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The 11 Ways That Consumers Are Hopeless at Math

Excellent article, applicable no matter what you sell -- and we're all selling something, right?

You walk into a Starbucks and see two deals for a cup of coffee. The first deal offers 33% extra coffee. The second takes 33% off the regular price. What's the better deal? If you're like the students who participated in a new study published in the Journal of Marketing, you'd say they're about equa...

Pink Bat Thinking

"You can live each day in a world filled with problems or rise each morning and embrace a world filled with unseen solutions, eager for you to find them. The decision is yours. Both worlds exist. The one you choose is the one you will create." -Michael McMillan.

"Pink Bat Thinking" can help you turn problems into solutions. Based on a story of finding a new use for a broken plastic baseball bat, author Michael McMillan can help change your perception, from viewing issues as problems to unseen solutions just waiting to be found. Most problems are opportunities. Pink Bat Thinking can help you make the impossible possible.

The 3 Best Cheap Marketing Moves Of All Time

In a world of cookie-cutter advertising and same-old marketing, Fast Company celebrates three marketing stunts that stood out...and didn't cost a fortune.

Is it possible to brand an entire country for less than $200,000? Or, for less than $2,000, can you brand a person so successfully that they create headlines worldwide? Here are three cases of successful, yet cheap marketing stunts.

Working Backwards to Create a Great Customer Experience

Want to turn prospects into committed, long-term customers? Try flipping the script and starting with the end goal in mind. Then fill in the path that gets you there.

"Marketing is pretty logical, really," writes John Jantsch. "It's simply the process of getting someone with a particular business need to know, like, and trust you." So how do you accomplish that goal? By starting with the end goal in mind and working in reverse. "Think of it as walking the path you want your customers to follow -- except you're walking it backwards."

Working Backwards to Create a Great Customer Experience

Want to turn prospects into committed, long-term customers? Try flipping the script and starting with the end goal in mind. Then fill in the path that gets you there.

"Marketing is pretty logical, really," writes John Jantsch. "It's simply the process of getting someone with a particular business need to know, like, and trust you." So how do you accomplish that goal? By starting with the end goal in mind and working in reverse. "Think of it as walking the path you want your customers to follow -- except you're walking it backwards."

3D-printed prosthetics offer amputees new lease on life

It's amazing to see how far 3D printing has come... and the great real-world uses people are finding for the technology.

3D printing is revolutionizing the field of prosthetics. San Francisco company Bespoke Innovations is printing designer prosthetics specifically to restore symmetry to the bodies of amputees, while making a fashion statement at the same time.

People trust people

Wondering who people trust the most in marketing and advertising? Here's a good article on that subject, with links to some valuable market research.

The latest Edelman Trust Barometer study is out, and the results may surprise you. Jackie Huba of the Church of the Customer Blog breaks down the numbers and talks about how they might (and should) affect your marketing.

What Giving Away $6 Million Taught Me About Branding

Great tips on how to maximize your brand by telling your story in a way that makes your audience want to learn more about you and your company. These are ideas that work even if you have nowhere near $6 million to invest.

As Senior Advisor, Community Partnerships & Investment for an oil company in Canada, Stephanie Po***ck oversaw efforts to boost community involvement for her employer. With a budget roughly one-fifth that of her competitors, she was able to position her company as a leader in community involvement. "We won industry and community awards regularly," she writes. "We were consistently featured in the media as one of the best companies for community involvement. We were constantly referenced as a model for corporate giving. And, it wasn't because of the money. It was because of the story we told."

5 Ways to Tune Out Distractions

Having trouble staying focused? You're not alone. Here are some helpful tips for overcoming distractions and getting things done more effectively.

Distractions abound in today's hectic, wired world. Unfortunately, all those distractions can make us lose focus on growing our companies and building success. "Finding ways to tune it out is important," this CrowdSpring blogger writes. "Sometimes a lack of noise helps you to think creatively, focus on what you need to accomplish, and reflect on what is working with your business and what is not. Great ideas can come in ways that surprise you, but rarely come amid the hubbub of everyday distraction."

