Dan Hill

Dan Hill is president of Sensory Logic and author of Emotionomics: Leveraging Emotions for Business Success;
Body of Truth: Leveraging What Consumers Can’t or Won’t Say and others.

Here is a video about Emotionomics:

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Pam Danziger

First read her profile or go to the great video at the end.

From UnityMarketingOnline.com

About Pam Danziger and Unity Marketing

Unity Marketing is a boutique market research firm specializing in consumer insights for marketers and retailers that sell luxury goods and experiences to the ‘masses as well as the classes.’  Unity doesn’t just field market research studies; rather we delve into the psychology that motivates and empowers luxury consumers in the marketplace.  What sets us apart from the rest is our focus on consumer psychology — in other words, ‘why people buy.’

The firm was founded in 1992 by Pamela N. Danziger, an internationally recognized expert in understanding the mind of the consumer.  Her trademark ‘why people buy’ approach is founded on a passion for data coupled with a need to understand what drives and motivates consumers as they shop.  Thus her work includes both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

In recognition of her ground-breaking work in the luxury consumer market, Pam received the Global Luxury Award presented by Harper’s Bazaar for top luxury industry achievers in 2007.  Click this link for a selective  list of Unity Marketing’s recent clients.

She is also the author of three books on consumer psychology and behavior.  Her latest, Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience (Chicago: Kaplan, October 2006), focuses on the shoppers’ experience and how retailers can enhance that experience by making their shop pop. In addition, she wrote Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses as well as the Classes (Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2005) and Why People Buy Things They Don’t Need (Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2004).

Follow Pam on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PamDanziger

A highly sought after keynote speaker, Danziger has recently addressed large conference audiences, including Global Luxury Forum, Global Shop, National Retail Federation, The Conference Board, American Nursery and Landscape Association, Casual Furniture Market, The Luxury Show by JCK, National Plumbing and Hardware Association’s Annual Convention, International Housewares Association, Fine Furnishings International’s Luxury Cake Walk at High Point and many others.

She also speaks in support of corporate sales and advertisers’ meetings, for clients such as Cayman Islands Tourism Board, Crystal Cruises, Marie Claire magazine, Cartier, Architectural Digest, Domino magazine, Spring Air, Forte Buying Group, Stearns & Foster, House & Garden magazine, Baccarat, Prudential Fine Homes, RELO, Interiors by Decorating Den, Department 56, Polo Ralph Lauren, and others.

She has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CBS News Sunday Morning, Fox News’ Neil Cavuto Show, NPR’s Marketplace, and CNN In the Money and is frequently called upon by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Businessweek, Forbes, USA Today, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Women’s Wear Daily and other business and consumer publications for commentary and analysis. She holds a B.A. Degree in English Literature from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Maryland.

In addition to custom research investigations for clients, Unity Marketing also publishes syndicated market research studies on the luxury market, giftware and gifting, jewelry, art and wall decor, tabletop, outdoor living and decorating, and other consumer markets.Pamela N. Danziger is a nationally recognized expert in understanding the mind of the consumer. She founded Unity Marketing in 1992 as a marketing consulting firm that specializes in consumer insights, especially for marketers and retailers that sell luxury goods and experiences to the masses or the ‘classes.’

Unity Marketing Specializes in Consumer Insights for Companies that Must be Smarter than the Competition

Companies have many different ways to gain a competitive advantage. Some focus on being the fastest; others on being the cheapest; and others on being the hottest. Unity Marketing’s consumer insights can help all of them. But the companies that really benefit from what Unity offers are companies that must be the smartest.

Unity Marketing is a boutique marketing consulting agency that helps companies be smarter than anybody else. In today’s information age, the company that is smarter wins!

Everything about consumer marketing has changed. Consumers today shop differently than they ever did before. They have more options of where to shop and what to buy. They have more money, but they are increasingly frugal and price conscious. They have all the material goods they need, yet they are passionate about luxury. They shift and change their focus in an instant.

In today’s information age, the
company that is smarter wins!

