By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter Over a glass of vino the other night, a fellow businesswoman did an eye-rolling riff on “Housewives with Hobbies.�  Now - before I go on – let me state for the record I have nothing against housewives (or stay-at-home Moms), hobbies or ...

By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter  Sure, we're going through tough times in the U.S., but in any times small biz owners are often their own worst enemies.  Sooo, time for a little tough love.  Here are real-life quotes that make 'toonis  awfully  attractive:   "I don't ...

By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter First, four discussion framing points:   1. Customers ALWAYS have a choice.  That choice may be to do nothing at all, but it's a choice.  2. Your value is whatever your customer perceives it to be. 3. Your customer's perception changes base...

By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter (Here's hoping you've got great troll barriers, Yvonne - with a title like that! ;-) From my "roll the eyes and sigh" file  of stupid marketing tricks... This past week, I wrote a post over at my blog about companies selling lists of bloggers...

By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter Caroline Kennedy has taken some flack for suggesting to some NYT writers that they should perhaps consider writing for women’s magazines. This was intended – and taken – as a slight.  Of course, a lot of very good, insightful writing is...

By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter Maureen Rogers, of The Opinionated Marketers, recently did a riff on the Cap One credit card tag line. She begins by saying, "Well, there’s no getting around the fact that for most of us, in our extended, metaphorical, 401-K-ish wallet, ther...

By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter Women have come a long way,  as evidenced by the 2008 presidential election. But, we’ve also got a long way to go…as evidenced by the 2008 election.  The women candidates  had to get up hours before the men so they could look good all d...

By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter Last night at the AIBA gala (Albuquerque Independent Business Alliance), one of the presenters started by saying (about his company), "Yes, the economy is 'bad.' And, we've decided not to participate." This seems to be the general fe...