A marketing gem in the Arizona desert

In a state where over 97% of businesses are small business, it may seem strange to find a national big business marketing training company. But near the Scottsdale Airpark is the headquarters for Pragmatic Marketing.

Since 1993, Pragmatic Marketing claims to have trained over 40,000 technology product management and marketing professionals. While most of their seminars are in tier one cities, they make their presence known nationally through a high quality monthly magazine, The Pragmatic Marketer and various e-newsletters and webcasts. That’s how I came to know of them.

Month after month their publications have floored me with quality content that talks to the marketing professional with practical, pragmatic advice and commentary. The August 2007 issue, for example, includes titles such as

* The ROI of Being Market-Driven

* Five Slices of Segmentation

* Product Management Axioms

After reading the August issue, I was compelled to contact this company to find out more about them. That contact led to a recent lunch with Dave Mammen, area development for Pragmatic Marketing. From him I got a sense of the spirit of the firm. Pragmatic Marketing is the kind of company that shares information willingly through its publications and articles, with the idea that people that see that value will be willing to pay for more. Since that time I have learned from two web casts that have had immediate practical value.

There are hundreds of marketing newsletters and companies that promise to help small business with their marketing. Yet Pragmatic stands alone in providing the detail and templates to help the professional excel at strategic and pragmatic, some might say sensible, marketing methods. Try out their publications, and their upcoming seminars in Scottsdale in October 2007.