Contextual marketing is online advertising placed and appearing according to how relevant it is to the content the consumer is viewing in response to a search. It is targeted advertising that looks to align with the interests of a web surfer.

Google AdSense is the most popular form of contextual marketing. A search engine bot, known as Mediabot, indexes the material on a website and determines which advertisements submitted to Google are a match. Search engines, including Yahoo! and Microsoft, display advertisements on search results pages. Those advertisements are selected based on the key words that a person enters into the search engine.

The idea of contextual marketing has been controversial because critics claim it represents an invasion of privacy. In 1999, when the search marketing company DoubleClick (now owned by Google) attempted to use the information it had collected online about consumers to create targeted promotions offline, the corporation was taken to court over its privacy policies. Public reaction led online marketers to focus on delivering marketing messages that drive responses without being intrusive.

Origin

Contextual marketing is based on the idea of personal profiling, where information about web surfers is collected via cookies. In 1995, permanent cookie technology was invented, which allowed servers to send packets of information to web browsers, and vice versa, in order to track the websites visited by the person at the computer.

Participatory advertising is the idea of co-creation, where a marketer introduces a concept to the public and then asks consumers to use their creativity to expand upon that idea.

Corporations reach out to brand evangelists to ask them to create commercials or new brand messages for products they love. The user-generated content is then uploaded to brand-specific websites or video-sharing sites like YouTube. By yielding brand control, companies like MasterCard and Converse have managed to engage customers in promotion across social networks.

Participatory advertising also involves the changing manner in which people consume marketing. Instead, customers are now interacting with brand campaigns, as the Internet has moved marketers away from traditional, static methods of advertising. Under this methodology, consumers are no longer willing to passively digest product information, but instead want to form a connection with a brand. In a recent successful example, Dove leveraged this approach with the Campaign for Real Beauty, which asks consumers to help change stereotypical ideals of beauty. 

Origin:

The first examples of participatory advertising were seen in the early 1990's as Nike parlayed a series of advertisements with Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny into the creation of a feature-length cartoon, "Space Jam." Advertising evolved into a participatory model with the introduction of the Internet and a corresponding change in consumer culture.  

Apparently this summer, America has been put up for sale (mostly good deals), privacy has become a hot button issue and that huge French cycling thing got started again.

Murketing is a combination of the terms murky and marketing. It is a deliberate choice by a corporation to create a brand image that is mysterious or not well-defined in order to inspire curiosity in the consumer. With technology changes and new approaches to viral and word-of-mouth advertising, it isn't immediately clear that a brand is behind a new video or message -- be it mobile phones that pop popcorn or a giant LEGO boulder chasing Indiana Jones.

A successful murketing campaign is intriguing enough that potential customers will seek to discover exactly what is being sold or who is the one selling to them. The consumer then ascribes values to the brand and is the one to proactively establish a relationship. Critics are split on whether the murketing of viral videos, like BMW's "Rampenfest" ads, will ultimately damage or save brand reputations.

Origin: New York Times columnist Rob Walker coined the term "murketing" in an article for Outside magazine when he was seeking to describe the deliberately obsequious marketing of Red Bull. He regularly explores the relationship between consumers and marketers on his blog, Murketing.com and in his new book, "Buying In."

The University President: The New CMO

Why would a prospective student, faculty, donor or alumni want to live your brand? Why are you the first choice for some students? What gets your faculty up every morning? What keeps alumni connected emotionally and financially? It is the desire to be part of a unique community that shares a vision. It is participating in a differentiated experience that springs from the very soul of the institution. It is the university brand.

Administrators, faculty, and students all contribute, shape and help build a brand.   Traditionally, the university president's responsibilities have been focused on institutional planning, balancing the budget and exceeding university fundraising and endowment goals. Over time, the president has become responsible for student recruitment and retention and improving the overall student experience.

Who is the custodian of the soul of a university? Now, it has become a university president's responsibility.

Piggybacking is where smaller brands use well-known brand names, trademarked terms, or slogans in their online search advertisements to draw traffic to their websites. It is a growing issue for search engine marketers and Fortune 500 companies as advertising dollars shift online where brand abuse is rampant. Google's trademark policy is hands-off and encourages advertisers to resolve trademark disputes directly with a company that they believe is violating their trademark rights.

