Strategy

  • Why It’s Smart to Hire an Outside Marketing Agency: 6 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

    by New Boston on October 19, 2016

    “Is it crazy to think about hiring marketing specialists outside my organization?” If you’re asking the question, chances are your business is not actually marketing. You run a ranching operation. You manufacture products. You are CEO of a financial services firm. You are an...

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  • The Budget Dance

    by Susan Religa on October 13, 2016

    Take a step back in time with me. And be patient. There's a point. You're a seventh grader. At the big dance. Standing in the corner in a cold sweat. A slow song starts playing. You want to ask that cute girl to dance. But you're feeling intimidated. You're afraid she'll reject...

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  • 8 Tips for Writing Your Next RFP

    by Kristin Brighton on September 29, 2016

    So you’ve got a marketing project coming up, and you need to put together a Request for Proposal, so you can see which companies are interested in your project and what they’d charge you to do the work. Great! But before you get too far in the RFP writing process, I’d like to...

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  • Question Everything!

    by Lisa Sisley on September 7, 2016

    We all ask ourselves a lot of questions every day. Is this milk still OK? Would something bad actually happen if I open that email addressed to “Dear One”? Why do so many people seem to own cars without a turn signal? And maybe you’ve even asked yourself some questions about...

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  • How to Brainstorm Like a Champ

    by Julie Fiedler on May 22, 2015

    As a lover of the brainstorm, I thrive on the power of diverse perspectives and personalities coming together to create something new. Here are a few DOs and DON’Ts to help you brainstorm like a champ:

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  • Take the Quiz! Does Your Business Need a Marketing Check-up?

    by Kristin Brighton on February 11, 2015

    While it might sound cliché to advise a check-up of your company’s marketing at the beginning of the year, there’s nothing like a flip of the calendar and a long winter’s nap to make us assess what we’ve been doing, and what we should do differently in the future. As your very...

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  • The Next Best Thing to a Crystal Ball: The Power of Focus Groups

    by Kristin Brighton on April 2, 2014

    As I get older, I care less and less about what people think about me. However, when I’m working for clients, I need to know what people think about them. Otherwise, my work is purely based on a guess. And while I’ve learned a lot in my career about what works and what doesn’t...

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  • Regional Branding: Let's DO This!

    by Lisa Sisley on February 12, 2014

    Around these parts — the central Flint Hills-ish — for the last few years, regional branding and marketing has been like the weather. Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. Well, to their credit, the big thinkers who planned the 2014 Leaders Retreat, a...

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  • 2014: The Year of YOUR Digital Revolution

    by Kristin Brighton on February 11, 2014

    Next year, I’ll turn 40. And while you can pacify me with lovely metaphors related to cheese and wine and sex getting better with age, we all know that no matter how old we are, we all still sometimes feel like sweaty-palmed teenagers. In my nearly 20 years in this industry (...

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  • Sometimes the Purple Cow Hurts

    by Lisa Sisley on August 3, 2012

    Seth Godin, marketing guru, coined the term “Purple Cow” to explain the notion that in marketing, you have to find some way to stand out from the herd. A purple cow would be distinct from all the brown cows. We apply this to community marketing projects by helping cities think...

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