If you want to successfully market a product or service, you need to understand everything you can about who your targeted decision-makers are and what they care about. A way to increase your understanding is the development of marketing personas. Per Wikipedia, “a persona in user-design and marketing is a fictional character created to represent […]
Things have been slow on the BMW maintenance front due to the corona virus and sheltering in place. Club DIY events were canceled in March and there is no update on when they will restart. Fortunately neither of my cars require any scheduled maintenance at the moment and I’m putting fewer miles on them than […]
The awareness of the cybersecurity threat has skyrocketed in recent years. That has translated into explosive growth for the cybersecurity market. From a size of only $3.5 billion in 2004, the global market exceeded $137 billion in 2017 and is forecast to reach $248 billion by 2023. Despite those billions being spent most organizations cannot […]
I’ve been involved with Government Marketing University (GMarkU) for many years. It’s proven a great vehicle to collaborate with the broader B2G marketing community and share best practices. That’s never been more true than right now. Kudos to GMarkU founder Lou Anne Brossman for not letting COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders get in the way. As […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended society in the past three weeks. It’s a massive challenge and meeting it requires a level of communal cooperation not seen since WWII. I hope everyone reading this is safe, healthy and thinking about how their actions affect those around them. My wife and I are fortunate we are accustomed […]
In January I replaced my E39 M5 spark plugs. Over the past few months I’ve given the car a complete tune up, minus an oil change it doesn’t need yet. In BMW lingo this equates to an Inspection II, which would have cost $1,200 or more at a dealer or independent shop. Last summer I […]
For many years Google was seen as a proponent of unfettered sharing of online information, sometimes referred to as the concept of the “open Internet.” Google also instituted the AdSense program, through which online publishers were rewarded if their content sent traffic to Google search engine. Now it’s Google the walled garden, using its dominant […]
Happy 2020 to all. 2019 BMW sales were up 4.4 percent in the U.S., totaling 324,826 vehicles. That was good for the top spot in this market, beating Mercedes-Benz by about 8,700 and reclaiming the sales crown after four years. Lexus was third with 298,114 sold, and Audi fourth with 224,111. However, those numbers may […]
Over the Thanksgiving holiday I installed a stock air intake in my 2006 BMW E46 M3. When I bought the car in 2014 it came with an aftermarket cold air intake (CAI). Replacing the CAI had been on my project list for a while. The CAI name is a misnomer – most of them become […]
The third annual GAIN conference took place earlier this month and was again a huge success. GAIN has become the conference to attend for B2G marketing professionals. Hundreds of government marketers gathered to share best practices around the general theme of customer experience. My personal favorite was the presentation on the customer journey given by […]
Last month we bought a 2016 BMW X5. Our three year lease on a 2016 Ford Edge Sport was ending, which we had purchased after our accident that fall. Rather than leasing again we purchased the BMW X5 as a certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicle, which inspects and reconditions the vehicle while extending the warranty coverage. […]
Recently we got back from a quick trip to Pittsburgh, PA. Neither of us had ever been before and we were ready for a different scene not too far away. We had also read that there was a flourishing foodie scene in Pittsburgh and decided to see for ourselves. The rumors were well-founded. Pittsburgh today […]