Marriott International and American Airlines contend that this practice is potentially driving up costs and confusing potential customers. American Airlines filed suit against Google last year, arguing that unchecked piggybacking was a case of trademark infringement.

Origin
Piggybacking was initially a business term that referred to reducing costs by adding a new project to an existing one. It was extended to the online arena with wireless networks to refer to computer users hopping on an unprotected wireless connection.

A digital immigrant is a generational term, used to refer to people who were born before a given piece of digital technology was invented. It is a generation of baby boomers and consumers of a certain age (even Rupert Murdoch), who are approaching technology as if it were a foreign language.

As such, digital immigrants experience the same difficulties when they come into contact with digital technology as adults. Their learning curve is steeper and they may be reluctant to adapt to new systems.

The process of assimilation is always easier for those that learned the language of our digital world while growing up. Digital immigrants are often juxtaposed with digital natives, the younger generation that is accustomed to using the wealth of digital technology. The Digital Natives project, a collaboration between Harvard University and the University of St. Gallen, is looking to understand how different generations understand and apply information.  

Origin: The term digital native is attributed to writer and consultant Marc Prensky. He coined the term in a 2005 piece for Educational Leadership, while explaining what teachers have to do to reach students based on how they currently receive and process information.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who has never been shy about speaking his mind, recently made the decision to ban all bloggers - major and minor -- from the locker room. In a post on Blog Maverick, justifying his decision as a move toward equality, Cuban argued that he didn't feel that a blogger from the mainstream media should have more access to his players than a person who blogs as a hobby.

His assertion that this was an effort to ensure equality was met with heavy criticism from writers, both on and off the Internet. It was seen as a heavy-handed attempt at censorship and the backlash was immediate and overwhelming. In light of Cuban's well-developed persona, the ban seemed particularly out of character. He's opened himself up to criticism for eight years as the most connected owner in sports. By listening to customers about how to improve the fan experience, Cuban has built a brand based on accessibility.

If you ever need a blueprint for viral video success (or even a new media approach), it's sitting on YouTube's most viewed list right now: Guys backflip into jeans.

The viral spot created for Levi Strauss by the advertising agency Cutwater has rocketed past 2 million views in just a little over a week's time. The premise is simple - a group of performers do a series of increasingly complicated tricks to step into their jeans.

Big headlines about the airline industry have graced the front pages of newspapers, magazines and websites recently. After two years or so of profitability and the looming threat of a US recession and rising oil prices, airlines are struggling once again. Rather than raise ticket prices, airlines have been creating new fees and will soon be asking passengers to pay for a second checked bag.  The key to surviving trying times is keeping your eye on your brand, and it seems as though only a few airlines are keeping that in mind.

On the heels of its successful generic prescription drug plan, Wal-Mart announced in 2007 that it planned to open several hundred medical clinics within its retail stores. Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott believes the number could grow as high as 2,000 by 2014.

The model was simple. Doctors or nurse practitioners provide routine medical care - testing for strep throat or giving flu shots at a fixed rate. CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid were quick to follow suit, saying that they were considering similar measures.

It's a classic example of Blue Ocean Strategy. Faced with slowing revenue gains, Wal-Mart decided to curb its expansion plans and focus on deriving more income from its existing stores. Rather than battle Target or CVS and accept diminishing returns, the company set out to get ahead of the curve and launch a retail, healthcare operation.

A flog is a blog that, on its surface, appears to be written by an average consumer or person, but is actually the stylized creation of a public relations firm or marketing department. In many ways it is an online extension of the concept of astroturfing. 

Wal-Mart came under fire in 2006 for failing to disclose that it was funding Wal-Marting Across America, a flog that featured a couple traveling cross country in an RV and sleeping in Wal-Mart parking lots. When it was discovered that the blog was the creation of the public relations firm Edelman, the backlash was swift and strong from the blogosphere where transparency is considered the first rule of the social media realm.

Blogs are a form of participatory journalism, and the risk a company runs in starting a flog is that the act will be seen as a violation of the reader's trust because the content is being misrepresented, a la James Frey's A Million Little Pieces.

Origin: The term flog was likely coined by designer Matthew Oliphant in February of 2005. Within a year it was being used regularly to refer to the Edelman-created blog, Wal-Marting Across America. The name flog is short for fake blog or "flack blog."

