Category Archives: Audience research and strategic planning

Not long ago—just barely before the millennium turned—four gents posted 95 theses they modestly styled “the end of business as usual.” Indeed, the Cluetrain Manifesto Web site and book describe a fundamental transformation in how organizations operate and people interact with them. Though several Internet generations have passed since its birth, the Manifesto has inexplicably [...]

Or is it? From the World Wide Web’s early days, the first step in creating a Web presence has been setting goals. If you don’t know why you have a Web site, you can’t tell whether it’s a success, measure progress, or evaluate proposed or implemented changes. Still, too many Web sites’ structures match their [...]

[W]hat animal psychologists call theory of mind is the ability to infer what another animal does or does not know. Baboons seem to have a very feeble theory of mind. When they cross from one island to another, ever fearful of crocodiles, the adults will often go first, leaving the juveniles fretting at the water’s [...]

This article originally appeared in the Editorial Advantage newsletter. A sizeable chunk of the writing done in Washington is intended to persuade. If your job is to win hearts and minds for a nonprofit organization or government agency, you can learn a lot from leading thinkers in business marketing. Their top priority is knowing customers [...]