By Josh Sommers
Published: 05/14/10

Marketing is about presence. Are you the company that the marketplace thinks of for your product or service? Well, that certainly is where you want to be. Part of creating that top-of-mind awareness is event marketing. A great place to do that is at trade shows and consumer expos.

Expos come in many [...]

By Josh Sommers

Published 05/07/10

When marketing your business, you have to think big. Part of thinking big is investing marketing resources to create “buzz.” While traditional advertising always remains important, many companies enlist event marketing to generate that all-important buzz in the market.

Do you now have a new product or service you are offering? Are you [...]

By Josh Sommers
Published:  04/30/10
Marketing and positively positioning your firm in the market starts at home.
You can have the best business-development program, but if your team isn’t equipped to serve the new clients you earn, you’ll go around in circles. A good marketing plan includes equipping your service team to succeed. That’s why I urge small [...]

By Josh Sommers
Published 04/23/10
Most often, 80 percent of a company’s business can be attributed to 20 percent of its customers. OK, that’s no big revelation. But when developing strategies to grow your business, it’s vital to market with the 80/20 rule in mind.
Going after new business through advertising is important. But the lowest-lying fruit in [...]

By Josh Sommers
Published: 04/16/10

As a “PR man” and marketing strategist, I’m an optimist and positive thinker. I try to bring that vibe and culture to the companies I work for.

Late last year, I wrote, with some level of prematurity, that the worst was behind us. This was part of my advice that companies should position [...]

By Josh Sommers
Published: 04/09/10

No business, whatever its size, has unlimited resources for marketing. That’s why every dollar spent on promotion has to count.

If your company was advertising accounting services, you wouldn’t buy ads on MTV. Similarly, promoting auto parts in a magazine focused on early child years also would not be the best use of [...]

By Josh Sommers
Published: 04/02/10

Social networking is sweeping across all industry sectors in the Hudson Valley at a speed I’ve never seen before.

Over the last three weeks, we’ve created six Facebook pages for clients, and coached many others on Twitter and other forms of social media. It’s a fascinating time as businesses rush to this new [...]

March 26, 2010

Walk down any main street and ask people to name their representatives in Congress, the state Senate or the local municipal board.

Most people won’t know, or are simply confused about who sits in what seat. I’ve run my share of political and public perception polls. In general, people are unengaged, don’t pay attention [...]

By Josh Sommers
Posted: March 19, 2010

Public relations geeks were tuned in, pardon the pun, to the recent conflict involving WABC-7 and Cablevision. The very public battle between the two companies temporarily led to dead air on Channel 7 for Cablevision subscribers.

Consumers usually don’t have a whole lot of patience when they get inconvenienced by spats [...]

By Josh Sommers
Posted: March 12, 2010
If you lay Toyota’s image issues on the line, it’s not pretty. In the eyes of the public, Toyota put bottom line over safety and clung to information rather than favor disclosure for the benefit of public safety. Toyota screwed up — big time.
They know it. Worse: We know it. [...]