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“The revolutionary war is a war of the masses” Mao Tse-Dong “A journey of a thousand li begins with a single power point presentation” (unknown) Dear CMO: Warfare is an overused business cliché. We run campaigns, launch flanker brands, have our ‘war room’ in the back where it smells like Lysol, and every once in […]

Dear CMO: Just a short note today before I hit the road about this weekend’s biggest hit, Snakes on a Plane, and what it means for your branding. No, I have absolutely no intention of dissecting the ‘return on internet buzz’ metrics that thousands of my erstwhile peers and associates are lathered up about. Suffice […]

Dear CMO: Writing a compelling story is the inner game of marketing and, not surprisingly, it is often the exclusive realm of the creatives in your selected agencies. The client participates by scowling during the presentation, inquiring if the logo could be a bit bigger, and then picking the execution they think is the funniest. […]

Dear CMO: Lots of water-cooler chatter from friends about the last post, specifically the point about the lack of a marketing no-brainer metric. Everyone with boardroom tenure has a metric, from sales to finance to operations to manufacturing. Marketing has to pay cash at the bar with their program specific ROI’s. Under less-than-scientific scrutiny, though, […]

Dear CMO: Marketing is dead. Ask anyone. The current business press and the vast community of marketing pundits are in lock-step agreement that marketing is dead. And buried. I understand from Booz Allen’s Strategy+Business that marketers’ skill sets are out of date, that the marketer of the future comes from a decentralized and team-based management […]