An onsert is a standard marketing piece commonly used with newspapers and magazines, and recently applied to direct mail. It is a separate advertisement that is attached to a page of a publication or a customer mailing, and usually is in the form of a takeaway product, like a compact disc, magnet, or small booklet.

Onserts have recently been used to explore the field of scented advertising with newspaper companies like Gannett considering pages or stickers imprinted with smells. 

A derivative product of the onsert is the "onstatement," where advertisements are included on an invoice or account statement from a corporation with no distinction between the content.

Origin: Onserts were developed, and named in contrast to the insert (where a marketing piece is included within a publication). Early uses of onserts were the ubiquitous AOL membership CDs or the sticker covering the masthead of your USA Today.

Let's begin by acknowledging that you are reading this entry on our corporate blog and you've probably already launched some sort of interactive communications with your customer base. Even Wal-Mart has a blog, featuring its in-store buyers. Corporate blogging has taken a seat alongside the most traditional communications tools and deserves serious consideration when looking at how you currently develop your brand.

A matrix organization takes workers with matching skill sets and places them together, allowing a project manager to select the employees that are needed for a given task. In this decentralized system, everything flows through a project manager, who then reports to a corporate executive or department head.

Matrix organizations arose in response to "silos," divisions wherein a strict hierarchical structure left employees in isolated groups only responding and communicating to their direct supervisor. Since information was not effectively shared between the silos, project coordination fell to a C-Suite executive.

In a matrix organization, synergies can be realized by combining elements of project and functional management, as the sharing of resources and employees leads to cost reductions and a more efficient organization. The silos, which in a matrix organization consist of a group of programmers or engineers for example, are now required to communicate. 

Critics question the sustainability of matrix organizations over time as the fluid nature of the corporate structure means that employees can have several superiors and talented workers might feel overburdened.

Origin:

The concept of the matrix organization rose to prominence in the 1970's and 1980's. It was outlined in Professor Jay R. Galbraith's work, Matrix Organization Designs: How to combine functional and project forms.

Southwest Airlines is a brand in crisis.

The corporation was an anomaly: an airline known for efficiency and entertainment but this month, they became known for fuselage cracks and inadequate safety inspections.

The low-cost airline's tailspin began with the recent announcement of a $10.2 million fine from the Federal Aviation Administration based on 2007 maintenance records. The Dallas-based company is also scheduled for a congressional hearing on April 3 to discuss maintenance practices while the stock price has dropped 10 percent since the news broke earlier this month.

When a scandal breaks, the corporate crisis team springs into action crafting a series of simple sentences to be repeated ad nauseum by the executive chosen for sacrifice on the media altar. The goal is to avoid liability and defuse a public relations firestorm. The problem is that a well-crafted media response often just adds to the noise and destroys the underpinnings of the brand you've worked so hard to establish. Spin is not authentic. A public relations "statement" is not authentic. A response that deviates from your brand is not authentic. And without authenticity, your crisis management strategy is not likely to succeed.

If you're looking for a blueprint in how to authentically respond to criticism or a crisis, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama offered a three-step plan in his recent speech on race in America. In what has been seen as the signature moment of his campaign, Obama properly and authentically answered the media outcry over comments from his former pastor Jeremiah Wright.

Blue Ocean Strategy encourages a company to explore untapped markets where immediate and rapid profit growth is possible because of a lack of competition. So instead of battling for profits in the established marketplace, companies should look to generate new markets where they are the only player.

In contrast to a blue ocean (an undiscovered market), the red ocean is the current marketplace, where corporations are competing for market share. Intense competition leads some companies to go under, and the "cutthroat nature" of business turns the ocean bloody or red. It's the concept of diminishing returns, as companies have to devote more resources to besting the competition in order to build market share slightly.

Without the cost of competition, corporations are free to focus on developing their product. Moreover, innovative companies will have the opportunity to define the rules of the marketplace in their favor.

Starwood Hotel's targeting of non-customers is a recent example of Blue Ocean Strategy as they are trying to step outside the traditional market boundaries of the hospitality industry.

Origin:

Michigan State University Professor Charles W.L. Hill introduced the idea in 1988 that differentiation and cost management was the key to gaining a competitive advantage. The concept was encapsulated in the 2005 bestseller, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant, written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.

IBM initiating a major stock buyback.

Citing robust growth in Europe and a greater diversification of their business, IBM is showing their viability even in times of economic hardship ... HA! Take that, US Recession! (Too soon?)

