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For years I struggled with the business case for branding. Working with small- to medium-sized clients as I have over most of my career, I've used lines like, "It makes you look more credible . . ." ". . . more professional . . ." "You'll have an easier time landing big contracts . . ." and more. But none of those are true business benefits in the way that improved sales is the business benefit of direct marketing. Until it hit me that the tangible benefit of all that looking professional and credible is being able to support your existing pricing - and then being able to raise prices, pretty much at will. Certainly, branding isn't the whole story - the entire brand has to be strong. But if we're to learn anything from the ultimate triumph of Apple as the most valuable company in the world besides Exxon, it's that brand wins. If a company distinguishes itself enough from its competition, it can maintain its price points and its sales, economic realities be whatevered.

In 2007 I realized my most important successes were branding stories. So I changed my company name from the nebulous Mary Baum Creative Services - what does that mean to a business owner? - to Mary Baum Dynamic Targeted Branding. I discovered businesspeople don't much know what branding is, either. But I had become convinced that marketing was a dirty word to them - something a lot of them didn't want or even want to discuss. So it was a bridge to finding the benefit that's now inherent in the term 'Marginhancers.'

Before computers.

I spent two years at Brown before transferring to Washington University. Technically my concentration was semiotics of the visual arts, but I also took two years of calculus. In fact, my second-year math professor was one of the best teachers I ever had. So Scott Adams is wrong at least about me (according to a recent Dilbert strip): I may be a creative person, but I'm also good at math, and I do in fact have analytic skills.