I’ve been working with a major retail brand and my engagement has included an audit and assessment of retail best practices. Although most of my work is proprietary, I wanted to share some of my findings here because I’ve found some really interesting patterns. (more…)
Andy Beal, an internet marketing consultant, award-winning blogger, professional speaker, and co-author of the critically-acclaimed book Radically Transparent: Monitoring & Managing Reputations Online, was kind enough to share a few moments with me earlier this week. 
Our talk covers topics like:
We also discuss a cool company Andy founded, Trackur. Trackur is an online reputation monitoring service that tracks what is said about you on the internet. Trackur scans hundreds of millions of web pages–including news, blogs, video, images, and forums–and lets you know if it discovers anything that matches the keywords you’ve indicated. Fortune 500 companies, as well as small businesses, agencies, PR firms, etc. currently use Trackur as their “reputation guardian” and I think we’ll see even more uses and applications of the service going forward. Check it out here.
You can reach Andy through his website: www.andybeal.com .
I enjoyed talking shop with Andy and hope you enjoy listening in our conversation in the podcast below.
Listen to this post as a podcast:
Ever since the phrase “you manage what you measure” made its way into the dialogue of corporate America, metrics have played an increasingly important role in the management of businesses. 
No one can argue the value of timely, detailed, and accurate measures of performance as assessments of effectiveness and guides for decision-making. Yet, which metrics are best remains highly debatable.
Companies need to make money – I get it. And as a capitalist at heart, I generally subscribe to the business practice of charging what the market will bear.
But as I’ve learned about the recent pricing decisions of two high-profile institutions of American culture – Starbucks and The New York Times – I’ve wondered if pricing models based on traditional understandings of profit margins and price elasticity can backfire. That is, charging higher prices for certain offerings may make sense on paper – but they actually incentivize the wrong behaviors and reward the wrong customers. Here’s what I’m thinking:
You know that feeling you get when watching that show, What Not to Wear? Cringing and squirming, you watch as delusional people show off some of the most hideous outfits – they think they actually look good when it is so clear they don’t. That they would be so self-unaware is unbelievable.
Well, that’s how I’ve felt as I’ve witnessed the recent campaigns by two fast food restaurant chains. They may think they’re rockin’ a good thing, but they’re not – and I’m incredulous that they don’t see it. (more…)
Right before the holidays, MarketingSherpa released its “2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.” 
The report indicated that “improving brand or product reputation” and “increasing brand or product awareness” did not rank highly in the list of social media objectives targeted and measured by U.S. marketers. This confirms my own findings that companies are overlooking the importance of using social media tools for strategic, proactive brand-building. (more…)
I just returned from a great trip to CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. 
There was a lot of excitement around new, innovative products and it seemed like important deals and connections were being made – it was an energizing way to start off the new year!
I particularly enjoyed participating in some breakout sessions in the MommyTech and digitalHealth summits. It was there that speakers offered up a few sound bites containing wisdom – wisdom that extends beyond the world of consumer electronics and digital technologies.
Here’s what I heard:
While you are reading this, I’m attending the Consumer Electronics Show. 
I’ll be meeting with clients and prospects, attending educational sessions, and walking the show floor — the last activity is one that I always find both exciting and frustrating. Exciting because there always so many new and cool gadgets and technologies to check out; frustrating because so many of these new items tend to blend together into one big, indistinguishable, unmemorable morass of technology. The brands suffer from the lack of remarkable and sustainable differentiation. (more…)
I’m fascinated by the recent flurry of activity of designer PCs. Having worked at Sony during the early years of VAIO (perhaps the first fashionable PC line, launched with its distinctive violet color and sleek features and all), it’s pretty amazing to me to see how the category has developed. (more…)
Recently Ad Age published a list of what it considered to be “America’s Hottest Brands.” 
The list featured 40 brands that are “setting the pace for innovation — and getting results – right now.” Although their selection criteria wasn’t clear and I can’t say I agree with all of the choices, I did find some instructive insights in the write-up. (more…)