If you know VI , you know that we're a strategy-driven group. We don't develop creative ideas before we develop strategy. Period. I honestly believe that we're pretty unique in that regard. If creative comes before strategy, you have no strategy. And that's a short road to failure.

I have been pondering Dawn Dish Detergent since the Gulf oil disaster (using the product to clean oil off of wildlife). We wrote about them a year or so ago praising their cause marketing approach, but tying it to the utility of their product. It was no surprise to see the spots running again after the Gulf event. But, I have a sort of negative feeling about it this time around.

Is it really necessary to conduct marketing activities and strive for good customer service when you operate a parking garage? I mean, a parking space is just a piece of concrete bordered by yellow lines. If it's convenient, you pull in. What's to market?

A January freeze in Florida resulted in an increase in orange prices. Instead of raising the price of the most common sizes of its boxed juice, Tropicana has decreased the size of the packaging- and therefore the volume therein. An interesting and fairly common strategy. But pretty risky too.

Wal-Mart has decided to invite over 300 branded products back onto its shelves after it saw its market share fall in the packaged goods segment. Last year, the retail giant replaced several well-known brands with its private labeled Great Value products.

The Snickers commercial with Betty White that debuted during the Super Bowl was the most liked spot according to Nielsen IAG. It was also our most liked, but for other reasons than its mere humor. Because over half of those viewing consider the ads part of the entertainment, marketers have gone to great lengths to get noticed and make the favorites lists.

By now, you've probably seen the Domino's Pizza spot where they show real customers saying their crust tastes like cardboard and their sauce like catsup (continental aren't we?). I don't get it. A creatively said 'new and improved' was vetoed for a total re-do? For the #1 pizza delivery company in the country?!?

Everybody loses in the recent Tonight Show debacle: Leno loses his street cred because his primetime show was cancelled after four months. Conan loses because late fringe programming is less important now than when Fox offered him all the gold at APMEX.com six years ago.

Super Bowl spots are going for a reported $3.3 million this year (although the average figures to be under $3M when all deals are considered)! Bud and Pepsi and GM are out this year. CareerBuilder's in again- with something risqué no doubt (PR ploy). E-Trade is running again too. Apparently, Bud's back in (ploy to come in late?).

I'm rather disappointed in the public relations industry. 2009 should have been a banner year for PR. With the emergence of social media as a major tool for marketers and the notion that publicity potentially comes at a lesser price than other marketing disciplines (including advertising), PR firms could be replacing ad agencies as the communications leader among clients. But it's not.

Stop everything! Don't even read the rest of this wonderful marketing instrument. Rather, go online, pull up your Facebook account, and stare at your page. Now, develop a strategy for social media for your organization. At the very least for Facebook.

I suppose we have to address Tiger Woods in this issue. Not Tiger the man, but Tiger the billion-dollar brand. In the corporate marketing world, his transgressions are not considered to be bad enough to drop him from the endorsement roster, provided that the story doesn't get much deeper.