Valentine’s Day is around the corner. If you make gourmet chocolates or sell long-stemmed roses, you’re pretty comfortable with the language of love. If you are the marketing manager for an industrial manufacturer…well, “love” may not be part of your everyday business...
A business owner I know insists on using Facebook as his only marketing tool. However, instead of engaging in meaningful conversation with his followers, he uses every opportunity to push, promote and sell his company’s services. As you might imagine, the results (or...
I am fortunate to live and work in Portland, Oregon, one of the “friendliest” cities in the country according to any number of surveys and polls. (It also helps that Portland beat New York, San Francisco and Chicago to be named the best food city in America by...
When you hear brand strategy you probably think of the calculated steps that a company takes to build a strong emotional connection between its brand and customers. After all, one of the definitions of the word strategy is “a careful plan or method for achieving a...
Studies consistently show that customers depend on referrals to determine what they buy—and who they buy it from. In a previous blog post, we addressed why business owners need to change their thinking and learn to ask for specific customer referrals. In this...
