Advertising & Marketing

Successful Companies Turn Individuals into Great Sales People There are only four steps for an individual to become an enthusiastic customer and an unpaid sales person. Just remember: A.I.P.S. Become Aware Obviously, an individual must become aware of your product or service before they can even consider becoming your customer, let alone a sales resource. Continue Reading →

If you read my last blog, you may have already figured out that this was another poster outside my dad’s breakfast-lunch café many years ago. This poster also was published nationally in hundreds of newspapers by Ripley’s Believe It or Not. It’s hard to believe anyone would advertise like this, isn’t it. But it worked Continue Reading →

A question for all you marketers: Would you have approved “World’s Worst Coffee” for a poster at the door of a breakfast-lunch café? Note that the poster was bright yellow with orange letters. Me neither. And neither would the vast majority of my fellow members of the Marketing Executives Networking Group. Why would anyone come Continue Reading →

I recently heard two folk singers inadvertently provide excellent career advice at Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs, NY, the longest running coffee house in America. Roy Book Binder, who’s been on the folk circuit for about 40 years, sang these 4 gems: 1)  “I wish I knew back then what I know now.” I’ve used a Continue Reading →

Re-syndicated from MENGonline.com I love and hate the word why. I was a journalism major in college and helped put myself through school working as a reporter, so I learned to use those classic journalism questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?  Note:  I’ve added one more since I’ve been in business: How much? I think that Continue Reading →

Although halfalogue was one of the Words of the Year according to the New York Times one year ago, I didn’t hear about it until this week when I looked at the 2012 Old Farmers Almanac. You probably already know what I just learned: Halfalogue is half of a cell phone conversation heard involuntarily. I Continue Reading →

Every time a subordinate, peer or potential vendor asks me to agree to do something, my mind quickly races through a list of eight questions: 1. Do I believe this could be important? If not, why would I do it? 2. Do I believe this will be successful? If not, is there anything I can Continue Reading →

When I lived in Cincinnati working for Procter & Gamble, there was great local advertising for Kash’s Big Bargain Barn. I’m defining great advertising in this case as unforgettable, even if you tried to. I’ve remembered the tag line “save cash with Kash” for more than 30 years. Kash Amburgy delivered the message “Follow the Continue Reading →

I think this lyric from an obscure murder ballad pretty well describes a person’s initial feelings after having been fired. I’m dead. My life is over. I’ll never (fill in your own bucket list here). When someone is fired, one normal response is similar to grieving over their job and themselves. For most people, there’s Continue Reading →

I recently saw a high-energy commercial with people dancing and jumping around the video slots at the Saratoga Casino and Raceway not far from my home in Saratoga Springs, NY. The casino looked much more exciting than I remember from my last visit several years ago, so I drove over to see if they’d made Continue Reading →