So often we watch businesses launch marketing campaigns and often they fail to achieve the desired results because they do not take into consideration the many aspects of the region; but this is not have to happen. In fact if businesses will concentrate on abbreviated marketing campaigns on a regional basis they may find that in a 5 to 10 city region that they can go and spend one week in each city and custom tailor their marketing program to hit the nail of the head every single time.

So often what businesses do is they try to cookie cutter their marketing campaigns from one state to another and this often causes failure. We have all heard that all politics is local and so to is all marketing, although they often do not teach this to M.B.A. students which is a travesty and a cash-flow drain on the corporations these young bucks go to work for. I have often watched very large corporations totally screw up marketing efforts because they did not pay attention not only to regional demographics but to their actual customer base and clientele in the sector of the industry that they were working in.

Some would say this gives an advantage to the small-business person who does know his area better than the Corporation cookie cutter syndrome. I definitely agree yet having run a franchisee company for 15 years I also know that there is absolutely no reason a corporation cannot compete side-by-side along their fiercest small-business competitors in each in every city in a regional market and win.

It often the amazes that corporations with so much money, expertise, experience and with all the business tools you could possibly ever want including ERSI ArcView data software and an abundance of customer collected data from discount card purchases and award programs fail to capture the percentage of market share that they are looking due to improper understanding of every single city in the region.

It is pure laziness, incompetence and often arrogance that causes this. If you work in a marketing department for large corporation you need to get your act together and hear what I am saying. Consider this in 2006 because I will not tell you again. You either get the job done right or; You're Fired!

Lance Winslow

Currently Lance is retired at age 40 and is running an Online Think Tank Forum while traveling North America. Perhaps considering something extremely challenging to do that will exercise his mind and utilize all his experiences, observations and skills. Any ideas?