I know that a while back I kinda blasted McDonalds for their crappy food (I do stand behind that), but I’ve decided that when it comes to advertising, McDonalds is doing it right. Why the change of heart? I was on a panel of bloggers who were invited to speak with Mary Dillon, Global CMO [...]

I saw my first magic show today. And not where you’d expect. I was at the American Marketing Association’s M.planet 2009 conference. They were gracious enough to invite me to come out to their Orlando conference (on their dime; thanks AMA). Not your typical conference.

As we were waiting for Dennis Dunlap, CEO of AMA, I [...]

My 4-year-old enjoys going to Chik-fil-A. I mean, it’s got food AND a playground? Come on. The service at the one by our house is pretty impressive. I was sitting there, admiring the cleanliness and the cow ad campaign collateral scattered throughout the restaurant. I even took a photo of the clever moving-parts clock that [...]

Chris Brogan had a post this week about Miller High Life’s 1 Second Ad. I had to chime in too.
The ad campaign comes as a mockery of the companies that pay $3 million for Super Bowl ads (which I unfortunately never see because I don’t watch football). It’s ridiculous, really. I wonder what the return [...]

I don’t care what some people say. I love Google. They come up with amazing tools that make incredible sense, and then refuse to charge us for them.  I’ve long been a Google supporter (yes, even when my hub worked for Yahoo!). So naturally I was egg-cited when Google Ad Planner arrived.

So, you’re a small [...]

I love finding brands who have successfully revamped their image and brand. Recently I stayed in a Hampton Hotel & Suite in Springfield, Missouri. Now, it’s been a while since I stayed with Hampton, but my memory of them was more on par with Motel 6 than Hilton. But now Hilton is the parent company (not sure when that happened) and Hampton is downright nice.

I understand that small business owners and entrepreneurs want to do their own marketing. Budgets are tight, staffs are small. And I fully support that. In fact, that’s the goal of this blog: to provide entrepreneurs with the tools they need to do their own marketing. But let me make this caveat:

If you’re doing bad marketing, you shouldn’t do marketing at all.

My fellow Sparkplugger, Brandie Kajino, the Home Office Organizer, has invited me to speak in her teleclass, “Secrets of Effective Email Marketing” on January 23. We’ll be talking about what makes great email marketing, the best platforms to use, and I’ll even give you some secret tips, like the best time to send out emails for best open rates.

Have you noticed that a lot of marketing and advertising is geared toward pointing out our flaws?

* Weight loss products
* Hair removal
* Hair growth products
* Makeup
* Exercise equipment

A client of mine, Bert Shlensky of Right and Left Brain Solutions, recently wrote a noteworthy blog post called Don’t Let New Internet Marketing Tools Overtake the Basics. And while internet marketing is my world, I have to admit, he has a point.