Here are a few “spring cleaning” questions to ask yourself:

Look back at your objectives. Are you on track to meet them? If not, it’s important to figure out why.  Now is the perfect time to make a change in the campaign if necessary, while you still have time to execute and see results.

Has anything worked extremely well so far? If so, can you make it happen again? If you were able to produce great results from executing an element of your marketing plan, why not try it again?

Has something NOT worked well? Can it be changed? If not, drop it.  Thought that monthly newsletter was going to be a great idea, but turned out to be a flop? See if some elements can be changed to turn it into a success. If that’s not possible, ditch it and strategize on other ways to reach that targeted audience. The longer you let something that’s failing go, the harder it will be to pick up the pieces and start over.

Has the marketplace changed? The marketing plan you solidified at the beginning of the year may have been perfect at that time, but things change. If your strategies don’t match the current marketplace, determine what changes you can make so that you’re again on target to be successful.

Are the growth goals of the company the same? Just as markets can change quickly, so can the goals of a company. You may have developed your plan with the objective of gaining more customers, but now leadership is more interested in positioning the company to be sold. It’s important that the goals of the marketing plan are closely aligned with those of the company for it to be successful.

It’s important to think of a marketing plan as a working document, not something set in stone. Building flexibility into it will allow you to easily enhance successful elements and eliminate those that are not, which makes it much easier to meet your goals.

Don’t wait until the year starts to come to a close to look back at your marketing plan. If adjustments need to be made, it will be too late. Do it now and you’ll be happy you did.

Apple has always had an interesting strategy around the release of new products. The story goes like this: Apple confides in “friend” at a major media outlet and then lets information out, unofficially. According to a former Senior Marketing Executive at Apple, the leak strategy is very precise. For example, a high level executive at Apple will ask his PR department to have a phone or in person conversation with a trusted reporter friend and will idly mention specific information that they are allowed to release. The conversation can never happen over email to avoid having a paper trail. This strategy allows Apple to preserve their consistent, official reputation for never talking about unreleased products.

Apple’s strategy is strange but effective as they are able to get a bit of information out to the public without really unveiling anything and can always claim that they had no knowledge of the conversation. Besides that fact that Apple products are at the cutting edge of technology, the level of secrecy that they maintain helps them to maintain their exclusive and elusive reputation, and also creates a huge Media hype when they’re finally released. The recent WSJ article was interesting because it involved two journalists providing an extra layer and the ability to point fingers among who knew what. The story was also posted late in the evening EST so it would have no effect on the day’s trading.

The unveiling of the iPad is also newsworthy for other reasons, such as the name which has started a major outlast among those finding ways to relate the new product to feminine hygiene products. The iPad became the most popular topic on twitter as people not only discussed the name of the product (complete with clever innuendos such as iTampon/Max-iPad), but also reviewed the new product to see how it will fair amongst other tablets, notebooks and portable computers. While the name may be the brunt of a few jokes, everyone will forget the jokes if the product does what Steve Jobs promises.

I personally can’t wait to try it out. I need a new computer now that my personal HP laptop is infested with viruses, and I’m trying to determine what capabilities I need in a new device.  The iPad will be similar to the iPhone in that it will run third party applications downloadable from their own store, but it also runs on a similar operating system which means that you can’t use multiple programs at once and it doesn’t have flash.

One of the best applications it will have is the iBook e-reader. This application may actually be the savior for as it allows users to read books, magazines and journals electronically, much like Amazon’s Kindle.  While newspapers and print magazines continue to fizzle from existence, publishers need to find ways to embrace the iPad and quickly!

The price tag for the device right now is $499 for the cheapest version, which is much less than some predicted, especially because their least expensive laptop is just under $1000. That being said, it’s really just a larger Itouch based on its operating system and level of capabilities.

I haven’t made my mind up yet about the IPad, or at least the first generation, as I can only imagine that Jobs and Apple will find a way to make better with their later versions.  I will probably go and check one out in March with the rest of the crazed Apple fans, but I won’t be waiting in line in 30 degree weather at 4 a.m.  

Kudos to Apple for another media frenzie!