Open For Business

Smart marketing is smart marketing, regardless of the venue. On this edition of OFB Brian, Tommy and Ken, along with our guest Chris Reimer explored some applications of smart marketing, and some not so smart marketing moves as well. Our first Hot Potato was ReferralKey.com. Describing itself as an online community of connected people sending lots of referrals to each other, we all concluded that what they really do is SPAM people and offer little in the way of new business opportunities. Our guest Chris Reimer wrote an especially insightful and funny blog entry on the topic -- @RizzoTees Chris Reimer Blog about Referral Key Our next Hot Potato stop was WalMart who is going somewhere no retailer or channel partner has gone before -- they are discounting iPhones and iPads. We initially thought this demonstrated the power of WalMart as a discount retailer. But maybe not. There’s real value in hearing Brian’s astute insight about channel conflicts and this being a somewhat desperate strategic move by W