During my most recent career endeavor, I have been engaged as a change agent at the top of a small technology company. This company was in trouble, having slid in sales and losing a string of talented, key employees. The company didn’t instantly end up in trouble; it was a myriad of things that compounded to create a tenuous environment.

My initial engagement was being hired by the owners of the company to craft a strategic marketing direction that tied together all of the divisions of the company into a single-threaded mission.

That’s much easier said than done.

When I stepped into the role, I was assuming that there was far more to work with than the quagmire that really existed. It was as much of a surprise to both the ownership and I just how thin the organization was vs. the perception of what

One of the very first business books that I ever bought was simply an accident. I was hanging out in a bookstore as a high school junior and thought I might like to start reading about business. Maybe strange for a 16 year-old kid, but it was the 1980s, and business was king…

For the past couple of years, I’ve been working on developing a business development “meta-model” that essentially becomes a templated system to build a business. I call this the IDEA Blueprint, which is an acronym for:

* Identify
* Develop
* Engage
* Assess

The IDEA Blueprint first starts with my own contention that “marketing” isn’t a department within a business that produces pretty collateral for salespeople to use. It’s not an ad agency that works to build a snazzy, public-facing image. It’s not lead generation activities.

In fact, I contend that “marketing” is the very core of why a business even exists at all. It’s the essence of entrepreneurship itself.

Marketing seeks the answer to the question, “What specific problem are we solving for what specific customer?” What need or want are we satisfying with what we do as a business?

This cuts right to the heart of why any business exists at all. What is the driving motivation that keeps a founder up at night working to come up with the solution to...

A very common marketing problem is the manner by which smaller companies attempt to copy the marketing efforts of significantly larger ones.

My first exposure to Insane Clown Posse was many, many years ago when this friend, who worked for me as a programmer, brought an acquaintence of his over to my apartment to hang out. His friend was in his late teens, all painted up in creepy clownish makeup.

At first, my wife and I were like… “uhhh… WTF!?!?”

But, as with all things relating to perceptions being different than reality, we got to talking to him and realized that he was a pretty good kid… maybe a little old for Halloween, but hey… we all had our crazy phases in life.

So this guy called himself a “Juggalo”, and followed this...

In my quest to find the latest and greatest marketing trends, I stumbled upon a product that I believe will  be a runaway hit for a number of reasons - some apparent, some not quite so.

Bong Vodka

Okay, everyone say it in unison... "Thank You Captain Obvious!"

What kind of party animal doesn't...