Ubiquitous Computing for Business: Find New Markets, Create Better Businesses, and Reach Customers Around The World 24-7-365

7. The Soft Sell: Personalized Marketing

Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.

—Peter Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices¹

In my teens, my family drove on the Blue Ridge Highway in the Appalachian Mountains to visit my grandparents in North Carolina. The repetition of curves in the winding roads and the vivid fall colors of the trees would put me in a trance ... only to be shattered by the sight of a billboard reminding me that good eats could be found off exit 81 just 3.2 miles ahead! Curse those who would despoil nature! For centuries, marketers have ...