The size of the U.S. middle class has been shrinking. Wages have been stagnant. We don't have those factory jobs that paid a living wage and enabled a family to have a home where the wife did not have to work. But we sent our factories abroad and there is no likelihood of getting them back. Equally worrisome is that some managerial jobs and professional jobs (such as lawyers) which support middle class life are threatened by automation.

Good customers are an asset which, when wellmanaged and served, will return a handsome lifetime income stream for the company.

Integrated marketing communications is a way of looking at the whole marketing process from the view point of the customer.

In working on any one problem, such as higher minimum wages, so many other issues come into play, such as some businesses possibly closing down, thus creating fewer jobs and more unemployment and incentivizing companies to import more goods from abroad, which leads to even less employment at home, and so on.

When it comes to efficiency and effectiveness, I would always start with effectiveness. I am interested in achieving a certain outcome. Only secondarily do I worry about achieving it as efficiently as possible.

Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value.

Watch the product life cycle; but more important, watch the market life cycle.