In his book Brand Sense published by Free Press, author Martin Lindstrom says future brands will have to appeal to all five senses to attract consumers.  Lindstrom suggest ‘smashing your brand’ by using every possible stimulus including appearance, aroma, sound, taste, touch, color, symbol and more…”  I’d like to add one more important element to [...]

When the Obama Administration couldn’t ram card-check through, they took the back door to make it easier for union organization.  YOUR URGENT ACTION NOW is needed!  Click on www.FriendsOFtheUSChamber.com , then click on TAKE ACTION NOW, then click on Contact your US Representatives.  This will take you to a page where you can easily contact [...]

Legendary Maine car dealer “Jolly John” Pulsifer passed away at the age of 74 on Saturday evening, February 19, from pancreatic cancer, according to son-in-law Peter Gordon who was at his side at the time.   Hundreds of friends and relatives had jammed Pulsifer’s room at the Gosnell Hospice in Scarborough Maine in the past weeks [...]

Are you tying up salespeople and managers with needless meetings? Many meetings are conducted on a regularly scheduled basis for no other reason than “This is the way we’ve always done it,” or “It’s just a convenient time for the owner or GM.”  Nothing can suck the wind out of a potentially productive day than [...]

When you think about it, the whole concept of ‘sailing’ is going with the natural flow. You ‘sail’ in the general direction of where the wind is blowing. The most successful salespeople in the world understand that concept.  Some call it the path of least resistance. Others call it picking the low-hanging fruit, but it [...]

If you believe your showroom and lot are full of mostly shoppers versus buyers… If you believe you’ll only close 25-50% of the folks visiting your dealership today… Guess what… YOU’RE RIGHT! Just like Henry Ford once said, whether you believe you can or you can’t, YOU’RE RIGHT!  Why is it that salespeople, sales managers, [...]

About 20 years ago I visited a dealership in the Northwest, after a request for advertising assistance.  After meeting with the dealer, discussing his objectives and marketing challenges, I politely declined the offer to work with him. Actually, I had made the decision within the first 20 minutes of my arrival.  The showroom of the [...]

Several years ago I shared my 10 favorite advertising/marketing books and got some great feedback from readers who bought and read many of them.  I updated that list in an earlier column this year, but wanted to provide it again to all of our online readers. 1. Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott/ McGraw-Hill.  Subtitled: [...]