I have recently started rewatching Mad Men...Again. I think this is my fourth time watching the full series, which probably says something about me as both a marketer and a TV junkie. But every time I go back to it, I am reminded why the show has always appealed to me so much. Yes, you have to watch it through the lens of the time period. The office politics, the treatment of women, the smoking, the drinking, the hierarchy, and all the outdated social norms of the 1960s are h

The more I have studied competitive intelligence, the more one thing has stood out to me: the value is not in finding information. Information is everywhere. Competitors are posting, customers are reviewing, search behavior is changing, AI is reshaping how people compare options, and businesses already have access to more data than they know what to do with. The harder part is knowing what matters. That is where competitive intelligence becomes valuable. It is not about colle

Small businesses are often described as the backbone of the economy, and for good reason. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, small businesses employ nearly half of the American workforce and represent 43.5 percent of America’s GDP. The SBA Office of Advocacy also reported that the number of small businesses in the U.S. now exceeds 36 million, showing just how significant this segment is to the overall economy. But while small businesses carry so much of the economy f

Marketing has existed in one form or another since ancient times; however, marketing, as we know it, started in the mid-1800s as mass production and moving from regional to national reach capabilities emerged. For the last 200 years or so, brands have tried to make an emotional connection with their target audience. College courses like Consumer Behavior (which was one of my favorites) analyze the psychology behind decision-making, exploring social influences and emotional