You can create a marketing buzz on a small budget, writes Ed Charles IT’S the classic business dilemma. You’re launching into a crowded market and the main competition has a marketing budget of tens of millions of dollars, whereas you have a few thousand. You can’t compete head-on. The only option is to use your wits and [...]

From The Australian, Entrepreneur: Detailed research and some great timing has paid off for this niche market player, writes Ed Charles THE secret of a successful product is that it must be something that people want. And it must be something that a lot of people want most days in their lives. For businesswoman Ivone Ruiz it [...]

RUNNING a day spa is a bit like selling ice-cream. You need to sell a dream and you have to learn how to deal with the peaks and troughs of demand. From The Australian Entrepreneur September 30 2005.

Commercial and regulatory pressures are forcing CFOs to take a closer interest in marketing. CFO June 2004.

So accountants are boring, huh? Creatives and advertising types are so much more interesting and stories about boring accountants are a cliché. Arguably the most creative person in advertising is an accountant. As I said in In The Black a couple of months ago.

Remember the big ad. Now there’s the small one.

Back to freelance journalism after 18 months of running my own magazine business, which is going through ambigious times, shall I say. Perhaps it’s time for a new businesscard. Here are some tips from something I pulled together for AFR Boss a while ago. CARD SHARP If you think your business card is just about passing on [...]

The September 11 terrorist attacks caused a big spike in users of all media outlets i reported in The Australian post 9/11. The same can be said for the recent bombings in London – just add bloggers to the story below. IT may be macabre, but bad news is good news for the news media. The terror [...]

As I remember it I caught flak for this story in The Australian which was part of this one. In cutting the original in two Noel Turnbull’s comments, below, appeared in both stories by accident and gave one spinner an opportunity to knock me. FLAKS, spin doctors, the enemy, the dark side. These are just some [...]

If ad agencies were stressed then, as I wrote in The Australian, what is it like in 2005? ADVERTISING has always been an insecure place to work. But with gruelling office hours and job insecurity driven by a constant shuffling of accounts between a few of the bigger agencies, staff turnover is often four times the average for business [...]