Q&As

Mercedes-Benz-USA, LLC has planted several of its sedans in Saks Fifth Avenue stores nationwide and is promoting a sweepstakes as part of an initiative to raise support for breast cancer awareness month.

Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley urged marketers to “let go” of their brands and bow to consumer wants and needs in his speech at the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) conference on Oct. 6.

As we look ahead to the 2007 marketing arena–and below are my picks for the 10 trends most worth watching–we should do so with both wonder and cynicism, cheering greatness and booing duplicity.

Businesscoach.com is spending about $4,000 per month on search engine marketing and pay per click advertising on Google and Yahoo, as well as direct response space ads in local area publications in hopes of expanding business.

Husband and wife team Tony Secolo and Kelly Coller operate Office, a hip store in Portland, OR that sells an eclectic mix of office products and art supplies. The couple has branched out, sponsoring an art gallery and an event space. Now, they’re moving beyond their local area, into cyberspace with officepdx.com

The marketer with a good mailing list, offer and copy — and who pays careful attention to how his letter looks — will have better results than the person who focuses solely on content, with no regard to how it’s presented.

Small to mid-sized companies say they prefer to buy communications services from a single provider. However, many find the higher costs and lack of bundled services gives them few options but to go with multiple vendors.

In an effort to reach out to the African-American community, Chrysler is taking its cars to church to preach to the masses via a sponsorship of a Patti LaBelle tour.

Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. is readying a Bogs Across America promotion for New York, Chicago and Los Angeles timed to the cranberry harvest season.

GSN is launching its first-ever nationwide vocabulary competition with a cause-marketing overlay, awarding one student the top prize of $40,000.