Marketing, the Internet, and brilliance.(Front Office)(Editorial)

IN KEEPING with the age-old tradition of a new year bringing a fresh start, I'm presenting a great idea that I recently spotted, which may ignite one for your company.

A feature story in CRM magazine's March 2006 issue ("Thinking Outside the Mail(box)" covered several creative, customer-inspired campaign initiatives, one of which from Kao, the maker of Ban deodorant. On its Web site the company asked consumers, "What would you ban?" A marketing observer might have argued that the campaign was a waste of time and resources, as it wouldn't affect sales. But, it did, attracting roughly 50,000 visitors to the site. One source in the article attributes Ban's roughly 16 percent …