How Starbucks combines innovation, communication and the customer experience to move consumers up the loyalty ladder and achieve true accountability in marketing. By Hunter Hastings, managing partner, EMM Group. (more)

Hunter Hastings: It's the frustration marketers experience at the difficulties in getting their strategic brand message translated into equity-building, price increasing, margin-enhancing results by the sales force. It's also the frustration salespeople feel at their difficulties in getting marketers to understand the real business situation sufficiently to deliver practically effective sales tools. (essay)

The 2004 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference signaled a turning point for marketing in several ways. One of them was when Kimberly-Clark's Jane Boulware unveiled a powerful new approach to technology for the marketing department. By Hunter Hastings. (more)

To have a seat at the big table, the CMO must speak the language of the CFO and COO. As it turns out, the language uses the vocabulary of accountability. By Hunter Hastings. (more)

The recent Association of National Advertisers annual conference symbolized a massive turning point in the history of marketing. The ANA emerged from a strategic slumber to put on a conference which hosted the best-of-the-best in the marketing world -- star CMOs from the leading brandowners talking frankly and revealingly about the industry-wide issues. By Hunter Hastings. (more)

The concept of marketing R.O.I. is almost universally misunderstood and therefore the practice of R.O.I. analysis is usually faulty. By Hunter Hastings. (more)

Marketing is becoming fun again. Having been reduced to tasks of project management and numbers crunching, marketing is about to be released to exercise the strategic thinking and creativity that makes it such an attractive discipline for great minds. By Hunter Hastings. (more)