5 Ways to Tune Out Distractions

Having trouble staying focused? You're not alone. Here are some helpful tips for overcoming distractions and getting things done more effectively.

Distractions abound in today's hectic, wired world. Unfortunately, all those distractions can make us lose focus on growing our companies and building success. "Finding ways to tune it out is important," this CrowdSpring blogger writes. "Sometimes a lack of noise helps you to think creatively, focus on what you need to accomplish, and reflect on what is working with your business and what is not. Great ideas can come in ways that surprise you, but rarely come amid the hubbub of everyday distraction."

Lending of eBooks growing

Do you read ebooks? Check out the latest... a new twist on the lending library.

Many eBook owners are choosing to lend ebooks to friends and family for free now that Amazon and B&N have those programs in place. Perhaps unanticipated by the suppliers and publishers: online book lending groups springing up where strangers can share books for free. Publishers: Hopefully you have realized by now that you cannot control this thing! Jump on the new business bandwagon while you still have a business to jump on with!

Productivity Tips

Are you as productive as you can be when using your computer?

Try one or more of these affordable applications that can bring improved productivity to executives and employees in almost any business! Why waste valuable time when gaining efficiency is so easy!

Books into QR Codes?

James Joyce's Ulysses, Lewis Carroll's The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, The Art of War, even War & Peace have been encoded into literally thousands of QR codes. For each book, all the QR codes are displayed on a single webpage. Obviously some folks are taking this QR code technology to the extreme!

Books2Barcodes is an ongoing effort to convert all the world's great books into QR codes (2D barcodes). Each work featured here is the entire text of a piece of classic literature translated into several thousand barcodes. With a mobile device equipped with a camera and a QR-code-scanning app, you can experience the joy of a great book as read through 800-character fragments on your cellphone.

Multifunctional packaging calculator

Do you have say in product packaging design at your company? Maybe this multifunctional packaging calculator can help

So many factors go into effective product packaging that it's hard to find an online calculator that will help the packaging designer or engineer develop a structural design that meets every requirement, while still looking great. Maybe this one will help.

Facebook/Microsoft alliance may bring order to data chaos

What's behind the recent partnership between Facebook and Microsoft Bing? A look at the possibilities for social search...

Data ... lots of it. That's what you get when you harness the power of the Internet and social media. But what to do with it all? The idea is to use social information to select the most relevant search results from the staggering data pile that is the Internet. This article explores five assumptions about social search that may or may not be accurate.

Top 5 iPad contenders

Have you purchased a tablet computer yet?

There will be lots of choices in 2011. Where Apple had the first mover advantage, its competition will now be stiffer, and Apple will be in the position of making sure it keeps up. Not only are there a plethora of Android OS models in development, but HP WebOS, Windows 7, and RIM tablets are also moving along. It should be a very interesting battle for minds and marketshare!

Disruptive thinking

When is the last time you did something innovative that caused disruption in your industry? It may be easier than you think!

How about a company that sells mismatched socks? This is just one example of disruptive thinking that turned into a successful business. Who thought socks could be so interesting? Your industry likely offers many more provocative opportunities than socks, so put on your disruptive thinking hat and be the next new thing!

How brands can use social media to mitigate reputation damage

When a crisis arises, are you still using the archaic "no comment" strategy? Wake up and smell the social media!

Over the last several weeks, Taco Bell has written a template for digital litigation communications as a result of a class action lawsuit claiming its seasoned beef doesn't meet USDA standards. What can you learn from their strategy that might help your brand protect its valuable reputation?

What IS direct mail?

Direct mail can mean different things to different people. How does your business use direct mail to market to consumers?

Most of the mail you get is direct mail -- mail that is going out, in one form or another, to a lot of people. Bulk mail is something we as printers deal with all the time. As printers, we need to know all the rules and regulations surrounding direct mail. Done wrong, bulk mail can be a disaster. But done right, it can be incredibly useful, especially when it is targeted, directed, and sent to the right people. That sort of thing is what we as printers do. Here's some more good information about direct mail and how it can help your company grow.