Ever since selling off their personal computer division to Lenovo, IBM has been a model in rebranding as they've gone on to redefine their brand as an expert in enterprise-wide information technology and (apparently) they're doing pretty well. Feeling good enough about themselves to buy back a lot of stock and push their earnings up.

Getty Images bought by private equity firm.
The proliferation of user-generated content combined with a changing media environment, sent media stalwart Getty Images seeking out new opportunities for strategic growth, so they put themselves on the block ... The result? A $2.1 billion offer from private equity firm Hellman & Friedman.

Getty was already exploring other areas for business growth (and quite successfully), but as a private company they have greater latitude and more opportunities.

We talked to June Blocklin of Gilbert and Company, advertising agency consultants, about the difficulties to overcome when searching for a new brand agency and how CEOs can sometimes, mistakenly, value chemistry over an idea that could transform the earning power of their brand.

Where are the places that most companies stumble when searching for an agency to partner on a brand?

The right short list is a critical starting point - and the place where companies often miss. There are thousands of alternatives available and always more than one agency that can fit the bill.

The key in getting to the right short list is knowing how well the different agencies fit the criteria you determine are important. You want to find, say, five agencies that not only deliver the services and have the relevant experience that you want, but are hungry, for whatever reason. That's an indication that they will step up and do a good job.

Importantly, that list should not always be about who's "the hottest." A fabulous campaign done for somebody else doesn't necessarily mean they'll do the same for you. You want to make sure you are talking to companies who want you as much as you want them.

In part two, we discuss how a CEO can work with a consultant to establish a cultural change in their organization.

Can CEOs inadvertently be standing in the way of an organization's growth?

I sometimes find leaders choosing to stand above the organization and feel that they're going to change it without it somehow profoundly changing them in the process. Effective change can only happen when leaders grow personally. The CEO has to ask themselves: "Am I prepared for some kind of change in me?" Because change in their organization starts in their office.

I remember a client saying to me once, "Chris, I realize that every instinct I have for this business is no longer relevant, yet they are the only instincts I have."

They had got to a very critical place in their own learning, the place of "I don't know." But then he moved forward, and made some difficult and risky choices, which may well not have worked. Without this almost mystical combination of humility and courageous vision in a leader, change is very hard to foster. I have said, "As grows the leader, so goes the change process." It seems that this is most often the case.

The Halo Group talked to consultant Chris Houston of The Change Alliance about when it is time to bring in a change agent and how a CEO can effectively lead an organization in a new direction.

How does the need for a change agent arise within an organization?

A leader always has two fundamental challenges. The first is to run the organization they have today; they have a responsibility to serve and deliver products to their current customers. The second is to change their model, so that tomorrow's performance is in some way different, better, or sustainable. And the difficulty is that both of these goals need to be achieved simultaneously. Often, the management process pays particular attention to one task or the other, usually today's performance - best reflected in the numbers that show the current economic strength of a corporation. But the results today are the outcome of previous decisions, so today's change agenda is intended to produce results for tomorrow.

The quarterly earnings cycle forces a transactional response. CEOs feel that they have to do something today - preferably Now! - which is why it is sometimes helpful to have an outside opinion and perspective, one not caught up in the issues of producing today's output. A change agent has an eye on the horizon as opposed to the immediate crisis. It's that ability to simply think beyond the immediate issues of today, but do so fully cognizant of the present realities.

Greenwashing is a marketing effort where a product or service is presented as "green," when in actuality it may not be environmentally friendly. Under this strategy, a company may change its look or use a buzzword like "organic" or "natural" to try and convince consumers that it has lowered its negative impact on the environment. Greenwashing is an environmental reinterpretation of the concept of whitewashing, wherein a corporation uses a biased presentation in attempting to cover up wrongdoing.

As it stands currently, there is not a lot of restriction on green advertising. The Federal Trade Commission is considering an update on green marketing guidelines, but the "Green Guides," haven't been revised since 1998. In response, a proliferation of consumer advocacy watchdogs have come into existence featured on websites like EnviroMedia's Greenwashing Index. And the planet-conscious claims of marketing campaigns are being called into question.

Recent debates over greenwashing have covered the sustainability of Procter & Gamble's Swiffer and whether Kimberly-Clark, maker of Kleenex and the world's largest tissue manufacturer, was effectively protecting heritage forests in Canada.

