There's nothing better for business than a booming economy. Unfortunately, it often encourages faulty thinking and spawns erroneous ideas. When sales are strong and profits meet projections, we're quick to take the credit. When things go sour, external forces get the blame.
A good economy tends to mask distorted thinking and inappropriate ideas. For example, personal computer sales have been drifting downward, even while prices have been dropping. Manufacturers are petrified. Out of near desperation, they jack up power to a sizzling 500 MHz to try to capture customer attention. Just as this happens, free PCs appear. In the midst of all this, one company rediscovers itself. To IBM's credit, it figured out what business it's in: solutions.

DRIP MARKETING: ART AND SCIENCE by Al Diamond As Al Diamond tells it, a marketing campaign combines art (getting your message across effectively) with science (doing so...

Use these seven principles to stay ahead of the pack in any market.
Most businesses fail to achieve their potential because of faulty thinking — which happens when business executives, owners, and managers don’t like news that runs contrary to the pictures inside their heads.

HOW WELL DO YOUR CLIENTS KNOW YOU? DOES IT MATTER? by Bill Cates If youve been in this business for 10years or more, you might remember the day when we used to send real newsletter...

Improved communication has turned us into less adroit communicators. With e-mail, voice-mail, and cell phones, getting the message to another party is so easy that we no longer worry about the content of the message. Poor communications skills translate into lost business. This article by John Graham discusses these consequences and offers guidelines for improving communications.

MANAGING AGENCY E-MAIL SYSTEMS by Steve Anderson To do business today, you need Internet access and individual E-mail accounts for every person in your agencyThistool needs to b...

Sometimes I think that the best thing that could happen would be for someone to take away the computer printer. Why? Because, every time I send an E-mail out to a large group, a third of the group will print the message even before reading it, a third will read it and then print it, and only the last third will simply read and delete it.

PR: A NEW TWIST IN DIRECT MAIL by Jack Burke Government and business have become unusual bedfellows in a unique and exciting direct-mail marketing concept. A joint project involving the aut...

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING Jumping through a hoop 20 feet above the water isn't considered normal activity for a killer whale. So when Shamu was captured and hauled to its new home ...

THE REALITIES OF DIRECT MAIL by Richard Barry 'I'm looking for cheap direct mail that works! Any ideas?' This is a legitimate question and worthy of discussion...