Marketing is a practice that defies definition. Innovation and creativity are key to successful branding campaigns, so there are rarely any things that you absolutely must or must not do. However, a few guidelines never hurt anyone. Today, we bring you the ten commandments that marketing companies can usually agree on, as a jumping-off point for any marketing campaign.

These days, with most customers using social media or being internet-savvy, your company may realize that bad word of mouth can travel much faster than good reviews. Of course, online reputation management is a definite help when these situations occur. But you may reach the point where you need your marketing company to be prepared to help you bounce back from bad media. Good thing celebrities have paved the way in how to market yourself in a comeback.

In the marketing world, age demographics used to be the best way to create strategy and advertising appropriate for your consumer. In television, the 18-49 demographic is still the most sought after group to win in ratings. However, for most marketing companies, age has become an insufficient description to base a campaign on. Now more than ever, people can no longer identified by a simple integer.

In honor of the season two finale on Sunday, today is Mad Men day - posts featuring a character from AMC’s hit show and what it would be like if they worked at the Ocean Groups will appear on all the company blogs.

Social media marketing is a great way to reinvent your brand image or to simply spread the word about any changes or developments at your website or company. And as odd as it may seem, Britney Spears is providing a great example for companies out there looking to delve into the social media experience. Our Chicago marketing company is keeping an eye on Britney and all of her branding endeavors.

Companies who employ new media marketing gain the benefit of an incredibly diverse range of outlets for their strategy. Instead of selling one broad message to an overwhelming mass of consumers, new media allows you to pinpoint your most lucrative market. With over 100 million blogs worldwide, some of them will definitely serve your company’s own particular market, opening the door to your potential customers.

Politicians are some of the most charismatic and captivating people in the public eye. But what do they have to do with our Chicago marketing company? Essentially, their job and our job is the same. We make people believe in and act on an idea or message.

This month, the Association of National Advertisers met in Orlando for its 98th annual convention. Discussed at the convention, of course, was the current state of the economy and its effects on advertising and marketing companies. Like we’ve noted before, the idea during this crisis is not to cut marketing costs, but continue to reassure your consumers with comforting strategy regarding the quality of your product or service.

Today, marketing, strategy and branding are no longer the subjects we’ll discuss on our company’s blog. Since this October 15th is Blog Action Day, we’ll turn our attention to the matter of global poverty, like 11,000 other blogs around the world. Even though we might not solve the issue in a day, we can start the discussion and, with a combined readership of 12 million, expect the rest of the world to carry on the topic.

Although it might seem like the variable costs of marketing should be some of the first to go in tight economic spots, almost everything we’re reading says cutting back on marketing can be the death knell for your business. Here are some of the best links we’ve found explaining why marketing remains key in the recession.

Report on Business says creativity and perserverance are necessary and proves it with an anecdote about Post and Kellogg.