Mind Mapping – Beyond Brainstorming

February 23, 2010

I use mind-mapping software like crazy.  But in addition to its obvious assistance with brainstorming, I’ve found it very useful in a variety of planning activities I do for clients every day.  I use a Mac-only program called MindNode Pro, developed by Markus Müller, an independent software developer in Vienna.  (Markus also has an outstanding [...]

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Are You Insulting Your Customers?

January 28, 2010

I am amazed at how many companies have fallen into the habit of regularly insulting their customers. If I pointed them out, I GUARANTEE that each and every one of them would strenuously object to this accusation, claiming (and, in all likelihood, truly believing) that each and every customer they have is of the utmost [...]

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Obama’s Audience Segmentation

January 19, 2010

USA TODAY has a fascinating article today about a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll looking at the President’s approval rating and how he’s faring in public opinion. AMAZING!  It’s attitudinal audience segmentation for the President of the United States! I’ve conducted audience segmentation for big companies, small companies, business-to-business, business-to-consumer, government and even a faith-based university. [...]

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Great-Grandma Allie’s Christmas Eggnog (and a little history…)

December 13, 2009

I’ve been asked by many people over the years for my homemade eggnog recipe.  This year, when I am celebrating a wonderful new community and a flourishing new business, seems a good time to say thanks by sharing it with anybody who cares to read.  But first, a quick diversion into where it comes from [...]

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The Great Debate

November 2, 2009

I had an interesting experience last week when a client pulled me aside to make me aware that the company’s CRM guru was loudly expressing his concern that this “warm and fuzzy” attitudinal approach to audience segmentation couldn’t hold a candle to good, old-fashioned database analytics. This isn’t the first time it’s happened.  I often [...]

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There’s No Crying In Research

September 28, 2009

I am currently finishing up an audience segmentation project for a large multi-channel retailer.  As usual, we’re trying to identify the key motivations for their various customer groups. I was surprised to hear from my client contact that, when pursuing such a project was discussed in a team meeting, one of the team members was [...]

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Realizations From An Amazing Week

August 17, 2009

Last week was a whole bundle of incredible experiences for me.  It was so overwhelming, in fact, that it seemed like the “NOW DO YOU GET IT?” gods had decided to teach me a lesson. On Saturday I presented at LaidOffCamp in Gilbert (see my post here), and witnessed an amazing instance of a community [...]

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LaidOffCamp

August 9, 2009

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking at LaidOffCamp Phoenix, a wonderful gathering of folks who have been laid off and those who want to help them get back on their feet. Having been laid off myself (twice, most recently in January), I can certainly understand the feelings of hurt, anxiety and sadness that come [...]

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Updated Site, New Commitment

August 6, 2009

So if you’ve visited my site anytime in the last six months you may have noticed something — I’m a horribly infrequent poster.  As one of my friends pointed out, “If you want something to grow, you’ve got to water it every once in a while.”  So as I relaunched my site with some new [...]

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Use Your Insight to Torpedo Your Marketing Efforts

March 16, 2009

Gail Goodman, writing for Entrepreneur, makes a great point about how audience segmentation can transform your email marketing, making it more relevant, impactful and effective. Unfortunately, I have to take issue with her recommendations about segmenting your audience in the section titled “Selecting Your Segments”: “To be effective, most businesses need only two or three [...]

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