My wife’s friend offered a free photo shoot for any friend who could help her rename her company. My argument was using her name was her best marketing tool. Think of all the great photographers–you know their names. Instead I told her what I’d do if I were a wedding photographer. 1. Call every reception [...]
When is the best time to take a risk? When you have nothing to lose. What industries should be taking the biggest risks? 1. Auto companies – Is the Volt risky enough for General Motors or will it be one of a dozen other similar cars? American car companies are on the road to ruin [...]
Too many companies fear crowds. They fear these crowds might link to their videos. Are they afraid of success? Of course not, the funny thing is their fear of losing control of their content they are actually hurting themselves more. If you love music and videos and YouTube then you might find yourself watching one [...]
Here are three companies and I’m wondering if you can guess which two understand their customers and how to reward their patronage:1. Borders2. Barnes & Noble3. Amazon If you buy books my bet is you can guess right away. Two of these companies offer great rewards. Amazon is almost always 20% cheaper than the other [...]
How do you measure the value of your customer?Most companies put a value on how much they make per customer. Maybe companies should think about another metric: the value a customer gets from a company. The real value is if the customer ever comes back. The cost of acquiring a new customer is always more [...]
Why are newspapers going out of business? Because they always seem to be years behind everyone else. If I ran one of the major newspaper companies like New York Times, Hearst, McClatchey, MediaNews Group, Lee, etc. I wouldn’t operate out of fear or be reactive–I’d be proactive. At this point what do newspapers have to [...]
And the winner(loser) is: the press. Rumors swirling about Palin, Obama and McCain. What is the truth? Well it used to be that the press set us straight. But now who knows. There are some newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post that have tried to set the record straight, even if they [...]
It depends on what side of the fence you are on. Are we talking about employment or goods and services? Let’s think of this is in two volumes. First is what does an employee want. I was lucky enough to visit Google’s Mountain View campus. I was able to get two full meals while there [...]
Why am I blogging while watching football? Well besides that fact that its party time because the Buffalo Bills destroyed Seattle, something just sparked an idea. I’m watching the NFL on Fox and wondering to myself, while I listen to some really bad color commentary: what are other Bills fans thinking? What do they think [...]
I don’t think ads can change how consumers perceive a company. And that’s why Jerry Seinfeld isn’t going to save Microsoft’s reputation with “cool geeks.” What did you remember about Hyundai ten years ago? That they were a cheap car with a long warranty–mostly because a lot was going to go wrong. Well, Hyundai now [...]
