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A profile of Half Price Books, Records, Magazines Inc. executive vice president Kathy Doyle Thomas is presented. Thomas is responsible for creating marketing campaigns for the company. She also uses her marketing knowledge to better inform real estate expansion decisions.

Consumers are becoming more frugal and thrifty amid the economic slowdown, prompting companies to come up with new campaigns to reach them. These include Del Monte Food Co.'s Stretch campaign on extending food budgets and Walmart Stores Inc.'s commercials citing savings from Walmart shopping. Other marketing ideas are presented.

Search marketing competitive intelligence strategies involve gathering information about a marketing competitor's search keywords. Services offered by search competitive intelligence providers and their rates and details on handling keyword-related search advertisements are presented.

Marketing in 2009 is reviewed. The recession played a role in the field for the year as well as online social networks.

Five scary workplace scenarios which are all guaranteed to be marketer's worst nightmares are presented. The situations include proving the worth of a marketing campaign, last-minute alteration of a marketing concept, demotion, co-workers jealousy, and office politics. Advices from experts on what to do when confronted with any of the real-life situations are also given.

Guidelines on marketing business-to-business ingredient brands to consumers in order to initiate new demands from potential business partners are discussed. The importance of the brand's uniqueness and benefits to end consumers is emphasized. The application of these guidelines by Cargill, Texas Instruments, and Microban are also discussed.

Restaurants are taking on new marketing strategies amid the recession, as seen in Denny's Corp.'s revamped menu and free meal promos. Carmakers are also addressing marketing challenges, with Chrysler LLC releasing new ads to distinguish its products from others. Details on the marketing of business travels and high fructose corn syrup are discussed.

Marketing executives' views on how marketers should develop their careers are presented. Renaissance marketers are those who have gained expertise in several areas of marketing. Marketers should have a bigger command of many more types of engagements.

Supermarkets have benefited from the United States recession. Kroeger Co. has reported a $6 billion increase in its sales in 2008. Changes in consumers' spending habits are seen the reason for the development.

A profile of American Cancer Society vice president for marketing Scott Bennett is presented. Bennett was the first to be named to the position. His career background and achievements are also included.

Matthew Resteghini, vice president of global customer relationship management (CRM) at Monster Worldwide Inc., and Kathy O'Reilly, the company's director of social media relations, talk about the firm's e-mail marketing strategy. Monster Worldwide does behavioral targeting in order to try to make sure that consumers will read the e-mails.

Former presidents of American Marketing Association (AMA) collegiate chapters talk about their lives in the working world. These include Ashley Paterra, Emory Pinto, and David Scali. Paterra is already working as a marketing a promotions associate for Trib Total Media Inc. even though she is not done with school yet.

Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. vice president of global learning Diana Oreck says the company has simplified customer service. She also said the hotel involves employees in improving customer service. Employees are also taught never to treat customers in a transactional manner.

Telebrands Corp. has failed to save a marketing campaign for a new product because of the absence of a contingency plan. The campaign failed when the product's spokesman suddenly died. Meanwhile, Boeing Co. has managed to avoid a public relations problem involving an eight-year-old boy who loves to design planes.

Event marketers, when promoting their services during the event itself, need to showcase the value of their service or product in an engaging manner. This involves training the correct staff as brand messengers. Tips on finding the right people to represent event marketers are also given.

All businesses should be concerned about corporate social responsibility (CSR). Consumers demand for corporate social responsibility has increased. CSR programs help signal corporate values to customers, employees and job seekers.

Consumer marketing lessons for business-to-business (B-to-B) marketers are discussed. Marketers will need to remember that emotional benefits matter, and that they need to know how customers think and make simple marketing messages. B-to-B marketers also need to create a trustworthy identity, be transparent, define customer segments, and pay up for search marketing.

Ged Parton, chief executive officer of UK market research firm Synovate's global practices and capabilities unit, believes in the importance of local representation when conducting research. He also shares his thoughts on approaches to research processes that work for certain countries.

Customer research and financial goals are presented as some of the considerations when planning to create or rehabilitate and organization's marketing department. Details on defining job responsibilities and managing internal communication processes are also discussed.

A recent survey shows that marketers are becoming less interested in television advertising as its effectiveness is questioned with the propagation of the 200-plus channels that audiences are exposed to. Others see TV as a relevant marketing medium as most consumers still devote time to watching TV. Details on TV ad spending in 2005 and 2009 are provided.

Companies are turning to environmental practices, with 58% of them planning to improve on their environmental sustainability initiatives in the coming months. Companies' eco-friendly effort need to look into the financial benefits it can offer, learn what green marketing requires and consider joining professional networks with green initiatives.

Word of mouth (WOM) marketing is being used by marketers as the economic downturn is contributing to cuts in marketing budgets. Boston Market recently used WOM marketing and reached more customers than expected. Details on other companies' WOM marketing and the use of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, are discussed.

