Murder, he wrote

A long-time colleague -- someone I worked with in my television journalism days -- has captured the fascinating details about how, according to his scrupulously researched facts, Doris Duke, the richest woman in America, got away with murder.

The story first appeared in Vanity Fair, which is where I read it. But the author, Peter Lance, has expanded his investigation to fill a book entitled Homicide at Rough Point that's well worth the effort.

Why is this relevant to a site focused on marketing? Because there's more to great campaigns, as there is to investigative journalism, than people tend to realize.

By the time the perfect positioning or product name or tagline appears in public, untold hours have gone into research and analysis and testing. Yet people rarely get to read about that. Murder, on the other hand, seems to attract us like maggots to carrion.

I won't try to persuade you that the work we do will bring violaters to justice. It will, however, draw the attention of people who, thanks to what we do, realize that what you sell is exactly what they need