Companies that want to meet the challenges of consumer marketing in the future have to be smarter than all the rest. They need to quantify the changing consumer shopping behavior and their product and brand choices. Not only that, they need to anticipate how these changes will impact future shopping and buying behavior. They need to predict new trends, new concepts, new moods that will take hold in the consumers’ mind set. They need to get out in front of the consumers, anticipate their needs and desires and be ready with new products and new marketing ideas once the consumers get there.

Today companies can’t follow the market or wait for their competitors to do it first – they must lead. And to lead they need the very best, most accurate information and insight into the changing consumer psychology. That is what Unity Marketing provides.
Consumer insights discovered through research will spark:

• New product ideas and product line strategies
  
• New more effective marketing strategies
  
• New branding messages that connect with the consumers
  
• Strategies to beat the competition
  
• Ideas to build future marketing plans
  
• View over the horizon about where your market is heading and how to get out ahead of it

How to Get Smart, Smarter, Smartest

Unity Marketing offers a range of research-based reports and services designed to make you and your company smarter than the competition.

What We Do

Unity Marketing’s services focus on providing its clients with keen, actionable consumer insights.

• Speeches and presentations are customized for client’s needs. Pam Danziger is an outstanding presenter, able to digest complex consumer data into key ideas that clients can use immediately to transform their marketing and branding programs.
  
• Customized consumer research, combining both qualitative research methodologies, such as focus groups and one-on-one interviews, with quantitative facts-and-figures surveys, conducted via telephone or internet.
  
• Luxury tracking studies that monitor real-time changes in purchasing behavior among luxury consumers (top 25 percent of households based on income). Luxury tracking studies also measure brand awareness and usage, product specific purchases and attitudes about purchasing luxuries.
  
• Semi-custom consumer insight research provides opportunities for research sponsors to get in on the initial research for new consumer insight studies. Research sponsors help define study objectives, provide input and participate in consumer focus groups and provide guidance on development of consumer surveys. Research sponsors can add their brand and key competitors’ brands to the surveys for competitive benchmarking.
  
• Consumer insight studies provide grounding in key aspects of particular market segments and consumer shopping behaviors. These syndicated studies are a cost-effective and immediate solution for companies that need to know more about specific markets.
  
• Pam Danziger’s books provide unique insights into consumer shopping and purchasing behavior. Books can be ordered in bulk at discount rates to provide to staff members, key accounts and other constituencies.

Companies that Have Gotten Smarter

Here are how some of Unity’s clients have gotten smarter to beat the competition.

• Nationwide specialty retailer-A specialty retailer with two distinct brands including about 100 mall-based outlets, as well as more focused strip center stores, was challenged by new competition arising from big-box retailers. They needed to find out how to compete against these large retailers that used discount pricing as their competitive edge. Unity conducted focus groups around the country with its client’s customers and target customers who had used the competition and followed up with a nationwide consumer survey. The results were action-based recommendations for the client to focus on the more specialty, luxury-side of the market, targeting the more highly passionate consumers who value better service at a good price, not indiffernt service at a discount price. Further recommendations included steps the retailer could take in-store to be perceived as ‘experts’ in the business.

• American Express Platinum Study-For the 20th anniversary of American Express’ Platinum Card, they needed credible, authoritative facts and figures about the luxury market to build a public relations campaign around. With a limited budget and even less time, Unity Marketing conducted focus groups among Platinum card members to learn how they used and valued the luxury services offered by the card. We also designed and implemented a nationwide survey among luxury consumers (incomes $100,000 and above) to learn more about their luxury product and services purchases with a special focus on the experience of luxury. Because of Unity’s in-depth understanding of the luxury market, we were able to get up to speed faster and provide a broader scope perspective on how the Platinum Card has influenced and contributed to the growth in the luxury market over the past twenty years.