Origin

The concept of greenwashing appeared in the early 1990s. It arose as a response to the upsurge in green marketing by corporations designed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Earth Day in 1990.

Astroturfing refers to misrepresentation in the world of the web - a coordinated, but covert, public relations effort masquerading as an independent grassroots campaign in the hopes of influencing opinion.

The word "Astroturfing" is a play on the artificial, slick surface first used in the Houston Astrodome. It is used to suggest that an alleged grassroots campaign cited by a corporation is fake or pretending to be natural.

In today's world of savvy consumers and watchdog groups, companies that try to hide their true intentions are being uncovered via programs like WikiScanner, which looks to see if corporations have edited their own Wikipedia entries. And so, just as athletes succumb to the hardness of Astroturf, those organizations that employ the strategy of Astroturfing are bound to have their reputations damaged.

Examples of Astroturf accusations in recent months include a campaign for clean coal and alleged Microsoft participation in dialogue on the web.

Origin

Astroturf is a synthetic field surface invented by Monsanto in 1967, nicknamed for its original use in the Houston Astrodome. U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen is credited with co-opting the term to refer to a public relations campaign.

Marketers often believe their job is done as soon as sales leads start coming in the door. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how marketing dollars are wasted. Successful marketers help turn leads into customer conversions because they understand that sales can be the most valuable metric for measuring new campaigns.

In attempting to fulfill their responsibility to connect campaigns to the bottom line, many marketers discover that their efforts are hampered by poor conversion rates resulting from an underperforming sales team. So, marketing needs to understand how to communicate with the sales department and effectively motivate the team responsible for converting leads. We brought in somebody fluent in the language of sales, Tim Brenton, President of the Brenton Group, Inc., to teach marketers the right questions to ask the sales management team and assess whether the right processes are in place for success.

The online search engine and advertising category has been slowly simmering beneath the surface, and it finally came to a boil with Microsoft initializing a hostile takeover of Yahoo! last week. Upon hearing all the rumbling in their backyard, Google looked out their back window, saw the two search engines fighting, and decided: "Awww heck, might as well try to break this up."

Here's a timeline of events leading up to this week (and it just keeps getting juicier and juicier).

The Long Tail is a new business philosophy that suggests that many small markets can be worth as much, or more, than one huge market. But for that to hold true, consumers must have equal access to companies of all sizes via a marketplace like the Internet.

"It's an embarrassment of niches," says writer Kevin Kelleher.

The Long Tail means that as a company's distribution power increases, it can sell a higher volume of different items, rather than focusing on a select group of products. The Long Tail eliminates the need for bestsellers.

The Internet has played a critical role in the development of the Long Tail because it has made hard-to-find products readily available. As a result, corporations have been able to monetize demand as the opportunity cost of marketing to smaller demographic groups has decreased.

Origin

The phrase first entered the lexicon in October 2004 when Wired editor Chris Anderson wrote an article about the business models behind Amazon and Netflix - it's a concept that he would expand upon in his book The Long Tail: Why The Future of Business is Selling Less of More.

We're not going to unpack this idea for you; we're just going to explain it. Every day we run across a host of buzzwords in marketing and new media. The prevailing assumption is that everyone knows what these concepts mean, even though they're describing cutting-edge trends, which are not yet fully understood.

In an effort to cut through some of the noise and save you time, we'll be offering simple explanations for the latest marketing speak. We like to just get to the point here at Halo and get you back on your way. And now you know just what the hell is "what the hell is?..."

For many CFOs marketing is the nebulous part of business. On the surface, it doesn't appear to mesh with their traditional short-term focus on improving productivity and reducing costs. The CFO is charged with prioritizing budgetary resources, balancing the needs of departments across the company, including marketing.

But is marketing effectively making its case?

"Well, I guess it's time for my root canal."

That was the most memorable thing that Ed would say to me all day. Ed (not his real name) was the number-two executive at a major U.S. financial firm, and first in line to succeed the soon-to-retire CEO. He had been through the wringer with a number of media trainers, and it showed.

We had been introduced, and Ed just didn't want to be with me. There was a seemingly permanent scowl on his beefy, reddish face. He had a perfectly pressed shirt and great gold cufflinks, but his collar was a couple of sizes too tight.

