In spite of 19th-hole braggadocio about rising sales figures, bottom-line results, and upcoming prospects, businesses do stall and stagnate. Streamline.com was a raging Internet stock until it ran into a wall. Kodak used to be a Wall Street favorite, and now it's struggling to find itself. P&G once had 99.44 % acceptance; now the tide seems to have turned. For years, Xerox set the standard; then it lost direction.

BE A PR PRO: THINK LIKE A JOURNALIST! by Mike Maynard Why do so many journalists cringe when they receive phone calls, faxes, and e-mails from public relations professionals? Becaus...

Align your marketing program to the needs and desires of today’s online customers.
“Control the customer and you control the sale.” This advice served generations of successful salespeople who knew that they could make any sale once they could get face-to-face with a prospect.

CATCH THE MEDIA IN YOUR WEB by Michael Maynard Your company has a Web site? Great! Colorful graphics that seem to jump off the screen? Terrific! And the content? Uh-oh. Does your Web sit...

There may come a time when your agency's communications needs exceed the capabilities of in-house personnel. You want to concentrate on producing new business, developing products, and servicing clients. Who has the time and expertise to create newspaper or radio advertising-or perform the myriad public relations functions necessary to keep your agency in the public eye?

There are still those who believe that something will stick if you toss enough stuff against the wall. John Graham believes that we fail to ask ourselves the right question, the one that defines the marketing and sales mission.

Every company faces crises that have the potential for doing serious damage to its reputation, image, and/or financial stability. Events that might’ve been minor or even unnoticed a few years ago could now wind up on the evening news or on page one of the newspaper. While some incidents are insignificant, others can be devastating. Yet when they occur it’s often difficult, if not impossible, to know whether the problem will evaporate or escalate, blow over or boomerang.

CULTIVATING YOUR P.R. CAMPAIGN: BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING by Michael Maynard Growing a strong and healthy garden doesnt begin in the spring. The real work takes place in the winter ...

Many in business have elevated the process of marketing to an almost magical, mystical level, either to help them maintain control, or because they don’t understand the process. In this article, John Graham examines six basic principles that will make marketing work.

While driving down Boston’s Massachusetts Avenue one Saturday afternoon, it dawned on me that every bus stop shelter along this popular main artery sported advertising signage for Apple’s iPad 2. Assuming that many bus riders were not target customers for a product selling between $500 and nearly $900, the two of us in the car thought that spending advertising dollars at bus stops seemed like a waste of money.