• Major Bedding Brand -One of the nation’s leading bedding brands asked Pam Danziger to prepare a presentation on the luxury bedding market for a national meeting with its shareholders, manufacturing partners and brand constituencies. Using the results of this presentation, plus with copies of Unity reports, the company launched a new luxury line of mattress. Consumer insights were critical to success of product development, marketing and advertising efforts. Consumer insights guided product design; development of marketing brochures for sales and end consumers; point-of-purchase material and in-store displays; sales videos and other sales support materials. Today the company is competing more effectively at the top end of the luxury bedding marketplace with a line of luxurious mattresses that satisfy the demands of the more affluent consumers.

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Now an interesting video with tips about reaching consumers:

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Mike Bosworth is noted for founding and growing one of the most successful virtual business in the B2B arena.

He founded Solution Selling solo in 1983, began adding licensing his intellectual property to affiliates in 1988 and by the time he sold it in 1999, over 50 affiliated were contributing royalty income in excess of $2.8M annually. His current focus is helping innovators brainstorm internet business ideas at a conceptual level and in many cases, participating in launching virtual businesses as an equity advisor.

He also has a new book in progress on how sellers can harness the power of story in building emotional trust with their buyers.

Bosworth is the author of Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets (McGraw-Hill, 1993) and co-author of Customer Centric Selling (McGraw-Hill, November 2003). Bosworth is a limited partner in a San Diego based venture capital firm and is an advisory board member for a number of information technology ventures.

Mike Bosworth began his career in the information technology industry in 1972 as an application support person for Xerox Computer Services. He was their top new business salesperson in 1975, managed the “branch of the year” in 1979 and was promoted to national manager of field sales in 1980. From 1976 through 1982 he designed and delivered sales training programs for XCS. His years of field experience plus the knowledge he gained from working with Neil Rackham on the Xerox SPIN selling project inspired him to found Solution Selling in 1983.

Bosworth has a degree in Business Management and Marketing from California State Polytechnic University. In addition to his keynote speaking for professional associations and major corporations, he has been a featured lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, The Stanford Programon Market Strategy for Technology-Based Companies, The American Marketing Association Customer Message Management Forums, The Anderson School Of Management At UCLA, the Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine, The University of Connecticut and Rollins College to name a few. He is certified (CMC) by the Institute of Management Consultants.

Granger

From SevenTriggers.com

Russ Granger has been creating peak professional performance for businesses around the world for over 25 years. Russ specializes in management, sales, service, and personal productivity courses for growth-oriented organizations in a wide variety of industries. His books, multimedia workshops, and self-paced programs produce documented, measurable results.

Over 95% of Russ Granger’s training participants rate his courses as “superior to other programs.”

Russ is the founder of several organizations devoted to professional education for peak performance, including Granger Associates, Insurance Learning Systems, and the ProEd Corporation. He is the prime architect of the world-renowned PRISMS program series, the largest-selling business skills courses in the domestic and international insurance industry.

In constant demand as a speaker and motivator for executives, managers and salespeople, Russ has brought his dynamic brand of training to companies throughout the United States and Europe, as well as to Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and most recently India.

Kevin Hogan

From KevinHogan.com

Kevin Hogan is the author of nineteen books. He is best known for his international best selling book, The Psychology of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others to Your Way of Thinking.

In the past decade he has become the Body Language Expert and Unconscious Influence Expert to ABC, Fox, The BBC, The New York Times, The New York Post and dozens of popular magazines like Forbes,Investors Business Daily,InTouch, First for Women, Success!, and Cosmopolitan.

He has become the go-to resource for analyzing key White House figures.

Hogan has taught Persuasion and Influence at the University of St. Thomas Management Center and is a frequent media guest. Articles by and about him have appeared in Success!, Redbook, Office Pro,, Selling Power, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Playboy and numerous other publications. He was recently featured in a half dozen magazines (including wProst) in Poland.

Kevin is a dynamic, well-known international public speaker, consultant and corporate trainer. He has trained persuasion, sales and marketing skills to leaders in the government of Poland, employees from Mutual of Omaha, Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, Cargill, Pillsbury, Carlson Companies, Fortis Insurance, Great Clips, the State of Minnesota, 3M, The United States Postal Service and numerous other Fortune 500 companies. He recently spoke to The Inner Circle and at the Million Dollar Roundtable (MDRT) convention in Las Vegas.

