Are consumers spending again? What are they thinking about? What trends do you most need to know about as you’re framing communications strategies for consumer-facing brands? In a volatile marketplace, it’s more vital than ever to aggressively track consumer sentiment and behavior and translate that into fresh, effective marketing approaches. To get you started, we…

When’s the last time you spoke to your next-door neighbor about your itching problem—down there? Or your thinning hair? Or your use of feminine hygiene products?  Or incontinence? Today, it often seems like nothing is taboo. People visit websites to confess their deepest darkest secrets, television shows seem to break new bounds every year in…

I’m not a CEO or a fancy corporate manager. I never even went to college. I’m a pizza guy, born and bred on the streets of Chicago. In 2010, my two restaurants brought in over $3 million each in sales, about six times the sales for the typical pizza restaurant. We were the country’s 6th…

So many social media campaigns fail to break through. Sometimes clients are hamstrung by internal impediments, such as skittishness on the part of legal. More often the problem is with the strategy. Or lack thereof. With social media so entrenched, some companies don’t understand the consequences of their actions or inactions, nor have they mapped…

If you’re Vikram Pandit, the CEO of Citibank, the answer is yes. Last year, Pandit vowed he’d take no salary until the bank became profitable. So he didn’t. But Citibank is now back in the black, which is why this past week, Citibank’s board announced that they’d reinstate a salary for Pandit. Of course, Pandit…

We’ve heard a lot about listening over the past several years as marketers have sought to make the most of the social web. But are we really listening? Former President Calvin Coolidge once remarked that, “No one ever listened themselves out of a job.” Customer feedback today is easier than ever to come by, and…

It’s a serious question…kind of. In our world of 24/7, blitzkrieg media coverage, taking vacations isn’t for the faint of heart. Sometimes it makes for some pretty serious bad media coverage. This past Christmas, President Obama was criticized by conservatives and some media commentators for remaining in Hawaii after an attempted terrorist attack on a…

It’s well known that social media tools enhance both stakeholders’ and managers’ power to influence perceptions. As some have argued, employees, customers, management, investors, vendors, the public, and other stakeholders comprise a complex “ecosystem” of influence thanks to the new technology.  The very concept of “stakeholder” is changing, becoming multidimensional rather than one dimensional. This…

More companies, brands, and products than ever are cultivating environmentally friendly images. According to the environmental marketing firm TerraChoice, 79% of North American stores saw an increase in the number of green products between 2007/8 and 2009. Yet how true are the claims being made by product labeling and accompanying public relations? For years now,…