Marketing guru Seth Godin presents at the TED conference how ideas can spread based on social groups (tribes). Effectively he uses images connecting them to key words that make for a memorable presentation. Godin's ability of making complex subject simple to understand is why it is worth the 18 minute presentation. There will also be plenty of food for thought.

PS: Seth Godin has another presentation on TED, about "Standing Out".   

"Anybody starting a small company, everyone who has an idea, incorporate giving in what you do." A quote from TOMS clip below.

This quote speaks volumes to me. Back when I spent a few months in the Dominican Republic I together with a few others had a similar idea but it concerned wildlife. Our name was "Natural Born Killers", also called "NBK". We developed the idea and started executing it but then our time in the DR was up and we all left to other corners of the world. I never forgot the idea, and I still have my T-shirt, necklace and a sketch of our logo. Hearing TOMS story made me wish I had pursued it - the world would be a better place today.

If anyone is interested in the idea please contact me. I'll be 100% on board!!!....

Conscious Capitalism - Where companies / corporations are responsible not just to shareholders but also to employees, consumers, suppliers, communities and to the planets environment. 

Great interview between Kevin Lee (Chairman & CEO of Didit) and Gian Fulgoni (Founder & Chairman of comScore). They discuss the dangers of attributing too much credit for a conversion to the final click made by a consumer.

In other words, conversions are hightest if your target audience already knows who you are, what you offer and trust / likes you more than another brand / product. Therefore direct conversions methods such as Direct Marketing or Google Ad Words, etc are "great closers" and are best when branding/PR did a good job prior. 

American Express's Open Forum list of  the "10 Fatal Mistakes Most Small Business Owners Make" is spot on. This especially applies to small businesses. I see this over and over, basic things such as, "Who is the target audience?" are too lossly defined, or "Tracking and measuring activities." are seen as a wast of time, or "What is the [life time] value of a customer?" is answered with a blank stare or as the next [one-time] sale. 

So much opportunity, energy and resources are wasted if these basics are not taken to heart. 

"The majority of senior marketers (55%) lack a quantitative understanding of their organizations' brand value and may be missing out on opportunities to leverage their brand to drive business growth, according to a survey from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Interbrand."

And for small to mid-size firms this percentage is much much greater, as this study was preformed with large organizations. This is a huge disadvantage and loss if not addressed at the top level.

"Top-performing companies make absolutely certain that brand is a central organizing principle, but, for many in the marketing industry, creating and managing brand value still follows an archaic model - it is limited strictly to the marketing department," said Jez Frampton, global CEO of Interbrand.

Therefore is it essential for small to mid-size firms to address this issue head on. 

Found this comparison Bad v. Good Consultants on Robert Rosenthal's blog.

My favorites are:

- Bad consultants focus on short-term agendas. Good consultants effect long-term change.

- Bad consultants treat external partners as competitors. Good consultants treat them as collaborators.

- Bad consultants care about looking good. Good consultants care about being good.

- Bad consultants tell you what you want to hear. Good consultants tell you what you need to hear.

And I would like to add:

- Bad consultants prefer not to debate with you. Good consultants seek [constructive] debates with you.

- Bad consultants want to grow their business with you. Good consultants want to grow your business.  

According to a survey of US small businesses from the Yellow Pages Association (YPA) the vast majority (62%) prefer to only use internal resources in their marketing efforts.

This only confirms that small business can only gain when teaming up with marketing professionals.