A business can give customers the same kind of mystery. The website uses one name, the Google listing uses another, social media shows different hours, and an old graphic contains a phone number that no longer works. The owner may understand the history, but the customer does not. Is this the same business? Are they still open? Which number should I call? Do they still offer the service I need? These questions are often asked when potential customers search you.

That little jar of Sanka reminded me that marketing can have an astonishingly long life. Somewhere, forty years ago, a room full of marketers approved a commercial, designed a label, chose an orange coffee pot, and launched a campaign. They had no idea a guy walking through a grocery store in Arkansas decades later would buy their product because those memories were still tucked away in the back of his mind. That's the power of marketing. It's also the warning