“As it has become ever harder to reach people between the ages of 12 and 34, advertisers have pushed viral marketing entirely underground, pitching them on the sly and hoping that the message takes and spreads, viruslike, with none of the intended marks knowing the better. This might mean leaving cigarette packs in bars, as tobacco companies have done, or loaning automobiles to ‘key influencers,’ as Ford did in 1999, when it placed the Ford Focus with 120 people in five major markets. Or it might mean hiring some of Big Fat’s 50 operatives in 30 cities to drink vodka and water at trendy bars.”

“According to a new Peppers and Rogers Group white paper titled, ‘How To Turn Around Your Stalled CRM Implementation,’ billions of dollars are being invested in CRM, yet up to 80 percent of the projects fail to deliver expected returns.”

“As it has become ever harder to reach people between the ages of 12 and 34, advertisers have pushed viral marketing entirely underground, pitching them on the sly and hoping that the message takes and spreads, viruslike, with none of the intended marks knowing the better. This might mean leaving cigarette packs in bars, as tobacco companies have done, or loaning automobiles to ‘key influencers,’ as Ford did in 1999, when it placed the Ford Focus with 120 people in five major markets. Or it might mean hiring some of Big Fat’s 50 operatives in 30 cities to drink vodka and water at trendy bars.”

“You’re right. We’re exaggerating. There is no easy recipe for making a commercial website. In fact, it’s damned hard just to figure out the basic stuff. To help answer these questions and others, we’ve created this helpful guide to Web technologies and the companies that provide them.”