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Sears' saga found in snowblowers

Former Sears executive Steve Goldstein was so shocked when he found snowblowers for sale at his company’s Miami store that he wrote the book, “Why are there Snowblowers in Miami?”

That is but one of myriad anecdotes in Sears’ 120-year history, yet it reveals much about the thinking of those who…

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Crunch numbers to calculate advertising investment

An investment in advertising is key to driving sales and growing the organization, but despite its importance, an advertising budget is a difficult decision for many companies. Jef Richards, professor and chair of the Department of Advertising at Michigan State University makes a compelling argument: “Advertising is totally unnecessary.

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'Content marketing' lifts brands, engages customers

Bed Bath & Beyond, IBM, Goldman Sachs, Taco Bell, GoPro and Twitter all have at least two things in common. Each understands the need to win online, and each has an award-winning content marketing strategy.

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Old theory still explains a lot about business today

Psychologist Abraham Maslow in 1943 introduced a concept that today can help guide how we run and promote our businesses to achieve greater success. It's still relevant in advertising psychology today. You might remember Maslow’s “Theory of the Hierarchy of Needs” from your Psychology 101 class.

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Effective email marketing requires planning

Effective email marketing campaigns planned and delivered to a targeted audience at the right time can provide the highest return on investment of any digital marketing channel — by twice, if not more. It’s no wonder.

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Seasoned Super Bowl advertisers win on defense

The Patriots, keepers of the Empire, struck back Sunday, marking the sixth win for the oldest coach and oldest quarterback ever to win a Super Bowl. The game was eked out in slow, lethargic doses with only a few flashes of offense to break the comatose.

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We've crossed the 'creepy' line

Have Google and Facebook crossed the creepy line?

Former Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt once said, "There's what I call the creepy line, and the Google policy about a lot of these things is to get right up to the creepy line but not cross it.

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Winning, compelling content inspires audience to engage, buy

In a recent column, we quoted marketing guru Seth Godin’s profound observation, “Content marketing is the only marketing left. ”

Yes, compelling content marketing is that important. Content includes many tactics, from blogging, vlogging and social media posting to e-books, webinars, podcasts and email.

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Brand categories great for selling, lousy for unifying our world

The numbers are mind boggling. Our amazing brains are wired with 100 billion cells, which researchers have found on average send signals 10 times per second. Each brain cell connects to 5,000 other brain cells, which means every time a cell fires, 5,000 other cells receive a signal.

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The Magnificent Seven: Best marketing books ever

If you want to get better and better at running your business, you would do well to read a few of the best marketing books of all time. Hewlett-Packard co-founder David Packard famously said, “Marketing is far too important to leave to the marketing department.

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