Customers and prospects are often suspicious of material that was obviously created by Marketing.  Today’s marketers are paying the price accrued from decades of marketing – customers have become jaded. This may come as a rude awakening to marketing professionals, but loss of credibility can be an occupational hazard. How can marketers address this problem?  As we discussed in the previous chapter, one remedy is to have other people promote your product, service, or organization for you through … [Read more...]

What might seem commonplace today was actually revolutionary not too long ago.  In a famous speech delivered at the Hundred Million Club of New York in 1961, Lester Wunderman drew an important distinction between how most of Madison Avenue marketed and how he and a handful of other upstarts did it.  As he explained:The din of advertising becomes louder and louder, and it costs more to make a consumer remember the advertising he saw, heard, or read when he makes a buying decision.  Isn’t it … [Read more...]

Every year businesses in the United States pay billions of dollars to agencies to create colorful, clever, attention-grabbing marketing and advertising campaigns.[1] Although these expenditures are essential to success in the modern business environment, the most trusted forms of advertising are far less elaborate; namely, recommendations from personal acquaintances and opinions posted by customers online.  According to the “2012 Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey,” 92% of consumers surveyed … [Read more...]