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Thinking

Uncovering newsworthy story ideas is what sets your PR efforts on fire. But it's not always easy to recognize the newsworthy events going on in your world when you live and breathe them every day!

Everywhere you turn these days, you hear dire warnings about the economy. If you advertise, your ad reps are warning you to resist the impulse to cut back on your advertising until the economy improves.

There's been a powerful shift in control over the past eight years or so. Marketers used to be in control. They would shape advertising campaigns to influence how consumers viewed their products or services.

It's all about communicating the right message to the right person in the right place at the right time.

Most companies have focused their attention on the most visible aspects of a brand: the logo and tagline, the carefully crafted advertising campaign, or the cool web site that was just launched. But, the brand is still about what's under the surface.

We all have relationships with brands. During branding workshops, I ask participants to name the brands they've encountered so far that day. Participants often mention some of the same brands: Starbucks, Crest, Apple, Dell, Toyota, BP, Google, and Pepsi.

Most marketers think their budget is too small - whether it's $50,000 or $50 million. No matter how much you have to spend on marketing, you need to make sure every cent counts.