Only Way to Guarantee Fully Optimized Marketing

Bankrupt = not enough money to pay what is owed. People/organizations that are bankrupt default on their loans. Morally bankrupt = not enough moral fiber to do what would commonly be believed to be right. When people/organizations are morally bankrupt, they are so lacking in morals they don’t know or care what is morally right. … More Moral Bankruptcy in DC