Military marketing language always makes me sorta cringe. I’ve done a lot of work on products for kids, and no parent I know feels good when their child is "targeted." Marketing "campaigns" are "launched" like missiles, but too often the marketing departments fail to arm the warheads.

But a co-worker sent me this Inc.com article yesterday written by software guy Joel Spolsky . I was sorta cringing as I read it, given that it was shaping up to be one mighty military metaphor. Then I got to this part:

"Instead of paying attention to what your competitors are doing, start reading your customer feedback email personally. Get online and listen to what people are saying about your products. Keep a running tally of what customers ask for through your company’s Web site. If you actually do this, you’ll probably stand apart from the crowd in your industry."

Bingo.

Takeaway for marketers: Are you paying more attention to your customers or your competitors?

A year and a half ago, I blogged about "the continuing coarsening of the culture and the ongoing erosion of good taste."

This morning, AdRants alerts us to yet another line that’s been crossed … and another step toward the Tarrylton’s Cigarettes billboard style of advertising seen in Idiocracy .

I don’t think this is what Steve Cone meant in today’s AdAge when he bemoaned the absence of powerful taglines in ads.

Protopage is a pretty cool tool for creating your own customized start page by choosing from hundreds of widgets, many of which are themselves customizable. It’s similar to iGoogle, but more versatile. There are some nice touches, too, like a dropdown list of a dozen search engines you can customize, too. Check it out.

Over on ProBlogger, Darren Rowse addresses the ever-growing problem of too much email. I’m not sure that Gmail is any real solution, but for some it couldn’t hurt. Check out the responses to Darren’s post (80 as I write this); there may be some wisdom there that works for you.

My email numbers in the hundreds new per day and in the thousands in my inbox on an ongoing basis. The best I got is this: Don’t try to read and answer every email you get unless you want to make yourself really, really, really sick.

And this: Prioritize and unsubscribe like crazy and when in doubt? Delete. If it’s not urgent, don’t stress over it.

Everyone wants and needs to stay on top of important business issues and trends and ToDo items, but maintaining perspective is crucial, too. On your deathbed you’re not gonna be saying, "Gee, I wish I’d answered those other 79 emails."

Enjoy your weekend!

UPDATE: Barbara of BP Media Relations shares this AdAge article that addresses another aspect of the same issue: never being able to unplug from work. Ironically, her email was timestamped 2:28 a.m. Jason Calicanis has a pretty good blog post over here that’s more or less about this issue, too.

"If you are writing about baloney, don’t try to make it a Cornish hen, because that is the worst kind of baloney there is. Just make it darned good baloney."
—Leo Burnett