The Coming Marketing Meltdown

And there he went. Just like that, my son was in my rearview mirror, standing by the curb next to his 'new' dorm, as we drove back home from planting him at college. Things were quiet in the car. If you listened closely though, you could hear the faint flipping of mental images working backwards.

• The prom pictures where I was taken aback that he looked so much like a man.
• The early driving days when he looked like a child who'd stolen his parents' car.
• The baseball years where the glove was so big his fingers didn't reach past the palm, and the helmet could actually be spun while still on his head.
• The diaper years (which we really need to figure out how to eliminate, no pun intended), the cuteness of baby cheeks, missing teeth, and little fat baby joints that could go in almost any direction.

Then I snap back into the present: a young man at college. A father questions much. This is a quick poem, which doesn't have a blooming thing to do with marketing, but if you're a parent, it may hold a grain of value. Click for 'A Father Questions'.

As a business owner, worker, parent, we all want to have made our presence known somehow. Two things we all wonder:

Are we doing enough to make a difference?

Are we leaving the place better than we found it?

If 'yes' to both, congratulations, for you have done your job well. Yet there's a guilt epidemic floating amongst the "going to's" that never quite get done. We're "going to" start saving more, earning more, vacationing more, stressing out less ... one day. And just like depositing a child at college, that day comes, inevitably and you wonder if you did enough.

In a marketing perspective, there is a meltdown happening now that will separate winners from losers. The prepared vs. the "how did this happen?" The outcome is greatly affected by the convergence of: a) Economic recession, b) Major lead shift from Yellow Pages to online, c) Mass "Distractionism". Your Marketing Meltdown Warning here.