Permission Marketing

Posted by on August 13, 2012

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The stats are clear: as a marketer, you should put more of your company’s talent and treasure into inbound marketing as opposed to outbound marketing. In fact, one must work constantly on obtaining permission from your current customers or potential customers to market to them, and the message must be of pure intentions. In order […]

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The Idea Room

Posted by on July 28, 2012

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I have never been one to pay much attention to work place design. Several months ago the Ninth Store team received a physical workplace transformation. The scattered physical team was relocated and consolidated into one room. The room quickly got labelled: The Idea Room by the new occupants. Currently there are four full time team […]

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What are you really buying?

Posted by on July 2, 2012

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In a world of multiple channels, cascading competing products and vendors, what really are you buying? Many items have become not much more than commodities. Yet there are products and retailers that stand out. Apple, Nordstrom, MEC (Mountain Equipment Coop). So why do these products and retailers stand out? The brands are not selling products, […]

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Award Winning Customers

Posted by on June 13, 2012

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Good companies often win awards but what about their customers? Shouldn’t they be recognized? Are they not part of the reason for the award? At Flaman Group of Companies this year we have won two awards:Consumer Choice AwardSABEX Marketing Award With both of these awards, it would be easy to position the employee efforts as […]

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Leaders Lead

Posted by on June 7, 2012

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Leaders also listen. In my profession I lead sales and marketing teams, for recreation I lead teams in the mountains. Recently on an attempt of a shark finned unclimbed peak (Mt Saskatchewan; 11, 385 ft in the Centennial Range, Kluane National Park, Yukon) I faced my greatest leadership challenge. The team Prairie Vertical faced increasing consequence […]

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Risky Business

Posted by on May 3, 2012

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All business is risky or so the saying goes. But do risks need to knock you down? Can you actually be prepared for the risks you undertake – especially the risks in marketing?By definition a risk is an uncertainty, and when it comes to risk there are three main types: 1)Known – Knowns: A known […]

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Making Marketing Decisions: Easy? No! Difficult? Yes!

Posted by on April 11, 2012

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Recently, we had a tradeshow for the Trailer Division, the Draggins Car Show.  The hours were horrible for those working the booth: Good Friday from 10 am to 10 pm and Saturday 10 am to 10 pm, with move out 10 pm to 1 am that night.  Goodbye weekend!  For the most part, during those two 12 hour days, […]

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A little engagement goes a long way

Posted by on January 26, 2012

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Hold up! I am not writing about a diamond ring. Although a little diamond does go a long way.  I am writing about user engagement in the digital space.  By engagement I mean a user base that is active, not passive. Let’s pretend you have 50,000 visitors to your website per month.  While they are […]

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Inbound and Outbound Marketing

Posted by on August 15, 2011

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If you could look at a trend in the last few years, many pundits have been claiming the end of traditional marketing as we know it is upon us. The debate rages, but I believe this is not a zero sum game for most companies. I believe that a company needs to have a mix […]

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