KIPLINGER RECOMMENDS

Home > Small Business, Sales & Marketing

COMMENT

BUZZ UP

DIGG

CHECK OUT:

EXECUTIVE POLL

Bernard Madoff, convicted of running an $65 billion Ponzi scheme, was sentenced to 150 years in jail. What’s your take on his punishment?

Compare Price Quotes 100+ Services

OUR PREMIUM CONTENT

The Kiplinger Tax Letter
The Kiplinger Agriculture Letter
The Kiplinger California Letter
Kiplinger's Biofuels Market Alert
Kiplinger's Retirement Report

SUBSCRIBER HELP

CURRENT LETTER

By Knight Kiplinger

The Kiplinger Washington Editors

July 2, 2009

By year-end or so, Congress will give the nod to a major rewriting of the nation's financial regulatory system. This week’s Kiplinger Letter explores whether the package will do more harm than good and what lawmakers are likely to include.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: The Economy, Business Costs, Taxes, Supreme Court, Energy, Workplace Regulations, Climate Change, Health Care Legislation and Foreign Policy

PREVIOUS ISSUES

CORRECTIONS

TRY THE LETTER:
Subscribe | See Sample

YOUR FEEDBACK

SUBSCRIBERLOG: Got a topic you'd like to discuss? Or a problem or question? Please join our exclusive forum for Letter subscribers only.

ASK US: A Kiplinger Letter editor will promptly answer subscriber questions.

OPEN FORUM: Share your insights and analysis with other visitors.

I just attended a franchise seminar. The speaker represents a few hundred franchises that (he says) are hand picked. He has the prospect (aka victim?) answer some questions about themselves then he makes recomendations - based on your personality, capital situation, etc.. If you pick a franchise, then he does some due dilligence for you. If you both decide it's a good idea, he helps you get started. He says he offers this service free of charge, which means he gets a commission if he's able to sell you a franchise. Has anyone done this? Successfully? Unsuccessfully?

-- fender

Guerrilla Marketing in Lean Times

Guerrilla marketing -- use of viral YouTube videos, attention-getting stunts and free media -- can be just the ticket for companies seeking to cut advertising costs.

Worth Reading: The Quick Take from Kiplinger

December 2008

Joe Mullich

fuelNet Monthly

fuelNet Monthly is a marketing newsletter published by The Pohly Co. consulting firm and is a monthly contributor to Kiplinger Recommends. "9 1/2 Ways" is a monthly feature of the newsletter. Featured author Joe Mullich, a former editor of Business Marketing magazine, has contributed to more than 20 national publications and has won 25 journalism awards. His work has appeared in Advertising Age, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Think Magazine and Creativity.

If traditional advertising was so "been there, done that" just a year or two ago, it is now seen as downright foolish. Why spend wads of cash when a little thought and creativity can draw even more attention from potential customers?

”These days, smart businesses are leveraging cost-effective guerrilla marketing tactics, including social networking and viral marketing, to promote their products and services," says the marketing newsletter fuelNet Monthly. "All it takes is a little time, energy, and ingenuity."

Author Joe Mullich shares some ideas in fuelNet's monthly “9 1/2 Ways” column -- all them low budget or no budget. They range from small-scale, low-key guerrilla tactics such as slipping business cards into books in libraries and bookstores related to your work to ambitious, high-tech approaches such as creating lively YouTube videos that have a chance of spreading on the Internet. The newsletter mentions a brief and very funny video promoting an all-in-one sunblock and anti-poison-ivy medication that shows golfers scratching like crazy. The attention helped keep the product in hard-won shelf space of a major drugstore chain.

READER COMMENTS