When it came time for our mock interview, Ed spoke to me in a laconic monotone, scattered with eminently quotable moments like: "yes," "no," and "I dunno, about six or seven people." It made me wonder how he had gotten as far as he did.

The marketing department has traditionally existed outside the revenue column. But, it's time to demand the same demonstrable results that you would require of any of your business units. Marketing is more than a maker of multi-media; it is a catalyst that reenergizes how the company thinks, invests, acts and connects to your bottom line.

However, traditional business standards of measurement don't tie marketing directly to that bottom line and companies struggle to establish performance benchmarks for their marketing teams. So how do you measure the efficacy of your marketing efforts?

Trim the fat. Make more money. Really listen to people. It's that time of year when we set out to meet new goals and commit to reinventing ourselves.

Our customers are making the same promises. Traditionally, companies have taken notice by offering two-week trial memberships or free toasters. But the marketplace today demands much more than product incentives; it's about becoming an integral part of your customers' lives. Learn how to make your brand a necessity by understanding and facilitating the shared interests, values, and goals of your customer community.

In today's post-"Inconvenient Truth" world, companies of all shapes and sizes have rushed to get onto the "green" train, but many have missed the whole point: It's not about (in)convenience, it's about truth.

These days, announcing your company is "green" is like offering up your sleeve for a scarlet letter to be placed on it. In fact, a recent survey done by marketing consultancy Ipsos Reid showed that nearly 70% of Americans contend that being labeled "green" is merely a marketing gimmick.

In the Old Days of advertising (I'm not even going to use the word branding, because nobody used that word back in the Old Days), everyone knew what "bait and switch" and "false advertising" meant. Good companies did not advertise one thing and then sell another. Respected businesses did not pretend that their product was one thing when it actually was something else. But before the Old Days, back in the Really Old Days, it was one of the Ten Commandments - Thou Shalt Not Lie.

These days, there's a wonderful term bandied about on the net with ever more frequency to cover what Thou Shalt Not Do - astroturfing. Wikipedia says it's "a neologism for formal public relations campaigns in politics and advertising that seek to create the impression of being spontaneous, grassroots behavior. Hence the reference to the artificial grass AstroTurf."

Bells and whistles don't work unless there is someone behind them. It's exciting to launch an external campaign encompassing advertising, public relations, and promotions. But before you get caught up in great ideas and make any promises, you better be sure your employees are ready to keep them.
 
In order to reconnect your team and customers as part of a new initiative, you have to begin within your organization. Whether the repositioning of your brand stems from a merger or a desire to recapture lost market share, employees want to understand their role. So, tell them about the changes, why and what will change, and how it will affect them personally. That's how they can feel pride in what they do.

Here is how to make sure your brand is ready to deliver from the inside out.

When I tell people I'm in Interactive Marketing, I often hear, "Oh, you design websites," or, "You do banners on the Internet." Wrong. "Interactive" is a misused and misunderstood word in the marketing world. Interactive channels include every communications platform that people utilize in their daily lives: cell phones, the Internet, ATM machines, kiosks, video games, and many others. These devices are evolving at lightning speed. Is the iPhone a phone, a computer, or a social networking device? How do marketers decide which platforms will be most effective to build business? And how can marketers develop interactive programs on these platforms that are engaging and meaningful to the consumer?

Corporate image is everything. In today's world, you're either a good company or a bad one, and your products will be judged in the same fashion by association. Consumers are savvy as they look at who makes what they buy as much as what they're buying. And the place that most of your consumers are beginning their search is online. Do you have an online brand manager or someone who keeps track of what is said about you in bulletin boards, chat rooms, and blogs?

Delta Airlines just announced that it has eliminated pillows and quit selling food on flights to save money. Clearly they haven't read the growing list of dissatisfied customer postings on flyertalk.com, airlinerage.com, or flightsfromhell.com.

Companies traditionally have looked at customer service issues as separate, and apart, from the sales of the product and based on short-term profitability. Decisions that at first glance don't seem to affect the bottom line immediately are put off if the corporation isn't flush with cash.

Ad agencies won't exist in the future. Branding companies are relics of the past. Web 2.0 and the YouTubification of our culture will replace the online agency. If you listen to the doomsday predictions, it's easy to start believing that the low-cost model and democratization of media is eliminating the advertising agency in New York.

