Who creates the most jobs in America?

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from BEING ALONE, TOGETHER: COWORKING AS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
By Michael Stumpf, Principal, Place Dynamics LLC
Published in ED Now, January 29, 2013

We could all use a fresh pair of eyes.

When was the last time you had an impartial, dispassionate assessment of your marketing program?

Sorry, this is a trick question.

You get a dispassionate assessment every time a potential customer takes a look at one of your ads or reads one of your brochures. Every time an editor scans a press release or one of your own sales reps decides to use (or toss) another piece of collateral.

Unfortunately, none of these people is likely to volunteer an honest appraisal of your work—yet their honest appraisal is (should be) monumentally important to you as a marketer. 

Forty percent of Americans live alone.

I saw an interesting piece on yesterday’s CBS Sunday Morning … “Live alone? You’re not alone.” It said that, “Roughly four out of ten households are single-person homes, in cities like Seattle (42 percent), San Francisco (39.7 percent), Denver (40.4 percent), and Cleveland (39.9 percent).”

“So who are these wonderful people? Well, one-third (34.5 percent) are 65 or over, and about half (48.3 percent) are between 35 and 64. And the women (17.2 million) outnumber the men (13.9 million).”

One of the people interviewed for the story called single people “indispensible.”

“They go out into the world like no one else does and spend time and money in bars and restaurants, in cafes, in gyms, in clubs,” he said. “They’re the ones who are most likely to go to public events – book readings, art classes, all kinds of public activities that give life to city streets.”

Interesting from many perspectives, but I see it as a marketer. How about you? How will this knowledge affect your marketing strategy?

Marketing in a down economy.

via Brands on the Brink: Marketing in a Down Economy – Knowledge@Wharton.

Among other victims of the recession, brands have taken a beating. Private labels have gained market share. Consumers are cutting back.

Retailers are turning up the heat. According to panelists who gathered to discuss brand strategy at a recent Wharton Marketing Conference titled, “Connecting with the Evolving Consumer,” marketers need to be especially innovative when it comes to making sense of the shifting economy — and profiting from it.

The Conversation Prism

The Conversation Prism

Originally uploaded by b_d_solis

And here’s what Web 2.0 looks like if you’re not one of the world’s largest, most recognized names in corporate consultancy.

See what Brian Solis has to say about his conversation prism.

Marketers, know thy market.

Many of the nation’s youth and a few of their elders are expecting a magical turnaround of America’s economic fortunes as soon as their candidate for President, Barack Obama, is sworn in on January 20th 2009. But the Millennial Generation, born between 1982 and 2003, may be more the source of the country’s economic salvation as any initiative the new President might propose.

via
Can Millennials Turn around the Housing Bust? | Newgeography.com .