Today on The Marketing Podcast, we have a handful of unrelated stories including how Crock Pot got in a bit of hot water, a case study on how Wendy’s won Twitter, what top level domains are and how to choose a domain for your business and Walmart is exploring personal shopping.

CrockPot brand found themselves the target of some online hate after a popular TV show uses the infamous slow cooker brand as a tool to kill off one of their main characters. Heather and Brendan talk about how CrockPot responded and what it means to have your brand name to be ubiquitous with the product.

Wendy’s took their NCAA sponsorship to a new level with a Twitter campaign for March Madness. Heather and Brendan review the campaign and the campaign results and chat about leveraging Twitter audiences and maximizing sponsorships.

Next, we talk about the evolution of domain names including inventive spelling and the use of extensions other than ‘.com’. Heather and Brendan take on the rationale a business could use when choosing their domain and that .com is no longer a necessity.

Walmart is targeting rich moms with a personal shopping service and stores with no cashiers. They’re letting customers purchase by text and the products are delivered to them within 24 hours and free return pickup. How do small businesses compete? They keep doing what they do really well.

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