Hosfeld & Associates Articles
The following articles, some published in our first years of operation, offer what we consider to be timeless truths about marketing and business success.
Marketing "Before" and "After" Sustainabilityby Kathleen Hosfeld
(Written with Jenny Mish, Associate) Thousands of sustainability oriented startups are creating game-changing innovations in products, services, industry partnerships, supply chain management and more as they seek to integrate values of social justice and environmental stewardship into their business practices. What makes their approach to marketing different from organizations that don’t practice sustainability? How might that approach help organizations just beginning to integrate sustainability practices?
Measuring What Matters: Balancing Long-term and Short-term Marketing Metricsby Kathleen Hosfeld
When times are tough, many marketers feel pressured to focus on short-term numbers rather than long-term profitability. As many companies – even those that are not publicly traded -- adopt a stock-based mentality and short-term quarterly focus, it’s meant that what can’t be measured is marginalized – and a focus on long-term profitability may be the victim. But successful companies learn how to balance both short-term and long-term strategies for success.
Web Analytics: Insight Versus Databy Kathleen Hosfeld
The new generation of Web analytics tools helps us make sense of our Internet statistics. Many tools are free and easy to use.
Review: Strategic Intuition by William Dugganby Kathleen Hosfeld
How do breakthrough ideas come to us? Are they just lucky flashes? Or can we do something to make them more likely to come to us. In his book, Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement, William Duggan re-examines winning strategies for business and world change were discovered. What can we learn from this for our own work?
Swords to Ploughshares: New Metphors for Marketingby Kathleen Hosfeld
If marketing is not war, what is it? Exploring new metaphors based on the lessons of living systems. How can new metaphors help us develop a more comprehensive, effective approach to marketing?
What's Happened to Strategyby Kathleen Hosfeld
Do strategic planning models take into account climate change, social and environmental justice and the desire of employees for meaning and purpose? If not, how should we address these new realities?
The Customer Is Not An Idiot: Empathy, Interconnection and the Ethics of Persuasionby Kathleen Hosfeld
The TARES test is a five-point test for what the authors call “ethical persuasion.” The TARES test consists of five principles: Truthfulness (of the message),
Authenticity (of the persuader), Respect (for the persuadee), Equity (of the persuasive appeal) and Social Responsibility (for the common good). In the hands of marketers, the test helps us to envision the kind of world we want for ourselves and others, and to question how our marketing choices create that world.
Social Enterprise and Non-Profits: Holding Mission AND Financial Sustainabilityby Kathleen Hosfeld
Increased competition among non-profits combined with declines in government funding and changing patterns in personal philanthropy have forced many to look at new sources of income to stabilize or grow their bottom lines.
Enter the concept of social enterprise: “An organization or venture that advances its social mission through entrepreneurial, earned-income strategies.”
Optimizing for Search Engines Drives Clear Messagingby Kathleen Hosfeld
For many types of organization – both non-profit and for-profit – the Web site is vastly underutilized in increased salesl. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the best ways of making Web sites work harder within the marketing mix. This is the process by which we write, design and build Web sites so that they show up in searches on Google, MSN, Yahoo and other directories. Optimization makes Web sites work harder in part because good SEO strategy requires clear thinking about who you want to reach and what they need from you. Getting clear on your message and how to connect with your target audiences is not only pre-requisite for good SEO, it essential for marketing success -- period.
Marketing’s Full Potential: Bringing Head and Heart Togetherby Kathleen Hosfeld
"Marketers are the heart of the business but not the head," say CEOS in a McKinsey study. But to fulfill the potential of marketing, head and heart must work together.
Marketing New Years Resolutions: Why Things “Are The Way They Are” And What To Do About Itby Kathleen Hosfeld
While large non-profits embrace the principles of branding and marketing to compete for philanthropic dollars and attract “earned income,” many smaller non-profits struggle with creating a “marketing culture.” Why? And can be done?
High Impact Messaging: Beyond Wordsby Kathleen Hosfeld
Many businesses and non-profits take their messages for granted. In fact, the messages we send must be evaluated on a continuous basis to make sure they are achieving their intended outcomes. The messages we send go beyond the words and images that we put into our brochures, media announcements and Web sites. They include actions and the subtle, even unconscious, ways members of an organization telegraph support or lack thereof for its mission.
Arrr! Discovering Buried Treasure in Your Organizatinby Kathleen Hosfeld
The archetype of buried treasure seems to capture everyone’s imagination. If you’ve been running a business or a non-profit for more than five years, this archetype can have some life in that context as well. The sense of untapped potential in your organizations is compelling because it’s an intuition almost always based in truth.
Living the Great Story: Three Questions That Connect Us to the Work of Our Timeby Kathleen Hosfeld
Organizations reap many benefits when they define their work in terms of the positive change they seek to create in the world. This article describes those benefits and the three questions that help organizations begin living the great story.
Next Generation Email Marketingby Kathleen Hosfeld
New technologies are making email newsletters easier to create and send, putting a powerful resource for customer relationships and increased profitability within reach of organizations regardless of size. This article describes these new technologies and how to start your own email marketing program.
Audits Help Companies Maintain Marketing Fitnessby Kathleen Hosfeld
Describes formal marketing audits and the situations in which they can be of greatest benefit.
Planning Helps Companies Stay Abreast of Market Changeby Kathleen Hosfeld
Formal planning heps companies uncover new insights and opportunities.
Marketing Financial Products and Services to High Net Worth Individualsby Kathleen Hosfeld
A summary of the critical success factors of programs tailored to your most affluent clients.
Other People's Articles Work As A Spiritual Practice - Excerptby Lewis Richmond
Lewis Richmond was formerly executive vice president of Smith & Hawken, Ltd., and currently is the founder and owner of Forerunner Systems, Inc., a leading provider of inventory management software to the catalog industry. The following excerpt from “Work as a Spiritual Practice” speaks to our power as individuals to change the world of work not for ourselves only but for the greater good.
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