Picture two scenarios. It's Friday afternoon and someone's thinking about grabbing coffee before a long commute home. They don't Google "best coffee near me." They just think and a brand appears. Maybe it's Starbucks. Maybe it's a local spot they love. Whichever one comes to mind first has a significant advantage in winning that purchase. Now picture a VP of Finance who's been tasked with finding a new treasury solution. She doesn't start by searching LinkedIn. She starts by

Most teams confuse a marketing plan with a marketing strategy. They're not the same thing — and the difference matters more than you think. I've walked into a lot of marketing planning sessions over the years. And my first question is always simple: Why are we doing these things? What's the connection across all of this activity? And - most importantly - why would the customer care enough to engage? Most of the time, what comes back is a description of the calendar itself.