Author Archives: mhbaumk12

Lunching with a client a few weeks back, I found myself listening to the challenges she (a marketing person) had working with her sales group.  She loves them and they her, because she’s always providing them with statistics and backup for sales challenges, and … Continue reading →

People are drawing all sorts of lessons from Kodak’s Chapter 11 filing.  How does a dominant, “iconic” business slide downhill with such rapidity and finality – even though it invented the technology (digital photography) that remade its industry and caused the company’s … Continue reading →

Shopping last week with my daughter (and grandchildren) in Chicago.  Looking for Greek-style yogurt amid untold linear feet of refrigerator case wallpapered with little colorful cups of regular yogurt.  Suddenly she pointed to the upper left-hand corner of the case.  “That’s … Continue reading →

I’m sure Geico has a marketing research budget larger than the GNP of most small countries, so I hesitate to criticize – but what the heck, I’ll do it anyway.  I think their new TV commercials – e.g., “Does Geico … Continue reading →

During the recent unpleasantness, AKA the Great Recession, lots of retailers cut costs by cutting SKUs.  At some chains, the cost accountants had a field day dumping items with insufficient inventory turns to generate as much annual “rent” for their … Continue reading →

Lately it seems speakers, presenters, and interviewees start every talk, every answer to a question, with “So…”  “Are there any potential toxicity problems with this new treatment?”  “So…that will be addressed in the large-animal clinical trials, but at these concentration … Continue reading →

During the dot-com era, we often heard: “The web changes everything.”  Probably originated by investment bankers hyping internet IPOs, the phrase nonetheless took hold with marketing people who’ve come to think that 140 characters is just about the attention span … Continue reading →

Branding is important, but it’s often made too mysterious.  People talk about building a brand as if you can’t have one without a consultant, many lengthy meetings, and sacrificing a pigeon or two. When working with clients on branding I … Continue reading →

A major technological revolution in the 1980s changed marketing forever, transforming “direct marketing” (DM) into mainstream practice instead of a fringe occupied only by specialty catalogs and ads in the backs of magazines.  No, the technology wasn’t the web.  It … Continue reading →

In my 40 years, direct marketing has gone from niche to mainstream. If you’re not into direct marketing – you really are, you just haven’t realized it yet.