The Vendor-Client Relationship Explained

If you're in advertising or marketing, this may sound familiar.

Behold The Man in the Chair

Do you know how to deal with The Man in the Chair? It seems like he's got it in for you, but in fact he's here to make your brand stronger. Ignore him and say goodbye to at least some growth potential. Thanks to the Business Marketing Association (BMA) for making this available.

Jacqueline Taylor on Marketing (Houston Chronicle)

A few days ago Jacqueline Taylor, associate region director of the UH Small Business Development Center, offered some sound advice to a small business owner who had the following query:

"I haven't been spending much on marketing lately, and now I've noticed a drop in sales. What can I do to attract more customers — on a budget, of course?"

Check out her response. The advice is simple and solid. And you know, I've worked with a number of major corporations that could use a refresh on these basics.

I'm always amazed at how fast and deep the cuts are to the marketing function in response to a down business cycle. Uh...isn't that when you need more business the most?

Great Article About Crowdsourcing in the NY Times

What do you know about crowdsourcing? Whether you depend on internal departments or external agencies to create new ideas--or you're in the business of providing them yourself--this trend will impact you in some way.

Houston Comedian on Marketing

Hey now, you're talking about my people...

On War and Marketing

Managing the Multi-Generational Workplace

I knew generational differences were going to be an issue when I made a Caddyshack reference to a girl who worked for me and she just sat there blinking. That’s why I really enjoyed Friday’s AMA Professional Development Special Interest Group on how people of different generations can relate to each other and work well together in the marketing world.

The upshot is that there are more generations in the workplace together now than ever before: two generations of Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y (Millennials). So it’s critical to understand your multigenerational coworkers so you can relate and get the most out of the team.

While all stereotypes are inherently false, some of the generalizations made about each generation of worker ring true for many. As a Gen X guy, I know a lot of the stereotypes are true in my case (micromanagement the worst thing possible, prefer blunt communication, value independence and work-life balance).

Check out these three good articles on the subject:

A Boomer's Guide to Communicating with Gen X and Gen Y (BusinessWeek)

Age Just a Number: Cohesive Office with Different Generations (ABC News)

Aging and Work (Boston College)

Great job to everyone who set up Friday’s event. Speakers included Mark Strong of Valtera (who has dogs named Rocky and MacGuyver), Sally Doffer of ConocoPhillips, Amy Mifflin of Marathon Oil and Kim Wachel of KBR.