B2B Members can reach out to my colleague Shelley West about the Commercial Insight Assessment that can help you benchmark your company against peers on your abilities to gain a customer knowledge advantage in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Cutting Edge B2B Marketing B2C Marketing Marketing Talent ManagementI looked at my marketing text books one last good time – the pages seemed fairly crisp, but most examples cited in the book seemed obsolete. It seemed like between 2008 and now, marketing had undergone a transformation and the textbook couldn’t keep pace with it. MORE >>

Cutting Edge B2B Marketing B2C Marketing Marketing CommunicationsA lot of folks have made New Year’s resolutions to stay more on top of developments in marketing and related fields – I know I have. Obviously, one of the best ways is to keep following this blog; but while you’re not doing that, check out some of these important new books: Thinking, Fast and Slow. In general, I think marketers intellectually know that consumers are not rational and will often make unexpected choices, but our models often assume a rational or quasi-rational consumer. The Filter Bubble. MORE >>

In the B2B space, that question of how to best use data is frequently presented in the context of working towards becoming a more customer-centric organization through better understanding of who customers are and what they need.  Cutting Edge B2B Marketing Customer Understanding Marketing AnalyticsA marketer at a member company recently summed up his current situation as follows: “We’re awash in data, but short on information.”  A difficult challenge to be sure, but not a unique one.  Not surprisingly, this is not a coincidence.  Statistics are one thing, insight is another.  MORE >>

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of moderating a great panel conversation on the use of social media in B2B sales and marketing.  The discussion was all in keeping with MLC’s B2B research this year, Influencing the Newly Empowered Customer , in which we suggest marketers need to build conversation muscle in the mid-funnel, as customers engage sales forces later and later in the purchase cycle. There was an interesting discussion, and a little disagreement on the panel, over whether every B2B should have a Facebook page.  And so much of it!  It’s not.  MORE >>

Cornerstones Advertising B2B Marketing B2C Marketing Branding Marketing Communications Marketing Strategy Social Media Marketing Web MarketingMarketing’s a complicated business, and, as such, it’s easy to tell ourselves lies – whether we know it or not. We talk to marketers every day, and here are some of the biggest, most persuasive whoppers in the bunch. Got more? Let us know in comments! 1) Our customers want to be engaged, and we want to engage them. Customers (and consumers!) What’s the message that purchasers across the economy are sending? Got more lies? MORE >>