When I began my career some 25 years ago, most companies had the same basic marketing tools. It seemed that no matter what the organization did, they needed a tri-fold brochure, a folder, a house print ad, and a cheap promo item or two. Given the marketing outlets of the day, it was generally effective stuff. Over time, the fundamental tools that most companies need evolved; videos, presentation decks, websites, etc.

First, let me state the obvious. If you don't have any customers, you don't have a company. That means you don't need your operations people, your managers, your cashiers or anybody else. So, that makes your customers the absolute most important thing in your business, no matter what it is.

We've had several conversations lately with organizations that want to change the way they sell their product. That's a great idea in theory as one can save buckets of money with an online model. The dilemma with these specific companies is that they want to change the way they sell,

Ever tasted an acai berry? Had you even heard of one five years ago? Me neither. And the only free radicals I knew were Jane Fonda and the Black Panthers. Today, I'm pretty sure my free radicals are going to kill me by morning if I don't drink acai juice or some other antioxidant.

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.

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?!?

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.

We've had quite a few conversations in the last year with organizations that are seeing their market share fall and can't find their way out of it. What they had in common was not poor marketing, per se. Rather, it was how they were going to market.

Staying on the television theme-- was it that television was such a powerful medium in its heyday? Or was it the video (film, moving pictures, etc.) format? With the rapid increase in viewers of online video (spurred by bandwidth), the format seems to remain highly preferred by consumers. 

I've been in too many conversations lately where people confuse value with price. Price is price. Value is what you get for the money.Consider what Microsoft is doing with their reality campaign that showsa consumer searching for the computer that has the exact features that they want.