Max Gladwell

When a business proposition tries to do too much for too many, it can tend to do very little for very few.

There are a number of principles we apply in shaping business ideas, models, and strategies. We’ve written about the importance of focus in terms of marketing. It’s also essential that the model and value [...]

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It is our first guest post here at Max Gladwell and we are excited to be contributing to the thought leadership here.
So why we chose this topic is that a surprisingly small percentage of the general public knows that a corporate conversation around sustainability even exists, let alone that they can participate in it. This [...]

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A clever new brand challenges consumerism with a line of ethically sourced products and an ironic message: use less.

How many consumers does it take to wreck a planet? More importantly, how many people will it take to fix it?
It might seem like semantics, but there’s a fundamental difference between people and consumers. As marketers, we [...]

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When starting a new business, we can’t emphasize enough the importance of defining your market and focusing your efforts.

Business ideas often start with simple truths that define the business opportunity. If you’re writing a plan for a sock company, it might be that everyone has feet. It implies that your market is potentially everyone. You [...]

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Where the company is green and socially responsible…but that’s not something they like to talk about it.

To illustrate this point, we’re pulling from the mental archives. When we read this Business Week article just about a year ago, it stuck in our minds as an exceptionally savvy example of green marketing and PR.
It’s worth noting [...]

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Social media experts project the year to come. These are the best of the best social media predictions for 2009.

The annual ritual of prognosticating is in full swing, and there’s only a few days left before the deadline. We’re trailing slightly behind, but we’ll be sure to catch up. These are the best of the [...]

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Change.org grows traffic and improves engagement as a result of its new blogging strategy.
In early October, Change.org re-launched its social action platform with a new blogging strategy. We immediately wrote that “Change.org Shifts Strategy to Blogging and Content.” The site was re0rganized around topical blogs for each of the causes such as global warming, immigration, [...]

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Down with the cause in the down economy. Cause marketing is about more than doing good. It’s about maintaining competitive advantage.
Editor’s Note: Max Gladwell is proud to welcome Tom Watson as our first-ever guest blogger. Tom is an entrepreneur, journalist, philanthropy consultant, and soon-to-be best-selling author of CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World.
The [...]

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Public relations has lost its meaning. Are you looking for media relations, blog relations, or consumer relations?
The business of public relations (PR) used to be simple. You hired a firm that had relationships with editors and journalists…relationships that were built through the revolving door that is media and PR. The PR firm pitches your story [...]

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If you like word-of-mouth advertising, you’ll love discovery marketing.

When it comes to social media marketing, we like to say “it’s better to discover a product with unique value than to be told a product is valuable.” This is the essence of what we call discovery marketing. Since the term can’t be found in Wikipedia, we’ll [...]

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