Topic: Marketing

Letter From the Editor: The Influence Virus: Our Unlikely Experiment in Social Media

The first time I participated in a viral marketing effort, it was on a whim. And it failed miserably -- in part because we didn't actually have a purpose. I was a freshman in college, and late one night, a few of us came up with a ...READ»

Portrait of the Rapper as a Young Marketer: How K'naan Delivered on Coca-Cola's $300 Million Bet

Coca-Cola bet that an unknown Somali rapper could support its biggest marketing campaign ever. The company was right, and it may have launched a new star. Or not.READ»

• Two Versions of "Wavin' Flag"

The New Faces of Social Media

From YouTube celebrities to chief social-media officers, these unexpected players exert outsize impact and power online -- offering new channels of communication that businesses can't afford to ignore.READ»

Renegades: Lathan Hodge on 5 Takeaways about "Mass-Personalization"

Okay, so you've created awareness of your brand. How do you maintain continuity and momentum with the relationship you've just established? Here are 5 takeaways about "Mass-Personalization" in a digital world.READ»

Mark Cuban Funds Startup That Will Track Your Devices

Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks and Landmark Theaters, is helping to fund a startup called BlueCava--a firm that hopes to boost your control over online marketing by tracking you online. Privacy advocates, start your engines.READ»

Marketing Chipotle Burritos Is Easy: "It's Like Selling Puppies"

In this video, Mark Crumpacker, Chief Marketing Officer at Chipotle talks about how his company is different from other fast food chains.READ»

Why Are Colleges Flunking Web Strategy 101?

The stakes have never been higher for colleges to use the Web effectively. So why can so few barely muster up a passing grade?READ»

Bright Spot for the Music Industry: Product Placement Is Pirate-Proof

Piracy may be leading to a decline in profits for record labels, but product placement is still big business. READ»

Strategy Is Not a To Do List

I had breakfast with two of my ex-students from Singapore who were building a really interesting startup. They were deep into Customer Discovery and presented a ton of customer data on the validity of their initial hypothesis--target ...READ»

Converse: I'm With the Brand

The shoe already worn by rock royalty is opening its own recording studio and hosting unsigned artists. But brands are a long way from replacing record labels. READ»

The Great Brand Dilution

For decades brands basked in the glory of control, control over consumers' perceptions, impressions, and ultimately, decisions and ensuing experiences. Brands have now lost control of defining impressions, losing the ability to govern shared experiences.READ»

Ad Industry Attempts to Self-Regulate Behavioral Advertising

On Monday, the ad industry launched a self-regulatory program to make behavioral advertising more transparent by including an icon next to ads that track online behavior.READ»

Technology Changes the Face of Politicking

Pols cast votes for Gowalla as the next social-media game changer.READ»

Looking for Signs of Intelligent Marketing Life - Part 3

Businesses have enough to keep up with when it comes to their site, blog, email newsletters, Facebook Page, and Twitter feed. The barrage of new sites such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, or that yet-to-be-invented network is enough to send businesses ducking for cover. Fortunately, your customers will tell you what the next "big thing" is.READ»

5 Do's and 5 Don'ts for Cutting Through the Market Noise

Consumers and business buyers alike are jaded, sick and tired of being hoodwinked into buying stuff that doesn't deliver as promised. Here are a few do's and don'ts for cutting through the noise in the digital age.READ»

Two Branding Gurus Tell Their Side of the Story, Part 1

What do you get when you get two industry experts to share their views on branding, from two distinct areas of application? READ»

DoJ Ruling: Apple, Google, Intel Now Freer to Steal Each Other's Staff, and This Is Better ... How?

The Department of Justice has just settled a suit with Apple, Google, Intel, and other firms over not cold-calling each other's employees. The DoJ was worried the secret no-call policy was anti-competitive, so now the firms are freer to poach staff. Is this better?READ»

Another Mother Moment: Choosy Moms Select Sustainable Brands

Are moms the most untapped market in sustainability-related product campaigns?READ»

6 Rules of Thumb for B2B Marketers

B2C brands have all-too-often been guilty of finding low-cost ways to spit marketing out to as wide an audience as possible while only looking at ROI through the lens of sales made rather than giving any thought to the impact on the reputation/goodwill of the brand.READ»

A Futures Market For Online Ads

TV has one major advantage over the Internet -- you can buy advertising on shows months in advance. Now one company is trying to siphon off some of those TV ad dollars with a clever prediction tool.READ»

Cause Marketing Hits the Mother Lode of Support: Study

92% of moms want to buy products that support causes.READ»

Looking for Signs of Intelligent Marketing Life - Part 2

Radiant marketing is a simple metaphor with the sun representing a business and the planets the customers. Your job as a business owner is to keep the sun burning bright and not fade into a black hole, with marketing being key to that effort. So where does social media marketing fall in this planetary metaphor?READ»

Grow Your Niche Business by Keeping It SIMPLE

How Clean Perfume is cleaning up in a category that isn't.READ»

Marketing to the Bottom of the Pyramid

A third of the world's population earns $2.50 or less a day. This disparity takes my breath away, but there's a flip side to it: That's a market of more than five billion dollars a day. Add the next segment ($5 a day), and you see that the poorest people in the world spend more than ten billion dollars to live their lives.READ»

Timberland Goes 3-D and All-Out For Latest Earthkeepers Campaign

VP of Global Marketing Jim Davey tells Fast Company about the company's latest sensory-savvy campaign.READ»