American Marketing Association chapters are helping their members through job boards, education sessions, and networking opportunities as many try to cope with the economic downturn in the U.S. Some chapters are helping their members by sending out customized job bulletins through email while others are hosting conferences that serve as networking venues.

Successful marketing campaigns inspired by 2010 news events in the United States are discussed. American National Red Cross has made use of a new text-to-donate service following the Haiti earthquake. Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., on the other hand, has set up a recall site following its recall of around 2.3 million vehicles for faulty accelerator pedals.

Marketing leaders May Garrett, Alexander Schlaubitz, and Donna Sturgess, talk about the localization of a global brand's strategy. It is believed that local brands which cannot translate global brands into locally relevant propositions will eventually fail. The importance of self-awareness in global marketing is also discussed.

George H. Leon, vice president of National Analysts Worldwide Inc., talks about the importance of business-to-business (B-to-B) customer segmentation. He believes that the idea of segmentation is to really identify where the opportunities are and to understand the target audience. Ways on how companies can make the most of a segmentation study are also discussed.

Marketing executives' views on the current state of digital marketing in the United States are presented. Forrester Reearch Inc. research director Emily Riley said digital marketing will benefit consumer research. Razorfish Inc.'s Pete Stein, on the other hand, said marketers are interested in making digital marketing their focus.

An inaccurate marketing database can lead to wasted money, resources, and ineffective marketing. The database should be kept accurate by using software to flag issues or it can be done manually.

Burke Inc.'s qualitative services manager Kendall Nash shares her views on her day-to-day online work and the pros and cons of online qualitative research. Nash talks about putting a discussion guide together ahead of time and prioritizing where she wants to spend a lot of time in discussion. Nash also discusses how she makes sure that the answers she was getting were accurate, genuine and relevant.

Funding is presented as one of the considerations that marketing personnel should look into when planning to go back to school. Career advancement is another consideration to pursue in taking up continuing marketing education. Details on timing and the need for broader marketing knowledge are also discussed.

Purdue University created a marketing plan headed by Teri Lucie Thompson, the university's vice president of marketing and media. The plan involved audits of Purdue's advertising and online activities the creation of new departments to handle them. Challenges regarding the marketing and branding integration of the school are presented.

The achievements of Magid Abraham, CEO of comScore Inc., are discussed in light of his becoming a recipient of the American Marketing Association Foundation's Charles Coolide Parlin Marketing Research Award. Abraham also shares insights about his experiences from being a fruit orchard worker in Lebanon to a successful marketing researcher in America.

Marketers should be able to target growth market segments such as African-Americans as overall spending for marketing are declining. The African-American segment for example, has an estimated population of 39.3 million and an estimated buying power of $913.1 billion in 2008. Other key information on the cultural segments such as estimated buying power in 2013 are presented.

Gunilla Broadbent, an international marketing researcher and current president of Esomar Council and GB Global Positioning, says that the recession provides an opportunity for the international marketing research community to understand current consumer needs. She believes that marketing research needs to be more sensitive to consumers.

Tellabs Inc.'s 'Inspire the New Life' marketing campaign included five documentaries that showcased Millennial-age end users for the first wave. The campaign moved on to an ongoing series of technology-centric video podcasts and the company determined that the campaign generated three times the exposure as compared to traditional Web ad-based campaign.

Decision Insight Inc. vice president Brad Barash expects that challenging economic conditions will result in cutbacks in marketing research and other disciplines. He believes that innovation is significant, but that research that drives innovation is more important. Barash's other views on issues like approaches in presenting research are presented.

Many TV network executives, advertisers and producers would sell their souls to get the kind of audience that God has. But giving religion a starring role in prime time? Not [...]

Consumers need guidance for saving money and discovering products at the store. So show them a sign. According to an August, 2011 survey by Southfield, Mich.-based consulting firm Alix Partners, [...]

Interfaith worship services have doubled in the decade since the 9/11 attacks, according to a new study, even though more than seven in ten U.S. congregations do not associate with [...]

With a smooth voice, a signature mop of hair and a string of hits, Canadian singer Justin Bieber has accumulated millions of fans, and last year he sold 3.7 million [...]

Advice on how marketing professionals in the United States should create effective tag lines are presented. Taglines should be memorable, meaningful, clear and concise. Rewriting of statements as questions is also recommended.

The success of University of Notre Dame in marketing its executive MBA program is discussed. Enrollment to the program has dropped due to the economic crisis. The university decided to rerun an advertising campaign for the program.

Advice on how to bridge the communication gap between marketing and information technology (IT) departments are presented. Marketers should join IT discussions to learn more about IT. Establishing rapport with IT colleagues is also recommended.