Tesar-Reynes

Every single book on interviewing talks about the need for a good handshake. Unfortunately not everyone seems to read these books.  When I meet a person for the first time, be they male or female, a fishy handshake bums me. As a recruiter, this handshake may cost them a point or two on a ten point scale!

Why?  Because a little voice inside me says that something is wrong with this person.

I’m not exactly sure whether I’m conditioned by what my dad told me about the importance of a good handshake or it’s something more primordial.  There appears to be a little voice inside me that says a good handshake equals self-confidence, a willingness to meet other people and a sense of inner strength.

I don’t know if all of the above is …

The brilliant folks over at Viral Blog shared this great customer feedback campaign from Starbucks.

THAT is how you get a dialogue going with your consumers.

Can other struggling brands learn from the Starbucks campaign? Is there room for consumer-generated ideas for brands like the Gap, Chrysler, or Target?

A few years ago, Columbia College gave a scholarship to the student who created a marketing campaign that best revitalized the Gap brand. The winning scholar came …

Harry Gold, of the Click Z network, shared these ten tips for negotiating with media vendors today.

I hated media in school. It just seemed too much like math to me. However, thanks to a teacher I had in my entertainment marketing program in L.A., who also happened to be the SVP of Media at Paramount for twenty years, I learned to ask an important question:

Where’s the money?

Enjoy.

I was talking to a friend of mine who ran across some good tips for presentations. He couldn’t remember where he’d seen them, but those he recalled made a lot of sense to me.

1. State your claim that you will support early in the presentation.
2. Remember, graphics trump words.
3. Drink some water 20-30 minutes before you start.
4. Use contemporary fonts; NOT TIMES NEW ROMAN.
5. Relax, you know more about your subject than the audience does.
6. Don’t hide behind the rostrum or chart; move about the stage.
7. Allow Q&A afterwards; restate every question before answering.
8. Consider taping yourself in rehearsal to fine tune emphasis points.

President-elect Obama did a magnificent job staying on message and on-temperament during the primaries and throughout the election. He established two sets of expectations with his electorate: one was results expected and the other was a belief in competence.

Any person with half a brain realizes that he can’t deliver on most of his campaign promises because of the current financial mess. His time and our money will be focused on repairing this gushing wound.

What he can do, with deference to the current President and the administration, is take a page out of FDR’s book and do a weekly fireside chat. Not just on youtube. It has to be in mass media. The world is scared. We need to hear …

It never fails. Anytime I’m in class, Facebook is always brought up. And inevitably, a teacher will advise us to watch what we post online.

This should be old news. There are countless stories of employees getting the ax for posting inappropriate work-related material on the Web.

Last week, the Economist wrote an article “Losing face: a tail of two airlines and their Facebook fiascos.” Seems the cabin crew at Virgin Airlines and British Airways didn’t get the memo. Both companies fired crewmembers for negative comments made on Facebook. The workers complained of cockroaches on planes and smelly passengers.

It’s a simple piece of advice: watch what you post online. Nothing is private anymore. After 9-11, the government made it their right to …

News of GM’s impeding collapse dominated headlines yesterday. The question for me is: Is this a failure to market or a failure to create a quality product?

My solution, from a marketing standpoint, is to focus on one thing: price. Like I wrote last week, consumers are concerned primarily with value in our stumbling economy.

While viewing a CNN piece on the state of GM, I found it interesting that during a commercial break a 30 second GM spot aired. It was typical of American car commercials: electric guitar in the background, an over-excited voice bragging about dealer financing. Do these advertisers really …

With the holidays around the corner, how will advertisers counter effects of a slumping economy in the most important shopping season of the year?

According to a Times article today, it all comes down to one word – price.

The article talks about how consumer psychology is changing. Nowadays buyers are skipping “luxury” items from Macy’s in favor of the practical buy from Wal-Mart. When you’re constantly bombarded with messages of a slumping economy, it makes you think twice about reaching for that $100 sweater from Ralph Lauren.

Consider Tim Calkins opinion, a professor of marketing at …

About every two months I get asked by one of my candidates whether it’s better to write an e-mail or a handwritten thank you note to someone after an interview. The people who ask this question tend to fall into one of three groups: they are over 40, they’re very concerned about relationships, or they came out of public relations.

I can argue the cause from either side. I personally feel that e-mail is the currency of communications today. I do think any form of IM or twitter is far too informal. On the other side of the coin, a handwritten note shows an extra sense of caring and work to produce the document.

In the final analysis, I always try and listen to the …