our insights

<p>While I can’t remember every single detail, I do clearly recall that years ago, a friend of mine – <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0014IuAi1m46U4DsltNkKaiAu0VMVUhLA-hD6AY9mxJwRE6IRtQQ6i4uv_Vwn0fMNjB88UHaUepluYZqknuzxPrbLGzfHTj3k88ZGOfrmn2oCpsHisYXcs-vMKTkWnh0K7ACe0_krpKWtZUZYaBZJUxwPN-3FTpi1mc&c=p6CAYM_B61c4cFa76yPL_ZrAyJPh8587CRUfjhIpRoS6v55Pb9x0rQ==&ch=yHb7q47agTMPKv_8LK3tSzf3AT_Gct8TSgeVzdKtTwWX6HrTI347FQ==" target="_blank">Brett Winter Lemon</a>, was showing me his iPhone on Kirk Avenue in Downtown Roanoke. It was spring. We were outside. He excitedly started...</p>

<p>Every market has one of these types. Here in the Roanoke-Lynchburg television market, where our marketing firm is based, we are lucky enough to have two.</p><p>I’m talking about car dealers with terrible commercial campaigns.</p><p>No, it isn’t limited to just automotive marketing, but these guys are the...</p><p>‍</p>

<p>For the past decade, I’ve noticed something that seemed kind of odd to me initially. Over time, I continued seeing this pattern and I figured it was time I identified it.</p><p>Some of the smartest people I know own companies, invent products, or find a better way to accomplish a goal. They are brilliant at what they do and have built a product or service based on some sort of genius technological solution. The work they do takes...</p><p>‍</p>

<p><strong></strong>Years ago, I wrote about the value of “going where the eyeballs are” when it comes to advertising. It’s an age-old axiom, but as you evaluate your place in the business community, it’s one that deserves a little closer examination. If you have...</p><p>‍</p>

<p>Many of you know that before starting this marketing firm eleven years ago, I was in the television industry. Like a lot of sales organizations and similarly structured companies, there is a...</p><p>‍</p>

<p>Over the years people have asked me how I decide what to write about in our monthly columns. Often it is noticing something basic and then pondering how it fits into marketing or business operations.</p><p>I have a teenager, which means I have to deal with the constant cycle of updating, repairing, and replacing of mobile phones. My normally sure-handed young man occasionally drops his...</p><p>‍</p>

<p>My friend Bill from Toledo told me a story once and it has stayed with me for more than twenty years.</p><p>At the time, he was in broadcast television commercial production and, as a Black man living in America, he had a very different perspective than I did. He recalled being a kid in the early 70’s watching television and seeing...</p><p>‍</p>

<p>Before I became a business owner eleven years ago, I was a sales manager. Before I was a sales manager, I was a seller out in the field. Early on I decided I didn’t ever want to be...</p><p>‍</p>