A danger all marketers face, whether you work for an agency or on the client side, is falling victim to the echo chamber effect. The temptation is there to hear only what we’re saying about ourselves, to the exclusion of what the customers need to hear about how we can address their needs. In other words, be sure you’re not talking to – and about – yourselves, and instead keep it customer focused. Check out the recent Mercedes-Benz ad below. Good for you, Mercedes! Pat yourse

Or so the old quip goes. And it’s true. Without the right market research, you can’t position, segment, develop products, or efficiently go to market. Done poorly, research can be a waste of time and money. Done well, research can provide the foundation for achieving marketing glory. Based on market research, T-Mobile just announced a low-price plan for people 55 and older that includes unlimited talk, text, AND data. T-Mobile is under-indexing in this segment, which generall

The recent Dove debacle – the literal definition of “whitewashing” – is just one in a seemingly endless and accelerating series of brand-damaging misfires by marketers who believe they are too clever by half. Oh Dove, did we not learn from the ill-fated objectifying by non-objectifying the female form as soap containers? It’s part of a trend, and I would argue the inevitable result, of the fragmentation of the marketing discipline. In focusing so strongly on the technical asp