From rock stars to a bordello owner, famous and infamous people have played in Sausalito. Several movies and TV scenes have been shot in our picturesque village. You may not live here or in Seattle, Savannah or New York yet I’ll bet your town is known for some news-making character or event. It is time [...]

Happily selling 800 cupcakes daily from his small San Francisco bakery, Brandon Arnovick suddenly got hit with a tidal wave of 72,000 orders – without advertising. Unfortunately, while he expected an uptick in sales, Arnovick wasn’t prepared for that many would-be customers. Many were miffed when they couldn’t get their minicakes right away. Don’t set [...]

Do you enjoy the music of U2, Playing for Change, Dave Matthews Band and John Legend? Like to get their CD, “All You Need Is Love” for free – and help a cause? And wouldn’t it be fun to sing along with these musical rock stars – for the cause and see the crowdsourced result? [...]

Pull more people into your local business by profitably partnering in ways that inspire more buying yet often reduce your promotional overhead.  Sound good? Here are some success stories of how others have done it.  Involve More Partners to Multiply the Potential Customers You Reach The California Association of Bed & Breakfast Inns promotes “Small Town [...]

Get on the good side of prospective customers. Be seen where they are in a good mood. They’re more likely to buy your product, research shows. It’s the Halo Effect of being associated with people, products or situations that make them happy. My friend, for example, gets excited about her upcoming vacation after she finds [...]

Here’s two ways to delight customers, deepen their loyalty and perhaps even inspire them to tell other about their purchase.  1. Make Them Feel Good, Not Bad, About Buying Evoke happiness rather than irritation. Don’t, for example, offer a guilt-inducing guarantee, as more businesses are doing according to Marcia Yudkin: “And if you’re not happy [...]

Nurses, janitors, lab techs, doctors even the CEO and a cancer patient donned pink hospital gloves and danced around a hospital in my home town, Portland Oregon. The “Pink Gloves Dance” video of it has been viewed over 1.7 million times in just the last couple weeks. The singer whose music was featured in it, [...]

Without advertising, several businesses have attracted millions of users by getting individuals to share their “product” with others. This effect was dubbed a Viral Loop and described by Adam Penenberg who just came out with a book by that name. Like Tuperware, Ning and others, here’s how you, too, may be able to reward people [...]

Snoop appears as Humphrey Bogart, delivering his famous line, “Here’s looking at you, kid” – and so can you.  Rachel Ray plays Kelly McGillis’ role in Witness. Why not you? Want to appear in famous movie scenes with your favorite stars? Some college students can this fall.   In a take-off on karaoke, dubbed movieoke, Yoostar is [...]

“Where’re the shovels?” I ask the hardware store clerk.  ‘”Aisle four.”  Now many people use a shovel to dig  holes for plants. That means they are buying plants and fertilizer. The closer these items are to each other the more likely we will go to that place to buy them. How would we know that [...]