The Big Fat Marketing Blog

Here is my annual list of what to expect in the coming year as it relates to marketing:

1.) Mobile is here and will grow. Make sure you think about its impact on your marketing when you do your 12-18 month planning. Customers and prospects are expecting you to accessible at their fingertips.

2.) Look for more integration of traditional media into social campaigns. While social is good at helping build credibility and dialog, it’s not the greatest at converting those conversations into business. Enter mail, email, face-to-face selling and telemarketing.

3.) B2B marketing will begin its long overdue transition into more measurable marketing. The days of trade shows, space ads and some direct mail only will be a thing of the past for those B2B firms that want to gain market share. Enter social media, more

For the holiday season, Barnes & Noble is wasting no time in taking advantage of the liquidation of Borders Books over the summer.

This week, the book selling giant has been sending emails to former customers of the now-defunct Borders retail chain offering holiday discounts such as 30% off book purchases and free delivery by Christmas.

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You’re connected socially online with your college friends, your cousins, your coworkers, maybe even your hairstylist. But are you ready to friend your health insurance provider?

Chances are pretty good that they’ll want to be your friend very soon. When I recently talked with Lindsay Resnick, CMO of KBM Group: Health Services about B2B healthcare marketing for Chief Business Marketer, he noted that because the uninsured population skews young (often in the 25-30 range), being connected with them in the social sphere is vital.

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comScore reports that consumers have spent $30.9 billion online so far in November-December, a 15% increase over the same period in 2010. While Cyber Monday still holds the record for the heaviest online spending day of the year for the second consecutive season, last Friday’s Free Shipping Day still pulled in an impressive $1.07 billion.

Was “free shipping” the email buzzword last Friday? On December 16, 39 emails came into my personal inbox. Twenty-four of those messages featured free shipping pitches either in the subject line or body copy.

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Time magazine has several elements that reinforce its brand. Its distinctive red cover border, the central positioning and font of its logo and its reliance on single, full-page cover images all evoke the Time magazine feel.

Since 1927, Time has linked another element to its brand – its annual Person of the Year issue. While the idea of awarding an individual annual honor is widely duplicated, the concept is tied more closely to Time magazine than any other entity.

The key aspect of this element is selecting a person. Marketers immediately grasp the benefit of choosing an individual: It’s the resulting discussions. Love the pick, hate the pick. Water-cooler conversations over a specific person incorporate the magazine’s name. Reinforce the idea of a person of the year and build that brand, baby. more

Things at the U.S. Postal Service must be really, really dire and out of control when they come to the attention of prominent political satirists like “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

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