Information and customers are the two greatest business assets. Few executives would disagree with this statement. So, what does it mean for your business when your two greatest assets - data and relationships - are simultaneously jeopardized? This is exactly what happens when customer data falls into the wrong hands.

The genuine desire to protect the privacy and security of customers' personal data certainly isn't new. Businesses everywhere continue to implement new procedures and technology to protect their assets. Yet fraud is on the rise and consumer confidence on the decline. Companies have been publicly humiliated, slapped with audits, and threatened with prosecution, but sensitive personal data continues to be compromised.*

Is this really surprising? The information landscape has changed so drastically in such a short amount of time that it's difficult to keep up. In reality, we've gone from the Rolodex to the Smartphone, from Ledger Pads to PDAs, from Typewriters to 64-Bit Processors, from While-You-Were-Out-Memos to E-mailable Voice Mails - all in under two decades. We made a major leap from a fairly disconnected world to a wirelessly-connected one. In our 21st Century society, we have access to billions upon billions of pieces of information. And the amount of information around us grows with every new gadget we use, every new web page we can access, and every hard drive that's capable of storing more and more data.

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Turkey, Jingle Bells and Marketing Plans
by Deborah E. Hamilton

A quick trip to the mall this week reminded me how much I love this time of year. The Halloween decorations haven't even made it back into the basement yet and we're still a few weeks away from Thanksgiving. But the store displays decked out in red and green - and Santa Claus sitting atop his big red chair in the middle of the mall - provided the end-of-year reality check for me so early in November.

It's easy to be distracted by the hustle and bustle of the busy holiday season. And who wouldn't be? The upcoming holidays provide us valuable time to visit with family, be thankful for our blessings, shop 'til we drop, and act like kids again.

But back in the real world - the business world - we don't have time to be distracted. Many companies are already gearing up for 2004. And strategy will be the name of the game in the coming year. Marketing plans have made their comeback, not because they haven't been important over the past several years, but because many executives have been busy pushing tactics over strategy.

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PR-ROI 101: Four Keys to Public Relations Success
by Deborah E. Hamilton

Fact: Every communications vehicle must produce measurable results.

No marketing professional would deny this fact. As executive management continues to scrutinize marketing expenditures, marketing professionals have been forced to become experts in metrics and reporting. They are now accustomed to providing answers to such questions as:

• How many web site hits were generated from our online banner advertisements?
• How many sales resulted from that direct mail campaign we did?
• How many visitors did we have to our tradeshow booth?

These questions can easily be answered by crunching a few numbers.

But communications personnel and public relations agencies continue to struggle with ways to measure the success of their public relations initiatives. After all, how can you measure ideas and pitches, influence and persuasion?

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