Archive for February, 2007
Pricing Innovation at the Post Office
I rarely expect marketing innovation from the US Postal Service, but I think that their “Forever Stamp” idea is a winner. (And yes, it’s marketing - remember your Four Ps!)
Postal officials pitched the idea of creating a “forever stamp” that would be good for sending first-class mail no matter how much — or how often — the cost [...]
B2B or Not B2B : Getting the Right Message Out
I think we’ve all pretty much got the distinction down between B2C (business to consumers) and B2B (business to business). But B2B is by no means a monolith, and, just as with B2C, you need to know your audience and respect the distinctions within that audience.
B2C actually does a pretty good job of knowing their [...]
Slowbucks
I see I’m not the only one who’s noticed this trend at Starbucks - getting coffee there is slow, slow, slow. (Link to the Boston Globe’s Business Filter blog.)
I think they need to have an express line in which no drinks over three syllables in name length can be ordered.
I love coffee - good old coffee. I [...]
Letting Customers Set the Price
This is fascinating: in Kirkland, Washington, the Terra Bite cafe operates on a “voluntary payment” system, the Boston Globe’s Business Filter blog reports:
The Terra Bite Lounge in Kirkland, Washington has no prices on the menu and gives away free WiFi. “It’s up to the cafe’s customers to decide how much to pay, or whether to [...]
Rats! All-time Marketing Challenge
By now, of course, you have no doubt seen the videos of the dozens a rats having an off-hours spree at a KFC-Taco Bell in Greenwich Village last week. Apparently, someone tipped off a TV station, which dispatched an indie videographer to run rat patrol and check the scene out.
I know that rats happen to restaurants. [...]
RSS readers dead? Depends on how you define "reader."
Here’s a headline that grabbed my attention: The RSS reader is dead.
I’m a big fan of RSS in general and readers in particular; my reader of choice (Google Reader) has had a huge impact on my ability to find and sort through all kinds of information, from blogs to news.
Ed Bott offers some [...]
Dr. Pepper Guerrilla Marketing Gone Awry - And In Boston, No Less
Well, Boston is not just the home of the recent uproar over the Aqua Teen Hunger Force “bomb scare,” we’re now the site of a controversy over a Dr. Pepper promotion. According to an article by Raj Mishra and John Ellement in today’s Boston Globe, treasure hunters hoping to win $1 million dollar prize stormed the gates [...]
A Second Life Census
Yesterday’s Second Life post was just a bit of snarky fun, but here’s something more useful: Matthew Stibbe at Bad Language takes a look at what’s really there in the virtual universe that’s getting so much hype, commenting on this article from The Register.
Matthew provides a nice summary, the gist of which is this: [...]
Advice to Companies Blogging
Over on Marketing Profs, Mack Collier had a post yesterday entitled Company Blog or Online Brochure.
More and more companies are adding a blog to their marketing efforts. That’s the good news. The bad news is, many of these companies aren’t using their blogs as a tool to engage their customers, but rather as an extension [...]
Second Life Ennui
Via wavLength, I found the best description of what Second Life feels like that I’ve seen. Funny.
Technorati tags: Second Life, boredom
