If you haven’t seen it yet, you’ll want to check out this YouTube video of two (former) Domino’s employees:

So, do you think that might have some rather profound effects on Domino’s marketing efforts?  Think you’ll be eating at Domino’s anytime soon?

What’s interesting is that the basic principle behind this was predicted not by some far-seeing futurist working in the technology field, but by Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Charles C. Krulak.

Gen. Krulak coined the term “strategic corporal” to refer to the…

...continue to read "Marketing in the age of the “strategic minimum wage worker”"

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” ~ Michael Altshuler

In January, I was sitting with Jack Love publisher of Internet Retailer as he was being interviewed on WebMasterRadio. Jack told my friend Jim Hedger that it didn’t take much to look good over the last 6 or 7 years in the ecommerce space while industry growth was 25% or greater year after year. A rising tide lifted all boats. Most people could just be…

...continue to read "Sully Sullenberg’s Secret to Online Success"

If you’ve been to one of our trainings over the past few years, or seen any of us present at a conference, you’ve probably heard the line about the average tenure of a Chief Marketing Officer being less than the gestation period of an elephant.  Well, it’s time for some new material.  New research from executive search firm Spencer Stuart shows that CMOs are making it into their 3rd year with the same organization, on average, based on a…

...continue to read "On CMOs, Customer Service, and Birthing Elephants"

There are only so many ways to stand out and become a leader in any market. You can be lowest price driven, operationally excellent, channel dominant, or focused on customer intimacy. Many companies excel at two or three but it is nearly impossible to excel at all of them.

Here are 5 strategies companies use to become market leaders.

Operations that let them be more efficient than you at getting order picked, packed and delivered so that…

...continue to read "5 Reasons Competitors May Be Doing Better Than You"

Last week, the online world was jolted with something we all thought was impossible: Amazon.com went down.

Outages happen all the time, but there is a scale at which this becomes amazingly rare and the amount of time of the outage was surprising. 30 minutes to two hours doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but when you consider the scale of a business like Amazon.com, it has massive impact to the sales of the company. Advertising Age estimated that Amazon…

...continue to read "The Impact of Site Outages"

I just arrived home from San Francisco where I attended the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit. As always, it’s great to catch up with friends and participate in enlightening conversations. A key theme of my presentation: how to get organizational buy-in to testing and conversion optimization.

Marketers often get so worked up about the prospect of website optimization that we forget an important step. Before we can pursue optimization, we must convince those in our own company about optimization’s value.

Here, then, are…

...continue to read "How to Get Buy-in for Conversion Rate Optimization"

As you may know, McDonald’s is trying to beat Starbucks at its own game — or at least steal some market share. According to The Wall Street Journal, the fast food giant is now hiring baristas and, starting this year, they’ll begin putting coffee bars in some 14,000 U.S. locations.

This isn’t the dumbest thing they’ve done lately, but it’s weird.

Starbucks, meanwhile, also hopes to emulate Starbucks — as it once was, anyway — now that Howard Shultz has returned as CEO, renewing…

...continue to read "Would You Like a McFrappuccino With That?"

Spirit Airlines used to have great customer service. It was refreshing, actually. In the late 90’s, you could fly round-trip from, say, Detroit to New York for about $120 in a hand-me-down jet staffed with friendly people. It was a great, low-cost airline that was always able to surpass its customers (even lower) expectations.

But all that’s changed. Today, they have a brand-spanking-new fleet of mid-sized jets staffed with would-be friendly people who, bound and gagged with corporate red tape, can’t…

...continue to read "Spirit Air: You Don’t Have to Turn on the Red Light"

Do women behave the same way in the office as they do at home? Is their buying process the same whether they are buying products and services for their home, or products and services for their company?

Deloitte & Touche is trying to find out.

According this Wall Street Journal article, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP has implemented a new program in conjunction with Marti Barletta’s TrendSight Group, to better understand the needs of female clients and train employees on how to…

...continue to read "How Female Execs Shop for Consultants"

All you marketing perfectionists out there, raise your hands! When it comes to project management are you “doing it right,” “doing it wrong,” or “doing it quickly“?

(Okay, perfectionists, you can put your hands down. Nobody’s actually keeping tabs.)

If you answered anything but “doing it quickly,” it’s time to take the “Do it Wrong Quickly” Challenge. The good people at IBM have been kind enough to offer GrokDotCom’s readers an exclusive on this fun interactive quiz they’ve developed. Yes, it’s fun…

...continue to read "Exclusive: IBM’s “Do it Wrong Quickly” Challenge"