The Competition and Industry Gets a Vote on Your Marketing
Situational awareness is a concept I first learned in the military. It’s the idea that most environments that warrant a military presence are fluid and dynamic. You can’t get so focused on what you’re trying to do – that you...Read More
Your Marketing Predecessor was Probably a Hot Mess [UML]
Six months into a year-long tour in 2007, the unit I was supporting in Iraq, was going home – but not before a short period of overlap with the replacements. That period lasted one or two weeks, providing for a...Read More
The Blurry Edges of PR; Off Script #11: Kevin Hartman of LTPR
I have a lot of admiration for those individuals that hold a full-time job in business – especially in PR or marketing – and simultaneously wear a military uniform while serving in the National Guard or Reserve. Kevin Hartman is...Read More
Market Priming: Setting Conditions for a Product Launch
Two or three days into the operation, thousands of troops were just about poised to launch an especially dangerous assault across a choke point. Getting across, and gaining a foothold would be decisive to the operation. The ability to...Read More
Marketing, Strategy and War Analogies
For three years he had traded space for time. Skirmished, lost, retreated and did it again. The war dragged on. Public support plummeted. Abandonment rates grew. The men were exhausted and bitten by frost. It was dark. It was cold....Read More
Technology, Distracted: Citizen Soldiers and the Effects of Connectivity Down Range
Technology. It makes life both easier and more complicated; it simplifies and streamlines, but it also complicates and adds a line or two on the to-do list. The irony of technology has become more apparent to me over the last...Read More
Earthquakes, News and the Pace of Social Networks
We’ve seen many cases of social media outpacing the traditional news media. Word from the Iranian protests, the Tunisian and other Arab revolutions and more recently, the riots in London, traveled much faster than the news could report. It’s one thing...Read More
Coca-Cola, Target, Rumors, SEO and Crisis Communications
My dear mother forwarded me an email today with the subject line, “Target Says “Veterans do not meet our area of giving.” It was one of those emails that had been flashed around the world and the string was filled...Read More
7 military sayings applied to PR
For all the flack they get, clichés can be a powerful communication tools. They are precise phrases with definitive meanings that leave little room for misinterpretation. Of course, cliché is also part of a culture, and they don’t always translate from one...Read More