Dollars and Sense

Virgil Winston:Marketing Guru I went to my favorite coffee shop the other day and ran into my stockbroker, gulping a triple espresso and looking like he hadn’t slept for days. I reluctantly asked how he was doing and he launched into a tale of woe, the likes of which I haven’t heard since Nana told […]

Customer Service

Virgil Winston:Marketing Guru Everybody knows the importance of providing good customer service, but not everybody provides it. In fact, just last week I experienced the type of customer service that made me want to reach across the counter and strangle a person. But, being the reasonable, levelheaded type, I kept my hands in my pocket […]

It’s My Month

Virgil Winston:Marketing Guru I walked in the front door after my morning constitutional to find a giant bouquet of flowers—and my wife standing behind them, arms crossed. I froze in my tracks as I quickly went through a mental checklist of all the important dates I may have missed. Our anniversary had passed, my wife’s […]

Dog Days

Virgil Winston:Marketing Guru It had been close to two weeks since the “animals,” my wife’s affectionate name for our children, had gone back to school. The house was quiet, eerily quiet actually, and Mrs. Winston’s smiles of relief hade turned to sighs of boredom or perhaps even loneliness. I admit that I don’t always have […]

Bright and Early

Virgil Winston:Marketing Guru I have been battling insomnia for years, which accounts for my encyclopedic knowledge of the plethora of ‘must have’ items sold on late night television, my expansive vocabulary (I often read the dictionary when sleep eludes me), and my renowned morning grumpiness. I am not a morning person. Sunlight streaming through the […]

White Party

Virgil Winston:Marketing Guru Labor day is right around the corner, which means summer will soon be over, football season is imminent and P. Diddy is about to throw his annual “White Party.” I wasn’t invited last year—come to think of it, I wasn’t invited this year either—but I understand from the talk around town that […]

Tattoo You

Virgil Winston:Marketing Guru My daughter, who is a few months shy of her 18th birthday, recently announced her desire to get a tattoo. As someone familiar with branding and four-color imprints, this was a day I dreaded but knew was imminent. As a father, I was appropriately horrified but as a marketer, I found it […]

Games People Play

Virgil Winston:Marketing Guru I sat next to a young gentleman who was on his way home from E3. For those of you not in the gaming industry, E3 is an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). It is used by many video game developers […]