by Mark O'Brien | Jul 6, 2015
This is going to disappoint a lot of people. I’m sorry. It can’t be helped. Sometimes I feel like a professional bearer of bad news. And this news is less popular than most: Marketing people aren’t clairvoyant. There. I’ve said (typed) it. Now...
by Mark O'Brien | Jun 30, 2015
In my line of work, you have to say a lot of things that most folks find distasteful. This one elicits sneers, jeers, fears, and tears every time: Marketing is not a sales-support function. Sales is a marketing-fulfillment function. Salesperson: What do you mean...
by Mark O'Brien | Jun 26, 2015
Among many other rewarding things, my working life has enabled me to acquire quite the compendium of handy axioms, many of which have become words to live (and work) by. As a public service, I share three of my favorites here: #1. Never believe anything until...
by Mark O'Brien | Jun 25, 2015
I know what you’re thinking: “This can’t be Hell.” I’m sorry. I know it’s not what you expected. There’s a bunch of stuff missing. There’s no eternal conflagration. There are no devilish dudes with horned heads and...
by Mark O'Brien | Jun 23, 2015
Being in the communications racket may make me a little more sensitive to intelligibility than most. And I may have a slight hyper-percipience when it comes to perceptions of linguistic decorum. But there are some occasions on which you just can’t help but...
by Mark O'Brien | Jun 22, 2015
Shelley Lucas, a very astute professional acquaintance, published a sorely needed post the other day: “The Missing Link: What CMOs & CIOs Really Need To Be Doing Together”. As Howard Cosell might have said, it contained a veritable plethora of quotable...