His keynotes, seminars and workshops help companies sell, market and communicate more effectively. His cutting edge research into the mind and keen understanding of consumer behavior create a unique distillation of information never before released to the public. Each customized program he leads is fit specifically to the needs of the group or organization. Kevin will give your people new and easy to implement ideas to achieve excellence.

Gary Vaynerchuk

This guy is amazing. This time lets start with a 15 minutes video from the web 2.0 expo NY:

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From the Wine Library TV Website:

What motivates this revolution, you ask? Our movement seeks to break down the barriers, stereotypes, and misperceptions that otherwise prevent people from exploring and enjoying the exciting and rewarding world of wine. Gary Vaynerchuk (VAY NER CHUK), the star of Wine Library TV, is Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ. With his unconventional, often irreverent commentary on wine, Gary has attracted a cult-like following of more than 80,000 viewers a day. In the name of “expanding one’s palate”, Gary convinced Conan O’Brien to lick salted rocks and shared samples of dirt and grass with Ellen Degeneres. He routinely pans popular wines (even ones sold by Wine Library). He interrupts his webcasts with rants about his beloved New York Jets. This is not your typical wine expert.

Gary’s roots in wine tasting come honestly – his Russian immigrant parents owned a liquor store when he was growing up. Bored at the cash register, Gary began reading Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate and realized collecting wine offered an allure similar to his previous hobby of collecting baseball cards. As a teenager, tasting wine was legally impossible, so Gary set out to train his palate “backwards”. To study various flavors associated with wine, Gary tasted obscure fruits and vegetables, along with earthly influences, including grass, dirt, rocks, tobacco and wood. “I probably consumed more New Jersey grass in my teens than any lawn mower.” By familiarizing himself with the numerous tastes that contributed to a specific wine, Gary was able to detect subtleties that an ordinary palate wouldn’t recognize.

With a wealth of knowledge and an entrepreneurial spirit, Gary spent every weekend of his college years at his parents’ store, rebranding the family business as Wine Library and establishing himself as a respected expert. As the store’s only wine buyer, he sampled every wine that entered the store. Customers depended on Gary for his advice and within a five year time period, Wine Library grew from a $4 million dollar business to a $45 million business.

But Gary’s career took a new turn with the advent of Wine Library TV. Gary’s key goals are twofold: “First, I want people to try different wines. How can you have a favorite if you only know a few? Second, I tell people to trust their palates. If a wine appeals to your palate, then it’s a good choice. Don’t feel pressured to like popular brands or what experts recommend. Buy what ‘brings the thunder’ for you.”

It always troubled Gary to observe the stuffiness of the industry–conceited sommeliers, snobby shopkeepers unwilling (or unable) to educate their consumers, and seemingly mystical conventions all combine to make wine seem intimidating to the uninitiated. Wine Library TV has reinvented the concept of wine tasting for a new generation. In addition to encouraging straightforward wine tasting, Gary educates viewers about the effects of regional factors (soil, sun, wind) on wine flavors, and how to buy wine. Debunking myths (red vs. white, big name brands vs. independent growers, the pitfalls of wine ratings, etc.) is another ongoing theme of the show. Specific episode topics have included decanting, how to train your palate, the impact oak aging
and barrel fermenting have on wine (Beware of the Oak Monster!), and comparisons of wines made from the same grapes grown in different regions.

WLTV has blossomed into a full-fledged community. The viewers (self-named “Vayniacs”) convene on an extremely active forum, and have organized numerous off-line gatherings. Gary and the viewers have teamed up with Crushpad in the past year to create the first ever community wine, Vayniac Cabernet.

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Another great presentation of Gary Vaynerchuk from Authors@google:

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Jack Trout

From the Trout and Partners Website:

Jack Trout  – President, Trout & Partners, Ltd.

