This time of year, Fred Hoar's always in my thoughts

Hard to believe it's been three years since he left us, but the late-great Fred Hoar, the dean of Silicon Valley PR guys , is never far from my thoughts. This time of year, especially. Fred adored Christmastime mostly because it gave him more excuses to be around even more people. And he was used to being around a lot of people. At his memorial service (Making time for a valley original Mercury News, The - Find Articles ), I reminded the standing-room-only crowd that Fred collected people the way some of us collect stamps, model airplanes or -- since this is Silicon Valley -- vacation houses. He was the definitive "people-person". He could drop names better and faster than anyone I've ever known. The difference between him and other name-droppers was twofold: the people whose names he dropped actually knew him and, second, you always forgave him. Hoar knew marketing as well as anyone I've ever been associated with. He knew what it is, and what it is not, and he knew the difference between the two. He shared some of this knowledge when he began a third career during the last years of his life as an adjunct professor of marketing at Santa Clara University. He had come full circle: he taught college-level English right out of Harvard, then began a business career that spanned four decades -- and a continent -- before he returned to the classroom as the 21st century commenced. As for his marketing smarts, I was again reminded of them the other day during another in a continuing series of debates with clients who confuse "telling" with "selling". I define "telling" as giving consumers/customers the information you want them to have and "selling" as giving them reasons to buy. There is a profound difference --one that separates success from failure. Knowing it makes the difference between whether you're a successful marketer or just another noisemaker in a loud room. I like to think I would have made Fred proud.