Martech Zone
Martech Zone provides daily articles for business, sales, and marketing professionals to research technology, discover new sales and marketing tools, and learn how to leverage platforms to drive greater business results.
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Starbucks: The Inflation and Devaluation of a Brand
The United States really didn’t understand what coffee could taste like. Coffee grinds were flavored with chips for a long time, which helped maximize the profits of coffee companies. I had a friend who worked in a packaging plant, specifically on the equipment that filled and sealed coffee containers. He told me they changed brands all night, but never changed…
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Recommendations for Business Cards?
My son and I are watching American Psycho. It’s a disturbing movie, but the business card scene is my favorite (Huey Lewis is a close second). I’ve had blog-based business cards for a while, but now that I’ve changed my domain name, I’d like to get something very unique. Any ideas? Nothing in bone, please.
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You Don’t Know what Marketing is
Have you given much thought to the word Marketing? As with many words, the definition has been distorted and redefined over time. Wikipedia provides the following definition: Marketing is an ongoing process of planning and executing the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion often referred to as the 4 Ps) for products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals…
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Blogging for Business: New Tricks for Old Dogs
No one can argue the absolute dominance of blogs on popularity and, in turn, search engine ranking. The popularity of blogs comes from this new method of communication that has evolved on the web – more personable, less refined and genuine. Technorati is tracking over 112.8 million blogs at the moment with thousands of blogs being created each hour. Open…
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Why isn’t Networking in Every Curriculum?
This afternoon I was invited to an incredible lunch and discussion with Indiana Business College Harrison College. Indiana is well-known for having some of the finest schools in the country, and in the world, but the folks at Harrison recognize that we’re in a rapidly changing world. They are making an aggressive push to ensure that they will stay ahead…
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Deciding new Products, Services or Features
This week I received Tuned In from Pragmatic Marketing. I’m about a third of the way through the book right now and enjoying it. There are a lot of hands-on examples of how business hubris has lead them down the path of poor decisions because they weren’t ‘Tuned In’ to their prospects. By not figuring out what their prospects needed,…
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True Story: Drop Database? Click… Doh!
The following is a true story, dated today at approximately 11:00 AM while on my way out to lunch. This is NOT a paid post, but I have added a HUGE link to the company in appreciation of them saving my butt! Development 101 says that when you mess with your code or your data, you always first do a…
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Configuring an Internal PC for External Access
With the adoption of firewalls and routers, connecting to another computer via the Internet has become a real challenge. If you’d like to configure your computer so external access is possible, there are some in-depth configuration changes that you need to make to your network. Obtain your IP Address or DynDns Address The first step to locating you is to…
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ProBlogger: Four Blogging Mistakes I Should Have Avoided
There’s no shortage of blogging books hitting the shelves lately, but few are as grounded and actionable as ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. As someone who’s been blogging for a few years now—sporadically and more as a passion project than a structured endeavor—this book hit me at just the…
