Hugo Chavez and Cancer Treatment

Hello, everyone.  It's been a while, but I'm back!  It's been a couple of busy months, and my new goal is to write a new post once a week...we'll see if that happens...

Anyway, the topic for today is: Hugo Chavez and his cancer treatment fiasco, which has blown up in the past 60 minutes, or so.  Since he last

Is the Twitter logo change a good thing?

The answer, quite frankly, is NO!  Yes, they may be wanting to convey upward movement, and psychologically, that's probably a good move; the old bird seemed to be flying horizontally.  The problem is that the new bird looks like a clip art graphic, which, for a major Internet brand, is probably a step in the wrong direction.  The old logo, with its little tuft of hair, was more personal.  Click below to see the picture!

Banana Marketing

I never would have thought...

It's a pretty funny way to do it, and it's one of the last places I would think to look for an ad...which makes it the best place for it.  Plus, putting the ad on bananas fits the "Chipwrecked" movie's theme of tropical islands.  I didn't think of it, but I'm wondering now if they had these same stickers on OTHER types of fruit, too!

This party is MANDATORY!

I 'm a big fan of best-of lists, especially when they're funny.  This one's pretty good, and I'd also like it if there was a best-of-30-Rock list.

Brand Symbols, Part 1

The almighty NES controller!

When they originally released the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the United States, it was a smash hit, including my home.  Due to parental controls - in those days, that actually meant "parents" - I could only play it for 30 minutes every weekday.  Weekends were different, of course, and Saturdays were when the controllers got the most sticky from sweat and food residue.

(P.S. Beware of SCAMS!)

As disaster clean-up continues around my neighborhood, I've been seeing more news vans than usual.  Unfortunately, no one has stopped to talk with me...until yesterday.  Below, I've posted the brief video.  I know it's a bit vain, but I'm fine with a little of that!

More charitable giving as marketing material

My 30-foot-tall tree fell in my front yard on
December 1st, 2011.

Last week, a barrage of unusually strong wind came whipping through the western United States.  When it whipped over the eastern mountains of the Wasatch Front, my town was the hardest hit; the gusts were over 100 miles per hour!  For those of you keeping track, that's level-two-hurricane-strength winds!

Making money through "charitable contributions"

Seth Harwood's Latest
Print Release

Check out this link: http://kck.st/piYHWd.  It'll take you to a page where one of my favorite authors, Seth Harwood, is raising money to help fund an independent book release.  While it might not be ideal for all situations, it seems to be a viable new way to get some initial funding through, what is essentially, charitable giving.  It's actually a genius idea to offer people the chance to be listed as a contributor IN THE BOOK if you send some cash his way.

How Could Customer-focused Marketing Hurt Your Brand?

Click here to go to a BrandAid from Killian Branding.  It brought up interesting downsides to being a customer-focused company.  In an age where customer-centric activities are expected of all businesses, claims of being focused on customers' needs change from competitive advantage to liability.

Unfortunately for many companies, they still tout their love of customers as their main strength.  If you think about it, though, who DOESN'T love their customers?  Buyers of your products are who keep the doors open; without them, you would have no business.  So, of course, you love them to pieces.  It's a give!

On what, then, should companies focus their attentions?  The article states some interesting statistics that help put it in perspective.  For instance, if a company experiences 6% growth each year with it's current customer base, it will double its business in 12 years.  That's not bad, but, especially for companies with high growth potential, that could be increased dramatically by focusing efforts on gaining new loyal customers.  That's right: NEW customers!

Remember the old adage: it's more expensive to gain a new customer that to cultivate an existing one.  Does this new focus mean the adage isn't true anymore?  No, of course not!  It's still cheaper to keep existing clients. That means that less time and energy has to be spent to keep them happy.  Now, what can you do with the extra time?  Get NEW customers!

-MJP

"Bright" Idea

When I saw this picture, it made me smile.  So often, a great idea starts with a question.  If the brilliant insight works, then you get…"dollar sign"?  There's something wrong with this flowchart...

Axis and Allies: Part 4

The pieces are all in place and the dice are about to be thrown; this is when you choose which tactical approaches to use and how to use them. In keeping with the "Axis and Allies" theme, should you send in the infantry men (ie front-line sales force) first and follow it up with a well-placed blast (a YouTube video) to hit the correct spot?

Maybe it's more about online blogging and networking that gets the biggest bang. I don't know enough about each business in the world to say, but if you start with a strategic vision, you'll be able to see how all your pieces are working on the board, and can make tactical moves to win the game - super ROI!

If you have any other questions, or an idea for a better analogy, feel free leave a comment!

Comments on Chaotics - Part 1

Philip Kotler, the marketing “expert” everyone seems to look to for inspiration, has written yet another book to garner praise for stating the obvious. This one, entitled, Chaotics: The Business of Managing and Marketing in The Age of Turbulence, centers around two forces that are driving the rapid changes in business today: globalization and technology.

In my opinion, this book is about five years too late, and will only be useful to C-level executives that have their heads so far up their own, or their CEOs’, rear ends that they can’t see what’s been developing over the past half decade.

These ideas can also be helpful, I suppose, to people who are new to the work force and have no clue how to form their own thoughts based on their surroundings.

I haven’t read the book yet – I probably won’t read it anyway – but from the interview Mr. Kotler gave in Deliver magazine, he seems confused. In the first part of the interview, he states that Chaotics isn’t about the current recession, but instead about the previously mentioned two forces (technology and globalization) that have increased the speed at which circumstances change in the current business environment. Then, in the very next question, he mentions technology again, but includes three MORE forces that can affect a company: social change, legal change and economic change. That’s now a total of FIVE forces that must be monitored.

In answering the next question, Kotler talks about Chaotics’ description of the current recessionary economics and how customers are responding to it. I hate to say it, but this story is nothing new. Since the great depression, there have been 12 recessions. In each one, people have responded by buying lower priced items, postponing big-ticket purchases and spending less on things like fuel and eating out. Customers’ reactions to tough times can really be boiled down to ONE thing: looking for ways to SAVE MONEY.