"Change, you know, has subtle quality. It comes upon you quietly. It creeps and you continue to pleasantly operate on basis of old and comfortable assumptions and premises until suddenly, change explodes opportunity in front of you. And you are totally unequipped to deal with it because your ways of thinking, your concepts, your techniques, are all geared to an age that is no more!"

Source: unknown

Today's marketing leader and savvy CEO's better recognize that change is constant, even more so than last year, last month and perhaps even last week!

Time-to-market issues are more acute than ever, in some cases, causing demise of once mighty companies. Product life cycles are measured in months, with some in weeks. Globalization is in full swing. The ubiquitous WWW continues to level competitive playing field providing smaller firms cheaper and easier access to global markets. New markets are harder to segment causing competitors, big and small, to lurk behind every account and around each order. Outsourcing skill-sets such as manufacturing, engineering and even marketing tare at fabric of established firms, yet must be required strategy for companies wishing to not only survive, but thrive in business environment of 21st century.

Technology is assaulting every aspect of your marketing mix - price, promotion, product, and place. Thinking otherwise is simply not thinking. Creative marketing groups must focus on understanding, trending, and innovating ways to use technology as a significant competitive advantage.

Innovation is key and must be applied to these emerging trends:

Techno-edge: Technology is advancing rapidly - embrace it! Market winners will be those that most effectively understand and utilize technology to their customers' advantage. Find ways to insert technology in all phases of your marketing mix - automate your sales force with CRM and SFA productivity tools but always make sure your customer benefits; look for systems that provide easier, and more comprehensive pre/post sales support through WWW techniques; make sure your R&D group is cutting-edge and understands how technology can solve your customers' problems - not just add low-value, "techie-type" features; innovate your distribution methods driving more channels-to-market with least cross-channel conflict.

Speed: Speed in everything your firm does - from new product development, to how many rings it takes to answer your business phone. Speed wins and technology is pushing things to get faster while raising consumer expectations on how long they should wait. I'll bet if you critically reviewed every step of your organization, you would find useless queue times and non-value add steps that don't help your customer. Look for ways to create a business that thrives on ‘speed-of-customer satisfaction'.

24/7 – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

AOL – America Online.

Benefit – How a particular feature will help a particular buyer.

Bleed – Printing term meaning to be printed to go off edge or edges of a page after trimming.

Body copy – The main words in a brochure or ad.

Brand - A logo, corporate image, or distinct product or service identity that can become firmly rooted in public's mind. Its purpose is to establish a meaningful, differentiated presence that will attract and retain loyal customers.

Brand police - A person or group of people inside a corporation whose primary task is to ensure integrity of a company's brand. This means reviewing any and all materials that contain company's logo, making sure it has right color, size, and so on, and does not get muddied by improper use.

Buzz – Getting people to talk about you and your company or product.

Call to action – The response a marketer would like from his prospect or client, such as picking up phone and ordering his product.

Click-through - The process of clicking through an online advertisement to advertiser's destination.

Concept – The main creative idea or approach.

Content – The creative contribution of writers, artists, animators, and musicians whose work makes up text, artwork, animation, and music on Net. Usually thought of as simply textual and graphical information contained in a website, content also refers to structure and design in which information is presented.

Conversion rate - The percentage of visitors who take a desired action.

Copy – Words to be printed or spoken in an advertisement, brochure or other medium.

Corporate or company image – Brand.

Database management – To store, modify, and extract information from a database.

Die-cut – Printing term that refers to being cut into a special form or shape, such as a folder that has been “die cut” to allow insertion of a business card or a brochure that is cut into shape of a shoe.

Download – To transfer a file or files from one computer to another, for example, from a server to your desktop computer.

dpi – Dots per inch; a metric used to measure print and screen resolution. Electronic newsletter – A newsletter delivered via a website or e-mail, an e-zine.

E-book (also ebook) – A written book that is created for electronic distribution, usually in PDF format.

E-mail (also email) - The transmission of computer-based messages over telecommunication technology.

E-mail marketing - Marketing via e-mail.

E-zine - An electronic magazine, whether delivered via a Web site or an e-mail newsletter.

Feature – Quality or characteristic of product or service.

Filter - A program that examines incoming data to ensure that only information within certain parameters is allowed to pass through. Four-color – A process in which three primary colors and black are transferred by four different plates or filters to a surface, reproducing colors of subject matter.

Gatefold – A type of fold on a brochure in which right and left sides of brochure fold inward and meet at center. The brochure is generally then folded again so that where these two sides meet is now on inside spine of brochure.

Gloss paper – Paper with a shininess or luster.

HTML e-mail – E-mail that is formatted using Hypertext Markup Language, as opposed to plain text e-mail.

Icon - A graphical representation of a specific item (or situation).

Image – A picture.

JPEG - One of two most common types of image formats used on World Wide Web (the other being GIF). It downloads very fast. The shorter extension, JPG (without E), is usually used in association with PC platform files.

GIF – Stands for “Graphics Interchange Format." On Web pages images (or pictures) you see are usually in GIF because files are small and can be downloaded quickly. Another type of graphics format commonly used online is JPG (or JPEG) these files download even faster and contain a better resolution.

Letterfold – Folded in three, way a business letter is folded.