Conversation Agent's yearly collection of inspirational thought starters for doing marketing that makes business sense.

1. Marketing Quotes [2011] Valeria Maltoni, Principal, Conversation Agent LLC . @ConversationAge http://www.flickr.com/photos/hleung/486414071

2. “The question marketers need to ask is what they are going to do with all these new fans and followers. How will having someone as a fan or follower fundamentally improve the relationships between the brand and the customer?” − Paul Adams, Social Circles ttp://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/148365114/

3. “... although so much of this advice and comment is truly fantastic, the flip-side is that within all the rush and deluge we are sometimes accepting and sharing – at speed and at face-value – assertions that maybe should bear closer examination and qualification.” − Emma Cookson, Chairman BBH, NY http://www.flickr.com/photos/25533361@N00/2540049564/

4. “Whether you're a big or small company, if you're going to build a big new business going forward, you'll do it by redefining a market that exists at the intersection of media and technology.” − Anil Dash http://www.flickr.com/photos/cittadimodena/5082888003/

5. “It’s a reactive thing, like a Geiger counter; you click whenever you come close to whatever you were built to do.” − Stephen King http://www.flickr.com/photos/cittadimodena/5081618996/

6. “What is the most important part of the marketing mix that is essential to ensure a better chance of success in the marketplace?... it is ownership of a point of view.” − Siddarth Banjeree, Unilever Asia http://www.flickr.com/photos/coffeegeek/218285119/

7. “The winner is the chef who takes the same ingredients as everyone else and produces the best result.” − Edward de Bono http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotelrealfini/3485256739/

8. “Well done is better than well said.” − Benjamin Franklin http://www.flickr.com/photos/cittadimodena/5367178572/

9. “His job was to be alive to detail.” − from The Big Short by Michael Lewis Limone, Garda Lake, by Mom

10. “Most people think the way you figure [ideas] out is doing a focus group. But the really really successful ones are ones people never thought they wanted. Figure out a way to delight the consumer; You need to figure out what it is. Then use the focus group to see if you’re crazy.” − Notes from a talk by Jonathan Kaplan, founder and chief executive of Pure Digital http://www.flickr.com/photos/benno89/4561818630/

11. “It’s not typically the wickedness of leaders (or of boards) that gets companies into trouble. It’s their failure to effectively manage the wickedness of the problems they face — problems that resist obvious solutions. Wicked problems are being tossed up by the exploding complexity of our modern world — complexity originating from the increasing interconnectedness of everything we do.” − Ted Casby http://www.flickr.com/photos/cittadimodena/5053967249/

12. “Awesome is always scary. The vast chasm between really good and extraordinary is filled with fear. If you push yourself to the extent that you’re deeply uncomfortable, you’ll be fine; if you’re comfortable, you’re not pushing hard enough.” − Ben Malbon, Google Creative Lab http://www.flickr.com/photos/annalibera/4273765471/

13. “Out there in some garage is an entrepreneur who’s forging a bullet with your company’s name on it.” − Gary Hamel http://www.flickr.com/photos/smashz/2907468298/

14. “Advertising is as close to a performing art as it gets in business. And as any dancer or actor or singer will tell you, even the most brilliant careers are riddled with booby traps, things that can blow a dream apart worse than a Claymore mine in a shopping mall. Advertising is like that. There will be times when it tries to dishearten you. Discourage you. Break you… Love the triumphs. Love the disappointments. The ups and the downs, the sweet and the bitter … Whether it comes to life or not is up to you.” − Inspirational article by Ernie Schenck about a career in Advertising http://www.flickr.com/photos/zakmc/3645953615/

15. “Social networks are not channels for advertisers or for the adverts/memes you, your clients or any of your so-called ‘influentials’ create, social networks are for all of the people who participate in the network... Social networks are not best understood as channels down which folk send things; social networks are webs from which members pull down learning (from each other).” − Mark Earls, Herd http://www.flickr.com/photos/cittadimodena/4992176095/

16. “Critics are like eunuchs in a harem. They're there every night, they see it done every night, they see how it should be done every night, but they can't do it themselves.” − Brendan Behan (quoted by Gyles Brandreth in *Theatrical Disasters*) http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldon/5347226217/

17. “Almost nothing worthwhile is easy, and it’s hard to just jump in and be good at something difficult right off the bat… ‘Get big and popular, then just flip the switch and start making money when we feel like it’. There is no switch. The only reliable way to succeed at anything is to actually do it, repeatedly, with concentrated effort. True for individuals, and true for organizations. Athletes, artists, businesses.” − John Gruber in Cutting That Cord http://www.flickr.com/photos/kompott/491104255/

18. "Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them." − W. Edwards Deming http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/5743805104/

19. “Digital is not about the tools. […] it's always good to think about digital as a network of relationships made both of behaviors and technology. Then it's possible to explore how make some relationships visible, how to create new relationship between people, how to create a new relationship between people and products or between people and the brand, how to amplify/improve existing relationships or how to simplify them.” − Ana AndjelicI [love] marketing http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisjohnbeckett/310521494/

20. “Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.” − Gucci family slogan http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericperrone/419764729/

21. “All organizations are in need of strength, resilience, and endurance not just start ups. ” − Valeria Maltoni, Conversation Agent http://www.flickr.com/photos/zincofoto/2345410082/