brand-as-business bit: Last week as I sat working in my favorite hole-in-the-wall coffee shop as closing time drew near, I overheard two servers reading their store’s recent Yelp reviews to each other. (This, of course, is not a good practice for employees to engage in with customers in earshot, but since I’m such a regular […]
For a campaign that was intended to inspire people, Dove’s Beauty Sketches has received quite a bit of criticism. Among the complaints lodged have been: […]
Right as I published my blogpost on Changing Customer Behavior yesterday, I came across a related Bloomberg BusinessWeek article about the use of defaults, the third tool I had outlined in my post. The article investigated consumer behavior related to conserving energy and using clean energy and provided further explanation about the power of defaults. […]
brand-as-business bit: To expand or not to expand, that is the question — the question most companies grapple with at some point. While entering a new market certainly opens up a new revenue stream and increases the impact and stature of your brand, it can also add complexity and variability that threaten your operations and […]
I’ve always been fascinated by movie trailers – not for how they entice people to see movies, but for the insights they provide into how to make great ads. After all, ads and trailers serve a similar objective: convert viewership into action — buy a product or go see a movie. […]
(This the first of a two-part interview exchange between Andrea Learned and me. Andrea is a corporate sustainability expert, writer, and communications strategist. I’ve learned so much from her writings on HuffPo and her blog, LearnedOn.com, and the conversations she contributes to on Twitter and Google+. Next week, she’ll be interviewing me on her blog about the […]
(Check out my latest Brand Experience Brief — a video audit and analysis of a new or interesting restaurant or retail concept.) The Whole Foods store in Encinitas, California, brings the best of a farmers’ market and the best of a national grocer together, demonstrating how a national brand can engage its local communities authentically. […]
The medium may be the message, but an ad isn’t an experience – and shouldn’t companies invest in delivering an extraordinary experience instead of spending a lot of money to broadcast a message?! […]
One of the biggest learnings from this past holiday season is how dramatically consumer behavior is changing. People are now using an arsenal of smartphones, mobile devices, social apps, tablets and other tools to research prices, redeem coupons and make purchases. And at the same time retailers are using an ever-growing list of channels and […]
It’s a new year and it’s time to set marketing budgets! Looking for guidelines to follow? First, clarify your marketing objectives. Then you can weigh the importance of achieving those objectives relative to other budget items. The general rule of thumb is marketing expenditures should be between 2-10% of sales. However that’s a very broad […]