The primary challenge of marketing is to align the natural hedonistic instinct of an audience with the narcissistic necessity of a company. There are some notable exceptions -- but modern consumerism is based on the principle that people generally want things that will bring them pleasure or reduce their pain. That's textbook psychological hedonism. On the other hand, companies generally want the consumer to believe that their product or service is exactly what the consumer ...

If you're a small- or medium-sized business wanting to become something great (however you define that for your business), it can be discouraging when you look at a company like Apple or Google, with all the fanfare they bring to their product launches, realizing that you don't have the resources to generate that kind of buzz and mania. However, being remarkable isn't only for the big companies with seemingly endless resources. Though it never hurts, ...

After seeing this excellent JibJab video, I knew it would be an big hit. With the YouTube version being viewed over 100,000 times in a day, I'm pretty sure it satisfactorily meets the definition of "viral." Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today! When we encounter brilliance, it is commonly useful to examine the elements of it that make it successful, so that we can also duplicate it. 1. Create compelling contentThere are many ways to ...