How can you build goodwill with your customers besides delivering the product or service they purchase? Why not go the extra mile and make sure that they remember you long after the product or service has been used, which is exactly the point of a blog post by Debt Free Hispanic at I Will Teach You To Be Rich. In it, Ramit explains how a small perk or gift can make a lasting impression on the receiver with a value far beyond the cost of the initial present. Small businesses thrive on word-of-mouth and if even one customer has a 5-star experience with your company, the 10s or 100s of people they tell about your outstanding service is worth many thousands of dollars in revenue. Read more of How my publisher got $5,000 of goodwill with $100 to find out how you can put this to work today.

With their "forbidding" cardboard bulk packaging, one doesn't immediately think of Johnson & Johnson when discussing excellence in product design, but that might change in the near future. BusinessWeek.com's Mark Lamster reports on the major changes in design and marketing that "former flower child" Chris Hacker is implementing with hopes of bringing J&J into the 21st-Century with an increase in market share and consumer interest. Lamster writes of Hacker's efforts, "he's implemented a phased design process, developed at Aveda, that begins with the investigation of new production and material technologies, specifies recycled and biodegradable materials wherever possible, and makes every effort to patronize facilities powered by renewable energy. 'The logic is to establish a set of sustainable guidelines to let us work on the things we can work on,' he says." Hacker is excited about a newly-redesigned first-aid kit that will surely be a hit with stores and customers alike. Look for more repackaged products hitting the shelves in the near future at a store near you. Read the full story: Johnson & Johnson's Big Design Challenge.

Idris Mootee writes on the sorry state of modern marketing guidelines in a recent post to his blog, innovation playground, and finds that the old school model of selling to the masses is terribly outdated and unfocused: "Advertising agencies need to move from a factory model back to the idea model, put down the 50 years legacy and collective egos (creative awards ) and look to the future. You are in the ideas business. We live in the age of the idea. “Service Design” is the new discipline for the manifestation of the idea business, not product design alone and "Social Networks" are where circle of trust will be formed. That's where the game is." Idris calls for no more dinner-time telemarketing phone calls, an end to "digital billboard"-style ad campaigns, and best of all, wants a new model for catching customers (and their dollars!). That idea is "to start a simple idea to engage, empower and energize customers" and use the 3 E method to drive success instead of No-call lists and angry non-customers.