The debate over free vs. paid news content is heating up. Traditional daily newspapers are dying because readers are shifting habits online, but advertising revenue isn't following them en masse.

A look at IHOP's marketing provide's an entire semester's worth of education in a single glance. If you want to sell it tomorrow, market it today: When you have a waiting list for several consecutive hours during this economy (even on a weekend morning), you're either giving it away or you are getting a return on yesterday's investment.

Quiznos thinks a dirty-talking oven, new phallic sandwich, and overall erotic themed commercial makes me hungry? For a sandwich?

During the last economic downturn, marketers turned to event sponsorships to deliver their messages to narrowly targeted demographics and psychographic consumers: Birds of a feather flock together. But this time around, sponsorships seem to have fallen out of favor. So, what changed?

My dad used to tell me quite often that if I was going to do something, to do it right. I must admit that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree and I seem to have adopted this same philosophy- not that it’s always good to have a perfectionist mindset. In fact, there are times when it prevents progress. 

OfficeMax just announced that they have come to realize that women are the primary purchasers of office supplies and are redefining their target as females 28-45.

We’ve always been taught that when conversing one-on-one, most communication is non-verbal. The tone of your voice, the position of your eyebrows, your nervous fidget, your eye contact. All of these have been key to effective message delivery.

As relevant as television is to popular culture, marketing, and society, the four major networks that have long been responsible for the direction of the medium will find themselves irrelevant in just a few short years.

For almost a year, we’ve harped on the opportunity that exists for the aggressive marketer in a down market. This recession now has its first case study. Wal-Mart increased spending $300 million in 2008, according to TNS, who measures ad spending nationally. 

A few weeks ago, Sonic Drive-ins introduced a value menu. I follow what Sonic does to a certain extent because they're headquartered in my hometown. So, I sometimes note analyst's opinions on the company as well. Wall Street doesn't appear to like the new value menu very much. 

One of our employees recently asked me if we’d be willing to change our thinking about working in a particular industry that we decided was at odds with our philosophy, given the nature of the economy.  No, we’re not going to compromise.

In a time when content is king, I'm surprised to see all of the layoffs in editorial departments at news organizations. If revenue is down, you can't eliminate those people that produce what you sell. Sure, that's an over-simplification of the issue. But news and information is what they sell.