SBT Editor
Thanks to all of our readers who participated in the recent surveys for Small Business Times. Results of the surveys help keep us abreast of what you want to see in the paper and how you want it presented. Over the next few months, we’ll be responding to those interests with some minor changes in the presentation of stories and through additional focus on topics you want more of.
One topic that readers want more presented on is marketing. In response to that desire, with this issue we add a regular column by local marketing expert Rob Grede.
Grede may be familiar to many southeastern Wisconsin business persons. He has been active in the Milwaukee Advertising Club and currently serves as its president. He owns The Grede Co., a consulting firm that specializes in marketing and strategic planning. Clients range from start-up operations to Fortune 500 firms.
He is the author of “Naked Marketing – the Bare Essentials,” and has been a syndicated columnist and frequent contributor to magazines.
Grede, with B.A. and M.B.A. degrees, is a graduate of DePauw University and The Goizueta School of Business at Emory University.
He is also an adjunct professor of marketing at Marquette University. He speaks on the subject of marketing and strategic thinking at universities, civic organizations, and corporate venues, and has been a guest on television and radio talk shows.
After 12 years in the advertising industry, working with marketers like McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, and UAL, Grede acquired a small manufacturing company. Upon selling the business, he founded The Grede Co., based in Wauwatosa.
Grede’s column appears on page 28 of this issue. The marketing advice column will run in every other issue. In alternate issues, installments from his 101 marketing tips series will be published.
We trust you will value his marketing advice.
Readers also asked for more summary boxes with stories. We’ll be working those in.
Another desire is to have access to an archive of published stories. We’re currently building that archive and will make it available on our Web site, www.biztimes.com.
While we annually survey our readers, we invite readers to contact us at any time with ideas and opinions. We value the input.
One’s a Plymouth – the brand that DaimlerChrysler decided to drop after the 2000 model year.
The other is an Oldsmobile, which General Motors late last year announced it would phase out over the next five years.
I figure we now have two collector cars. We don’t have much affinity for the Plymouth minivan – it’s had its share of costly repairs, but the 1995 Olds station wagon still rides great and has been nothing but reliable.
