Nov 292020
 
A French Thanksgiving

Like (hopefully) most people, our Thanksgiving was smaller and quieter this year. We couldn’t celebrate with the number of family and friends that we typically have in past years due to the pandemic. So to try something different we went with only French wines with the meal. Not that drinking French wine is a radical […]

Oct 262020
 
Old School Oil Change

Last week I did an old school oil change in my driveway. I use that term because I’ve become very used to handling DIY work at the events organized by the local National Capitol chapter of the BMW Car Club of America. But of course COVID-19 changed all that and there hasn’t been an event […]

Sep 242020
 
Measuring Content Effectiveness

It’s commonly said in marketing that “content is king.” But how do you demonstrate content effectiveness to other stakeholders in your organization? Marketers need to show that the content they are creating and promoting is helping to achieve business objectives. It’s important to understand that key performance indicators (KPIs) vary by campaign stage. For example, […]

Aug 302020
 
Cars and Bids Takes On Bring a Trailer

In 2018 I wrote about the fast growing online auction site Bring a Trailer. Since then the site continued to grow, was acquired and just got some competition. According to an April feature story in the New York Times, Bring a Trailer had over 100,000 registered bidders in 2019 and revenue totaled $230 million. In […]

Jul 202020
 
Pandemic Wrecks 2020 BMW Sales

2020 BMW sales in the U.S. have been badly hurt by the corona pandemic. Sales in Q2 were down an amazing 39.3 percent, totaling 50,957. Year to date BMW is down 28.4 percent in this market, with 110,412 vehicles sold. Globally BMW is doing a bit better, with BMW brand sales down 21.7 percent. While […]

Jul 102020
 
Refining the Federal IT Buyer Persona

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 […]

Jun 292020
 
Minor M Car Projects

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 […]

May 312020
 
Validating Cybersecurity Effectiveness

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 […]

Apr 292020
 
Government Marketers Band Together During the Pandemic

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 […]

Mar 312020
 
COVID-19 and a Costco Cabernet Review

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 […]

Feb 202020
 
E39 M5 Spark Plugs and Tune Up

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 […]

Feb 142020
 
Google the Walled Garden

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 […]