Tom Ruwitch
In early January, when the St. Louis Blues were in the National Hockey League cellar with the fewest points of any team, Interim Head Coach Craig Berube tore the standings from the locker room wall. Yesterday, hours before the Blues clinched the Western Conference championship and punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final, a…
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My friend who handles PR for a nonprofit had an annoying mystery to solve. One of her email subscribers complained that she had opted-in but was not receiving emails. Then another complained. Then another. As my friend dug into the problem, she discovered that several people on her list were marked as unsubscribed. But those…
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In 1774, King Frederick II of Prussia was ruling over a land ravaged by famine. He urged farmers to plant potatoes to end the famine. But back then, potatoes were considered livestock feed in Eastern Europe, not suitable for human consumption. So farmers defied the king and didn’t plant them… …until King Frederick changed marketing…
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I was at a concert last night and heard some lyrics that made me think: “That’s a great marketing lesson.” (I couldn’t help it. That’s where my mind goes). Here are those lyrics from an old Kris Kristofferson song called “To Beat the Devil:” If you waste your time a talkingTo the people who don’t…
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Our company made a marketing mistake. I’m going to tell you about so you don’t repeat it. We sell email marketing software to many schools and school districts. So we recently ran a print advertisement in the membership directory for the Missouri Association of School Administrators (MASA). The ad included the address for our website…
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My favorite marketing forum lit up yesterday when someone complained about Gmail putting the emails he sends into the “Promotions” folder. Several years ago, Gmail introduced folders (“tabs”) to organize incoming email into four categories: Primary, Social, Promotions and Updates. Most marketing emails sent through third-party software land in the Promotions folder. Yesterday, an unhappy…
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In a recent Monday Mash-Up, I shared a blog post I’d written about misleading statistics. It struck a nerve with several readers. Margaret is one of those readers who told me the story of her run-in with garbage data. Margaret works as a fundraiser at a nonprofit. Margaret often wonders how best to reach older donors and prospects. Some…
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As I entered a quick shop yesterday, I noticed a guy walking out who looked down on his luck. He stopped by the door and pulled from his shirt pocket a half-smoked, crooked cigarette butt. He bent it back into shape, lit up and took a long drag. When I walked out of the store,…
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A few months ago, I asked my 21-year-old daughter to help me lug trash from the three barrels next to our house to the dumpster in the alley. She was home from college for a couple of weeks, and I thought she could pitch in. She shot me one of those looks that said, “Dad,…
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My pal Adam Kreitman sent me (and everyone else on his list) a great email today that compared the current frenzy over podcasting to the California Gold Rush. Here’s some of what Adam wrote: “There were a few lucky folks who struck it rich mining for gold. However, the people who really made money during the Gold…
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