Marketing guru Seth Godin (author of Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside) has released a previous book in a free PDF format for a limited time only: The Bootstrapper’s Bible.

The 103-page PDF covers the typical “bootstrapper” in business, the person who picks themselves up by their own bootstraps, making a business happen with few resources. A nice (free) source for ideas and inspiration. Godin also comments on his own blog about the successfulness of spreading an idea when it’s offered for free.

A million dollar advertising blitz may work for the corporate giants, but the rest of us have to be smarter. Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the Guerrilla Marketing series, offers 93 Guerrilla Marketing Tips in a free 48-page PDF.

Designer Mart

The incredible rise of blogs is flooding into the corporate world as businesses and organizations consider how company blogs might do the work of marketing departments (link via bloggedy blog). But even a veteran blogger like myself is quick to point out that blogs aren’t replacing anything yet — but a blog could be a huge supplement to what the marketing department already does.

If you’re considering a company blog, check out 20 corporate weblog tips from Microsoft’s technical evangelist Robert Scoble (and yes, that’s the title he lists on his own personal blog). It’s a free PDF download chockfull of good advice. And for more blog wisdom you can always talk to this veteran blogger.

Banner ads are the middle child of the advertising industry, forgotten and left behind. Dimissed as ineffective, advertisers have turned elsewhere, though banner ads continue to vie for eyeballs. BannerReport.com offers a virtual museum of over 15,000 banner ads, giving designers and marketers a chance to compare ads side by side. The gallery doesn’t offer background on the ads or their success rate, but it does give designers a glimpse of what’s been done.

Target Corporation dropped business casual in favor of formality with a 20-page memo, including photos of mannequins modeling “acceptable” attire. Effective Sept. 7, suits will be preferreds — except for casual Friday.

Somehow I doubt even my preferred attire will qualify for casual.

The American Museum of the Moving Image has an online exhibit about the history of presidential campaign commercials, with ads ranging from an animated ‘Ike for president’ jingle from 1952 to the flood of TV and web ads in 2004.

The old school animated ads are just asking for a retro remake. They seem strangely akin to ads for breakfast cereal, full of singing, dancing, and pep rally cheer — hardly a fact in the whole presentation:

With a vote, vote here, and a vote, vote there,
And a vote for Stevenson everywhere …

The exhibit also includes web ads from 2004 which are a bit snarkier, including an animated attack on Bush with its own retro charm and a goofball Austin Powers spoof, John Kerry: International Man of Mystery.
(link via JordonCooper.com)

Fast Company explores Wal-Mart’s strong-arm tactics, best exemplified in a gallon jar of Vlasic pickles sold for $2.97. Making less than a penny in profit, the uber-jars devalued the premium brand and undersold their other products. And most famililes can’t come close to finishing a gallon of pickles before they get pruny.

Wal-Mart’s enormous size — the world’s largest company, doing more business than Target, Sears, K-Mart, J.C. Penney, Safeway and Kroger combined — enables it to demand whatever it wants. In some cases that power can force bloated companies to trim the fat and streamline operations. But often that power forces overseas outsourcing, plant closures and bankruptcy.

Fear pervades any business’s relationship with Wal-Mart, as a Dial executive interviewed for the article proved: “We are one of Wal-Mart’s biggest suppliers, and they are our biggest customer by far. We have a great relationship. That’s all I can say. Are we done now?”

In the midst of the mostly anti-Wal-Mart article is a glimmer of the company’s honesty: “They are tough people but very honest; they treat you honestly. It was a joke to do business with most of their competitors. A fiasco.”

As the Wal-Mart debate continues it becomes clear there’s a difference between price and cost. As Fast Company noted, “it is we as shoppers who have the power, and who have given that power to Wal-Mart.”

Despite not looking good for the #1 beer, the Miller vs. Budweiser ad wars continue, this time with Miller pointing to taste tests to prove they’re better than Bud. The latest commercial I saw touted the taste test results and then directed consumers to the ridiculously long url: SweetMotherOfFrothyGoodnessThatsBadNewsForBud.com.

Sadly, after coming up with such a brilliantly goofy url, Miller dropped the ball by simply forwarding the uber-url to VoteMillerBeer.com. Internet savvy geeks like myself who bother to remember the url (or write it down, like I did) should be rewarded with something as ludicrous as that url. Looks like I’ll be voting for a root beer for president of beers.