Susan Silver, Author at Argentum Strategy

Overkill: Ratings Review Burnout

In 2016, I was so intrigued by the novelty of ratings buttons in a restroom in the Frankfurt airport that I snapped this photo. Just eight years later, the constant barrage of feedback requests has become overwhelming, even for this market research enthusiast. Eric Taub explores this trend in his New York Times piece about ratings review burnout,...

Arts Marketing Evolves With Memberships

Arts marketing is an interesting niche within the marketing world. Despite being a passionate theatregoer, I hadn’t thought much about how it differs from marketing products and services until Chicago’s Northlight Theatre Company became one of Argentum’s early clients. To prepare for the project, I read Arts Marketing Insights, by former...

How to Hire a Creative Agency

Over the past eighteen years, Argentum has helped many clients find the agency that’s right for them. With marketing teams busier than ever, demand for this service surged in 2024, with four successful searches and a fifth currently underway. Our goal for every search is to match clients with an agency that is appropriate for their needs, budget,...

Pricing Research: How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?

Determining how to price your product or service appropriately is always tricky, but it can be especially difficult for companies with limited or non-existent market research resources. ADVANCED TOOL A team of professors at Kellogg recently identified a new methodology that can provide more accurate data about the maximum price a customer would...

Is It Time To Exhibit At That Tradeshow?

For B2B businesses, trade shows can present powerful sales and marketing opportunities. Exhibiting at one of these target-rich events can facilitate invaluable lead-generation and accelerate awareness-building for companies of all sizes and life stages. For the 60% of Argentum clients that are B2B, trade shows are typically a hot topic during...

Beers With Peers: Identifying the Unmet Need

In the 18 years since Argentum’s founding, I’ve been invited to judge dozens of pitch competitions. When listening to founders pitch their ideas, nothing makes my heart go pitter pat more than hearing a passionate, visionary founder talk about the real unmet need that they have identified and then figured out how to solve better, faster,...

Tools: ChatGPT for Marketing

Since the fateful day in early December when I first learned about ChatGPT (CGPT) from a cutting-edge colleague, the topic has exploded. It feels like every day, everywhere we turn, there’s a new article or interview or discussion about the technology. There’s even a new South Park episode about it! When my colleague initially confessed to me...

Marketing Audits: Best Practices

A marketing audit is a great way to assess the health of your current marketing efforts against two separate benchmarks: 1) How you compare to your industry peers and 2) How your marketing does or doesn’t align with overall best practices. While we always do a mini audit as part of any project, sometimes we have clients who want to start with a...

Food Pantry Rebrand

Every so often, we get the opportunity to work on a passion project. As a longtime board member, co-leading the rebranding efforts for Nourishing Hope (formerly Lakeview Pantry) definitely qualifies. Even prior to the pandemic, Lakeview Pantry, Chicago’s largest food pantry, was outgrowing its name from a geography served and services standpoint....

Backing Off Buzzwords – Case Studies

Every company has internal jargon that has evolved to speed conversations, including those about the benefits of its products and services. At its extreme, this might mean using inscrutable acronyms like those Kraft Foods used to use (anyone out there remember CIS, STOC, DRF). In fact, in the early 90’s, every new brand management employee was...