The following is also my latest MediaPost Spin column…
Ignorant Customers Happier With Their Choices
February 29th, 2008 by Max Kalehoff
The less your customers know about what they bought, the happier they’ll be.
That’s according to researchers at the University of Iowa, who recently announced new research suggesting that people who have only a little information about a [...]

I’m in Santa Clara and the immediate Bay Area vicinity this entire week for SMX Search Marketing Expo and a bunch of meetings with Clickable partners and advisors. If you’re around and would like to meet, contact me here.

Massive hype is surrounding Sony for winning the so-called hi-def DVD format war. The movie studios and distributors sided with Sony Blu-Ray, and rival Toshiba announced immediately it would stop producing its HD DVD players. While standardization will be welcomed by the movie industry to help inject some life into a stagnant market for movie [...]

Seth Godin expresses dissatisfaction with marketing-centric terms, where a person is defined by the marketer, not the other way around. This includes the words “prospect” and “target”. He then asks: “Isn’t it interesting that there isn’t even a name for someone who doesn’t yet have a relationship with the marketer?” So Godin settles on “citizen.”
I [...]

The following is also my latest MediaPost Spin column.
Great Marketing Comes With A Smile

February 15th, 2008 by Max Kalehoff
We all know the difference between interactions where someone smiles versus when someone does not. When people smile, the experience more often than not is pleasant, if not enjoyable. In circumstances where people don’t smile, the experience [...]