John Malmo

Among all the other benefits of the Internet is how the Internet re-affirms principles we should already know.

For instance, one of my favorites is that people do more business with people who make it easy to do business with them. It’s not just that the Internet is there and is omni-present. It’s that the Internet is crowded with E-tailers who make it easier to do business with them than with most RE-tailers.

One good thing about the passing of time is the diminishing popularity of bad corporate ideas. Near the top of this list should be company mission statements.

Whether you call it a mission statement. Philosophy. Vision. Code of conduct. Goals. Commitment. There are a lot of names for it, but it’s almost always meaningless.

A committee-written document with little relevance. It’s not that the content – the idea – embodied in most is bad. The content, itself, is almost always good.

As adults, we realize how different our world is today from that of our parents. And theirs from their parents. And there’s nothing like generational differences to kill off brands that don’t stay relevant with each new generation.

A critical aspect of marketing is making sure that a brand stays relevant to each new generation.

An expression I don't hear much any more is, “don't sweat the small stuff,” but I absolutely see demonstrations of it everyday. It means don't worry about the details and concentrate on the “big picture.”

Yet, little matters more than the details, because it is the details that determine the quality of the execution, and most great strategies or plans fail, not because they were bad, but because they were executed poorly. Billions in a retail chain with check-out clerks who don't even look at the customer.

Seth Godin says that few businesses really understand how much a customer is worth.

Amen, Seth.

Godin, author of The Tipping Point and a couple other 200-page best-sellers, figures that, for instance, an average AT&T or Verizon customer is worth at least a couple thousand dollars.