Mistakes are part of how people work. They make them, blame them on others, and sometimes even learn from them. While marketing, by nature, is a field that lends itself to a lot of ways to screw up, there are a few that all marketing departments seem to have in common. The business might be one that makes the finest hotel bath rugs and linens money can buy or just sells cheap children’s electronics, it doesn&

It was just over a year ago, in the first quarter of 2011, that I decided to leave my relatively cushy job as a marketing executive for a large firm in the North East and venture into business on my own. Prior to my leaving the company, a lot of people cautioned me against striking out on my own. They argued that unlike a vast number of unemployed Americans, I have a relatively stable job that paid well and kept me

Every person running a business needs an online presence, whether it is an e-commerce site, Etsy shop, photography studio or a store selling gold coins. Statistics show that when someone wants information on a company, they first look for a website or online presence. Failing to establish this presence only increases the odds your customers will look at your competitors for business. When creating an online presenc

Marketing in general plays the long game. It wasn’t to commit its resources slowly over time, answering issues while eking out incremental advantage. Yes, they can put all of that power behind pushing ice cream makers for a month or so and watching the numbers dip afterwards, but that’s not the best way to use them. Their job is mainly to stir up awareness of what is on offer for the prospective market

It’s always good to touch base once in a while, to go back to the basics. A good grounding in the foundations of any subject, such as marketing, will make learning the more complex concepts easier. And so without further ado: What is marketing? People in the general public might define it as that daily trip to the grocery store. A company executive would define it differently, as a business concept involving

Marketing is a tough job, almost on par with sales. With today’s ever tighter competition, it’s hard to be heard over the din of the crowded marketplace. Ideas get used up and copied every minute. Ads are produced by the hundreds, all vying for the attention of the same consumer. In such a frenzied environment, how could your marketing strategies possibly hope to make a difference for your brand and com

Marketing is all about developing your product and business and then getting the word out to the people who will hopefully pay you for the product. There are a numbers of ways to get that word out, but with very few exceptions, they will all require the investment of time and/or capital to be effective. Marketing is communication. The number of ways to get your message to customers is limited only by the creativity

What the industry needs now is a true-blue marketing expert. In a world where competition is highly discriminating and disbelieving, it’s really hard to get noticed. In order to be fully recognized for your potential, you need to be a cut above the rest – you have to be the best in every possible way. Before, the measure of being called an expert in a specific field depended on how long a person was workin

In the world of marketing, it can take years before one transforms from a neophyte to an expert. But it’s only possible if you have “core competency.” It simply means that you have got what others don’t. Core competency is what enterprises adopt in order to stay afloat in the Darwinian world of business. To be able to survive, a company must meet three essential conditions – it should be able to provi

One type of marketing strategy which is getting very popular today is guerilla marketing. This is a very cheap and effective way to promote a product. You don’t need to have a big budget like in an ad campaign to do it. It’s also a very effective way to communicate with consumers in a personal way. Here are some guerilla marketing activities which you can do to get noticed. Participate in forums. Expressing you