Media content has lost value because of the proliferation of potential sources clamoring for the eyes and ears of consumers. However, as the number of media outlets increase, advertisement campaigns can actually be more interactive and creative than ever. Sprite hides messages in its television commercials to make people stop fast forwarding with their TiVo. Doritos buys a Super Bowl advertisement created via entries submitted on YouTube. Advertisers are adapting their campaigns to the media. In short, we're evolving.

Famous athletes have long been part of the marketing world, whether they're endorsing their "favorite" brand--sure Derek Jeter drives a Chevy--or they're starting their own (i.e., Michael Jordan). Today the brand + athlete pairing is as creative as ever, so let's take a look at how some of today's top athletes have worked with their brand teammates and how it has affected their respective brand's performance.

A recent survey showed that only 17 percent of executives and marketing professionals felt their CEO would give the company's marketing an "A." When asked why, marketing executives said it was because they didn't show their work.

CEOs are not ones to take performance on faith; they need hard numbers to justify spending to a results-driven board and investors. That sentiment was echoed by CEOs; 48 percent felt marketing was only marginally effective.

Welcome to the InfoFrenzy-where customers are customer service vigilantes using the Internet to publicize positive and negative experiences and investigate the brand and corporation behind the product. Genuine consumer comments have replaced the Better Business Bureau or Consumer Reports as a reliable source for brand comparison. Anyone with a modem and a blog represents a potential public relations disaster.

Customers today are armed with the technology to look beneath a brand's attractive wrapping. They want to know about the company that made the product, and whether it shares the same core beliefs and values. And that's where a lot of brands get into trouble.

Companies spend so much time focusing on the brand concept that they forget to step back and consider its purpose. You want to make money for your business, employees, and shareholders. But how can you translate fiscal health into a purposeful brand that connects with customers? Start at your core. And then build your company around it.

When Richard Tait and Whit Alexander sat down to create the board game Cranium, they based it on a simple premise-"Everyone Shines." Some of us are good at crossword puzzles, while others might dominate at Pictionary. But the key is that everyone has a unique skill set that allows him or her to compete in a game based on a variety of challenges.

We are keeping track of what's going on in the world, and we're looking at the implications those events or actions may have on the brands and their respective bottom lines. Then, we're plotting them on our handy-dandy uber-scientific graph that takes a look at the relationship between brands and profit.

The Business of Music
Almost a decade ago, the music industry found itself in the midst of the mp3/p2p music-sharing fiasco. Today, as the dust clears, we've seen evidence (iTunes) of a new way of looking at the music industry, and lately there's been a new wave of change truly challenging the business model, as detailed here in this great NY Times article that asks "if it's retail, is it still rock?"

In today's texting, YouTube, blogging, mobile messaging, media-obsessed world, consumers can get to the core of every business instantly. And they do. To them, saying what you do is not nearly as important as doing what you say.

You sell more than a service or a product - you are selling a culture, a set of beliefs and your brand's mission. Consistency and transparency throughout every layer of your company influence buying decisions and are directly tied to your bottom line. So, your brand must be clearly understood and embraced by your entire organization.

To create a well-developed brand that's focused on profitability follow these steps:

Still don't believe that branding is the key to generating new profits and building a successful business? Well, what if we told you branding is the reason that U.S. Senator Barack Obama is one of the frontrunners to be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2008.

His new book, "Audacity of Hope," discusses the concept of an "Obama brand," which is centered around an open-ended promise to avoid mud-slinging and focus on positive campaigning. Although it's an old note, it's a chord that obviously rang true with voters. Obama raised $20 million in the previous quarter-that's a lot of brand recognition.

There is plenty of industry buzz surrounding the rising, falling and evolution of the CMO. He's the new corporate wizard, sitting at the strategy table, creating return on investment metrics and a one-on-one relationship with every customer. And in this consumer-controlled marketplace, it's his insight that will drive every department of the organization. So, really isn't the CMO the new CEO?

In days gone by, a CEO was well-equipped if he had solid operational and financial skills. Truth be told, marketing is what makes or breaks a company in today's marketplace. "America is no longer a country of manufacturers." Instead we brand everything  (see what William Gibson says about this). And a CEO has to adopt a marketing philosophy to determine if his brand resonates with consumers. He needs to understand his customers' behavior and govern every action - from new product development to sales to customer service to in-store merchandising - with a focused understanding of their needs.