Instrumental in developing the vital approach to marketing known as “positioning,” he is responsible for some of the freshest ideas to be introduced into marketing thinking in the last several decades.

Jack Trout is president of Trout & Partners, one of the most prestigious marketing firms with headquarters in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, USA and offices in 13 countries. Jack Trout manages and supervises a global network of experts that apply his concepts and develop his methodology around the world. The firm has done work for AT&T, IBM, Burger King, Merrill Lynch, Xerox, Merck, Lotus, Ericsson, Tetra Pak, Repsol, Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, Southwest Airlines and other Fortune 500 companies.

Jack Trout started his business career in the advertising department of General Electric. From there he went on to become a divisional advertising manager at Uniroyal. Then he joined Al Ries in the advertising agency and marketing strategy firm where they worked together for over twenty-six years.

With Al Ries he co-authored the industry classic, Positioning:
The Battle for Your Mind, which was published in 1980. In 1985 he and Al Ries wrote a second best-selling book entitled Marketing Warfare. Positioning and Marketing Warfare are now published in 14 languages. In 1988 Bottom-Up-Marketing was published. In 1993 their book, The 22 Immutable Laws
of Marketing became the marketing bible. It outlined the basic reasons why marketing programs succeed or fail in the competitive nineties. Jack Trout closed the circle with the sequel to Positioning in 1995. Entitled The New Positioning it takes the world’s No. 1 business strategy to a new level. It became a Business Week best seller and has already been translated into 16 languages. This was followed by The Power of Simplicity – A Management Guide To Cutting Through the Nonsense And Doing Things Right. Then it was Differentiate or Die – Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition which presented the keys to survival in a killer global economy. This has also become a best seller.

His latest books are entitled Big Brands Big Trouble and The Genie’s Wisdom. They explain why the marketing process is so important for senior management to learn and practice.

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Brian Tracy

From briantracy.com:

About Brian and Brian Tracy International

Brian Tracy is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations.

Brian’s goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined.

Brian Tracy has consulted for more than 1,000 companies and addressed more than 4,000,000 people in 4,000 talks and seminars throughout the US, Canada and 40 other countries worldwide. As a Keynote speaker and seminar leader, he addresses more than 250,000 people each year.

He has studied, researched, written and spoken for 30 years in the fields of economics, history, business, philosophy and psychology. He is the top selling author of over 45 books that have been translated into dozens of languages.

He has written and produced more than 300 audio and video learning programs, including the worldwide, best-selling Psychology of Achievement, which has been translated into more than 20 languages.

He speaks to corporate and public audiences on the subjects of Personal and Professional Development, including the executives and staff of many of America’s largest corporations. His exciting talks and seminars on Leadership, Selling, Self-Esteem, Goals, Strategy, Creativity and Success Psychology bring about immediate changes and long-term results.

Prior to founding his company, Brian Tracy International, Brian was the Chief Operating Officer of a $265 million dollar development company. He has had successful careers in sales and marketing, investments, real estate development and syndication, importation, distribution and management consulting. He has conducted high level consulting assignments with several billion-dollar plus corporations in strategic planning and organizational development.

He has traveled and worked in over 80 countries on six continents, and speaks four languages. Brian is happily married and has four children. He is active in community and national affairs, and is the President of three companies headquartered in Solana Beach, California.

Brian is also the President of Brian Tracy University, a private on-line University for sales and entrepreneurship.

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Paul Zane Pilzer

From paulzanepilzer.com:

Paul Zane Pilzer Bio

Paul Zane Pilzer is a world-renowned economist, a multimillionaire software entrepreneur, an adjunct professor, and the author of eight best-selling books and dozens of scholarly publications.

Pilzer completed Lehigh University in three years and received his MBA from Wharton in 15 months at age 22. He became Citibank’s youngest officer at age 22 and its youngest vice president at age 25. At age 24, he was appointed adjunct professor at New York University, where he taught for 21 consecutive years. Over the past 30 years, Pilzer has started and/or taken public, five companies in the areas of software, education and healthcare. He is the Founder of Zane Benefits, Inc. and Extend Health, Inc., the nation’s two leading suppliers of individualized health benefits to corporate America including Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club.

