Take This Word Out of Your Dictionary
Jun 1, 2007 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
Some years ago I was in the audience listening to a speaker who combined two rare traits: transmitting actually useful information, and entertaining as ...

Pubication Renewal Offers
May 1, 2007 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
All right, kids, which is more insulting — “You're a failure” or “You're going to improve”? Right. Both. That is, both if you've been getting the assortment of “Be a man again” e-mails that suddenly have poured into my various online addresses. (Ladies, I apologize for excluding you. You have your own problems, or so I assume.) ...

Unstuck in the Mud
Apr 1, 2007 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
I'm thinking of trimming the number of my credit cards down to six or seven. Silly, isn't it? Theoretically, nobody needs more than two credit cards one ...

Whatever Happened to
Mar 1, 2007 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
If you're old enoughand that might be over age 25you remember when double postcards were king of the hill in subscription mailings. You might also remember ...

A Capital Idea? Well
Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
The problem with so many loyalty programs is they demand our loyalty but don't volunteer a rat's behind for their loyalty. Veteran air travelers are quite ...

Need an Endorsement? Ask Henry VIII's Agent
Jan 1, 2007 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
Celebrity endorsements ain't what they used to be. If you're old enough you remember when Arthur Godfrey and Dinah Shore could endorse almost anything, ...

Before I Forget
Nov 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
An upsetting self-revelation: I've outlived a surprising number of direct marketers who have been my contemporaries. I shouldn't have been surprised, ...

Harrumph. Obfuscate. Complicate. Harrumph
Oct 15, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
When I deliver a speech or communicate in print, one of the words I eschew is That word, and its cousins such as and any compound word whose second half ...

Action Don't Got No Traction
Oct 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
I'M GETTING MORE AND MORE STEAMED AT HIT-AND-RUN DIRECT marketers. Who or what are hit-and-runners? They're the ones who know a couple of action words ...

The First Syllable of Dogma
Sep 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
WE TEND TO REPEAT DOGMA BECAUSE IT'S THE easiest and in the absence of education most defendable argument we can mount. So when somebody asks us what ...

No, It's Not Marketing. It's Just Advertising
Aug 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
Are you as numbed as I am by the ridiculous, sometimes impenetrable and too-often obnoxious ads that pepper local television stations and newspapers? ...

Aste+risk Means You're Risking Your Aste
Jul 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
I ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, AND UNEQUIVOCALLY BELIEVE IN information optimizing. Information optimizing is making the most of any benefits whatever you're ...

The Age of Anxiety
Jun 15, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
Want a free 42-inch flat screen Sony TV? Want all kinds of goodies for evaluating Dunkin' Donuts against Krispy Kremes? How about a $1,500 Kmart Gift ...

The Dark Side of Ingenuity
Jun 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
SOME MARKETERS' SENSE OF SALESMANSHIP SAILS OVER THE TOP, INTO A DARK AND IMPENETRABLE NEVER-NEVER LAND THEY PLOW WITH INGENIOUS, ON-THE-EDGE-OF REALITY ...

Good to the Last Flop
May 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
EVERY COUPLE OF YEARS, IN THE PAGES OF THIS MAGAZINE, I wonder publicly about a syndrome we should call slogan decay. No, I'm not sliding back into my ...

Laying Out One of the Great Lies
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
Alexander Graham Bell bequeathed to future generations an instrument that quickly evolved from miracle to necessity. Unconsciously or deliberately, too ...

Crashing Through the Blog-cade
Mar 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
WHAT'S WITH THIS EXPLOSION OF BLOGS? Every schoolkid has one. Every would-be author or philosopher has one. Every frustrated lover has one. That's why ...

One No-Trump
Feb 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
AS WE SORT THROUGH THE DAY'S ENDLESS SUPPLY OF e-mails and blogs, most of which seem to have been scattered to the wind with no thought of aiming at a ...

CEM Is Alive and All Too Well
Jan 1, 2006 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
Isn't it comforting? The entire marketing superstructure retailing, media advertising and online promotion is shot through with customer elimination management. ...

Expedia Isn't All That Expedient
Dec 1, 2005 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
BOOKING TRAVEL ONLINE HAS BECOME DE RIGUEUR. Conventional travel agencies, long since stripped of commissions by struggling airlines, can't compete with ...

Wild Kingdom
Nov 1, 2005 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE CLAMOR FOR ATTENTION gets more and more strident? Right! Promises, claims, approvals and assurances get wilder and wilder. Just ...

Official Word From Hindquarters
Oct 15, 2005 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
WHAT AN HONOR! And what a powerful medium in which to announce that honor! Here, in an official Valpak mailing, is an official insert making official ...

In Your Face Is Losing Face
Oct 1, 2005 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
IF YOU'RE OLD ENOUGH, YOU REMEMBER WHEN THE POST OFFICE accused Playboy magazine of being obscene. (If you're contemporary enough, you wonder why Hugh ...

Hey! I'm Talkin' to You
Sep 15, 2005 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
THE DIRECT RESPONSE INDUSTRY AGREED, AT LEAST A COUPLE of hundred years ago, that the key operative word for our messages is But have you noticed a not-so-subtle ...

It Ain't Easy to Breathe Easy
Aug 1, 2005 12:00 PM, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
What's with these Web merchants, demanding everything but your grandmother's maiden name before they'll even let you look at some merchandise? And what ...