My Dad, Dave, was an old school marketer. He didn’t have a college degree. He learned everything he needed to know about sales and marketing on the job at Aubrey Manufacturing, a family owned company in mostly blue-collar Union, Ill. Aubrey made range hoods and ventilation equipment for the kitchen and bathroom. Good products. Well made. Dad knew the importance of great brand storytelling and influencer marketing long before they became today’s buzz words. His storytelling was of the oral variety, though, usually told with laughter over a drink or dinner. His influencers were the partners, colleagues, employees and company leaders he got to know through the work he loved. […]
Most small and mid-size business owners “get” marketing. They understand how important it is to define a marketing strategy to attract new customers, satisfy their needs and hopefully keep them coming back for more. But when the subject of public relations (PR) comes up, many are left scratching their heads, or if they give PR much thought at all they consider it an avenue for free publicity. That’s on a good day. On a bad day PR practitioners may be called spin doctors or propagandists. In the urban dictionary, PR is slang for an officer’s nightstick. Some journalists view PR representatives as shields to keep the press at bay when […]