He was an appointed economic adviser in two presidential administrations and warned of the impending $200 billion savings and loan crisis years before official Washington was willing to listen—a story that he later shared in Other People’s Money (Simon & Schuster) which was critically acclaimed by The New York Times and The Economist magazine.

Pilzer’s Unlimited Wealth (Crown) explains how we live in a world of unlimited physical resources because of rapidly advancing technology. After reading Unlimited Wealth, the late Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, said that he was “amazed at Pilzer’s business capacity” and his “ability to put it into layman’s terms.”

Pilzer’s God Wants You to be Rich: The Theology of Economics (Simon & Schuster) explains how the foundation of our economic system is based on our Judeo-Christian heritage—this New York Times business best-seller was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal and on television shows ranging from 60 Minutes to First Person with Maria Shriver.

In The New Wellness Revolution (Wiley) Pilzer identifies the newly emerging wellness business—for this book he received an Honorary Doctorate in Public Service and was called a “wellness guru” by The New York Times.

The Next Millionaires (Momentum Media) explains why the number of U.S. millionaires doubled in the 1990s, how the economy is now creating one million millionaires a year from 2006-2016, and how ordinary people can become one of them.

The New Health Insurance Solution (Wiley) sets forth a bold new direction for U.S. health insurance and explains how individuals can now get affordable health insurance independent of their employer. This book also explains how employers can end their health insurance nightmare while still being able to hire great employees by providing the same health benefits for less than half the cost they are paying today.

A former commentator on National Public Radio and CNN, Pilzer was profiled on the front page of The Wall St. Journal in 2007 and has appeared three times on the Larry King Live! television program. He speaks live each year to approximately 200,000 people, and more than 10 million audiotapes of his speeches have been sold. He lives in Utah with his wife and four children where they are all avid snowboarders, mountain bikers, and chess players.

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Al Ries

From the Rise & Rise Website:

Al Ries

Chairman of Ries & Ries

Al is a legendary marketing strategist and the bestselling author (or co-author) of 11 books on marketing including Positioning, Marketing Warfare, Focus, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR and his latest War in the Boardroom (2009).

After graduating from DePauw University, Al worked in the advertising department of General Electric before founding his own advertising agency in New York City, Ries Cappiello Colwell in 1963. The agency later changed to marketing strategy firm, Trout & Ries.

In 1972, Al co-authored the now infamous three-part series of articles declaring the arrival of the Positioning era in Advertising Age magazine. The concept of positioning revolutionized how people viewed advertising and marketing. Marketing was traditionally thought of as communications, but successful brands are those that find an open hole in the mind and then become the first to fill the hole with their brand name.

Last year, Advertising Age magazine choose the 75 most important ad moments of the last 75 years celebrating the publication’s 75th anniversary. The emergence of positioning came in at number #56. Ad Age commented on how the concept remains just as relevant in today’s environment, “The positioning era doesn’t end. What became a part of the marketing lexicon in the early ‘70’s holds its own in the textbooks of today.”

Al was president of the Association of Industrial Advertisers (now the Business Marketing Association) and the Advertising Club of New York. He was also chairman of the Club’s Andy Awards. In 1989, Sales & Marketing Executives International gave him its “Tops in Marketing” award. In 1999, PR Week magazine named him one of the 100 most influential PR people of the 20th century.

Always one for controversy, Al’s book, The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR, has generated enormous interest in the marketing community. The book made both the Business Week and The Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. In addition to being reviewed by these publications, it was also reviewed by USA Today, Harvard Business Review, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times and many other publications.

Al currently writes a monthly marketing column for AdAge.com and appears on the RiesReport.com. Al’s favorite activities include snorkeling, horseback riding and driving with the top down. He resides in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Mary Lou.

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Now an excellent presentation of Al Ries found on YouTube:

Its about focusing on narrowing your business niche, and its a really great talk. Watch it!

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